A planned South African peace conference involving Nobel laureates has been postponed over Pretoria’s refusal to grant a visa to the Dalai Lama, organizers said yesterday.
“The convenors have therefore decided in the spirit of peace to postpone the South African peace conference to ensure it is held under conducive conditions,” said Irvin Khoza, a top official for the South African organizers of the 2010 World Cup, which was sponsoring the conference.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu and former South African president FW de Klerk withdrew from the conference on Monday after the Dalai Lama was denied a visa.
Tutu accused the government of “shamelessly succumbing to Chinese pressure.”
The Dalai Lama was part of a top billing of Nobel laureates, Tutu, de Klerk and former South African president Nelson Mandela, who had been due to participate in the conference on the power of soccer to fight racism and xenophobia.
“In processing of the visa application by the Dalai Lama the South African government persuaded the Dalai Lama to postpone his visit to South Africa at this stage,” Khoza told reporters at a press conference in Johannesburg.
“Given that the purpose of the conference is peace the convenors do not wish to put the Nobel peace committee under circumstances that would create conflict between the committee and its laureates,” he said.
The Norwegian Nobel Committee also said it would boycott the conference unless South Africa reconsidered its decision to deny the Dalai Lama a visa.
The government has denied interference by China in the decision, but a Chinese embassy official in Pretoria told the Sunday Independent that Beijing had asked Pretoria not to grant the visa.
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