Fwd: Dalai Lama Declines Conference

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RamakrishnaVedanta , JodyHoelle@a... wrote:

August 3, 2000

 

For Harmony, Dalai Lama Stays Home

 

By LAURIE GOODSTEIN

 

More than 1,000 eminent religious leaders from around the world are

expected

to gather for a conference at the United Nations this month, but

conspicuously absent will be the Dalai Lama, spiritual leader of

Tibetan

Buddhism.

 

The Dalai Lama, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 1989, was omitted

from

the invitation list for the Millennium World Peace Summit of

Religious

and

Spiritual Leaders, to be held in New York Aug. 28 to 31.

 

The conference, financed largely by Ted Turner and several

foundations, is

the start of an initiative designed to link religious leaders with

United

Nations efforts to help prevent, settle or heal conflicts around the

world.

 

Some religious leaders are now saying that the exclusion of the Dalai

Lama

illustrates the need for such a conference, as well as its pitfalls.

 

"This compromises the integrity of the United Nations, and the

credibility

of the summit," said Desmond Tutu, the retired archbishop of Cape

Town.

"Apart from anything else, the Dalai Lama is the spiritual leader of

a

major

religion, and it just doesn't make sense that he has not been

invited."

 

Bawa Jain, secretary general of the conference, said that China,

which

is

one of five permanent members of the Security Council, had made it

clear

from the start that it would not approve of inviting the Dalai Lama.

The

Dalai Lama and thousands of his followers fled Tibet in 1959 after the

Chinese invaded, and he has lived in exile in India ever since.

 

"It's been very clear with the Chinese from Day 1," Mr. Jain said,

"and it's

been very clear with the office of the secretary general that within

the

political framework of the United Nations there are certain

constraints, and

if you decide to have this event with the U.N., then there are

political

constraints. Not that I agree with it, but I abide by it."

 

At the United Nations, Manoel de Almeida e Silva, deputy spokesman for

Secretary General Kofi Annan, said, "There are a number of countries

here

that feel that certain issues are more controversial, have political

implications for them, and which they are very sensitive about, and

that

certainly is the case with Tibet for China."

 

Mr. Jain said that he met with the Dalai Lama last November in Israel

to

discuss the conference. Mr. Jain said the quandary was painful

because

he

has known the Dalai Lama since he was a boy in India and studied with

a Jain

monk who was close to the Dalai Lama.

 

Mr. Jain said the Dalai Lama gave the conference his blessings and

called it

an opportunity that should proceed despite his absence.

 

But last month, news of the Dalai Lama's exclusion began to spread

through

the international network of Tibet supporters, and letters of protest

arrived at the organizers' offices in New York.

 

So late last month, five weeks before the conference, Mr. Jain

belatedly

invited the Dalai Lama to deliver the keynote address at the closing

session, to be held not at the United Nations but at the

Waldorf-Astoria.

 

But yesterday, organizers received a letter from the Dalai Lama's

secretary

in Dharmsala, India, declining that offer but promising to support the

conference by sending a "high-level Tibetan delegation" to represent

him.

 

Nawang Rabgyal, spokesman for the Dalai Lama in New York, said: "His

Holiness has never been comfortable accepting invitations that are

made out

of compulsion rather than willingly, and he has always avoided

embarrassing

or causing inconveniences to anyone, whether they are individuals or

governments. And moreover the invitation has come far too late. His

Holiness's program has been finalized many months in advance."

 

Among those expected to attend are Cardinal Francis Arinze,

representing the

Vatican; the Rev. Konrad Raiser, secretary general of the World

Council of

Churches; Israel's Ashkenazic chief rabbi, Yisrael Meir Lau; Abdullah

Salaih

al-Obaid, secretary general of the Muslim World League; and spiritual

leaders representing Buddhist, Hindu, Shinto, Jain, Sikh, Native

American

and Zoroastrian faiths, among others.

 

There are several delegations of leaders attending from regions where

religion has been at the root of seemingly intractable conflicts,

including

the Middle East, Bosnia, Indonesia and Sudan, Mr. Jain said.

 

As for the conflict over Tibet, Mr. Rabgyal said that the conference

could

actually help advance Tibet's cause, despite the Dalai Lama's

absence.

"If

they speak with courage, with morality about what is happening inside

Tibet,

they will be able to contribute something," he said.

 

-END-

 

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