Peace conference cancelled after SA bars Dalai Lama

Organisers of a peace conference that was to have been attended by five Nobel laureates in Johannesburg this week said on Tuesday that they had cancelled it after the South African government denied a visa to the Dalai Lama.

Two of South Africas Nobel Peace Prize laureate,retired Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu and former president F W de Klerk,condemned the government for giving in to pressure from China to block the Tibetan spiritual leaders entry and said they wont participate in the conference if he was not there. The executive director of the Norwegian Nobel Committee,Geir Lundestad,also said he would stay away.

The government,through a spokesman,said the Dalai Lama would not be allowed to come to South Africa to attend the conference,which was meant to promote the 2010 soccer World Cup,because he would have distracted attention from South Africa and drawn it instead to the contentious debate over Tibet.

Postponing the meet,the organisers said: Given that the purpose of the conference is peace,the conveners do not wish to put the Nobel Peace Committee under circumstances that would create conflict between the committee and its laureates.