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BEIJING: The Olympic flame arrived in Beijing on Monday ahead of the
official start of the relay, with security tight at the Chinese
capital’s airport amid concerns over protests.
A specially chartered Air China plane from
Greece touched down shortly before 9:00 am (0100 GMT), with the
event broadcast on national television with a slight delay.
The chief of China’s Olympic organizing
committee, Liu Qi, walked off the plane carrying the flame and on to
red carpet laid out on the tarmac.
He was greeted by Zhou Yongkang, a member of
China’s elite Communist Party politburo, who is in charge of the
nation’s security.
The flame will make its way to Tiananmen Square,
the political heart of Beijing, for a welcoming ceremony later on
Monday morning.
The torch relay officially starts on Tuesday in
Beijing when the sacred flame is scheduled to depart for Almaty.
The Kazakh capital is the first stop on an
odyssey through 19 countries during April that is followed by an
epic three-month tour around China.
However the crisis in Tibet, China’s human
rights records and other sensitive issues are threatening to take
the Olympic shine off the torch relay.
Activist groups had already launched a number of
protests in Greece during the official lighting of the torch in
Olympia and the subsequent carrying of the flame to the Athens
airport.
Reporters at the Beijing airport on Monday
reported extremely tight and highly visible security.
Greece handed over the Olympic torch to the
organizers of the Beijing Games on Sunday in a tightly guarded
Athens ceremony, after police quickly arrested anti-Chinese
protesters shouting “Save Tibet”.
-- AFP
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