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China flexes trade muscle, forces
S.Africa to ban Dalai trip
Peace
conference cancelled; Dalai Lama says he is not surprised at South
African decision
WSN Bureau
 JOHANNESBURG/CALIFORNIA:
In yet another head to head confrontation along the capital versus
human rights interface, the cause of human rights was defeated by
the might of the economic considerations. As
China made no
bones about pressurising South Africa and used its
investment-capacity to twist
Johannesburg's
arm,
South Africa denied a visa to Tibet’s spiritual leader Dalai Lama to
attend a peace conference in Johannesburg next Friday.
The organisers
of the peace conference, including a bunch of Nobel laureates, have
now postponed the event indefinitely that was aimed at promoting
peace through football in advance of the 2010 World Cup in
South Africa
next year.
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The Dalai
Lama has been refused a visa to visit
South Africa
amid accusations of pressure from China. |
The row comes
just when Tibetans across the world observe the 50th anniversary of
Dalai Lama's flight into exile in
India this
month.
The South
African Government said that it's not in the country's interest to
allow the 73-year-old Dalai Lama to visit the country at this stage.
A representative of the Dalai Lama said he was not surprised by the
decision.
South Africa’s
decision, which prompted quick accusations of the government bowing
down to pressure from China, elicited strong reactions from other
prospective attendees of the conference. South African Nobel
laureates -- Nelson Mandela, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and former
President FW de Klerk were scheduled to attend the conference. It
intended to discuss football's role in fighting racism and
xenophobia.
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Unrest In
Tibet
Continues
LHASA: Many Tibetan areas in China felt under siege last week,
as authorities launched a show of force to prevent protests
commemorating a failed Tibetan uprising that began 50 years ago
on March 10.
Residents
described a life of increased restrictions, large and small, and
admitted to simmering anger and frustration at heavy-handed
security following last year's riots in
Lhasa, the
administrative capital of the Tibet Autonomous Region.
Meanwhile,
police in
Tibet
detained nearly 100 monks after a weekend riot by scores of
ethnic Tibetans protesting tough Chinese security measures.
Beijing has
flooded Tibet and ethnic Tibetan areas in neighbouring provinces
with security forces, cut off some Internet and mobile phone
services and closed the region to almost all foreigners in
March, a month of sensitive anniversaries and a controversial
new holiday.
The arrests
were sparked off by rioters attacking a police station in the
western Tibetan
province of
Qinghai on Sunday, the state media reported. |
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Archbishop Tutu
was first off the block reacting strongly and making it clear that
he will boycott the conference in protest. “If His Holiness' visa is
refused I will condemn government behaviour as disgraceful in line
with our country abysmal record at the UN Security Council, a total
betrayal of our struggle history,” he said.
“We are
shamelessly succumbing to Chinese pressure. I feel deeply distressed
and ashamed,” Tutu added. De Klerk also withdrew from the event, and
Mandela was hardly expected to attend it in the emerging
circumstances. De Klerk said that the decision to refuse the visa
made a “mockery” of the peace conference.
“South
Africa is a sovereign constitutional democracy and should not allow
other countries to dictate to it regarding who it should, and should
not admit to its territory - regardless of the power and influence
of the country,” he said.
Presidential
spokesman Thabo Masebe said the conference organisers had not
consulted them before inviting the Dalai Lama and denied suggestions
that the ban was a result of Chinese pressure. “At this time the
whole world will be focused on the country as hosts of the 2010
World Cup. We want the focus to remain on
South Africa. A
visit now by the Dalai Lama would move the focus from South Africa
onto issues in Tibet,” Masebe said.
But critics
continue to stress on the real reason behind denial of the visa --South
Africa does not want to jeopardise its bilateral relations with
China, one of its major trading partners.
South Africa is
China’s main trading partner in Africa and accounts for more than 20
per cent of
Beijing’s
trade with the continent. Chinese investment in
South Africa in
the past two years has grown to $6 billion (£4.9 billion).
Beijing let it
be known that it had indeed warned the South African government that
allowing the Dalai Lama into the country would harm bilateral
relations.
25 March 2009
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