NEW DELHI, 18 April 2008 — The Olympic torch snaked through India’s capital yesterday, along boulevards purged of spectators, as police kept protests from the world’s largest community of exiled Tibetans far from the route.
Security was tight with 15,000 police officers facing thousands of protesters on the streets connecting Rajghat to Jantar Mantar where exiled Tibetans ran an alternate route with a torch of their own to challenge Beijing for parading the Olympic torch through Delhi.
Shouting slogans such as “China, China, China, — Out, Out, Out” and “What do we want? Freedom! When do we want it? Now,” about 5,000 young Tibetans cheered their own torch as it passed between 50 runners over an eight-kilometer route, ending at Jantar Mantar.
The actual Olympic torch relay was a “subdued” and “joyless” affair according to the few people who watched it as Indian and Chinese dancers performed on deserted, empty streets that had been barricaded to avoid disruptions. Only government dignitaries and a group of schoolchildren had been invited.
The 72-centimeter long torch, weighing 985 grams was flown to the capital from Islamabad early yesterday morning in a special flight. At the New Delhi airport, Chinese envoy to India Zhang Yang handed it over to Indian Olympic Association chief Suresh Kalmadi. The flame was welcomed at the airport by flag-waving traditional Indian dancers and Chinese cheerleaders.
“The Olympics is an event that symbolizes goodwill and peace, and everyone is supposed to join in all over the world, but it hurts us to see the blood-stained torch Beijing wants to send to Tibet,” said 30-year-old Kalsang Phuntsok, a Tibetan refugee.
Dhokar Tsering, 64, gets up to greet the runners with a “Free Tibet” sign and bottles of water. “I used to say autonomy, but now I agree with the young people, China will never give real autonomy to Tibet. So we must fight for freedom. I have watched my brother and father shot by Chinese soldiers. My mother begged me to leave so I walked 140 days till I came here,” he said.
Dhokar explains that during a particularly tense period in 1991, just before he fled, Chinese soldiers would break into their homes in the village of Kamh to take “young and strong and big men because they can fight one day and with any excuse kill them.”
Ex-political prisoner Ngawang Woebar watched as hordes of protesters cheered the torchbearers with thunderous slogans. Woebar was arrested because he was carrying a “Free Tibet” sign during a peaceful protest in Lhasa in 1987. He was pardoned after four months of interrogation but a few years later the military came looking for him again.
“Thousands of Tibetans have the same story, it is just that I have escaped so I can tell you mine,” he said.
As he walks away a group of Indian youths chanted in Hindi: “Protecting Tibet is protecting India.”
In between the chanting, Zubair Idris, a university student, said, “Our government should realize that a free Tibet means a useful buffer zone between the power hungry Chinese and our own borders. How can we be proud of democracy if we do nothing to demonstrate our views?”
Dozens of cameras and reporters from Australia, London, Korea and France, as well as an entourage of local media, followed the procession to a square where monks and Tibetan youth had been holding peaceful protests for days.
“We had to remind the Indian government of the Tibetan people’s democratic right to protest. They had been forbidden from protesting but the police were so impressed by the hunger strikes and peaceful protests over the last 10 days here in Jantar Mantar that the authorities allowed it,” said former chief of the Samata party Jaya Jaitly.
“We have the moral authority with Gandhi’s heritage, we must encourage protests not subdue them,” she added.
As demonstrations against China gathered momentum, the route for the official torch relay was scaled back from nine kilometers to a few hundred meters, the actual timing was kept secret, traffic was diverted and 15,000 police officers patrolled the streets.
India is the heart of the global Tibetan community, with over 100,000 exiles spread over the country from Ladakh to Dharamsala to Bangalore. Tibetan monks and youths have staged near-daily protests in Delhi since Chinese authorities cracked down on peaceful protests by Tibetan monks that then turned violent in Lhasa.
To mark the relay, at least 5,000 Tibetan exiles and Indian Buddhists marched in the remote region of Ladakh, as a strike shut down all businesses and schools, according to local officials reached by phone.
In Mumbai, police hauled away 25 Tibetan protesters who tried to break through security at the Chinese consulate. As they were pushed into police vans, they shouted, “Free Tibet.” Across Bangalore at Buddhist monasteries thousands of monks are engaged in 24-hour prayers for the well being of the people of Tibet.
While the Olympic torch moved freely through Kazakhstan, Russia, Argentina, Tanzania, Oman and Pakistan, protesters managed to disrupt torch relays in Paris, London and San Francisco.
The Dalai Lama, Tibet’s exiled leader, has voiced his support for the Beijing Games. He has urged Tibetans to desist from disrupting the torch relay. But protests have continued unabated. India had to assure China of adequate security for the torch after the Chinese foreign minister called his Indian counterpart this month.
Despite years of mistrust and a border war in 1962, a booming India is seeking closer relations with China, which is now one of its biggest trading partners.
— With input from agencies
