President Chen's wife scheduled to accept Freedom Prize on his behalf

Wu Shu-chen (吳淑珍), wife of President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), is expected to depart for Strasbourg, France, to accept the 2001 Freedom Prize on behalf of her husband, according to Minister of Foreign Affairs Tien Hung-mao (田弘茂).

Tien confirmed for the first time yesterday that Liberal International, a London-based association of major liberal parties from more than 60 countries that awarded Chen this year's Freedom Prize, decided to hold the awards ceremony in Strasbourg where the European Parliament is located.

The ceremony will take place next Thursday, according to news reports.

Tien also suggested that a vice foreign minister accompany the first lady to the awards ceremony.

"If she can make the trip smoothly, I believe the first lady will be accorded a grand reception," Tien told reporters yesterday afternoon.

"We hope that if the first lady takes this opportunity to go to Europe to accept the prize, she will handle it in a way that will make us all proud," Tien said.

Hans van Baalen, vice president of Liberal International, told the Taipei Times on Tuesday that the organization has asked Chen's wife to accept the prize on his behalf, while declining to confirm the exact date and location of the awards ceremony.

Tien noted two major factors that he felt made the award issue sensitive.

He said the current visit to Europe by China's Vice President Hu Jintao (胡錦濤), the leading contender to succeed President Jiang Zemin (江澤民) next year, has led western European countries to handle the issue rather "cautiously."

In addition, Jiang's support for the US-led campaign against terrorism has also won support from major western European countries and led them to go out of their way to avoid upsetting China, Tien said.

"As a result, we needed to handle the issue with great caution and certain political stratagem," Tien added.

Liberal International's original plan was to present Chen with the award during the organization's annual meeting in Denmark this week.

But this hope was dashed when in August the Danish government refused to issue Chen a visa on the grounds that EU member states have established an unofficial rule that the top five political figures in Taiwan cannot be issued visas, even for private travel.

These five political figures are the president, vice president, premier, minister of foreign affairs and minister of defense.

The Dutch and French gov-ernments have also stuck to the European line, both declining to grant Chen a visa, sources said.

France has made a conditional offer of a visa to Chen's wife, an arrangement that would enable her to accept the prize on Chen's behalf, sources in the Presidential Office said.