South Africa denies visa to the Dalai Lama; Desmond Tutu lashes out

After much hemming and hawing, the South African government has decided to deny His Holiness the Dalai Lama a visa to visit their country — a move that prevents the exiled Tibetan leader from both receiving in person the Mahatma Gandhi International Award for Peace and Reconciliation and speaking at the 80th birthday celebration for his friend Archbishop Desmond Tutu.
The Guardian reports: “Archbishop Desmond Tutu, visibly shaking with anger, compared the South African government unfavourably with the apartheid regime and threatened to pray for the downfall of the African National Congress (ANC) yesterday after the Dalai Lama said he was forced to pull out of Tutu’s 80th birthday celebrations because he had not been granted an entry visa.”
The official website of His Holiness says simply, “Since the South African government seems to find it inconvenient to issue a visa to His Holiness the Dalai Lama, His Holiness has decided to call off this visit to South Africa.” The New York Times, though, considers the political pressure on South Africa from China, as well as that from the international community to allow the Dalai Lama to visit.