By Tenzin Sangmo
New Delhi, April 24 – The Australian chapter of the Olympic torch relay concluded earlier today in Canberra. The flame was run in the attendance of 500 officers from the Australian Federal Police and a steel enclosure that sealed off parts of the City that fell on the relay route.
Much has been said about the role of the three Chinese guards running the length of the route with the torch. The Australian government was adamant their officials were capable of protecting and escorting the flame disregarding the Chinese personnel. As the Chinese guards were trying to run with the torch, the Australian police constantly pulled them away from flanking the torchbearers.
The relay began with an aboriginal welcome ceremony and youth leader Tania Major was the first torchbearer among 80 other participants who carried the flame around the fenced Australian capital covering a distance of 16 kilometers. The original route plan for the flame to be taken past the Chinese Embassy had been altered by the authorities fearing protests by anti-China demonstrators.
Australia’s PM, Kevin Rudd warned demonstrators ahead of the relay, “What I can say loud and clear, if any protester irrespective of their political point of view engages in unruly, disruptive, violent, unlawful behavior then the police will come down on them like a ton of bricks. Peaceful protest, yes – violent protest, under no circumstances.”
Pro-Tibet activists and Human Right campaigners held a candle-lit vigil outside the Chinese Embassy before the event. Peace marchers from Bungendore who had walked a distance of 70 kilometers without any food including five Tibetans from April 21 were also present there. Anti-China activists in Sydney had unfurled a banner over a Coca-Cola billboard, an Olympic Sponsor, urging Chinese authorities to hold dialogues with the Dalai Lama. Four people were charged with trespassing and later released on bail. Police made four arrests in Canberra, the city hosting the Olympic torch relay today. A man was detained for burning a Chinese National Flag, another protestor for throwing himself on the ground in front of the torchbearer and two women for disrupting the relay procession as it neared Parliament House. They yelled ‘They’re torturing my country’ when the police took them away.
Pro-Tibet supporters were vastly outnumbered by Pro-China groups. They were allegedly brought in buses from Sydney and other cities organized by the Chinese Embassy. The Canberra Torch Relay Committee admitted to being caught by surprise by the huge turnout of Chinese at the venue. “We didn’t expect this reaction from the Chinese community,” Committee Head Ted Quinlan confessed.
The bulk of the Chinese crowd appeared with huge Chinese National Flags and waved Pro-Chinese banners vigorously. They often had to be contained by Australian marshals while trying to exchange verbal bouts with the Tibetan supporters rallying along the back of Reconciliation Place. One man was arrested when he attempted to jump the cordon to get at the Tibetan supporters.
As the torch embarked on its journey the words ‘Free Tibet’, were written across the sky by a skywriting plane.
