First Lady Wu Shu-chen's (
The EVA Air plane landed at Japan's Sapporo airport three-and-a-half hours after taking off from Taiwan so that a female passenger who suddenly felt sick could be sent to a hospital. The plane departed Sapporo at 6:30am Taipei time yesterday.
Wu left Taiwan Sunday night to accept the award to be bestowed on President Chen Shui-bian (
PHOTO: TONY YAO, TAIPEI TIMES
The awards ceremony is slated to take place tomorrow at the European Parliament headquarters in Strasbourg, with Patrick Cox, the leader of the European Parliament's union of liberal parties, presiding over the event.
Liberal International, a London-based association of major liberal parties from more than 60 countries, said earlier this year that Chen would be honored for his contributions to Taiwan's democratization and his "solid record as a human rights activist."
The organization originally planned to present the award to Chen in Copenhagen, but Denmark declined to issue Chen a visa under pressure from Beijing. The group then decided to change the venue to Strasbourg, but French authorities also refused to grant Chen a visa to enter the country.
Chen has expressed his gratitude to the organization for the award. "The honor belongs to the 23 million people of Taiwan and it is a recognition of Taiwan's achievement in promoting freedom and democratization," Chen said.
Facing pressure from China, Wu's trip to Europe has been kept fairly low-key.
The first lady is expected to visit Paris for two days before receiving the award in Strasbourg.
Then the delegation will travel to the Czech Republic, where she is scheduled to meet playwright-turned-president Vaclav Havel, the recipient of the same prize in 1990, before returning to Taiwan on Sunday, sources said.
Wu was seen off at the airport on Sunday by her husband and several senior officials, including Vice President Annette Lu (
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