Olympic Torch Relay Become A Game of Deception -- San Francisco torch
route switch angers spectators / Reuters
San Francisco torch route switch angers spectators
Wed Apr 9, 2008 8:50pm EDT
By Jim Christie and Amanda Beck
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The Olympic torch's only stop in North America
turned into the mystery of the missing flame on Wednesday, as San
Francisco abruptly changed the torch route, angering both China
sup****ters and protesters who had waited hours to see it.
Thousands of people converged along the announced scenic waterfront
route for the passage of the torch. But shortly after a brief opening
ceremony, the first runner, flanked by tall, blue-clad Chinese security
officials, disappeared into a large waterfront warehouse.
"I think we were cheated, because I think the meaning of the relay was
to show the whole world that our country is hosting the Olympics," said
Michael Huo, 30, a Chinese engineer working at a Silicon Valley start-up
company.
The torch was a magnet for chaotic demonstrations in London and Paris in
the last week over a range of China issues from China's crackdown on
Tibet last month to human rights. Beijing, embarrassed as it prepares to
host the Olympics, has strongly condemned the protests.
San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom told Reuters that the route had to be
radically changed at the last minute or the event canceled to ensure
public safety.
"We *****sed the situation and felt that we could not secure the torch
and protect the protesters and sup****ters to the degree that we wished,"
Newsom said by cell phone. "As a consequence we engaged in subsequent
contingency planning that we felt would keep people safe."
The bewildering changes united sup****ters and protesters divided by
politics by angering both sides over the sudden change during the only
relay leg in North America on its journey to the Beijing Olympic Games
in August.
"I think it's cowardly. If they can't run the torch through the city, it
means that no one is sup****ting the games," said Matt Helmenstine, 30, a
California high school teacher who carried a Tibetan flag.
After the torch disappeared from view after the opening ceremony, police
boats and jet skis hinted it might be headed up the waterfront by boat.
But an hour after the scheduled start, the torch appeared on a major,
less scenic north-south street more than two miles away.
"Where it will end up, nobody knows," said all-news radio station KCBS.
A planned closing ceremony on the waterfront was also scrapped.
TENSIONS IN THE CITY
San Francisco has a large Chinese-American population and many had
waited proudly to see the torch relay. But before the start of the torch
run tensions mounted amid confrontations with anti-China protesters.
At least one pro-Tibetan demonstrator was detained.
In front of the city's ferry building, Christine Lias, 30, was quickly
surrounded by more than 30 Chinese-Americans after she yelled: "Free
Tibet now!"
"Liar, liar, shame on you," many in the group shouted.
On a beautiful spring day, San Francisco deployed hundreds of security
officers, including FBI agents, backed up by police cars with fla****ng
lights, harbor boats, jet skis and helicopters.
Thousands of pro-China spectators gathered along the original planned
route, many flying the five-star Communist Chinese flag alongside U.S.
and Olympic flags.
"In 5,000 years of Olympic history the Chinese can finally have one time
hosting the Olympics. It means that China is becoming a world power,"
said Don Zheng, 41, a Chinese-American computer engineer who emigrated
in 1988.
Many Chinese Americans are proud that their ancestral home is hosting
the global s****ting event and resent the protests.
"I'm loyal to the U.S. but I love China because it's my motherland,"
said Alice Liu, 50, who came to the United States after the 1989
Tiananmen Square protests.
DELICATE DIPLOMACY
The torch relays have attracted many groups unhappy about a range of
China-related issues, including Tibet, its human rights record and
policies on Sudan's Darfur region. Critics say China should use more of
its clout with Sudan to ease the bloody conflict in Darfur.
China blames Tibet's spiritual leader, the Dalai Lama, and his
associates for orchestrating monk-led protests in Tibet last month as
part of a campaign for independence. The Dalai Lama denies this.
Hours before the San Francisco torch relay, President George W. Bush
urged China to open a dialogue with the Dalai Lama. Bush and other
Western leaders are facing a delicate balancing act as calls mount for
them to boycott the Olympics opening ceremony.
Olympics chief Jacques Rogge told the Wall Street Journal that re****ts
the International Olympic Committee executive board would consider
scrapping the torch relay outside China, to avoid more ugly scenes, were
"based on a misunderstanding."
(Take a look at the Countdown to Beijing blog at
http:blogs.reuters.com/china)
(Writing by Adam Tanner; additional re****ting by Duncan Martell, Robert
Galbraith, Erin Siegal and Philipp Gollner in San Francisco, Richard
Cowan in Wa****ngton, Guo ****peng and Nick Mulvenney in Beijing, Lucy
Hornby in Xiahe, and John Ruwitch in Hong Kong; Editing by Frances Kerry
and Eric Walsh)
http://www.reuters.com/article/topNews/idUSN0842217920080410
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