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Protests mar torch relay

Paris: There was pandemonium in central Paris on Monday as pro-Tibet activists and members of the NGO Reporters Sans Frontiers launched repeated attacks on the Olympic flame as it made its way, carried by a relay of 80 runners, along the banks of the Seine, taking in landmarks such as the Arc de Triomphe, the Place de la Concorde and Notre Dame cathedral to the Charletty stadium on the southern edge of the city.

On two occasions the flame was extinguished and it was unclear if it was the work of protesters or a deliberate move on the part of Olympic officials to protect it. Demonstrators thronged the streets to protest against the Chinese government’s policies in Tibet and central Paris was a city under siege.

The western and southern areas of the city from the Eiffel Tower and the Arc de Triomphe to the Charletty stadium at the southern edge of Paris were completely cordoned off. Security forces, including 65 motorcycle units, 100 jogging firemen, another 100 patrollers on roller blades and nearly 50 vehicles with more than 200 riot police, were deployed to ensure that the Olympic flame reached its destination without incident.

But incidents there were aplenty. Barely had the cortege set off when protesters attempted to douse the flame. On two occasions the extinguished flame was mounted on an accompanying bus for protection and a second attempt by a runner to carry the re-ignited torch was thwarted.

At least five persons were arrested after scuffles with the police and fistfights were reported between anti and pro-Chinese demonstrators. Some of the protesters on Human Rights Square which lies across the river Seine from the Eiffel Tower shouted abuse at a man carrying a Chinese flag and tried to snatch it from him. But plainclothes police officers quickly intervened. Some protesters flew a giant flag from the first floor of the Eiffel Tower depicting the Olympic rings as a series of linked handcuffs. Police spent several hours trying to bring down several RFS members who had handcuffed themselves at a height to the tower.

A Chinese embassy adviser in Paris Hu Chang Chun said the torch’s journey through the city would be a “great festival” for the French people and that any protests would come from a “tiny minority.” He could not have been more off the mark. The Olympic flame’s Paris relay came as International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge called on China, during a meeting of National Olympic Committee heads in Beijing, to peacefully end unrest.

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