Lu receives peace prize at Presidential Office

The World Peace Prize Award Council (WPPAC) yesterday granted Vice President Annette Lu (呂秀蓮) the 2001 World Peace Prize, making Lu as the first female recipient of the honor since the award's inception in 1990.

First lady Wu Shu-chen (吳淑珍) said Lu fully deserved the honor as her experiences represented the ordeals many of Taiwan's women went through when the country was ruled by the totalitarian KMT regime.

"During the White Terror, countless fathers, husbands and sons disappeared without a trace, forcing many Taiwanese women to endure their lives [alone] and to cry in darkness," Wu said at the ceremony held in the Presidential Office yesterday morning.

"Their courage was respectable ... The award was also a tribute to the women of Taiwan and Lu definitely deserved the honor," Wu added.

Wu traveled to France last month to accept the 2001 Prize for Freedom on behalf of President Chen Shui-bian (陳水扁), awarded by Liberal International, an association of liberal parties from more than 60 countries.

Chen was unable to travel to Europe to accept the prize because EU countries refused to grant him a visa

Both Wu and Lu said the two awards, marked the world's recognition of the efforts of the 23 million people of Taiwan toward democracy and prosperity.

In the early 1970s, Lu was Taiwan's foremost advocate of feminism and gender equality. She was imprisoned for over five years on charges of sedition in the wake of her involvement in the 1979 Kaohsiung Incident where she delivered a 20-minute speech criticizing the government.

The 1979 march on world human rights day was dubbed as social upheaval by the KMT government.

A two-hour function was held at the Grand Hotel yesterday afternoon to celebrate Lu's award.

"As a woman I have gone through various kinds of suffering all of my life. I not only needed to overcome poverty, but also triumph over gender discrimination and dictatorship. The more trials I endure, the stronger I become," Lu said.

The non-profit WPPAC was established in 1990, a year after US Congressman Robert Leggett and Han Min-su, an evangelist from South Korea, jointly founded the World Peace Corps Mission in 1989, patterned after the US Peace Corps.

Previous award winners include former US president Ronald Reagan, Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak, the late Israeli prime minister Yitzhak Rabin and the first president of South Korea, Syngman Rhee.