Desmond Tutu Says He Will Attend Mandela Funeral
14 Dec 2013, 5:29 PM PDT
JOHANNESBURG
Retired Archbishop Desmond Tutu changed course Saturday
night and announced plans to attend the funeral of anti-apartheid hero Nelson
Mandela after all.
Spokesman Roger Friedman did not
explain Tutu's abrupt reversal but said Tutu would catch a flight early in the
morning and be in attendance at Mandela's funeral Sunday in the village of Qunu.
He did not explain the reason for
Tutu's dramatic change of plans.
Tutu had earlier in the day said
he would not go because the government had not made him feel welcome and he did
not want to "gatecrash" the funeral of his longtime ally and friend.
Tutu, 82, is _like Mandela _ the
recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize for his groundbreaking work in the
ultimately successful struggle against apartheid.
More recently he has been a strong
critic of President Jacob Zuma's government, and seemed annoyed about the way
funeral arrangements had been handled.
"Much as I would have loved
to attend the service to say a final farewell to someone I loved and treasured,
it would have been disrespectful to Tata (Mandela) to gatecrash what was billed
as a private family funeral," Tutu said in a statement. "Had I or my
office been informed that I would be welcome there is no way on earth that I
would have missed it."
His daughter also released a
statement that Tutu would not attend as he had not been accredited as a
clergyman for the event.
But government officials said Tutu
had been accredited to attend and would be welcome.
The high profile spat may revolve
around whether Tutu was invited to speak at the funeral or is simply welcome to
attend. Tutu has figured prominently at the funerals of most of the major
anti-apartheid leaders, including Steve Biko, Chris Hani, Walter Sisulu and
others.
Collins Chabane, a top government
official involved in organizing the mourning ceremonies, said Tutu was on a
proposed guest list for the events that was submitted by church leaders. He
said Tutu was No. 6 on the list of 112 names, and that he was accredited for
the Qunu funeral.
"We did not send any
invitation (to Tutu) as we did not send any invitation to anybody," he
said.
Chabane said there seems to be
some confusion between being accredited and being asked to speak during the
funeral service. The list of speakers has not yet been released.
The imbrogilio was the latest
problem to hit the 10-day mourning period for Mandela, the former president who
died on Dec. 5 at age 95. The public memorial ceremony for Mandela on Tuesday
at a Soweto
stadium started late, had problems with loudspeakers and featured a signing
interpreter for the deaf who made incomprehensible gestures, later said that he
is schizophrenic and reportedly once faced charges of murder and other serious
crimes.
It also spotlighted occasional
frictions between Tutu and Zuma. Two years ago, Tutu slammed the ANC-led
government as "disgraceful" for not issuing a visa to the Dalai Lama.
He said it was worse than the country's former oppressive white regime.
At that time, South African
foreign ministry officials denied they stalled on the visa because of pressure
from China,
a major trading partner.
Tutu, who received the Nobel Peace
Prize in 1984 for his nonviolent campaign against white racist rule, had
invited the Dalai Lama, a fellow Nobel laureate, to South Africa to celebrate Tutu's
80th birthday. The Dalai Lama's office said he was calling off the visit
because he didn't expect to get a visa.
Tutu accused the South African
government of failing to side with "Tibetans who are being oppressed
viciously by the Chinese." He also charged Zuma with ignoring the
contribution religious leaders made to toppling the white Nationalist Party.
Before April 2009 elections
propelled Zuma to the presidency, Tutu had said he was so skeptical of the ANC
leader he was considering not casting a ballot. Tutu cited a rape trial in
which Zuma was acquitted and corruption charges that were dropped just before
the vote.
Tutu worked closely with Mandela
and served as one of the anti-apartheid struggle's most visible public figures
during the 27 years when Mandela was imprisoned.
He was the chairman of the Truth
and Reconciliation Commission created by Mandela's government which
investigated apartheid atrocities and he delivered the final report to Mandela
in October 1998.
Desmond Tutu
Desmond
Tutu was the general secretary for the South
African Council of Churches, the chairman for the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission, and is an honorary
elder for The Elders.
Note: Jimmy Carter is a
member of The Elders, and an honorary
co-chairman for the Millennium Promise.
Kofi
A. Annan is the chairman for The
Elders, an overseer at the International
Rescue Committee, a trustee at the Carnegie
Endowment for International Peace (think tank), and a board member for the International Crisis Group.
Foundation
to Promote Open Society was a funder for the Millennium Promise, the International
Rescue Committee, and the at the Carnegie
Endowment for International Peace (think tank).
George
Soros is the chairman for the Foundation
to Promote Open Society, and a board member for the International Crisis Group.
Martti Ahtisaari
is the chair emeritus for the International
Crisis Group, and a member of The
Elders.
Lakhdar Brahimi
was a board member for the International
Crisis Group, and is a member of The
Elders.
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