Strasbourg, 17/12/2008 (Agence Europe) - The European Parliament's Sakharov Prize was this year awarded under very special circumstances to the Chinese dissident and activist, Hu Jia, as the prizewinner is currently in prison. President Hans-Gert Pöttering first of all greeted the prizewinners (or those representing them) of the years 1990 to 2007 including Leyla Zana (whose attendance was not definite until the very last minute) and Elena Bonner, the widow of Andrei Sakharov, who attended the solemn session. They sat in a semi-circle before the rostrum where a photo of Hu Jia took pride of place.
The Sakharov Prize was awarded for the very first time 20 years ago, President Pöttering said, regretting that some prizewinners could not be present because their governments had refused to let them attend (he expressly cited Myanmar and Cuba).
Twenty years ago, Andrei Sakharov was not there to receive his prize. Today, the chair bearing the name of Hu Jia is also empty, and the Parliament has had to be content with a video message in which Hu Jia's wife accepts the award. Hu Jia has been transferred to a prison in Beijing, where conditions are better, and his wife hopes communication will be easier in the future. Although she was unable to speak of the prize when she last met him, she knows that the authorities have announced it to him and that it has made him happy. Other people, too, are fighting for freedom in China but the price to pay is high. Everything one reads in school manuals seems like fiction, Hu Jia's wife says, but there are those who dare speak the truth and every chance of promoting freedom must be seized, including through new technologies such as the internet, by putting the wonderful sources of energy that this country has to good use. (L.G./transl.jl)