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IOC not to give up Olympic torch relay

Beijing: Ignoring anti-China protests in London and Paris, the International Olympic Committee said on Wednesday that it would go ahead with the Olympic torch relay, even as Beijing vowed to carry the flame to restive Tibet as well as to Mount Everest.

IOC president Jacques Rogge said it was not planning to stop the global relay of the torch, which arrived in San Francisco ahead of the Beijing Olympics.

Security was tightened on the Golden Gate Bridge and elsewhere around San Francisco city as officials prepared to face massive protests against China’s crackdown in Tibet. San Francisco is the Olympic torch’s only North American stop on its journey to Beijing.

The Olympic flame was whisked to a secret location shortly after its pre-dawn arrival on Tuesday following widespread and chaotic demonstrations during the relay in London and Paris.

Police arrested a pro-Tibet activist in San Francisco on Wednesday just hours ahead of the relay, an AFP photographer said.

A young Asian male was led away in handcuffs and put into a waiting police van after a noisy standoff and light scuffles with pro-China demonstrators, he said.

In Beijing, the Chinese government put up a brave front and vowed to carry the flame through Tibet.

“We will fully prepare for it and the Olympic torch relay in Tibet will be a complete success,” the Tibet Autonomous Region chairman Qiangba Puncog said.

China plans to take the torch to the Mount Everest when climatic conditions are suitable next month. Tibetan groups have given calls to disrupt it.

The Tibetan unrest has left 20 persons dead.

The so-called Tibetan government in exile claims the death toll is 150.

China has poured a large number of troops and security personnel into the trouble-hit Tibetan populated areas in the Himalayan region and come under increasing pressure from Western powers to hold dialogue with the Dalai Lama to resolve the Tibet issue. — PTI

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