The Portrait of a Bloody Nosed "Olympic Host" -- Olympic torch relay
through Paris turns into melee / IHT

International Herald Tribune

Olympic torch relay through Paris turns into melee

By Katrin Bennhold and Elisabeth Rosenthal
Monday, April 7, 2008

PARIS: What was supposed to be a majestic procession through the French
capital for the Olympic torch relay turned into chaos Monday as
thousands of people from France and elsewhere in Europe, many with
Tibetan flags, massed to protest China's policies in Tibet.

The torch went out several times and police officers had to hurry it
onto a bus to protect it as demonstrators swarmed the security detail.
Chinese Olympic organizers then canceled the last leg.

It was the second time in two days that the torch relay was disrupted in
a European capital. About 3,000 police officers - on foot, horseback,
Rollerblades, motorbikes and boats in the Seine - were deployed in an
attempt to prevent a repeat of the scenes played out in London on
Sunday, when the relay turned into a tumult of scuffles and dozens of
people were arrested.

Paris, too, was a scene of disarray. At least one activist got within a
meter of the police contingent and Chinese Olympic officials crowded
around the torchbearer. On several occasions officers tackled
protesters. The police said about 20 people were arrested.

A man identified by the police as a Green Party activist was grabbed by
security officers as he headed for Stéphane Diagana, president of
France's athletics league and a former world champion in the 400-meter
hurdles, who was carrying the torch from the first floor of the Eiffel
Tower.

An event that was supposed to burnish China's image around the world has
turned into a public relations nightmare - not only for China, but also
for the nations along the torch's relay route. The Summer Games and the
torch's journey have served as rallying points for a wide range of
opponents of the Chinese government, most notably those supporting
autonomy for Tibet.

The 5:30 Eurostar train from London to Paris on Sunday evening carried a
large contingent of activists moving from one protest to the next,
including Tibetan nuns who had been jailed in China for 12 years and
Tibetan athletes who live in Switzerland and who call themselves Team
Tibet. Busloads of protesters arrived from Belgium and the Netherlands.

The protests have focused attention on a cause that has languished on
the world's back burner for decades.

At the International Campaign for Tibet telephones have been ringing off
the hook with calls from media outlets, politicians, and people wanting
to sign petitions and organize events, said Jan Willem den Besten, the
Dutch campaign coordinator.

"What is most dramatic is to see how broad and deep the support has
become," said den Besten, who accompanied the nuns from London to Paris.
"You almost have to feel sorry for the Chinese because it has turned
completely against the public image they wanted to present."

Again and again protesters interrupted the Paris procession. On a street
along the Seine demonstrators forced the security forces to put the
torch on a bus, the police said. Around that time, the flame went out
for a first time.

The police were forced to take the torch to the safety of the bus
several times and it went out more than four times, the French Olympic
Committee said, including on the final stretch between City Hall and the
stadium that houses the offices of the French Olympic committee.

When the relay reached the Arc de Triomphe and started down the
Champs-Elysées, the torch was being carried by another athlete, but he
was barely visible from the heavily guarded pavement amid a dense escort
of police officers and vans.

A helicopter circled above as tourists, cheering supporters waving
Chinese flags and protesters chanting "freedom" for Tibet crowded behind
metal barriers lined by paramilitary police officers. .

In Beijing on Monday, a spokeswoman for the Olympic organizing committee
- speaking before the disruptions in France - vowed that the relay would
continue on its international route. "The torch represents the Olympic
spirit and people welcome the torch," said Wang Hui, the spokeswoman.
"The general public is very angry at this sabotage by a few separatists."

The Chinese Olympic relay - from Athens to Istanbul, St. Petersburg,
London and Paris so far - has created a bond among protesters, some of
whom had little in common.

In Paris, at the Trocadéro plaza across the Seine from the Eiffel Tower,
the human rights organization Amnesty International and the press
freedom group Reporters Without Borders protested side by side with
representatives from a banned underground Chinese democracy party,
Taiwan nationalists and proponents of independence for Uighurs, a Muslim
minority in western China.

"We all have the same problem," Can Asgar, a leader of the Uighur
diaspora in Munich, yelled into a microphone at Trocadéro. "Freedom for
Uighurs. Freedom for Tibet. We must fight together."

Amnesty International staged a protest on behalf of a blind Chinese
human rights lawyer who is in prison in Beijing.

Meanwhile, the chairman of the International Olympic Committee, Jacques
Rogge, used a meeting of national Olympic committee representatives in
Beijing on Monday to criticize the London protests, and to call for a
rapid and peaceful solution to the confrontations in Tibet. He rejected
the idea of a boycott of the Games.

"The torch relay has been targeted. The IOC has expressed serious
concerns and calls for rapid, peaceful resolution in Tibet," Rogge said
in a speech to the Association of National Olympic Committees, Reuters
reported.

"Violence for whatever reason is not compatible with the values of the
torch relay and the Olympic Games," he said. "Some people have played
with the idea of boycotts. As I speak today, there is no momentum for a
general boycott."

But after the meeting the head of the Norwegian Olympic Committee, Tove
Paule, said in an interview that the torch relay should be reconsidered.
"The International Olympic Committee may have a bigger problem when the
torch relay continues, if we get more of these demonstrations," Paule
was quoted as saying by NRK, the Norwegian public broadcaster, Reuters
reported.

Measures normally reserved for visiting heads of state proved inadequate
in Paris on Monday. Armed riot police in bullet-proof vests guarded some
Métro exits along the 28-kilometer, or 17-mile, route. Certain stops
were closed.

"One would almost think oneself in Lhasa," said Jean-Paul Ribes, leader
of the Support Committee of the Tibetan People in France, who was among
the thousands massed on the Trocadéro. "It snowed last night, now the
sky is blue - and police are everywhere."

Many of the organizers on the streets said some groups had planned
protests ever since learning in 2000 that Beijing had been awarded the
Olympics.

The flame moves to San Francisco on Wednesday, the sixth stop on its
month-long 21-nation tour. Protesters on Monday were already scaling
cables on Golden Gate Bridge, and unfurled a banner in solidarity with
Tibet. A stop for the torch in Lhasa is scheduled.

"We decided we would do something a long time ago and we have more
actions planned," said Martine Royo, a coordinator at Amnesty
International. "Each organization is doing its own work today. But in a
way it's a pity that there's not more contact."

Many protesters said they had decided to come to Paris after the violent
confrontations between the Chinese police and Tibetans last month. "I
came here because I want the repression to stop," said Jean-Claude
Perreard, who lives outside Geneva.

The protests took different forms along the route. A banner defending
human rights across the world was hung on Paris City Hall, prompting
Chinese organizers to cancel a planned 30-minute stop here.
Demonstrators hung a banner depicting Olympic rings as handcuffs from
the Notre Dame Cathedral. Members of Reporters Without Borders chained
themselves to the Eiffel Tower.

About 40 lawmakers, including some from the governing party, stood
outside the National Assembly, France's lower house of Parliament,
holding a banner calling on China to respect human rights. "We cannot
miss this opportunity to send a message on human rights," said Jean-Marc
Ayrault, the organizer of the initiative and president of the opposition
Socialists' parliamentary group. He condemned the conspicuous police
presence in Paris. "This looks more like a military parade than an
Olympic celebration."

John F. Burns contributed from London and Jim Yardley contributed from
Beijing.

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