South Africa Bars Dalai Lama From Peace Meet

[Al-zakir]

Sunday, 22 March 2009

South Africa has barred Tibet's spiritual leader the Dalai Lama from entering the country to take part in a peace conference, media reports and a lobby group said on Sunday.

The Dalai Lama was to join fellow Nobel Peace Prize laureates Desmond Tutu, Martti Ahtisaari and FW de Klerk, as well as Norway's Nobel Peace Committee, at the conference scheduled for March 27, the Sunday Independent reported.

The newspaper said his visa was refused due to pressure from the Chinese government, prompting Archbishop Tutu to threaten to pull out of the meeting and to demand an explanation from the authorities.

Tutu's office said on Sunday he had no further comment and was waiting for a response from the presidency.

The Dalai Lama fled Tibet in 1959 and set up a Tibetan government-in-exile in India after a failed uprising against Chinese rule.

Rioting broke out last March 14 in Tibet's main city of Lhasa after several days of peaceful protests by monks against Beijing's rule, killing 19 people and sparking a wave of protests across Tibetan areas. Exile groups say more than 200 people died in the crackdown.

The Sunday Independent said the Chinese embassy in South Africa had confirmed its government had appealed to South Africa not to allow the Dalai Lama into the country.

Lobby group Friends of Tibet said in a statement the South African High Commission in India had requested the Dalai Lama "postpone" the visit.

"We believe that the barring of his holiness to attend the peace conference makes a mockery of the intentions of this conference," it said.

Asked for comment on whether the government had refused the visa, South Africa's foreign affairs spokesman Ronnie Mamoepa said: "The South African government has not extended any invitation to the Dalai Lama to come to South Africa."

The Dalai Lama was invited to participate in the conference by Tutu, De Klerk and former South African President Nelson Mandela.

South Africa Bars Dalai Lama From Peace Meet: Media

 

[KaranArjun]

China's power projection is starting to show effects.

 

[Communist]

I do not know whether there is any Chinese pressure working behind the bar. But South Africa has made an intelligent move, because Dalai Lama unnecessarily and ferociously speaks against China wherever he goes and due to his anti-Chinese standpoint, he was given Nobel by American lobby. Now, China has many constructive program in South Africa and surely South Africa does not want to make Chinese eyebrows frowned at her. This is a classic diplomatic move.

And as usual Indian members will go on accusing China.

 

[dbc]

Take a second and think, do you really believe men like Tutu and Mandela would want to associate themselves with the Dalai Lama if he there is any truth in what the Chinese say about him?

 

[ANDUBYLL]

For a nation that suffered the tyranny of inequality, a nation who understands what living as a second class citizen means, the same nation now sides with the harbinger of terrorism, of an occupying regime who brutally supresses the rights of Tibetans whose nation have been conquered by barbarians !!!
Wow, Suid Afrika.. You have completed the full circle now !!

 

[Communist]

For a nation that suffered the tyranny of inequality, a nation who understands what living as a second class citizen means, the same nation now sides with the harbinger of terrorism, of an occupying regime who brutally supresses the rights of Tibetans whose nation have been conquered by barbarians !!!
Wow, Suid Afrika.. You have completed the full circle now !!

Re-consider the statement please. Do the Chinese people seem barbarians to you? You are an intelligent and responsible member of this forum, I do not expect such comments from you. Yes some members are brainwashed by US backed media which portrays some as villains and some as heroes exploiting the international communities' sentiments for the sake of some vested interests. Remember, the same media would have projected Dalai Lama as a tyrant feudal king, had there been no interests of US in Tibet.

Also the same media says Muslims are barbarians because they follow Islam, are you going to believe in what they say about Muslims?