Olympic flame goes dark in the City of Light

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PARIS — Despite the presence of thousands of police, demonstrators turned the Paris leg of the Olympic torch relay into another painful, public-relations disaster, as the tide of protest forced organizers to snuff out the flame repeatedly, hustle it on and off buses and finally cancel the final leg of the 27-kilometre tour through the city.

French police were out in force yesterday but the demonstrators proved more nimble, unfurling black banners from the Eiffel Tower and Notre Dame cathedral that condemned China's human-rights record by depicting the Olympic rings as handcuffs. The protests came one day after demonstrators successfully disrupted the procession in London.

Hundreds of Tibetan exiles and French activists booed the torch as it went past, a few chained themselves to railings and some lay in the road in an attempt to block the relay.

Much of the action took place in front of television cameras, and scenes of protesters being dragged, tackled or shoved dominated the French news throughout the day.
French policemen hold down a pro-Tibet protestor prior to the beginning of the Beijing Olympics torch relay, on April 7, 2008 in Paris amid high security and threats of


French policemen hold down a pro-Tibet protestor prior to the beginning of the Beijing Olympics torch relay, on Monday in Paris amid high security and threats of 'spectacular' protests. The Olympics torch was placed for safety on a bus after its relay across Paris was interrupted by protesters. The relay had got just 200 meters from its starting point at the Eiffel Tower when it was put on the bus on the banks of the River Seine.

The Globe and Mail

The torch relay has become a flashpoint for rising global protests over China's treatment of Tibet, putting pressure on governments to respond. White House hopeful Hillary Clinton called yesterday on President George W. Bush to boycott the game's opening ceremony, a move the European Parliament is expected to propose in a resolution this week unless China opens talks with the Dalai Lama.

Here in Canada, Defence Minister Peter MacKay said his government had not closed the door on the possibility of an Olympic boycott.

“We haven't taken that decision. We have not even had that discussion at the cabinet table, to be honest,” Mr. MacKay told reporters after the daily Question Period in the House of Commons.

Without that discussion, said the Defence Minister “we can't rule anything out.”

Mr. Harper has insisted his decision not to attend the Olympics in Beijing is not a reaction to public pressure to skip the event in protest against China's crackdown on Tibet.

But he has also said that the Chinese should take a serious look at the signal that's coming from around the world with respect to human rights, said Mr. MacKay. “It's impossible to not see the reaction that's occurring around the Olympics. It's become a forum of expression for people and their concern over what is happening in China.”

The Paris ruckus was bipartisan and involved a range of politicians, government officials and celebrities.

The capital's Socialist mayor had city hall draped with a giant sign declaring “Paris supports human rights everywhere in the world.” And the National Assembly stopped work for an hour so that several dozen deputies, including several from President Nicolas Sarkozy's conservative party, could line up on the lawn outside with a banner that read, “Respect human rights in China.”

The deputies sang La Marseillaise and posed for photographs. But the torch, and the athletes who were meant to carry it, had by that time been crammed into buses that sped past the parliament building without stopping.

A ceremony planned for the plaza in front of city hall, where a rowdy crowd had gathered, was called off by officials from the Chinese Olympics committee shortly before it was set to begin. “I suppose they were bothered by the free expression of our people,” said Mayor Bertrand Delanoë.

The Interior Ministry said 18 people were taken into custody. It also issued an unusual statement in its own defence four hours after the Olympic flame arrived, by bus, at its final destination at a sports stadium in southeastern Paris.

All decisions to change the torch-relay route and call off planned stops were taken by Chinese authorities, the ministry announced. “The mission of the police was to maintain the proper balance between security and respect for the freedom to protest,” it said.

Mr. Sarkozy has come under mounting pressure from human-rights campaigners, the opposition Socialists and many of his right-wing allies to boycott the opening ceremony of the Summer Games in Beijing as a way of censuring the Chinese government for its crackdown on Tibet last month.

With France set to take over the rotating presidency of the European Union in July, his absence would take on a European dimension. So Mr. Sarkozy has been cautious, calling on China to discuss the status of Tibet with the Dalai Lama while saying he is still considering all options regarding the Olympics.

At the same time, he has allowed the outspoken junior minister for human rights, Rama Yade, to voice harsher criticism of China. Last week, she accused the Chinese government of “colonizing” Tibet.

The overall Paris protests during the flame-passing relay were organized by Reporters Without Borders. The group's president, Robert Ménard, has called for a boycott of the Beijing games. The International Olympic Committee, he said late yesterday, was paying the price for what he called its “lack of courage” in holding China to its promises to respect human rights.

But many of the French athletes who were set to carry the torch in Paris said they were appalled to see some demonstrators launch themselves at the flame as it passed along the Seine during its five-hour stop-and-go odyssey through Paris.

One member of the Paris regional council was seized with a fire extinguisher as she approached the torch-bearer near the starting point at the Eiffel Tower.

“To attack the flame … does not give a very good image for France,” said Bernard Laporte, the sports minister.

At a few places along the route, Tibetans and French-Chinese crowds got into shoving and shouting matches. French police ripped Tibetan flags away from some demonstrators early on, but abandoned the effort by the end of the day as the pro-Tibet crowds grew larger.

Thupten Gyatso, who was identified by wire services as the president of the Tibetan community in France, said the protests were “a great success.”