Tibetans sent a petition to the Liaison Office of South Africa in Taiwan yesterday to protest against the South African government’s denial of a visa to Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama to attend a Nobel peace conference in Cape Town next month.
Representatives from the Taiwan Tibetan Welfare Association and Regional Tibetan Youth Congress in Taiwan went to the Liaison Office of South Africa yesterday, expecting to hand a petition to South African Representative Musawenkosi Aphane to express their regret over the South African government’s refusal to grant the visa.
However, Aphane refused to meet them in person, association chairman Tashi Tsering said.
“This is the third time that we have been prevented from meeting the representative to hand over a petition,” Tashi said.
The last time was two or three years ago, when the South African government refused to issue a visa to the Dalai Lama to visit Nobel Laureate Archbishop Desmond Tutu for his birthday celebrations, Tashi said.
“South Africa is a country that has suffered political repression and authoritarian rule before and now as a democracy upholds values such as human rights and democracy,” Tashi said, adding that it was disappointing to see it bow to authoritarian China’s pressure.
“His Holiness [the Dalai Lama] was invited to and attended events in South Africa when the country was newly democratized. It was not economically dependent upon China then, but it is now, after getting more developed,” association vice chairman Tenzin Namda said.
Tashi said he considered it “a little impolite” for the representative to refuse to meet them, saying that their petitions were personally received by American Institute in Taiwan officials and Japanese representatives on other occasions.
“When the person who received our petition said the office representative could not get involved in ‘political activities,’ I was a bit offended. I told her that if this was a ‘protest,’ I could have brought 100 protesters to the office shouting slogans,” he said.
“How is this kind of rhetoric different from the Chinese government, which has constantly accused various religious activities in China of being ‘political’ in essence [and suppressed them]?” he added.
Tibetans around the world are responding to the call and taking actions to express their concerns over the visa denial to their local South African representative offices or embassies, Tashi said.
“I’ve been told that archbishop emeritus Desmond Tutu has also expressed his disapproval in South Africa,” he said.
AGING: While Japan has 22 submarines, Taiwan only operates four, two of which were commissioned by the US in 1945 and 1946, and transferred to Taiwan in 1973 Taiwan would need at least 12 submarines to reach modern fleet capabilities, CSBC Corp, Taiwan chairman Chen Cheng-hung (陳政宏) said in an interview broadcast on Friday, citing a US assessment. CSBC is testing the nation’s first indigenous defense submarine, the Hai Kun (海鯤, Narwhal), which is scheduled to be delivered to the navy next month or in July. The Hai Kun has completed torpedo-firing tests and is scheduled to undergo overnight sea trials, Chen said on an SET TV military affairs program. Taiwan would require at least 12 submarines to establish a modern submarine force after assessing the nation’s operational environment and defense
A white king snake that frightened passengers and caused a stir on a Taipei MRT train on Friday evening has been claimed by its owner, who would be fined, Taipei Rapid Transit Corp (TRTC) said yesterday. A person on Threads posted that he thought he was lucky to find an empty row of seats on Friday after boarding a train on the Bannan (Blue) Line, only to spot a white snake with black stripes after sitting down. Startled, he jumped up, he wrote, describing the encounter as “terrifying.” “Taipei’s rat control plan: Release snakes on the metro,” one person wrote in reply, referring
The coast guard today said that it had disrupted "illegal" operations by a Chinese research ship in waters close to the nation and driven it away, part of what Taipei sees a provocative pattern of China's stepped up maritime activities. The coast guard said that it on Thursday last week detected the Chinese ship Tongji (同濟號), which was commissioned only last year, 29 nautical miles (54km) southeast of the southern tip of Taiwan, although just outside restricted waters. The ship was observed lowering ropes into the water, suspected to be the deployment of scientific instruments for "illegal" survey operations, and the coast
An inauguration ceremony was held yesterday for the Danjiang Bridge, the world’s longest single-mast asymmetric cable-stayed bridge, ahead of its official opening to traffic on Tuesday, marking a major milestone after nearly three decades of planning and construction. At the ceremony in New Taipei City attended by President William Lai (賴清德), Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰), Minister of Transportation and Communications Chen Shih-kai (陳世凱) and New Taipei City Mayor Hou Yu-ih (侯友宜), the bridge was hailed as both an engineering landmark and a long-awaited regional transport link connecting Tamsui (淡水) and Bali (八里)
RSS