Calls to allow Dalai Lama to visit South Africa for Tutu's birthday

Human Rights Watch is calling on the South African government to grant the Dalai Lama entry to the country for Archbishop Desmond Tutu's 80th birthday celebrations.

The South African government has yet to issue a visa to the spiritual leader of the Tibetans, who has been invited to attend the celebrations for Tutu's birthday on October 7 and deliver a lecture at the University of the Western Cape.

His visa application was submitted through the South African High Commission in New Delhi in June but after delays, the Dalai Lama's representatives in Africa were told to submit an application to the authorities in South Africa.

The second application was submitted on September 20 but no reply has come from officials.

Human Rights Watch said there was no objective basis for refusing to grant a visa to the Dalai Lama and that it "appears to be based on no more than fear of Chinese government displeasure".

"If South Africa refuses a visa to a Nobel Prize recipient and human rights campaigner, with no objective grounds for refusal, then there can only be less-than-noble motivations for its action," said Daniel Bekele, Africa director at Human Rights Watch.

"For the government to block a leader who supported South Africa's struggles is not only to deny its own history, but it raises questions about whether the government looks to Pretoria, or to Beijing, for some of its domestic policy decisions."