Date: Fri, 24 OCT 1997 2:40:33 PDT

From: AFP

Rights groups urge 1998 Nobel peace prize for Chinese dissidents

BEIJING, Oct 24 (AFP) - Two human rights groups joined forces Friday to drum up support to nominate Wei Jingsheng and Wang Dan -- China's top dissidents -- for the 1998 Nobel peace prize.

New York-based Human Rights in China (HRIC) and the Belgian Transnational Radical Party (TRP) issued a faxed statement saying 1,000 members of national assemblies, Nobel laureates and scholars worldwide had supported Wei's nomination in 1997

In addition, thousands of people signed a petition urging the release of Wang Dan.

"Wei Jingsheng and Wang Dan have become symbols for two generations of peaceful pro-democracy activists in China," said HRIC chairman Liu Qing.

"Awarding the Nobel peace prize to these courageous men would mean international recognition of the ongoing struggle for human rights and democracy in China," he added.

Wei, 47, is serving 14 years for conspiring to subvert the government after completing an earlier term of counter-revolution imposed in 1979 for advocating democracy.

Wang, 28, was one of the principle leaders of the 1989

pro-democracy demonstrations and is serving an 11-year term for conspiring to subvert the government.

Wei has been a candidate for the Nobel peace prize since 1995, but has yet to win the award.