South Africa 'bars' Dalai Lama

Dan Newling12 April 2012

South Africa was today accused of kowtowing to China by barring the Dalai Lama from visiting the country for the second time in two years.

The Tibetan spiritual leader was due to speak at a conference in Cape Town later this week to celebrate Archbishop Desmond Tutu's 80th birthday.

But, despite the fact that the 76-year-old Nobel Peace Prize-winner applied for his South African visa more than five months ago, he has still not got it.

As a result, his spokesman revealed that the trip has been cancelled, saying: "His Holiness was to depart for South Africa on October 6, 2011 but visas have not been granted yet."

He went on to say that he is "now convinced that for whatever reason or reasons, the South African government finds it inconvenient to issue" a visa.

China is South Africa's biggest trading partner and only last week agreed to invest £1.6billion in the country's economy. It has repeatedly warned South Africa against allowing the Dalai Lama a public platform to talk about Tibetan independence.

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