Thaindian News

Dharamsala, Oct 4 (IANS) The office of the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, who has called off his South Africa visit after being denied a visa, said Tuesday South Africa has succumbed to Chinese pressure.

Fellow Nobel laureate and former South African leader F.W. De Klerk also condemned the visa denial and said it did not befit an open society.

“It’s unfortunate that His Holiness Dalai Lama, who was visiting on the personal invitation of fellow Nobel laureate Desmond Tutu and long-time friend, was not granted a visa,” Thubten Samphel, a spokesman for the Tibetan government-in-exile, told IANS.

“It’s very clear that South Africa, known as a sovereign nation, has succumbed to Chinese pressure,” he added.

Two years back, too, the elderly monk was denied a visa by the South Africa government as it had close ties with China. He was to attend a peace conference there.

The Dalai Lama was to depart for South Africa Oct 6.

The Dalai Lama’s office said he was invited to South Africa by a number of universities and organisations, including Stellenbosch University, the Tutu Centre and the Mahatma Gandhi Trust, to give public talks.

He was also to deliver Bishop Tutu’s 80th birth anniversary inaugural lecture and to receive the Mahatma Gandhi International Award for Peace and Reconciliation.

“The visa applications for the Dalai Lama and the entourage members were submitted to the South African high commission in New Delhi at the end of August and original passports were submitted Sep 20,” said the statement.

It said the Dalai Lama had cancelled his visit because he “does not want to create any inconvenience to anyone, individuals or governments” in his work, but he “regrets the inconvenience caused to his hosts and the large number of South African public”.

Former South African president F.W. De Klerk also spoke in support of extending a visa to the Dalai Lama.

“South Africa must decide on two things, is it an open society and, secondly, does it really respect religious figures?” media reports quoted De Klerk as saying in Johannesburg Sep 16. “In an open society, he should be allowed to come.”

He said the Dalai Lama was a Nobel Peace Prize laureate and there was no justification for not granting him a visa.

Even Tutu has warned that the government would “shoot itself in the foot” by again refusing his fellow Nobel Peace laureate entry into South Africa.

The Dalai Lama has lived in exile in India since he fled Tibet during a failed uprising in 1959. He favours “greater autonomy” for Tibetans rather than complete independence.

Chinese leaders have, however, called him a separatist who wants Tibet to secede from China.