PRESS RELEASE

OSCE Assembly Participants Concerned at South Africa’sDenail of Visa to the Dalai Lama

11 October, Amsterdam – More than 30 parliamentarians attending the fall session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) signed a letter to the Government of South Africa to express their diappointment over the denail a visa to His Holiness the Dalai Lama.

The parliamentarians attending the meeting in Dubrovnik, Croatia called upon the South African government that its decision “compromise the upholding of the principles of democracy, justice, peace and the freedom of expression, association and movement.”

The parliamentarains who signed the letter were from Albania, Canada, Cyprus, Germany, Georgia, Hungary, Italy, Liechtenstein, Netherlands, Portugal, Switzerland, Sweden, United Kingdom, United States of America and Ukraine.

On 6 October, the International Network of Parliamentarians on Tibet (INPaT) in a statement expressed  “deep concerns that post-Aparthied South Africa has now denied a visa for the second time to the 1989 Noble Peace Prize Laureate.”

Matteo Mecacci, Co-Chair

Thoas Mann, Co-Chair

Notes:

– 133 Members from 33 worldwide Parliaments who took part in the 5th World Parliamentarians Convention on Tibet (18/19 November 2009, Rome) adopted the “Rome Declaration on Tibet” which constituted the International Network for Parliamentarians on Tibet (INPaT): www.inpatnet.org

– The Parliamentary Assembly of the OSCE is the parliamentary dimension of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, whose 56 participating States span the geographical area from Vancouver to Vladivostok: http://www.oscepa.org/NEW/

– The OSCE Parliamentary Assembly is comprised of 320 parliamentarians from 55 countries spanning, Europe, Central Asia and North America.