Dalai Lama denied visa for Nobel summit

South Africa has refused to grant a visa for the Dalai Lama to attend the World Summit of Nobel Peace Laureates in Cape Town next month, his representative said yesterday. The government “conveyed by phone to me they will not be able to grant the visa for the reason that it would disturb relations between China and South Africa,” Nangsa Choedon told AFP.

The refusal could provoke a boycott of the 14th annual peace summit, according to a spokesman for South African laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu.

“I have heard that if the Dalai Lama is not allowed into the country, other invited guests have said they will not come,” Roger Friedman said.

The summit is organised by foundations representing four South African peace laureates — Tutu, Nelson Mandela, FW de Klerk and Albert Luthuli.

Along with the surviving South Africans — Tutu and de Klerk — the organisers say 13 individuals and eight organisations had confirmed that they would attend the summit, including former Soviet president Mikhail Gorbachev.

Third time in five years

Choedon said she had not yet received written confirmation of the refusal, but if confirmed, this will be the third time in five years that Tibet’s exiled spiritual leader has been refused a visa to visit South Africa. China, which accuses him of covertly campaigning for Tibet’s independence, regularly uses its growing economic and political clout to put pressure on governments around the world to limit contact with the Dalai Lama.

Each visa refusal has been met with an outcry from South Africans who feel it is a betrayal of the commitment to human rights embraced by the government since the end of apartheid 20 years ago.