China stages torch relay in Tibet

BBC
Saturday, June 21, 2008

The 11km (seven mile) parade passed off smoothly, with the flame carried past apparently hand-picked spectators.

The BBC's James Reynolds says there is a staggering security presence in the city, three months after violent protests broke out.

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Ethnic Tibetans clashed with security forces and Han Chinese in March in the biggest protests for two decades.

Foreign journalists have been barred from Lhasa since the unrest.

But reporters representing about 30 international news organisations have been allowed into the city in a closely monitored group to cover the torch relay - widely considered the most sensitive leg of the flame's journey around the world and through China.

'Vetting'

Torch bearers in white-and-red track suits carried the Olympic flame through Lhasa's streets, beginning at Norbulingka, the former summer palace of the Dalai Lama, the Tibetan spiritual leader now living in exile in India.

Our correspondent says he passed through at least six checkpoints as he was driven in an official convoy to the start of the relay.

Each member of the crowd has a badge, suggesting that spectators were specially chosen or vetted for the ceremony, he says.

The Lhasa relay is important for Beijing because it wants to show that Tibet is very much a part of China, he adds.

Full article here.

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