Defiant Nobel winner Handke faces protests, dismisses questions on Balkan wars

Protests will be staged tomorrow at this year's celebrations for the Nobel Prize in literature in Stockholm, Sweden, calling for the Nobel committee to reverse its decision to award the 2019 Nobel Prize in literature to Austria’s Peter Handke. Photo: AP

Austrian writer Peter Handke, winner of the 2019 Nobel literature prize, said recently he preferred anonymous hate mail to questions about his support for Slobodan Milosevic, Serbia's strongman during the Balkan wars of the 1990s.

The Swedish Academy's choice of Handke has been widely criticised because he has expressed support for Milosevic, who died in detention at the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague.