Tibetans tell the truth: The cadre has no human rights. The IOC goofed. It read it as "he-man rights." The IOC might have looked up "human."

Note that Falun Dafa practitioners now get into the story. Better and better. Those separatists in the Dalai Clique are busy and spending lots of cash buying wreckers. The cadre needs to buy the Tokyo government in answer in order to get the Torch through Japan.


India deploys heavy security for Olympic flame
By Jo Johnson in New Delhi
Published: April 17 2008 14:50 | Last updated: April 17 2008 18:11
A nervous India on Thursday mounted a huge security operation to secure a safe passage for the Olympic torch through New Delhi, deploying more than 15,000 security personnel along a truncated route that was closed off to the public.

Police shut down the heart of Delhi and officials refused to reveal when the relay would take place, with the result that a ceremony meant to rally support for the Olympic ideal lacked much popular participation.


Although the Delhi leg concluded without serious incident, the high level of security underlined the extent to which the relay has been a rolling public relations disaster for China and left many questioning the benefits accruing to key sponsors.

Senior Coca-Cola executives in India defended their sponsorship of the torch relay and denied having any regrets over the company’s involvement, echoing comments by Neville Isdell, chief executive, at the group’s annual meeting on Wednesday.

Samsung, another top-tier Olympic backer, said it was “proud” six of its sponsored athletes would carry the “revered symbol through the crowded streets of India’s capital city”. In reality, the torch relay was visible to the public only on television.

Indian authorities had shortened the torch’s route to just 2.3km, from a planned 9km, to minimise scope for disruption. The last time the torch came to India, in 2004, it travelled 32km across Delhi.

Earlier, thousands of Tibetans staged a rival procession, chanting anti-Chinese slogans and attempting to storm Delhi’s Le Meridien hotel, where the torch was being guarded by the controversial blue-jumpsuited “torch attendants” provided by Beijing.

Tenzin Lobsang, a 25-year-old Tibetan participating in the counter-rally, said he hoped the “peace march” would bring global attention to human rights abuses in Tibet. “The torch procession should go on, but our voices must also be heard,” he said.

In a further sign of the toxicity of the torch, two more athletes on the list of 70 Indian torchbearers on Thursday withdrew from the relay at the last minute, joining cricket star Sachin Tendulkar and several other celebrities who had already made their excuses.

New Delhi was anxious to avoid any damage to relations with Beijing and to its bid to host the 2020 games. ”We don’t want the scenes in London and Paris repeated here,” Indian Olympic Association president Suresh Kalmadi said. ”Definitely not.”

The Delhi leg was a flashpoint for the torch on its world tour. Tibetan refugees have settled in India in their tens of thousands since 1959, when the Dalai Lama and many of his followers fled to northern India to escape a Chinese crackdown.

India has the largest Tibetan refugee population in the world, estimated at 85,000. While it hosts the Tibetan government in exile, it recognises Tibet as part of China and requires the Tibetan leadership to refrain from political activity on Indian soil.

New Delhi is wary of being seen to play a Tibet card in its relations with Beijing, conscious that China could quickly repay it in the same coin by fostering any of the numerous separatist movements active in the Indian subcontinent.

”China is not eligible to host the Olympic Games because they have no human rights,” said Namgyal Soepa, 36, a farmer from Mysore. ”That’s why we’re hosting a parallel torch run, because the official Olympic torch is stained with blood.”

Tibetans were not alone. Manoj Chahande, a 31 year old practitioner of Falun Gong was one of thousands of protesters kept at a distance from the torch route. He claimed that China’s human rights record left it an unsuitable host for the Olympic games.

”The torch relay should be boycotted worldwide because Beijing did not fulfil its promises,” Mr Chahande said. ”China was honoured with the Olympics on the condition that it improved its horrifying human rights record ahead of the games.”

Separately, Hong Kong on Thursday scrapped two sections of its planned relay. Hong Kong is likely to be a focal point for many protest groups, which see the city as their best chance to mount demonstrations on Chinese soil.

Additional reporting by Robin Kwong in Hong Kong