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The Olympic torch's only stop in North America turned into a
game of hide and seek as San Francisco abruptly changed the route,
angering both China supporters and protesters.
Thousands of people converged along the announced scenic
Embarcadero waterfront route. But after the opening ceremony, the
first runner was flanked by blue-clad Chinese security officials
and carried the torch into a warehouse. The torch eventually turned
up miles away.
"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 last week for chaotic demonstrations in
London and Paris China's human rights record and its recent
crackdown on Tibet. 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 cancelled
to ensure public safety.
"We assessed the situation and felt that we could not secure the
torch and protect the protesters and supporters 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 supporters and protesters who had
been divided by politics. Both sides were angered by the sudden
changes to the only North American leg of the torch's journey to
the Beijing Olympic Games in August.
"It's cowardly. If they can't run the torch through the city, it means that no one is supporting the games," said Matt Helmenstine, 30, a California high school teacher who carried a Tibetan flag.
After the torch initially disappeared from view, 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 less
scenic north-south street more than three km away.
A planned closing ceremony on the waterfront was scrapped and the
torch brought to San Francisco International Airport, where few saw
its farewell.
In Beijing, Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao told the International
Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogges that the Olympic torch
is a "shining symbol of peace, friendship and progress," the
People's Daily, the official newspaper of the ruling Communist
Party reported.
A commentary in the overseas edition of the People's Daily
condemned protesters disrupting the relay. "To judge from the
utterly crude behaviour of a few trouble-makers, they have nurtured
no respect for others or respect for the democratic majority, and
lack a basic respect for the law," said the front-page
commentary.
The route for the torch relay on May 2 in Hong Kong, its first
stop in China, will be cut short "to avoid embarrassing scenes,"
Hong Kong's South China Morning Post reported, quoting an unnamed
government source.
San Francisco has a large Chinese-American population and many had
waited proudly to see the torch relay. 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,
harbour 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 US 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.
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 relay, President George 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.
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