Dalai Lama to be absent from Desmond Tutu birthday after visa controversy

Tibetan spiritual leader’s office and activists suggest South Africa caved in to pressure from China to hold up entry visa The Dalai Lama says he has been forced to pull out of Archbishop Desmond Tutu’s 80th birthday celebrations because South Africa did not grant him an entry visa. Civil rights campaigners reacted furiously to the news, claiming that South Africa had buckled under pressure from China, its biggest trading partner, which regards the Dalai Lama as a dangerous separatist. Tutu had invited his fellow Nobel peace laureate to deliver a lecture to mark his milestone birthday in Cape Town on Friday. Officials from the archbishop emeritus’s office started the visa application process in June but were hit by a series of bureaucratic delays . On Tuesday, the Dalai Lama’s office finally gave up. “His Holiness was to depart for South Africa on 6 October, 2011, but visas have not been granted yet,” it said. “We are, therefore, now convinced that for whatever reason or reasons, the South African government finds it inconvenient to issue a visa to His Holiness the Dalai Lama.” A candlelit vigil outside the South African parliament in Cape Town on Monday night drew around 250 protesters demanding that the Tibetan spiritual leader be allowed into the country. Instead there was bitter disappointment on Tuesday morning, when it was announced the eight-day trip had been called off. Civil rights campaigners blamed the government with expressions of anger and shame. Nomfundo Walaza, chief executive of the Desmond Tutu Peace Centre , said: “I’m shocked and dismayed that they would let it come to this point. I still had hope after the vigil last night that we would wake up this morning to hear the visa had been issued. “It’s a shame. I think it’s the darkest moment in the history of this country for this to be allowed to happen. We worked so hard on this, we put our heart and soul into it. For a religous leader of the Dalai Lama’s standing to be refused is not acceptable. It’s sad that this is what our democracy is all about.” She had not yet spoken to Tutu, Walaza added, “but I’m sure he is devastated.” Ela Gandhi , who had planned to present the Dalai Lama with a peace prize in the name of her grandfather, Mahatma Gandhi, said: “I’m very disappointed. We were looking forward to him coming and to presenting the award. “I really feel the whole situation has been handled so badly. It’s discourteous for a person of his stature to be told to wait for so long. For a person of peace to be treated like this is wrong.” She continued: “Everybody thinks this is because of pressure from China. It’s very sad that another country is allowed to dictate terms to our government. It’s going back to aparteid times. I am ashamed of my own country.” Activists who had been campaigning for the 76-year-old spiritual leader’s visit joined the condemnation. Hennie van Vuuren, director of the Institute for Security Studies in Cape Town, said: “I’m deeply disappointed that the South African government didn’t find the wisdom to do the right thing. It makes no sense given that the Dalai Lama recently went to Brazil and Mexico. It shows the issue cannot be about China alone. “South African foreign policy is increasingly showing incoherence. It undermines the strong human rights record of this country. It flies in the face of the desire of most South Africans to uphold our constitutional democracy.” South African foreign ministry officials have consistently denied accusations they were bowing to pressure from Beijing. Asked for his reaction to the Dalai Lama’s decision, spokesman Clayson Monyela said: “We don’t have a reaction. He’s cancelled his trip and that’s it. “We have not said no. We’ve not refused him a visa; the visa was still being processed. It’s only on 20 September that he submitted his full paperwork. In some countries, a visa can take two months. I don’t know why people are criticising the government.” The Dalai Lama visited South Africa in 1996, meeting the then president, Nelson Mandela, but was prevented from attending a Nobel laureates’ conference in the country two years ago , when the government said his visit would distract from preparations for the football World Cup. At the time, Tutu called the decision disgraceful, and accused the authorities of bowing to pressure from China. Dalai Lama South Africa Africa Desmond Tutu David Smith guardian.co.uk

Posted by on October 4, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.