JOHANNESBURG: Fourteen Nobel Peace Laureates have asked President Jacob Zuma to guarantee the Dalai Lama a visa to South Africa, after the Tibetan spiritual leader was forced to abandon a trip to the country.
The Dalai Lama was to have attended a summit of Nobel peace prize winners in Cape Town next month, the first meeting of its kind in Africa.
But, according to an aide, he cancelled after Pretoria denied him a visa in a bid to avoid angering China, which regards the Buddhist monk as a campaigner for Tibetan independence.
“We are deeply concerned about the damage that will be done to South Africa’s international image by a refusal – or failure – to grant him a visa yet again,” the group said in a letter to Zuma.
Signatories include Poland’s Lech Walesa, Bangladeshi entrepreneur Muhammad Yunus, Iranian lawyer Shirin Ebadi, Liberian activist Leymah Gbowee and Northern Irish peacemakers David Trimble and John Hume.
The Dalai Lama has applied three times in the last five years to visit South Africa.
Each time the government has dragged its heels until the trip was called off.
China, South Africa’s biggest single trading partner, with two-way trade worth $21 billion in 2012, often uses its clout to put pressure on governments around the world to limit contact with the Dalai Lama.
The summit in Cape Town from October 13-15 is backed by foundations representing four South African peace laureates, Desmond Tutu, Nelson Mandela, FW de Klerk and Albert Luthuli. – Sapa-AFP