Dalai Lama Snubs Frankfurt For Bowing To China
(by Michael Christie | Reuters | February 17, 1994)
The Dalai Lama has rejected an invitation to the anniversary of Frankfurt's foundation after the German city bowed to Chinese pressure and downgraded his status, officials said on Thursday.
Tibet's exiled spiritual leader was due to attend the 1,200th anniversary next Tuesday along with French President Francois Mitterrand, German President Richard von Weizsaecker and other guests of honour. "The Dalai Lama was invited and has now rejected the invitation," a spokesman for the city confirmed.
Sources in the Frankfurt city government and aides of the Buddhist "God-King," who has lived in exile in India since a failed 1959 uprising against Chinese troops, said China had protested because he was to speak alongside heads of state.
"Obviously Frankfurt succumbed to Chinese pressure to downgrade his presence at the celebrations and we find it unacceptable," said a Tibetan official in the Dalai Lama's exiled government in India, who asked not to be named.
"It would have been embarrassing for His Holiness to attend the event." No one was available for comment at the Chinese embassy. Officially, Frankfurt has kept silent on the events leading to the Dalai Lama's abrupt decision not to attend, apart from saying that his invitation was never officially withdrawn. "We have no further comment. The matter is now closed for Frankfurt," said a spokesman for the city's mayor.
The incident has sparked widespread outrage, not least because of Frankfurt's silence.
"It is shameful. It will cast a dark shadow over the celebrations," said Micha Brumlik, spokesman for the Greens who are a junior coalition partner in the city government.
"It is even more shameful because nobody is officially admitting what went on behind the scenes and they are trying to make it look like it's all the Dalai Lama's fault." The Foreign Ministry in Bonn said it had advised Frankfurt of the protocol problems that could arise because the mayor of the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou was also due to attend.
But a ministry spokeswoman said: "It was just a tip and there was no pressure whatsoever."
A statement issued by the Dalai Lama's European representative in Zurich said he had decided to reject the invitation in order to spare Frankfurt any discomfort. The foreign ministry spokeswoman said the incident had nothing to do with Bonn's determined push to boost the presence of German firms in Asian countries, including China.
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