World
The Dalai Lama has cancelled a visit to South Africa, where he was planning to attend a meeting of fellow Nobel peace laureates in Cape Town next month. The BBC reports:
The exiled Tibetan spiritual leader withdrew his visa application after his officials said it would be denied. The South African government has denied blocking the visa under pressure from China, a key trading partner.
China sees the Dalai Lama, who campaigns for the rights of Tibetans, as a dangerous separatist leader.
Two years ago, a court ruled that South Africa had acted unlawfully by "unreasonably delaying" a decision to grant the Dalai Lama a visa in October 2011.
The delay meant the Dalai Lama was unable to attend celebrations to mark the 80th birthday of his friend, fellow Nobel laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu in Cape Town.
A South African government spokesman said the South African High Commission (i.e. embassy) in New Delhi, India, where the 14th Dalai Lama lives in exile, received his application, but that it wasn’t denied, only subject to “normal due process.” The International Business Tribune writes:
Nangsa Codon, a representative for the Dalai Lama in South Africa, told Reuters that “we have informally received contact His Holiness won’t get his visa application … for now the Dalai Lama has decided to cancel his trip to South Africa.”
Other laureates have said they won’t attend if the Dalai Lama is refused entry into South Africa, according to the Guardian. South Africa has refused the Dalai Lama’s visa applications twice in the past, once in 2009 to attend a peace conference and again in 2011 to celebrate fellow Nobel Laureate Desmond Tutu’s 80th birthday party.
A South African court ruled the latter case was unlawful in 2012. The Dalai Lama last visited South Africa in 1996 to visit Nelson Mandela. China has pressured other governments and leaders to not meet with the Dalai Lama in the past, including the U.S. President Barack Obama in February.
Obama went ahead with the meeting, praising the Buddhist leader’s nonviolent approach in Tibet.
