SACP STATEMENT ON THE DECISION NOT TO GRANT DALAI LAMA A VISA
The SACP fully appreciates and accepts the decision by the South African government not to grant a visa for the Dali Lama visit at this time. We stand by our government on this matter.
It is a well known fact that the month of March is a particularly sensitive period as it is associated with the Dalai Lama's putsch for cession of Tibet from China. This is fact is generally accepted and appreciated in diplomatic circles including in all major Western Countries. These countries themselves would have been extremely cautious to allow a visit by the Dalai Lama to their own capitals in this period.
It is therefore hypocritical for anyone including western leaders to condemn South Africa's stance during this period.
The SACP has noted some veiled attempts, exploiting the fact that South Africa is in an election period, to politicize the South African government stance on the issue of the Dalai Lama and compel the use of the 2010 World Cup Peace Conference to opportunistically support an anti-Chinese Tibetan separatist agenda.
We are opposed to this political sleight of hand to pressure our government into active interference in China's internal affairs and polarize millions of 2010 World Cup supporters along political lines, majority of whom, in more than 100 nations, support China's sovereignty over Tibet. The whole scheme smacks of hypocrisy and must be denounced.
We congratulate our government's vigilance and asserting the full responsibility to articulate an independent and sovereign position on foreign policy matters including reaffirming its complete support of the One-China-two systems policy.
We reiterate our principled support of and the need for the 2010 World Cup Peace Conference to proceed as planned, without succumbing to dangerous political experiments, tied to the interests of imperialism and its aggression, especially toward developing countries.
Statement issued by the South African Communist Party, March 23 2009
Click here to sign up to receive our free daily headline email newsletter
