BBC: South Africa bans Dalai Lama trip

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/7958881.stm

Page last updated at 14:13 GMT, Monday, 23 March 2009

South Africa bans Dalai Lama trip

South Africa has denied the Dalai Lama a visa to attend a peace conference linked to the 2010 Football World Cup, which the country is hosting.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu has pulled out of the meeting in protest and branded the decision "disgraceful".

A government spokesman has denied suggestions that the ban was a result of Chinese pressure.

He said he did not want anything to distract from South Africa's hosting of the World Cup.

'Solidarity'

The Johannesburg conference is intended to discuss football's role in fighting racism and xenophobia.

The Tibetan spiritual leader was due to attend the meeting, along with fellow Nobel laureates, Nelson Mandela, Archbishop Tutu and FW de Klerk later this week.

Mr de Klerk has also withdrawn from the event, while Mr Mandela's position is not clear.

"It is disappointing that South Africa, which has received so much solidarity from the world, doesn't want to give that solidarity to others," Nobel Institute Director Geir Lundestad told the Associated Press news agency in Oslo, referring to the decades-long fight against apartheid.

Presidential spokesman Thabo Masebe said the conference organisers had not consulted them before inviting the Dalai Lama.

The newly built FNB stadium in Johannesburg, March 2009
Huge preparations are underway for the South Africa 2010 World Cup

"The South African government does not have a problem with the Dalai Lama," he told the local Sapa news agency.

"But 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."

Speculation has also been rife that South Africa does not want to jeopardise its bilateral relations with China, one of its major trading partners.

"We are shamelessly succumbing to Chinese pressure," Archbishop Tutu was quoted as telling the Sunday Independent. "I feel deeply distressed and ashamed."

A spokesperson for the Dalai Lama told AFP news agency he was "very disappointed" by the decision, also accusing South Africa of caving into "intense pressure" from Chinese authorities.

'Hypocrisy'

South Africa is China's largest trading partner in Africa, with 2008 trade standing at 100bn rand ($10bn; £7bn).

Dai Bing, an official at the Chinese embassy in Pretoria confirmed to Sapa that Beijing had warned the South African government that allowing the Dalai Lama into the country would harm bilateral relations.

Local newspaper, Business Day, quoted an unnamed government official as saying: "The Chinese government would not have been happy had we let him come... We would not do anything to upset the relationship we have with China."

But this was denied by Mr Masebe, who said China had played no role in the government's decision.

Beijing says the Dalai Lama is pushing for Tibetan independence, and has stirred up unrest in the region.

But the Dalai Lama, who fled to India in 1959 during an uprising against Chinese rule, has said he only wants limited autonomy for his homeland.

The refusal has also drawn criticism of the government from South Africa's opposition groups.

Independent Democrats leader Patricia de Lille accused the government of hypocrisy, and says the episode shows that there is no consistency in the country's foreign policy.

Democratic Alliance spokesperson Tony Leon said the decision "flies in the face of all logic", Sapa reports.

The Dalai Lama has visited the country on two previous occasions, in 1999 and 2004.

I wish Archbishop Desmond Tutu could spend some time and learn a bit of history of Tibet instead of being so obsessed with Dalai Lama, the iconic figure of Tibetan slavery and American puppet living on CIA payroll for decades.

jatoo,

i would be interested to know more about your claims.  do you have any documents or other information supporting that?

Research article on the history of Tibet:

http://www.michaelparenti.org/Tibet.html

Discussion on Tibetan slavery:

http://bbs.chinadaily.com.cn/viewthread.php?gid=2&tid=629556

Serfdom in Tibet controversy

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serfdom_in_Tibet_controversy

Prior to the communist takeover

Judicial mutilation - principally the gouging out of eyes, and the cutting off of hands or feet - was formalized under the Sakya school as part of the 13th century Tibetan legal code, and was used as a legal punishment until being declared illegal in 1913 by a proclamation of the 13th Dalai Lama.[55]. To what extent this proclamation had practical effect, and to what extent judicial mutilation was actually practiced in which regions and which centuries is unclear. The 14th Dalai Lama's brother Jigme Norbu reports that capital punishment was also abolished in 1913, and living conditions in jails were improved, with officials being designated to see that these conditions and rules were maintained."[56][57].

