http://s****tsillustrated.cnn.com/2008/more/04/07/paris.torch.canceled.ap/
Paris torch relay canceled
Officials snuffed out torch at least five times during leg
Posted: Monday April 7, 2008 11:48AM; Updated: Monday April 7, 2008
12:21PM
After numerous protestors trying to grab the torch, the last section
of the relay's run through Paris will be by vehicle.
AP
PARIS (AP) -- Security officials snuffed out the Olympic torch and
carried it through Paris in the safety of a bus at least five times
Monday before canceling the final run of a relay repeatedly disrupted
by chaotic protests against China's human rights record.
Security officials put the torch on the bus for the last stretch but
stopped right outside its destination, a Paris stadium, so a runner
could finish the last 15 feet.
At least two activists earlier got within almost an arm's length of
the flame before they were grabbed by police. A protester threw water
at the torch but failed to extinguish it and was taken away. Officers
tackled numerous protesters and carried some away.
The chaos started on the Eiffel Tower's first floor moments after the
relay began. Green Party activist Sylvain Garel lunged for the first
torchbearer, former hurdler Stephane Diagana, and shouted "Freedom for
the Chinese!" Security officials pulled Garel back.
"It is inadmissible that the games are taking place in the world's
biggest prison," Garel said later.
The procession continued but a crowd of activists waving Tibetan flags
soon interrupted it by confronting the torchbearer on a road along the
Seine River. The demonstrators did not appear to get within reach of
the torch, but its flame was put out by security officers and put on
board a bus to continue part way along the route.
Less than an hour later, the flame was being carried out of a traffic
tunnel by a woman athlete in a wheelchair when the procession was
halted by activists who booed and chanted "Tibet." Once again, the
torch was tem****arily extinguished and put on a bus.
The third time, security officials apparently interrupted the
procession because they spotted demonstrators ahead. After the torch
was put on a bus, protesters threw plastic bottles, cups and pieces of
bread at the vehicle and at a male wheelchair-bound athlete.
The torch disappeared back inside the bus a fourth time shortly after
a protester approached it with a fire extinguisher near the Louvre art
museum. Police grabbed the demonstrator before he could start to
spray.
The flame was whisked into a bus again outside the National Assembly,
where protesters gathered. A session of parliament was interrupted and
a banner on the building read: "Respect for Human Rights in China."
City Hall draped its building with a banner reading, "Paris defends
human rights around the world."
Other demonstrators scaled the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame cathedral
and hung banners depicting the Olympic rings as handcuffs.
About 3,000 officers were deployed on motorcycles, in jogging gear and
with inline roller skates.
A Paris police official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because
he was not authorized to speak to media, says at least 28 people have
been taken into custody during the protests.
Pro-Tibet advocate Christophe Cunniet said he and around 20 other
Tibet advocates were detained after they waved Tibetan flags, threw
flyers and tried to block the route. Cunniet said police kicked him,
cutting his forehead. "I'm still dazed," he said.
Mireille Ferri, a Green Party official, said she was held by police
for two hours because she approached the Eiffel Tower area with a fire
extinguisher.
In various locations throughout the city, activists angry about
China's human rights record and crackdown on protesters in Tibetan
areas carried Tibetan flags and waved signs reading "the flame of
shame." Riot police squirted tear gas to break up a sit-in protest by
about 300 demonstrators who blocked the torch route.
"The flame shouldn't have come to Paris," said protester Carmen de
Santiago, who had "free" painted on one cheek and "Tibet" on the
other.
Torchbearer Diagana said he was disappointed to see the protests,
though he understood why activists were there.
"Nothing is happening as planned. It's unfortunate," he told France 2
television.
At least one athlete was sup****tive of demonstrators. Former Olympic
champion Marie-Jose Perec told French television: "I think it is very,
very good that people have mobilized like that."
Pro-Chinese activists carrying national flags held counter-
demonstrations.
"The Olympic Games are about s****ts. It's not fair to turn them into
politics," said Gao Yi, a Chinese second-year doctoral student in
Paris in computer sciences.
France's former s****ts minister, Jean-Francois Lamour, stressed that,
though the torch was put out aboard the bus, the Olympic flame itself
still burned in the lantern where it is kept overnight and on airplane
flights.
"The torch has been extinguished but the flame is still there," he
told France Info radio.
Police had hoped to prevent the chaos that marred the relay in London
a day earlier. There, police had repeatedly scuffled with activists
angry about China's human rights record leading up to the Beijing
Olympics Aug. 8-24. One protester tried to grab the torch; another
tried to put out the flame with what appeared to be a fire
extinguisher. Thirty-seven people were arrested.
In Paris, police had drawn up an elaborate plan to try to keep the
torch in a safe "bubble." Torchbearers were encircled by several
hundred officers. Boats patrolled the Seine River, which slices
through the French capital, and a helicopter flew overhead.
About 80 athletes had been scheduled to carry the torch over the 17.4-
mile route that started at the Eiffel Tower, headed down the Champs-
Elys=E9es toward City Hall, then crossed the Seine before ending at the
Charlety track and field stadium.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy has left open the possibility of
boycotting the Olympic opening ceremony in Beijing depending on how
the situation evolves in Tibet. Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said
Monday that was still the case.
Activists have been protesting along the torch route since the flame
embarked on its 85,000-mile journey from Ancient Olympia in Greece to
Beijing.
The round-the-world trip is the longest in Olympic history, and is
meant to highlight China's economic and political power. Activists
have seized on it as a platform for their causes, angering Beijing.
Beijing organizers criticized London's protesters, saying their
actions were a "disgusting" form of sabotage by Tibetan separatists.
"The act of defiance from this small group of people is not popular,"
said Sun Weide, a spokesman for the Beijing Olympic organizing
committee. "It will definitely be criticized by people who love peace
and adore the Olympic spirit. Their attempt is doomed to failure."
The torch relay also is expected to face demonstrations in San
Francisco, New Delhi and possibly elsewhere on its 21-stop, six-
continent tour before arriving in mainland China May 4.
|
