August 24, 2000
Fending off criticism over the exclusion of the Dalai Lama from a conference of religious leaders due to Chinese pressure, Secretary-General Kofi Annan said on Thursday U.N. headquarters was "a house for the member states and their sensitivities matter."
Annan was replying to a question about the exclusion of Tibet's exiled Buddhist leader from the World Peace Summit of Religious Leaders to be held from Aug. 28-31, including some meetings at the United Nations.
About 1,000 religious figures representing most faiths will take part. But the organizers did not invite the Dalai Lama after being told by U.N. officials that his presence at the United Nations would raise problems with China, which took over Tibet in 1950.
Annan said he understood that "many people are understandably and deeply disappointed that the Dalai Lama will not be here." "But let me also say that this house is really a house for the member states and their sensitivities matter," he said. "This is an issue that the organizers of the meeting have known all along."
Annan said that since he became secretary-general in 1997 he had "tried to open up this house as much as I can to all segments of civil society."
"In any effort of this kind you try to make progress, take progress as you get it, and not hold out for the absolute best," he said. "And I personally believe that having 1,000 religious leaders here next week talking about peace, talking about our world and praying for all of us and praying for peace is progress."
State Department spokesman Richard Boucher expressed deep disappointment last Friday that the Dalai Lama had not been invited.
"The Dalai Lama is one of the world's most revered religious and spiritual leaders," Boucher said. "As a voice of moderation and conciliation, he deserves to be heard. The conference would benefit from his participation." The conference was organized by a consortium of non-governmental groups. They belatedly invited the Dalai Lama to the closing ceremony at a New York hotel, but he declined to attend.
