Reportage – 2006

South African parliamentarians meet the Dalai Lama

MCLEOD GANJ, India, 31 March 2006

Three members of South African parliament met the exiled Tibetan leader, the Dalai Lama, during the opening of the Tibetan opera festival at the Tibetan Institute of Performing Arts, in Mcleod Ganj.

"It was a profoundly moving expericence to meet the Dalai Lama," says Tony Leon, the Democratic Alliance leader, who was leading the delegation including Gareth Morgan from his own party and Inkatha Freedom Party member Ben Skosana.

"His Holiness the Dalai Lama met us with great warmth and enthusiasm for the success which South Africa's journey of reconciliation and democratisation has meant for humankind and the essential values of "oneness" which binds the communities and nations of the earth together," Leon said.

The Dalai Lama had urged the parliamentarians to highlight and intenationalise the plight of the six million Tibetans in China and the 140,000 Tibetans living in exile, mostly India, whom he describes as "victims of a profound abuse of human rights" and "cultural genocide".

Leon said that the cause of human rights in Tibet is worthy of South Africa's support, within the context of enjoying full and normal relations with the People's Republic of China.

The visit came as a follow up to the recent launch of a South African-Tibet friendship group consisting of several members of parliament that have an interest in the Tibetan situation.

Prior to the visit of the parliamentarians, the Chinese embassy in Pretoria lodged protest to their visit and meeting with the Dalai Lama.

"It was inappropriate and undemocratic gesture by the Chinese government. South Africa is a democracy and it does not give in to outside pressures," Leon said.

China criticise the Dalai Lama as a "separatist" and oppose governments that allow him to visit their country or officials meeting with him.

The Dalai Lama fled to India in 1959 after an abortive uprising against the Chinese occupation and has since established a Tibetan government-in-exile, campaigning for a negotiated settlement for a Tibetan autonomy.