[Buddha-l] China, Dalai Lama and S. African Peace Conference

[Dan Lusthaus]

Peace Conference is South Africa cancelled due to protests that the South
African govt. buckled to pressure from China to exclude the Dalai Lama.

Dan

from NYTimes

Peace Conference in South Africa Is Canceled

By CELIA W. DUGGER
Published: March 24, 2009

JOHANNESBURG - Organizers of a peace conference that was to have been
attended by five Nobel Peace Prize winners in Johannesburg said Tuesday that
they had canceled the conference after the South African government denied
entry to the Dalai Lama, Tibet's spiritual leader and one of the Nobel
laureates.

Two of South Africa's Nobel winners, Desmond Tutu, the retired Anglican
archbishop, and former President F.W. de Klerk, condemned the government for
giving in to pressure from China to block the Dalai Lama's entry and said
they would refuse to participate in the conference this Friday if he was not
there. The executive director of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, Geir
Lundestad, also said he would stay away.

read the rest at
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/25/world/africa/25safrica.html?hpw