Dalai Lama to meet Suu Kyi

Two Nobel laureates – Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama and Myanmar’s pro-democracy leader Aung San Suu Kyi – will meet at a human rights forum in the Czech Republic next month, an official said here on Wednesday.

“The Dalai Lama and Suu Kyi are attending a human rights forum in the Czech Republic from Sep 15-17,” Tenzin Taklha, joint secretary at the Dalai Lama’s office, told IANS.

The annual Forum 2000 was launched by late Czech president Vaclav Havel and American Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel in 1997.

Over 100 global leaders will discuss challenges and threats related to democratic transitions at the forum.

This will be the second time the two leaders meet. Officials at the Dalai Lama’s office said the spiritual leader met Suu Kyi in Britain for the first time in June last year.

During the half-hour meeting at the time, the Dalai Lama told Suu Kyi that just as her late father had shown great dedication, he was confident that she too would be of great service to humanity.

The globetrotter monk visited Prague in December 2011 at the invitation of Havel and attended the forum, just a few days before Havel died.

The Dalai Lama has lived in India since fleeing his homeland in 1959. The Tibetan administration in exile is based in this northern Indian hill town.

-IANS