Dalai Lama in Czech Republic to attend forum

More than 100 global delegates will hear Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama speak on challenges to democratic transition at a two-day conference beginning in Prague Monday, officials said here Sunday.

The Dalai Lama will deliver the opening address of Forum 2000 during a four-day visit to the Czech Republic capital, an official at the leader's office here told IANS.

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

More than 100 international experts from politics, academia, civil society, media, business and religion will discuss challenges and threats related to democratic transition.

The Nobel laureate will also take part in the Forum 2000 international advisory board and shared concern initiative members' meeting after the opening addresses of the conference.

Other Nobel Peace prize laureates, Myanmar's opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi and South Africa's former president Frederik Willem de Klerk, and former Czech foreign minister Karel Schwarzenberg are also attending the meeting.

This is the Dalai Lama's 10th visit to the Czech Republic.

The Tibetan leader 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 been living in India since fleeing his homeland in 1959. The Tibetan administration in exile is based in the hill town of Dharamsala in Himachal Pradesh.