High security follows torch

From combined dispatches

SAN FRANCISCO — The Olympic torch arrived for its only North American stop amid heavy security yesterday, a day after its visit to Paris descended into chaos and activists here scaled the Golden Gate Bridge to protest China”s human rights record.

Meanwhile, International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge said the body”s executive board would discuss Friday whether to end the international leg of the Beijing Olympic torch relay because of widespread protests.

The torch”s global journey was supposed to highlight China”s growing economic and political power. But activists opposing China”s human rights policies and its recent crackdown on Tibet have been protesting along the torch”s 85,000-mile route since the start of the flame”s odyssey from Ancient Olympia in Greece to Beijing, host of the 2008 Summer Olympics.

Mr. Rogge told the Associated Press that he was “deeply saddened” by violent protests in London and Paris and concerned about today”s six-mile relay in San Francisco, where activists expressed fears that the torch”s planned route through Tibet would lead to arrests and violent measures by Chinese officials trying to stifle dissent.

China yesterday denounced protesters who upstaged the torch relays in London and Paris and asked the U.S. to ensure that the leg in San Francisco avoids similar mayhem. The country quickly condemned the disruptions as “vile” and state-run television and newspapers showed the protests and upset spectators.

“We express our strong condemnation of the deliberate disruption of the Olympic torch relay by “Tibetan independence” separatist forces,” Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said.

At a later briefing, she said Chinese and U.S. officials had been working together to ensure the visit of the torch to San Francisco today would go “safely and smoothly.”

“We also warn groups and elements attempting to disrupt and sabotage the torch relay that their goal — of using the Olympics for their unspeakable ends and to blacken and put pressure on China — is absolutely unattainable.”

The flame arrived in San Francisco shortly before 4 a.m. and was put in a vehicle to be whisked away to a secret location, San Francisco Olympic Torch Relay Committee spokesman David Perry said. Security was heightened because several protests were planned before the relay.

No protesters greeted the flame at the airport, but hours later, hundreds gathered in United Nations Plaza, a pedestrian area near City Hall, to call on China to cease its heavy-handed rule of Tibet. They also expressed fears that the torch”s planned route through Tibet would lead to violent measures by Chinese officials trying to stifle dissent.

The demonstrators planned to march to the Chinese Consulate as part of a daylong Tibetan Torch Relay that will end with a peace vigil. Actor Richard Gere and human rights activist Desmond Tutu are expected to be among the speakers.

One runner who planned to carry the flame during the San Francisco relay dropped out because of safety concerns, Mr. Perry said. The person was not identified.