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European Parliament honours Hu Jia in absentia

AFP

European Parliament President Hans-Gert Pottering gestures next to the empty seat of Chinese dissident Hu Jia during the awards ceremony of the 2008 Sakharov Prize 2008 at the European Parliament in Strasbourg. The European Parliament officially awarded its prestigious Sakharov rights prize in absentia to jailed Chinese dissident Hu on 17 December 2008. Hu’s nomination deeply angered Beijing.AFP/Dominique Faget/France

The European Parliament officially awarded Wednesday its prestigious Sakharov rights prize in absentia to jailed Chinese dissident Hu Jia , whose nomination deeply angered Beijing.

In a video message broadcast in the chamber in Strasbourg, northern France, Hu’s wife, Zeng Jinyan , thanked the EU assembly and said she wanted to use the prize money to help other activists in prison in China.

“At the beginning of November, police officers informed Hu Jia that he had received the prize… I was able to see that he was very happy,” she said.

Just before he was announced as the winner in October, China had warned in a letter to senior lawmakers and the president of the parliament that giving the Sakharov Prize to the civil rights campaigner could damage ties with Europe.

Hu’s wife said: “I cannot do much, but I would like to use the 50,000-euro (70,480-dollar) prize to launch a foundation to help the families of human rights activists who are in jail in China,” in line with her husband’s wishes.

She said rights were still being trampled on in China, with “school books, newspapers, all resembling what can be found in ‘1984,’” the bleak novel on state control by George Orwell.

She also said Hu’s health was of concern.

“Two blood tests were done in a month but the results of the tests have not been given to the family,” she said.

The 35-year-old Hu is known for his campaign for civil rights, the environment and AIDS victims, but is serving a three-and-a-half year prison sentence for subversion.

He was arrested last year after giving testimony on human rights in China to the European Parliament’s human rights sub-committee by video-conference.

Some of the lawmakers, including Greens leader Daniel Cohn-Bendit, were moved to tears during the ceremony.

“Europe needs China, and China needs Europe. When we talk about human rights in China , we are doing it as a friend of the Chinese people,” said European Parliament president Hans-Gert Poettering.

His remarks belied growing tensions between Brussels and Beijing.

On Tuesday, the EU expressed deep concern at China’s recent arrest of other rights campaigners, including Liu Xiaobo , a leading activist famous for his role in the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests.

The arrests come ahead of sensitive anniversaries next year, including the 20th anniversary of the Tiananmen Square democracy protests in Beijing and the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People’s Republic of China .

In the weeks that followed the announcement of Hu’s award, Beijing cancelled an EU-China summit, and state media blasted French President Nicolas Sarkozy for meeting the Tibetan Dalai Lama.

At the end of last month, the EU condemned China for executing a scientist accused of spying for Taiwan, warning of damaging consequences for dialogue with Beijing on human rights.

That came just after EU-China rights talks had ended in Beijing.

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

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

Copyright © 2008 Agence France-Presse

Published in AFP/Google News