South African Peace Conference Postponed: Media ReportTuesday, 24 March 2009, 6:15 p.m.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama at a press conference in Seattle, Washington, on 13 April 2008/Getty Images

Dharamshala: An international peace conference beginning later this week in Johannesberg has been postponed over South African government’s decision to bar His Holiness the Dalai Lama from attending, media reports quoted organisers as saying.The move to deny a visa to His Holiness the Dalai Lama has drawn sharp criticism from the Norwegian Nobel peace prize committee and Nobel peace laureates, Archbishop Desmond Tutu and F.W. de Klerk. Several Nobel peace prize winners had threatened to boycott the event over the visa ban.His Holiness the Dalai Lama was invited to participate in the conference by fellow Nobel laureates Archbishop Desmond Tutu, F.W. de Klerk and Nelson Mandela. The conference, due to take place on 27 March, was organized by soccer authorities in South Africa, the host of the 2010 World Cup, and was expected to use soccer as a way of fighting xenophobia and racism ahead of the tournament. “We have decided to postpone the peace conference until further notice,” said Irvin Khoza, South Africa 2010 Organizing Committee chairman. He said it would be postponed until all those invited could attend, Reuters news agency reported Tuesday.Mandla Mandela, whose grandfather Nelson Mandela helped lead South Africa out of apartheid, and who is part of the committee Organizing the conference, said the rejection was tainting the country’s democratic credentials, the Reuters’ report said.”I don’t think that as a sovereign, independent country we need to succumb to international pressure … the government needs to review its decision and come to the party,” he said.He said he would personally push for the conference to be reinstated in the original form, with all invitees attending.