.
JOHANNESBURG, (Washington Post) March 24 — Organizers of a peace conference meant to showcase the role of sports in promoting unity canceled the forum, citing the South African government’s decision to block the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan spiritual leader and Nobel Peace Prize winner, from attending.
South Africa’s denial of a visa to the Dalai Lama prompted a quick exodus of several star members of the conference’s lineup, who accused the government of succumbing to pressure from China, a major trade partner. The government’s decision drew widespread condemnation, with critics portraying it as a major blunder ahead of the nation’s hosting of the 2010 Soccer World Cup and an erosion of South Africa’s reputation as a beacon of freedom and human rights.
Tibetan leader the Dalai Lama, left, meets with President Nelson Mandela, right, in Cape Town South Africa in 1996. (File photo)
Taking advantage of South Africa’s status as home to three living Nobel peace laureates, a delegation headed by Nelson Mandela’s grandson, Chief Mandla Mandela, had travelled last year to the Oslo offices of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, which awards the prize, to deliver an invitation to the conference. It was signed by President Kgalema Motlanthe and the three laureates – Nelson Mandela, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the former president, F. W. de Klerk.
The South African laureates also invited other high-profile winners of the peace prize. One was the former Finnish president and newest laureate, Martti Ahtisaari, who had earlier in his life presided over Namibia’s transition to independence as the United Nations representative for the territory. The other was the exiled Dalai Lama of Tibet, feted by human rights activists in Western democracies and elsewhere for his stand against the Chinese occupation of his country in 1950.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."
