By Mike Cohen
March 26 (Bloomberg) -- South African Finance Minister Trevor Manuel backed the government’s decision to deny the Dalai Lama entry to the country to attend a peace conference.
The reason the Dalai Lama wants to visit South Africa “is to make a big global, political statement about the secession of Tibet from China,” Manuel said in an election debate hosted by the University of Cape Town today. “We shouldn’t allow him to raise a global issue that will impact on the standing of South Africa.”
The peace conference was to be hosted by organizers of the 2010 Soccer World Cup and Nobel Peace laureates from around the world were invited. The conveners said yesterday the March 27 event had been postponed indefinitely as a result of the controversy surrounding the Dalai Lama.
Health Minister Barbara Hogan yesterday said the decision to refuse entry to theDalai Lama was “an example of a government that is dismissive of human rights” and that the South African public was owed an apology.
The Dalai Lama is the spiritual leader of Tibet, where Chinese authorities in March 1959 put down an armed rebellion by his supporters. China alleges that the Dalai Lama, who has visited South Africa several times previously, is bidding to separate Tibet from China.
The Dalai Lama had established a government of Tibet in exile “to counter the reality of a single China,” Manuel said. “To say anything against the Dalai Lama is in many circles equivalent to trying to shoot Bambi.”
South Africa will hold it fourth elections since the end of apartheid rule on April 22.
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