Strasbourg, 19/12/2002 (Agence Europe) - At the 15th anniversary of the Sakharov Prize for freedom of thought, in Strasbourg on 17 December, European Parliament President Pat Cox referred to several winners who had been unable to participate in the event, and, in some cases, had been unable to come collect their prize in Strasbourg (see EUROPE of 18 December, p.6, for the winner for 2002, the Cuban dissident Osvaldo Paya). Thus, he recalled, the first Sakharov Prize (in 1988) Nelson Mandela at the time still under house arrest and who became President of South Africa in 1994; Aung san Suu Kyi, winner in 1990, who is now free but may not play her role as leader of the Democratic Opposition Movement in Burma; Leyla Zana, winner in 1995, Kurdish member of the Turkish Parliament in 1991, sentenced in 1994 to 15 years in prison (where she still is); Ibrahim Rugova, Sakharov Prize in 1998 and today President of Kosovo; Xanana Gusmo, Sakharov Prize in 1999, champion of the independence of East Timor. (Without counting Alexander Dubcek, today disappeared, the mothers of the Placa de Mayo, in Argentina, and the Palestinian Izzat Ghazzavi, whose absence the GUE/NGL deplored, following a ban on his leaving that the "army of occupation had slapped on him", whereas he was preparing to leave the Palestinian Territory "armed with an authorisation from the Israeli authorities."
In addition, the Spanish President of the Socialist Group in a press release regretted Ms. Zana's absence, observing "to allow Leyla Zana to theEP ceremony would have been a positive signal from the Turkish Government, showing that it is sincere about its wish to join the EU and it is willing to abide by the Copenhagen criteria".
On 17 December, present the rendezvous were: Adem Demaci (Kosovo), Senka Kurtovic, (editor-in-chief of Oslobodjenje, in Bosnia-Herzegovina), Taslima Nasreen (Bangladesh), Wei Jingsheng (China), Salima Ghezali (Algeria), Carlos Martinez Gorriaran for Basta Ya! (that opposes terrorism in the Basque country), and Dom Zacarias Kamwenho (Angola).