Olympic torch will go on, China says

Vows violence in Tibet won't disrupt plans

Buddhist nuns held the Tibetan flag as they chanted anti-China slogans in Dharamsala, India, yesterday. Tibet's parliament in exile staged the protest, calling for an independent probe into the violence in Tibet and an end to China's crackdown in the region. (Gurinder Osan/Associated Press)

BEIJING - China's Olympic organizers declared yesterday that recent anti-Chinese violence in Tibet will not deter plans to relay the Olympic torch through the troubled region, including taking it to the top of Mount Everest.

The vow to carry on as planned, from Jiang Xiaoyu, executive vice president of the Beijing Organizing Committee for the Olympic Games, underlined the government's determination to make sure the Beijing Games are seen around the world as a celebration of international fraternity and a display of China's swift economic progress over the past three decades.

Meanwhile, Chinese state media said for the first time today that Tibet protests have spread to other provinces.

The official Xinhua News Agency reported on "riots in Tibetan-inhabited areas in the provinces of Sichuan and Gansu, both neighboring Tibet." It attributed both to supporters of the Dalai Lama, Tibet's spiritual leader in exile.

Xinhua said late yesterday that 170 people had surrendered for their role in last week's riots in Tibet's capital, Lhasa. China says 16 people were killed, denying Tibetan exile groups' claims that 80 died.

The explosion of violence in Lhasa last Friday and a subsequent crackdown by Chinese security forces have endangered that image just as the torch relay is scheduled to get underway Monday with a handover ceremony in Olympia, Greece, and the beginning of a 130-day, 85,000-mile relay through foreign countries and China.

Attempts to make the Games a platform for political agendas contravene the Olympic spirit and meet with disapproval by the millions of people who want simply to enjoy the sporting events and pageantry planned to begin Aug. 8, Jiang said. This holds true, he added, for whatever kind of political goals activists may have in mind: humanitarian concerns in Darfur, Tibetan independence, Muslim nationalism in the neighboring Xinjiang region, or human rights for Chinese in general.

"The Beijing Olympics torch relay is going to be held according to plan," Jiang promised at a news conference announcing plans for the relay. "These disturbances are totally against the spirit of the Olympic Games. They are a challenge to the Olympic charter . . . These so-called activities will not win the hearts and minds of the people, and so they are doomed to failure."

Much to Chinese officials' chagrin, the explosion of violence in Tibet and broad sympathy abroad for the Tibetan people have invigorated activists who have been urging a boycott of the Olympics opening ceremony. French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner told reporters Tuesday that he found the idea interesting and would discuss it with fellow ministers from the European Union. He stepped back from that a bit yesterday, telling reporters that a boycott might be "unrealistic," news services reported from Paris. "When you're dealing in international relations with countries as important as China, obviously when you make economic decisions it's sometimes at the expense of human rights," he added. "That's elementary realism."

The Chinese government so far has taken comfort in the refusal of most world leaders to heed pleas from human rights and Darfur activists to use the Olympics to put political pressure on China. President Bush, for instance, has said he regards the Olympics as a sporting event and plans to attend the opening extravaganza Aug. 8.

Other world leaders, including President Nicolas Sarkozy of France and Prime Minister Gordon Brown of Britain, also have announced plans to attend, although Prince Charles refused on grounds of his admiration for the Dalai Lama.

Jiang said sentiments for a boycott come only from "individuals" and will not be picked up by the world's governments. "We are confident other people will make up their own minds and . . . will participate in the Olympic Games and the opening ceremony," he added.