Beijing Olympic torch arrives in Buenos Aires
Posted: 11 April 2008 0722 hrs

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BUENOS AIRES : The Olympic torch arrived here under tight security on Thursday as authorities hoped to ward off the massive anti-China protests that have dogged the flame's run in London, Paris and San Francisco.

So far, activists have announced only one, peaceful demonstration in support of independence for Tibet and against the human rights record of 2008 Olympic host China during the torch's planned 13-kilometre relay through the Argentine capital.

Pro-Tibet supporters have vowed "surprise actions," but no major disruption.

City officials here are taking no chances, pledging to closely guard the torch on Thursday and while it is passed along a relay team of national athletes on Friday. As with its chaotic European legs and its US stop, security is to be intense.

Some 1,200 police officers and 1,500 coast guard officers have been deployed to protect flaming symbol as it is carried along its course through the city by 80 athletes, celebrities and representatives of Games sponsors.

Authorities hope to avoid the violent scuffles that marked its passage in London and Paris, and the bizarre scene in San Francisco on Wednesday when the massive police presence and sudden route change made the torch all but invisible to the public.

Buenos Aires mayor Mauricio Macri said the event should be "a celebration" and called the relay in what will be the only Latin American stop for torch "historic."

"We must not transform a event meant to celebrate peace and fraternity into a political action," he told a news conference this week.

But China's hopes of winning international prestige by sending the torch through 135 cities on five continents ahead of the August 8 opening of the Olympic Games have been overshadowed by the protests against Beijing's repression in Tibet.

Human rights and pro-Tibet protesters in Argentina have vowed to maintain the pressure peacefully.

"We are not looking to put out the flame," Jorge Anibal Carcavallo, of the Free Tibet Association in Argentina, told reporters Tuesday, nevertheless promising that there would be "surprise actions" along the route.

A small group of demonstrators on Wednesday unfurled a "Free Tibet" banner in front of the landmark Obelisk that dominates the city's main avenue.

After the flame's arrival, it was to be immediately whisked off to a secret location, and brought out Friday for the afternoon relay through the city. Meteorologists were forecasting cloudy weather with showers.

Among the prominent figures scheduled to hold aloft the torch were Argentine soccer legend Diego Maradona, Olympic cyclist Carlos Mauricio Espinola, former tennis champion Gabriela Sabatini, and Austrian former chancellor Victor Klima.

Argentina's government has tried to keep a low profile in the preparations for the torch relay, saying it was entirely the responsibility of the city.

President Cristina Kirchner has portrayed herself as a strong supporter for human rights, most notably attending a march last weekend in Paris calling for the release of hostages held by Colombia's leftwing FARC rebel group.

China, though, is the primary market for soya - Argentina's main export and a cash crop that brings in 24 billion dollars a year from abroad - and Buenos Aires is keen to maintain good relations with Beijing. - AFP/de