Strasbourg, 23/10/2008 (Agence Europe) - The President of the European Parliament, Hans-Gert Pöttering, announced on Thursday 23 October 2008 that the EP's Conference of Presidents had decided to award the 2008 Sakharov Prize for freedom of speech to Chinese national Hu Jia. Pottering explained that the prize has been awarded for more than 20 years to pay tribute to especially deserving individuals. The first Sakharov Prize went to Nelson Mandela, who Hans-Gert Pöttering will be meeting in an official visit to South Africa next week. The 2008 prize goes to Hu Jia on behalf of all the oppressed of China and Tibet, said Pottering, adding that Hu, who was born in Beijing in 1973, was one of the most ardent defenders of human rights in China. He was sentenced to three years in prison in China earlier this year and is being refused treatment for cirrhosis of the liver. Pottering said that the European Parliament paid tribute to the daily fight for liberty led by all human rights activists in China.
Three candidates were on the shortlist - Alexander Kozulin of Byelorussia (not supported by any of the EP's parliamentary groups), Congolese abbot Appolinaire Malu Malu (backed by the PES and the GUE/NGL) and Hu Jia qui (backed by the EPP-ED, ALDE and Greens/EFA, with the UEN and IND/DEM divided over his candidacy and abstaining from the vote).
In a clumsily-worded letter to the President of the European Parliament on 16 October 2008, China's ambassador to the European Communities, Song Zhe, called on Hans-Gert Pöttering to use his influence over the EPP-ED Group and the European Parliament as a whole to make the right choice for the Sakharov Prize. Song Zhe said that if the European Parliament were to award the prize to Hu Jia, this would not fail to cause a further injury to the Chinese people and serious damage to EU-China relations. Failing to recognise China's progress in human rights and insisting on confrontation will only deepen the misunderstanding between the two parties and does not serve the cause of human rights at global level, added Song Zhe. The ambassador said that Hu Jia is receiving medical treatment in prison, still requiring treatment but his health is “normal”.
The Sakharov Prize, which is accompanied by €50,000, will be awarded at a solemn ceremony during the European Parliament's plenary in Strasbourg on 17 December 2008. Of prize-winners to date, only Burmese dissident Aung San Suu Kyi (1990) and the Cuban “Damas de Bianco” (2005) have not been able to receive their prizes. The fact that a prize-winner cannot attend does not prevent the ceremony from going ahead as the ceremony draws attention to the authoritarian nature of regimes that prevent prize-winners from coming to Strasbourg to collect the prize. (O.J./transl.fl)