By Tendar Tsering
DHARAMSHALA, September 17: FW de Klerk, the Nobel Peace laureate and former president of the Republic of South Africa urged his government Friday to issue visa to Tibetan spiritual leader His Holiness the Dalai Lama.
“South Africa must decide on two things: is it an open society and secondly does it really respect religious figures?,” asked De Klerk.
“He should be allowed to come,” said the former president who shared the Nobel honour with South Africa’s first democratically elected president Nelson Mandela in 1993.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu had invited the Dalai Lama to attend the celebrations for his 80th birthday next month and recently told reporters that the government will “shoot itself in the foot, if they deny a visa to the Dalai Lama to please key trade partner China.”
The SA passport and visa office states that normally a visa takes anywhere from two days to 15 days to process but in the case of the exiled Tibetan leader, even after three weeks, there has been no official response to the visa application.
The Bureau office of His Holiness the Dalai Lama in New Delhi told Phayul on Wednesday that they were yet to receive a response from the South African government but added that they were positive about the visit.
