IOC chief calls for restraint by China over Tibet

Protesters force police in Paris to extinguish flame as a precautionary measure

PARIS/BEIJING: Security officials extinguished the Olympic torch at least twice on Monday during a chaotic relay through Paris where thousands of pro-Tibet protesters tried to block its path. Earlier in the day the International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge called on Beijing to peacefully end unrest in Tibet.

The IOC chief said in a speech at the beginning of a three-day meeting of National Olympic Committee heads in Beijing:
“Violence for whatever reason is not compatible with the values of the torch relay or the Olympic Games.”

Rogge acknowledged the torch relay had been a focus of protests and that the Tibet crisis was casting a shadow over the lead-up to the Games in August. “The torch relay has been targeted,” he said. “We are all very concerned by the current international situation. Events in Tibet have triggered a wave of protests among governments, media, and non-government organisations.”

Rogge, who will remain in Beijing for a three-day IOC board meeting that starts on Wednesday, again dismissed talk of a boycott of the Games over Tibet and other issues, including human rights.

 “Some politicians have played with the idea of boycotts. As I speak today, however, there is no momentum for a generalised boycott,” he said.   

“Fortunately, the public has realised that boycotts don’t help and only penalise the athletes.”

The torch’s progress through Paris was regularly delayed by demonstrators protesting against China’s crackdown on Tibet after it set off from the Eiffel Tower. At one point it had to be put on a bus to protect it from the crowds. The torch then had to be extinguished because of a technical problem, a police spokesman said. A Chinese official was quoted by Xinhua news agency as saying it was put out for safety reasons.

After a brief interruption the relay resumed with the torch alight, only for it to be extinguished shortly afterwards despite the fact that protesters appeared to be well away from the relay team, which was flanked by police on rollerblades.   

A member of the French Greens party had earlier been restrained by police when trying to grab the torch from the first of 80 torch bearers, former world 400 metres hurdles champion Stephane Diagana. Escorted by security, Diagana was wearing a badge reading “For a better world”. 

Several hundred demonstrators waving banners gathered on the Trocadero esplanade, just the other side of the river Seine from the Eiffel Tower, where the relay got under way at 1035 GMT.  
 
France has deployed more than 3,000 police officers, some on roller blades, along the 28-km Paris leg of relay, to the Charlety stadium, on the southern edge of town, where the torch was due to arrive at 1500 GMT. 

“Boycott Chinese goods” and “Save Tibet” read some of the banners held by the demonstrators, watched by police in riot gear and prevented by barriers from getting near the course. “We are doing our best but it will take the world to put pressure on China to help bring democracy and human rights to Tibet,” said Phurbu Dolker, a 21-year-old Tibetan refugee.  
Thousands of protesters waving Tibetan flags and shouting “Shame on China” tried to disrupt the torch’s run through London on Sunday, the British leg of the international relay billed by Beijing as the “harmonious journey”.

 French human rights minister, Rama Yade, denied on Saturday that President Nicolas Sarkozy would boycott the Games’’ opening ceremony unless China started talks with the Tibetan spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, and released political prisoners.  
 
The Olympic flame is expected to remain a magnet for anti-Chinese protests ahead of the August Games in Beijing. 

The flame is due to return to Beijing on August 6, two days before it will be used to light the cauldron at the Olympic opening ceremony. 

The issue of how much freedom athletes will have to express their political views was a hot topic among national Olympic chiefs in Beijing on Monday, and Rogge was expected to address these concerns later in the week. 

“I’ve spent 30 minutes talking to the IOC chief about this matter and he will make a comprehensive statement on Thursday morning about this issue,” said the head of the Association of European National Olympic Committees, Patrick Hickey.