Dalai Lama in Czech Republic to attend Forum 2000

Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama will Monday speak on challenges to democratic transition at a conference in Prague, officials said Sunday.

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

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

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

The Nobel laureate will also take part in a meeting of members of the forum's international advisory board and shared concern initiative.

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 will also attend the conference.

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.