The Olympic torch’s trip through Tibet next month will be shortened, Beijing Games organizers said yesterday, in a move that could minimize any outcry over the controversial relay leg.
The torch’s passage through Tibet will be cut from three days to just one as part of route changes made because of China’s earthquake, an official with the Beijing Games organizers said.
“The change is due to the Sichuan earthquake’s impact on the rest of the relay. Because of this, the sacred flame will only pass through [the Tibetan capital] Lhasa for one day,” said Li Lizhi, an information officer with the Beijing Olympics.
“It will probably be in Lhasa on June 18 but we are waiting to confirm that,” she said.
The Olympic torch had been scheduled to transit a district south of Lhasa on June 19 before spending the following two days in the Tibetan capital, where fierce rioting against Chinese rule erupted in March.
The protests in March revealed deep anger against China’s control of the devoutly Buddhist region, and overseas pro-Tibet activists have denounced the Tibet leg — which was planned well before the unrest — as a further snub to Tibetans and world opinion.
The change is the latest made after tens of thousands of people were killed in the May 12 earthquake in Sichuan Province.
China called three days of national mourning last week, during which the torch relay was halted, and has made various adjustments to make up for those lost days.
The torch’s relay is the longest and most ambitious in Olympic history. Following a one-month world tour last month, it is now on a three-month domestic circuit that has included taking a torch to the summit of Mount Everest.
However, since the flame was first lit in Greece on March 24, the relay has been repeatedly disrupted by groups trying to highlight grievances against China’s communist rulers, especially their rule of Tibet.
Matt Whitticase, spokesman for the London-based Free Tibet Campaign, said earlier this month that the Tibet leg was an attempt by China to “underscore its baseless claims to sovereignty over Tibet.”
During the Tibet unrest, protesters denounced Chinese rule and called for the return of the exiled Dalai Lama. Speaking on Wednesday during a trip to London, the Dalai Lama urged Tibetans not to disrupt the torch relay.
“I appeal, particularly inside Tibet, [people] should not disrupt the Olympic torch when they visit. We must respect, we must protect that,” he told reporters.
Olympic organizers had already pushed back the torch’s leg through quake-devastated Sichuan Province to Aug. 3 to Aug. 5, making it the last stop before coming to Beijing for the Aug. 8 to Aug. 24 Games.
The torch was in the eastern province of Jiangsu yesterday.
DEADLOCK: Putin has vowed to continue fighting unless Ukraine cedes more land, while talks have been paused with no immediate results expected, the Kremlin said Russia on Friday said that peace talks with Kyiv were on “pause” as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy warned that Russian President Vladimir Putin still wanted to capture the whole of Ukraine. Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump said that he was running out of patience with Putin, and the NATO alliance said it would bolster its eastern front after Russian drones were shot down in Polish airspace this week. The latest blow to faltering diplomacy came as Russia’s army staged major military drills with its key ally Belarus. Despite Trump forcing the warring sides to hold direct talks and hosting Putin in Alaska, there
North Korea has executed people for watching or distributing foreign television shows, including popular South Korean dramas, as part of an intensifying crackdown on personal freedoms, a UN human rights report said on Friday. Surveillance has grown more pervasive since 2014 with the help of new technologies, while punishments have become harsher — including the introduction of the death penalty for offences such as sharing foreign TV dramas, the report said. The curbs make North Korea the most restrictive country in the world, said the 14-page UN report, which was based on interviews with more than 300 witnesses and victims who had
COMFORT WOMEN CLASH: Japan has strongly rejected South Korean court rulings ordering the government to provide reparations to Korean victims of sexual slavery The Japanese government yesterday defended its stance on wartime sexual slavery and described South Korean court rulings ordering Japanese compensation as violations of international law, after UN investigators criticized Tokyo for failing to ensure truth-finding and reparations for the victims. In its own response to UN human rights rapporteurs, South Korea called on Japan to “squarely face up to our painful history” and cited how Tokyo’s refusal to comply with court orders have denied the victims payment. The statements underscored how the two Asian US allies still hold key differences on the issue, even as they pause their on-and-off disputes over historical
Decked out with fake crystal chandeliers and velvet sofas, cosmetic surgery clinics in Afghanistan’s capital are a world away from the austerity of Taliban rule, where Botox, lip filler and hair transplants reign. Despite the Taliban authorities’ strict theocratic rule, and prevailing conservatism and poverty in Afghanistan, the 20 or so clinics in Kabul have flourished since the end of decades of war in the country. Foreign doctors, especially from Turkey, travel to Kabul to train Afghans, who equally undertake internships in Istanbul, while equipment is imported from Asia or Europe. In the waiting rooms, the clientele is often well-off and includes men
RSS