German controversy over award for author Peter Handke

A political and cultural row is brewing in Germany over a decision to award the Heinrich Heine literature prize to Peter Handke, the Austrian author who courted controversy with his eulogy at the funeral of Slobodan Milosevic.

The Austrian authorwas named winner of the 50,000-euro($70,745) prize, givenby the city of Duesseldorf.

But political and literary leaders are arguing whether the writer, known forhis pro-Serbianstatements and writings,should be allowed toreceive the prize. Handke produced a travelogue in 1996 that showed sympathy for the Serbs as victims of the Balkan wars.

Earlier this month, the Parisian theatre company Comdie-Franaise withdrew his play Voyage to the Sonorous Land or the Art of Asking from its 2006-07 season following his appearance at Milosevic's funeral.

"For my soul and my conscience it was impossible to welcome this person into my theatre," company administrator Marcel Bozonnet said, adding that to host someone's work in the theatre was "an act of recognition, of love."

Milosovic died in prison in the Hague in March, while awaiting trial for war crimes.

AtMilosevic's funeral, Handke paid respect to him as "a man who defended his people."

Some of his defenders have argued the words of Handke's eulogy were mistranslated.

The jury for the Heine prize said that "in his work, Peter Handke obstinately follows the path to an open truth. He sets his poetic gaze onto the world regardless of the public opinion and its rituals."

But Germany's Green Party Leader Fritz Kuhn has urged Duesseldorf to overturn the decision of its jury and stop Handke from collecting the award.

It isa "scandal" to honour Handke with the prize, and a slap in the face of the victims of former Serb strongman Milosevic, he said.

The Duesseldorf city council is considering whether to demand a new decision from the jury, whosechoice was not unanimous.

Journalist and feminist critic Alice Schwarzer defended what she saw as Handke's courageous opposition to the political mainstream.

"In a time of general demonization of Serbia, he risked positioning himself against the one-sided allocation of blame," Schwarzer said.

Handke wrote the experimental play Offending the Audience and the novel The Goalie's Anxiety at the Penalty Kick, but may be best known for writing the novel Wings of Desire, which was turned into a film by Wim Wenders.

"Why don't people just open . . . my works instead of accusing me?" Handke said in an interview with Le Monde after the Comdie-Franaise decision.

"I wrote about the Serbs, because no one was writing about them, even if I also think about the Croat and Muslim victims," said the writer, who lives in France.