The strange case of the South African government, the visa and the Dalai Lama

I was stunned to learn today that the Dalai Lama has been denied a visa to visit South Africa by the South African government. He had been invited to South Africa to participate in a high profile peace conference which was to have included Archbishop Emeritus Tutu, Nelson Mandela and F.W De Klerk, South Africa's Nobel Peace Prize laureates. The conference was endorsed by Norwegian Nobel Peace Committe. An iniative of the 2010 Soccer World Cup organising committee, the message they hoped to get across with the conference was that soccer can play a large role in bringing peace and unity to South Africa.

Denying a visa to the Dalai Lama has dealt this message a fatal blow. Government's explanation (as set out in the Mail and Guardian online) that they want to focus on the World Cup rather than Tibetan issues makes no sense to me. Surely by denying the visa government has itself shifted the focus away from 2010 to the Dalai Lama and Tibetan issues, and in addition, created a huge amount of negative publicity for the event which may be very hard to undo?

During the runup to the 1994 elections, talks were held in South Africa between widely divergent political parties and groups. What has happened to this tradition of tolerance and mutual respect? Are we simply caving in to Chinese pressure? Whatever the case, a peace conference where a participant is barred from attending cannot be called a peace conference. For those who have the inclination to register their protest, there is an online petition about the issue.  ¶ [url for this post]