EU gives rights prize to Chinese dissident Hu

http://asia.news.yahoo.com/081023/afp/081023122208asiapacificnews.html


STRASBOURG (AFP) - The European Parliament on Thursday awarded a prestigious rights prize to jailed Chinese dissident Hu Jia, on the eve of a key Beijing summit and amid allegations of Chinese pressure not to honour him.

China had warned that giving the Sakharov Prize to the civil rights campaigner could damage ties with Europe.

But to widespread applause, parliament president Hans-Gert Poettering told the assembly that "by awarding the Sakharov Prize to Hu Jia, the European Parliament is sending out a clear signal of support to all those who defend human rights in China."

He said Hu had "spoken out against oppression in Tibet", and described him as "one of the real defenders of human rights in the People's Republic of China".

EU lawmakers accused Chinese government officials of trying to pressure the parliament not to give the award to Hu.

"By letter, by email, and they've even tried by telephone," the head of the parliament's liberal group, Graham Watson, told AFP.

A spokesman for Poettering said China's ambassador had written the assembly president a letter "in which Beijing applies pressure". The spokesman said the effort was "more counter-productive".

"This prize is awarded in Strasbourg, not in Beijing," Poettering said on the sidelines of the session.

The letter, from Ambassador Song Zhe, read: "The Chinese government is seriously concerned over the Sakharov prize."

"If the European Parliament should award this prize to Hu Jia, that would inevitably hurt the Chinese peoples once again and bring serious damage to China-EU relations.

"Not recognising China's progress on human rights and insisting on confrontation will only deepen the misunderstanding between the two sides and is not conducive to the promotion of the cause of world human rights."

Hu, 35, is known for his campaign for civil rights, environmental protection and AIDS victims but is serving a three-and-a-half year prison sentence for "inciting subversion of state power".

He was arrested last year after giving testimony on human rights in China to the European Parliaments's human rights subcommittee by video-conference.

China angrily called Hu a "criminal" when he was considered a top candidate for the Nobel Peace Prize earlier this month.

The Sakharov Prize -- named after Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov -- is in its 20th year.



Previous winners will be invited to attend the presentation of the 50,000-euro (64,000-dollar) award on December 17.

EU leaders are to hold a summit in Beijing on Friday with Chinese and other Asian leaders. Rights in China are a continual problem at the summits but this time Europe is trying to get China to back international efforts to end the financial crisis.

The head of the conservative group in parliament -- the assembly's biggest bloc -- Joseph Daul, also received a letter from the Chinese ambassador, one of his spokesman confirmed.

"Awarding the Sakharov to Hu Jia is a reflection of this very spirit of this prize, which supports free thought and honours human rights defenders fighting repression," Greens leaders Daniel Cohn-Bendit and Monica Frassoni said.

"The commitments made by China before the Olympic Games to improve the human rights situation have not been respected," they added in a statement.

In New York, rights group Human Rights watch called on Beijing to immediately exonerate or grant medical parole to Hu.

"Hu Jia was incarcerated for doing nothing more than exercising rights expressly guaranteed by China's constitution," said Sophie Richardson, the group's advocacy director.

"If the government won't exonerate Hu, it should at least release him to get proper medical care."

Others short-listed for the prize were Belarus opposition leader Alexandr Kozulin and Congolese abbot Apollinaire Malu Malu.

Past winners include former South African leader Nelson Mandela, detained Myanmar democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi and former UN secretary general Kofi Annan.