First lady to have lunch at home of Czech president

Czech President Vaclav Havel and first lady Dagmar Veskrnova plan to entertain Taiwan's first lady Wu Shu-chen (吳淑珍) at their summer home today.

Having just accepted the 2001 Prize for Freedom in Strasbourg, France, on behalf of her husband President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁) on Wednesday, Wu will attend an informal luncheon at Lany Chateau at the invitation of Veskrnova.

Although confined to a wheelchair, Wu has undertaken a whirlwind, one-week tour of Europe which will conclude this weekend. As the trip has progressed, behind-the-scene stories have surfaced about the twists and turns of her journey as a de facto diplomat from Taiwan .

Her family's concerns have been foremost in Wu's mind. Before departing for Europe, Wu said her son Chen Chih-chung (陳致中) advised her not to embark on the journey as he worried that planes flying from Taiwan to Europe would go over the Middle East, where the US is fighting its war on terror.

Unforeseen obstacles

Unforeseen objections from China over Wu's travels through Europe have been another cause of anxiety. Earlier, France and Denmark refused to issue a visa to President Chen so as not to raise China's hackles.

Moreover, David Lee (李大維), Taiwan's top representative in Brussels, traveled to Strasbourg three times before Wu's arrival to help arrange her trip to the home of the European Parliament. During the visit, Wu met with the speaker of the EU assembly for a closed-door meeting, an insider said.

"The end result, although unsatisfactory, is acceptable," said a foreign ministry official, commenting on the fact that Wu had to accept the prize on behalf of the president.

When Liberal International, a London-based federation of parties from more than 60 countries, announced Chen as the 2001 winner of the Prize for Freedom, several diplomatic options were explored as to how Chen would accept the award.

Initially, the top priority for Taiwan's foreign ministry as well as Liberal International was to push for Chen's personal acceptance of the prize.

But when Copenhagen refused to issue a visa to Chen in August, other options surfaced, ranging from pushing for Chen's acceptance of the prize "in one of the EU countries," to Wu's acceptance on behalf of Chen, to even a video conference, sources said.

De facto ban

But a de facto EU visa ban on high-ranking Taiwanese officials made Chen's trip to Europe impossible, and triggered sympathy from a number of European politicians.

"By hosting this event at the European Parliament, we wish to underline our deep concern at the current visa policy," said Pat Cox, leader of the European Liberal Democrats and the Irish front runner for the presidency of the European Parliament, during the ceremony on Wednesday.

Cox accused EU foreign ministers of secretly agreeing amongst themselves not to grant visas to Taiwan's top five officials -- the president, vice president, premier and ministers of foreign affairs and defense.

He also said that it was all the more ironic as the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, viewed by China as a separatist, had just visited Strasbourg to address the European Parliament.

Lord David Russell-Johnston, president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and vice president of Liberal International, offered his view.

"All of us in the liberal movement want good relations with China and we want to see China move in a democratic direction. But we do not accept that this should be any barrier to our recognizing openly what has been accomplished in Taiwan," Russell-Johnston said.