Rival groups clash during torch relay12:29 AEST Thu Apr 24 2008
AAP
Clashes broke out on Thursday between pro-Tibet protesters and pro-Chinese supporters during the Olympic torch relay in Canberra.
Police also carried away several protesters, including at least one who tried to run in front of the torch.
The progress of the controversial Beijing Olympic flame around Canberra this morning has been largely peaceful, but police have been called in to deal with several incidents.
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Thousands of red-flag waving China supporters flooded Canberra streets this morning ahead of the relay, easily outnumbering pro-Tibet protesters complaining about human rights abuses.
One man was arrested in a brief confrontation between rival groups before the run even began at Canberra's Reconciliation Place, and a Chinese flag was set on fire.
Once the torch relay got underway, torchbearers were flanked by Australian police who at one stage repeatedly pushed aside blue-tracksuited Chinese officials running close to the flame.
The incident with the so-called Chinese flame attendants appeared to reflect confusion over their role in the torch's security.
However the problem later appeared to be resolved, with the Chinese officials keeping a short distance from the torchbearers, who remained easily visible to spectators.
More than a thousand pro-Tibetan and pro-Chinese supporters had gathered outside Parliament House, watched by hundreds of police lined up shoulder to shoulder at a designated protest area.
Tension over the relay mounted as it approached parliament, and at least two pro-Tibetan protesters were wrestled away as the flame approached.
One was a woman who appeared to faint in the arms of police.
Police running with the torch also wrestled a protester to the ground and handcuffed him, in an incident on the ramp leading to Parliament House, but he was unable to get close to the flame.
But while the torch appeared to pass Parliament House without further incident, there were more serious clashes on Anzac Parade, near the Australian War Memorial, before the flame arrived.
Three protesters jumped the barricades and carried Free Tibet signs down the centre of Anzac Parade - a road flanked with memorials to Australia's war dead, reporters said.
About 50 pro-China demonstrators followed them and tried to cover the Tibetans and their signs with large red Chinese flags.
Pandemonium broke out as the two groups yelled at each other until police intervened and ordered everyone behind the barricades.
Pro-Tibet protester Marion Vecourcay said she felt frightened and threatened by the Chinese demonstrators.
"They mobbed the sign, they were really aggressive, insulting and swearing," she said.
"They said we have no right to be here but I live up the street.
"It was just a mob mentality."
Pro-China demonstrator Jeff Li yelled at the pro-Tibetan supporters: "The Dalai Lama is a hypocrite, a liar, an ugly man."
Mr Li said the pro Tibet protesters were ill-informed.
"These people are idiots, they know nothing about China's history," Mr Li said.
Police later arrested a man carrying a Chinese flag after he tried to disrupt traffic on Commonwealth Bridge, not far from Parliament House.
Police wrestled him to the ground after he resisted arrest.
Despite the protests and rivalry between groups of supporters, commentators said overall the torch relay had gone off well compared to in cities such as London and Paris, where violence erupted.
With huge crowds of flag-waving pro-China supporters following closely from behind barricades, the torchbearers were given a clear run, without security having to stay too close.
Throughout the run, jogging federal police officers gently shepherded the torchbearers while other police travelled nearby in vans, ready to move in if trouble erupted.
Elsewhere there was a carnival atmosphere, as spectators revelled in the event under clear blue skies.
Earlier, ACT Chief Minister Jon Stanhope said he upheld the right for people to demonstrate peacefully.
"I uphold utterly the right of anyone to use the leg of today's relay as an opportunity to have their voice heard, to be allowed to assent, to speak freely as a mark of our democracy," Mr Stanhope said.
"We do not muzzle dissent just because it might embarrass us or embarrass our friends.
"We hope our friendship can bear a little plain speaking."
As the torch relay neared its climax, scuffles broke out between large crowds of pro-Chinese and pro-Tibet demonstrators.
Final relay runner retired Olympic swimmer Ian Thorpe, flanked by dozens of police, took the torch to the finish line in Commonwealth Park and lit the community cauldron, which quickly went out.
The Chinese torch attendants moved in to relight the cauldron with the Olympic flame.
Thorpe looked slightly sheepish after the cauldron went out so soon after he lit with his torch.
"It was very exciting ... it was an incredible," Thorpe said after completing his first torch relay, having missed the Sydney and Athens Olympic relays because of training for his swim events.
An official ceremony got underway, with AOC president John Coates thanking torch bearers, spectators, the ACT government, police and Beijing Olympic officials.
"When I welcomed the flame yesterday, I said how proud I was to be welcoming it on behalf of the Australian Olympic Committee to our shores on the fourth occasion," Mr Coates said.
"I will simply conclude now by saying how proud i am to be Australian. Thank you."
The cauldron will be put out before a concert featuring Shannon Noll after the official ceremony.
As the crowds gathered at the finishing area for the relay, there was more pushing and shoving before police intervened to separate protesters.
Australian Olympic Committee spokesman Mike Tancred said he believed there had been four arrests so far.
There had also been "lots of taunting like at a friendly football game", he told Sky News.
But he hailed the massive turnout of pro-China supporters.
ACT government spokesman Jeremy Lasek said later he believed there had been six arrests, but the day had been a "raging success".
While the arrests were unfortunate, the fact there were only six arrests among more than 20,000 people, with tensions sometimes running high, was a great result, he said.
"The most important thing is the flame was never in danger, from start to finish, and that's an enormous credit to our federal police," he told Sky News.
