South Africa bars Dalai Lama

Johannesburg: South Africa barred the Dalai Lama from a peace conference in Johannesburg this week, saying yesterday it did not want to endanger the government's relationship with China. The move prompted sharp criticism from the Nobel Committee, among others.

Thabo Masebe, spokesman for President Kgalema Motlanthe, said now was not the time for such a high-profile visit from the Tibetan spiritual leader and added that South Africa hoped to avoid being "the source of negative publicity about China".

Instead the barring generated negative comments toward South Africa.

"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 said in Oslo, referring to the fight against apartheid.

Retired Cape Town Archbishop Desmond Tutu and former presidents F.W. de Klerk and Nelson Mandela had issued invitations to fellow Nobel peace laureates such as the Dalai Lama on behalf of South African soccer officials.