Sakharov Prize for freedom still necessary after 20 years

3.30.00pm GMT Wed 17th Dec 2008

The Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) considers of utmost importance to commemorate the 20th anniversary of the Sakharov Prize because the reasons for which this distinctive prize was created in 1988 are unfortunately as prevailing as ever. "With the Berlin Wall and the Soviet block having broken down and most of Latin American dictatorships disappeared, we could have hoped that this Prize would by now have gone down in history. But this is not so at all. Every year we have to make a dramatic choice between numerous candidates who stand for the whole range of victims of corrupt and murderous regimes still rampant on this planet," Graham Watson, ALDE Leader explained. The European Parliament had invited all prize winners of the last 20 years to its official Sakharov Prize ceremony today. However, like Ju Jia, the 2008 laureate detained in China or like 1990 laureate Burmese Aung San Suu Kyi, many laureates are not permitted to join us in Strasbourg. Recently, more than hundred dissidents were condemned to long prison sentences in Burma.