Incidents of mutilation have been recorded in Tibet in the period between the start of the 20th Century and the Chinese occupation. Tibetan communist Phuntso Wangye recalled his anger at seeing freshly severed human ears hanging from the gate of the county headquarters in Damshung north of Lhasa in 1945.[58]

An eye gouging by direct order of the Kashag or Tibetan Government was carried out in 1934.[59] This was sufficiently unusual that the untouchables (ragyaba) carrying it out had no previous experience of the correct technique and had to rely on instructions heard from their parents. An attempt was made at anesthetizing the alleged criminal with intoxicants before performing the punishment, which unfortunately did not work well.[59].

Whipping was legal and common as punishment[60] in Tibet including in the 20th century, also for minor infractions and outside judicial process. Whipping could also have fatal consequences, as in the case of the trader Gyebo Sherpa subjected to the severe corca whipping for selling cigarettes. He died from his wounds 2 days later in the Potala prison.[61] Tashi Tsering, a self-described critic of traditional Tibetan society, records being whipped as a 13 year old for missing a performance as a dancer in the Dalai Lama's dance troop in 1942, until the skin split and the pain became excruciating.[62]

In its 100 Questions and Answers About Tibet[63] the PRC states that human rights were 'severely infringed upon' by the Dalai Lama's administration. The evidence for these accusations is disputed.[64]

According to writer Rebecca French, Tibetans viewed criminal offenses as uncommon, but there are few records to establish frequency. However, Tibetans also believe that theft and banditry were common especially along trade routes.[65]. Because it was considered harsh by most Tibetans, they tended to seek alternative settlements and leniency from local courts instead of pursuing government action in disputes. Local officials were also more likely to find peaceful outcomes in a community setting than to resort to harsher government resolution.[65]

Political power could play a role in a judicial process in Tibet. In the eye gouging case above the alleged criminal was a deposed member of the Kashag called Lungshar who had proposed democratic reform. The charge was planning a coup and the attempted murder of another Kashag member who opposed reform. It was strenuously denied by the accused. Conviction was based on the evidence of one informer who claimed to have seen a document which was never produced. He was richly rewarded, and the trial seems to be have been a show trial by traditionalists seeking to prevent reform. From arrest to execution of the sentence was only ten days, limiting the possibilities of appeal.[66]

[edit] Slavery

Epstein wrote that prior to the Communist takeover, poverty in Tibet was so severe that in some of the worst cases peasants had to hand over children to the manor as household slaves or nangzan, because they were too poor to raise them.[67] On the other hand, Laird asserted that in the 1940s Tibetan peasants were well off and immune to famine, whereas starvation was common in China.[68]

In 1904 the British army invaded and held the Tibetan Chumbi Valley, in the border region adjacent to Bhutan and India. Sir Charles Bell was put in charge of the district from September 1904 to November 1905[69] and wrote that slavery was still practiced in Chumbi but had declined greatly over the previous thirty years. He noted that only a dozen or two dozen slaves remained, unlike nearby Bhutan where slavery was more widespread. Bell further remarked, "The slavery in the Chumpi valley was of a very mild type. If a slave was not well treated, it was easy for him to escape into Sikkim and British India."[70]

Hitler and the Dalai Lama

http://www.newspiritualbible.com/index2.html

Tibet: The Truth (A Political History)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xsoc4-QnplY

South just got caught up in the middle,
reluctantly played along with
"enemy of my friend's mine"

They did what they had to do,
no hard feelings against lama
I suppose


Thanks for the news,Jatoo

 would be interested to know more about your claims
=======================================
There is a book written by an American on the CIA operation in Tibet, just use Amazon to search.