A Dutch minister has allegedly tried to influence an independent jury for a human rights prize. Weekly magazine HP/de Tijd which broke the story has refused to name the minister on its website.

Chinese dissident Ni Yulan was chosen for the Human Rights Tulip this year, but apparently met with objections from the Chinese embassy in The Hague. The minister asked the jury whether it had another candidate for the prize.

Jury chairperson Ciska Dresselhuys told BNR newsradio on Wednesday: "I got a phone call from a member of the cabinet asking whether we had an alternative candidate. Such things can happen when an independent jury picks a candidate from a country which has quite a few business ties with the Netherlands. But we're independent, we don't have to consider the interests of Edam cheese or the tulip exports, we just look at what the candidate did for human rights."

Difficult country
Ms Dresselhuys said there was no other candidate because Foreign Minister Uri Rosenthal had asked them to present just one name: 

"That one name was the Chinese woman's. The cabinet member did not give a reason, but I think China is a difficult country to disagree with. The Norwegians got into a lot of trouble in 2010 when they awarded the Nobel Prize to a Chinese. As a jury you know which countries are easy. We awarded earlier prizes to people in Congo or Iran; those are recognised rogue states, if I may say so. And we don't have any substantial business interests there. But sometimes as an independent jury you decide to pick someone from a 'difficult' country."

2008 Olympics
The Human Rights Tulip was presented to an empty chair on 31 January in The Hague. Ni Yulan has been in prison for some time and her daughter Dong Xuan, was arrested shortly before her departure to the Netherlands to pick up the prize on behalf of her mother.

Ni Yulan is in prison awaiting trial after she defended the rights of residents in Beijing who were forced to leave their homes to make way for the 2008 Olympics.

(nc/rk)

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