Published by: World Tibet Network News, Wednesday, August 21, 1996

DURBAN, South Africa, Aug 20 (Reuter) - Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, will meet South African President Nelson Mandela at his official residence in Cape Town on Thursday, a presidential spokesman said on Tuesday.

The Dalai Lama is on a private visit to South Africa, hosted by the World Conference on Religion and Peace, and is scheduled to give lectures on peace in several centres around the country.

Mandela's spokesman Parks Mankahlana said the two Nobel Peace laureates would meet for about half an hour to discuss various issues. He did not elaborate.

The Dalai Lama told a news conference in Durban that Mandela's government could help to put pressure on China, which annexed Tibet in 1950, to negotiate the future of the country.

"South Africa is now part of the world community. So when I appeal to the world community to please not forget us and to please try to bring people from China around the negotiation table...of course South Africa can be one of those important members," the Dalai Lama said.

He said there was no conflict of interest between his struggle for his people's freedom from China and his religious belief.

"I consider my involvement in the freedom struggle for Tibet to be part of my own spiritual practice because Tibetan freedom is very much linked with spirituality under the present circumstances," the Dalai Lama said.

Mandela, whose government is under pressure from China to cut its ties with Taiwan, could court further controversy with Beijing by meeting the Buddhist leader.

The Dalai Lama fled to India in 1959 after an abortive uprising against China's annexation and heads a Tibetan government-in-exile in the Himalayan Indian town of Dharamsala.

Mandela inherited ties with Taiwan from the former apartheid regime in 1994. Both states were outcasts, largely shunned by the international community.

But Beijing was no natural ally for his African National Congress during the fight against white rule. Moscow backed the ANC, so its arch-foe Beijing supported the rival Pan Africanist Congress which has now largely faded away.

Taiwan however gave the ANC considerable support during the late stages of the struggle for majority rule.

REUTER