As the reporters in the link have said, there is a majority view in Germany which is sweeping some truths about the Balkans under the rug, and attempting to squelch voices such as Handke's. Handke's views on the Balkans mirror Chomsky's views, and I would argue live up to the humanitarian criteria of the Heine Prize. I have read everything that Handke has published on the matter.

I have never seen Handke declare Tudjman [Milosevic] one of the greatest heroes to humanity, so I fail to see the comparison.

I wholly support Handke in his endeavors. So do Harold Pinter and a lot of other notable leftists, who have mentioned Handke in specific.

Handke's good friend Thomas Bernhard once remarked that to receive a prize when one is over the age of 35 is like allowing people to piss on you. I wonder if Handke actually agreed to receive the prize. He certainly has been pissed on, if he had agreed.

I agree with him and you about the worthiness of art prizes. Are prizes free of political maneuvering? Depends on what you mean by political. They are usually tied to a more general form of politics, those of the art world. Here, the mayor quashed the determination of the art world, which clearly approved of Handke, in one form or another.

Mind you, columnists in Germany are expanding the scope of this dust up to consider minority political views and their acceptance.

Finally, t's ironic that Austria's two most famous novelists of the last half century are both going out in the same style.

"I am utterly convinced that the World Tribunal, as it meets for session (upon session) in Hall One, the one time Haag Chamber of Commerce, is no good - and that as much as it might administer justice on a formal level, it is from its very beginnings, foundations and origins wrong and it remains wrong and acts wrongly and will continue to allow wrong to be done - that it contributes not a single iota to establishing the truth - and that in the face of the not only noble but, unlike other ideas, immortal idea of justice, it administers an appalling mockery: in other words it is the WRONG COURT. Yes my 'inner conviction' goes so far as to say that I not only see Slobodan Milosevic before the wrong court, but - and although I by no means believe he is 'not guilty' - I believe that he is 'not guilty according to the terms of the charge', and of the organisation of the trial, its behaviour, and its leadership at the hands of the judge."

Also from Handke: "What I did not say" in the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung: "I have never denied or played down, not to speak of sanctioned, any of the massacres in Yugoslavia from 1991 - 1995." Handke continues that although he is often criticised for having one of the characters in his play "Die Fahrt im Einbaum" (the voyage in the dugout) defend the Serbs, "the truth is that in the play (page 65), one figure says: 'You know it was we who protected you from the Asian hordes for centuries. And without us you'd still be eating with your fingers. Who was it that introduced the knife and fork to the Western world?' But: is it necessary to point out that this is a parody? or that this minor character's name is 'Irrer' (Madman)?"

Matthias Kamann takes up the cudgels for Handke in Die Welt, explaining his position on ex-Yugoslavia and describing Handke as an outcast. "While Handke continues to be accused for drawing parallels between Auschwitz and the bombardment of Serbia, Joschka Fischer has yet to feel any consequences for fantasizing with total disregard for reality about having to prevent another Auschwitz in Serbia. Thoughts like these, and the apocryphal 'Hufeisenplan' (Operation Horseshoe) which was cooked up by the then Minister of Defence Rudolf Scharping, fitted and still fit well with the feuilletonistic debate of consensus that 'Germany finds new responsibilities through the Kosovo war.' Peter Handke however was ostracised from public debate, which is determined not to see consensus destroyed and only accepts artistic obstinacy when this confirms the cartel."