Olympic Chiefs Prepare Their Lines In Case Protests Turn To Tragedy

Olympic chiefs are prepared for deaths along the torch relay route, The Times has learnt.

In a confidential memorandum, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) has drawn up possible scenarios including incidents where people are hurt or killed during demonstrations in China and cities around the world that are hosting the torch.

The IOC, which approved the route through Tibet, has also prepared “response protocols” for its 205 national committees. The “suggested statement” in the case of a fatality is: “We extend our deepest sympathies or condolences to anyone that was injured or killed, and their families.”

The torch will be in Tibet in June when it will be taken to the summit of Everest, in what the memo calls a “particularly bold segment” of the relay. It is the most contentious leg of the Olympic flame’s “journey of harmony” before the Beijing Olympics.

Pro-Tibet campaigners have demanded a rerouting. They expressed anger that the IOC is refusing to intervene despite its private admission that protests could turn violent and lead to loss of life. “Either the IOC and Olympics sponsors want to avert bloodshed or they don’t. It is in their power to avert a humanitarian catastrophe,” Matt Whitticase, of the Free Tibet Campaign, said. “If they insist the torch goes through Tibet they will only have themselves to blame when it ends up drenched in Tibetan blood.”

The IOC defended its memo as good governance. “Part of any robust crisis management preparation is to take the worst-case scenarios. We don’t want them to happen but we have to prepare for everything,” Giselle Davies, communications director, said. The IOC “understood the emotions” over Tibet, she added, “but it was always the case that the torch would go to all regions of China”.

Bejing officials this week cancelled the press trip covering the ascent of Everest, blaming adverse weather. The IOC had said that media could cover the relay “in its entirety” but the Chinese are in charge of accreditations. No foreign journalist has operated freely in Tibet since March 14 and the region is closed to tourists.

Vincent Brossel, from Reporters Sans Frontières, a press freedom group, said: “The restrictions are in complete contradiction with Chinese promises to the IOC. Reporters should be allowed to go to Everest freely.”

Protests have followed the torch since it was lit in Athens last month, creating a public relations nightmare for organisers and sponsors.

For Japan this weekend, the three official torch sponsors – Coca-Cola, Samsung and Lenovo – have scaled down their involvement by cancelling advertising floats, over security fears.

In an open letter to Coca-Cola this week, more than 150 Tibet groups asked the US soft drinks group to use its influence to force a rerouting. Predicting violence, they cited the warning by Jampa Phuntsog, governor of the Tibetan Autonomous Region, that the Chinese authorities would “without doubt deal with these persons severely . . . we will not be merciful”.

The IOC’s Athletes’ Commission condemned the protests as “counter to the values the torch stands for” and said it had “not had the peaceful passage it deserves”.

Olympic sponsors came under more pressure when human rights activists gave warning that they faced a summer of protests outside their headquarters, starting this weekend. Dream for Darfur, which is campaigning for China to end its support for the regime in Sudan, said that sponsors were “silently complicit in the genocide”.

“We extend our deepest sympathies or condolences to anyone that was injured or killed, and their families From the IOC’s suggested statement

“Either the IOC and Olympics sponsors want to avert bloodshed or they don’t. It is in their power to avert a humanitarian catastrophe. If they insist the torch goes through Tibet they will only have themselves to blame when it ends up drenched in Tibetan blood Free Tibet Campaign

“Part of any robust crisis management preparation is to take the worst-case scenarios. We don’t want them to happen but we have to prepare for everything IOC communications director

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