OLYMPCIS:AFTER A controversial global journey dogged by international protest over China's crackdown in Tibet, the Olympic torch made a poignant visit to the Sichuan earthquake zone shortly before the region was hit by a 6.0 magnitude aftershock yesterday.
As the torch relay, beleaguered by international outcry over China's harsh crackdown on Tibetan riots in March, arrived in Beijing last night, Chinese Olympics chiefs insisted the country was safe for athletes and spectators.
They have ramped up security after nerves were badly rattled by an attack on a Kashgar police station in restive Xinjiang province, in which 16 policemen were killed. An official in Xinjiang said 18 foreign terrorists have been arrested following the deadly assault.
The security clampdown is translating into further breaches of China's promises to ensure press freedom for the games.
Two Japanese journalists in Kashgar reporting on the attack were beaten up by police, forcing an embarrassing apology, while Beijing municipal authorities reversed earlier media freedom pledges when they said foreign reporters would now have to apply 24 hours in advance to carry out interviews on the city's central Tiananmen Square, site of the massacre of pro-democracy activists on June 4th, 1989.
The torch will make various journeys around the city before travelling to the Bird's Nest stadium on Friday night to light the Olympic cauldron in the jealously guarded secret that is the opening ceremony.
Runners carried the torch through eight miles of an industrial part of Chengdu, capital of Sichuan province, but it avoided one of the city's older areas, which historically has housed Tibetan communities. Sichuan, which was devastated by a 7.9-magnitude quake last year, was the last stop for the Olympic flame.
The Sichuan leg had originally been scheduled for mid-June but was postponed to support disaster-relief efforts. More than 69,000 people are confirmed to have been killed and some five million were left homeless by the earthquake.
Busloads of police officers and troops with riot shields and helmets lined the route as it passed through Chengdu. Security checkpoints were set up for spectators. The torch was run through some of the worst affected areas, including football stadiums used to house survivors in the immediate aftermath.
In March and April the relay was disrupted by anti-China protests in London, Paris and other cities, and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has said it was mulling over the issue of whether to eliminate international relays in the future.
China's relay was far and away the longest ever. However, since it has arrived back in host nation China, where it is enormously popular, its course has been peaceful.
"I am convinced the games will be a great success and will be well organised. These games will leave a fantastic legacy for China," said IOC president Jacques Rogge, who insisted the committee would always retain its tradition of lighting the Olympic flame in Ancient Olympia and starting the torch relay in Greece.
However, he said the IOC might consider limiting the torch relay to domestic routes within Olympic host countries.
China's triumphant global torch relay has left a bitter taste with many, particularly as it followed hard on the heels of footage of Chinese armed police taking on monks in Lhasa and other Tibetan sites.
A senior IOC member said the Beijing Olympics escaped political boycotts only because of the goodwill that followed May's devastating earthquake. "This came very close to becoming a disaster. The risks were obvious and should have been assessed a little more carefully. The result is there was a crisis affecting the games," said Canadian member Dick Pound during the IOC's general assembly yesterday.
"In my country and in many other countries in my part of the world, we were in full boycott mode," Mr Pound said. "Public opinion and political opinion was moving toward an actual boycott of the games, and it was only the earthquake tragedy that diverted attention from what could otherwise have been something very, very serious."