Australia - Australia's senior Olympic official is urging political demonstrators not to target the Beijing Games amid global moves to bolster security for the torch relay following protests in Ancient Olympia.
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A protester evaded tight security, ran behind Beijing Olympic chief Liu Qi, and held up a black banner showing the Olympic rings as handcuffs at the traditional lighting of the flame in Greece on Monday.
In other statements against China's human rights policies and crackdown in Tibet, three men advocating press freedom evaded massive security and ran onto the field at the ceremony in Ancient Olympia before they were seized by police.
And a Tibetan woman covered in fake blood briefly blocked the path of the torch relay.
"I think the Olympic Games are a cause and an agent for good, not a panacea for ills," former International Olympic Committee vice president Kevan Gosper, vice chairman of the IOC's Coordination Commission for the Beijing Games, said.
The Australian Capital Territory's chief minister John Stanhope is proposing high security when the flame arrives in Canberra on April 24 on its 130-day journey to the Aug. 8 opening ceremonies in Beijing.
"The ACT government has been liaising with the Chinese Embassy ... and the Australian Federal Police on security arrangements from the time Canberra was invited to participate in the torch relay," Stanhope said. "These arrangements are well-advanced and, of course, will remain subject to whatever change or augmentation might be needed."
Falun Gong practitioners and Tibet supporters have already staged protests outside China's embassy in Canberra.
"The ACT government respects the right of anyone to air their opinions or make their sentiments known, so long as they do so in a peaceful manner and so long as they respect the laws of the ACT," Stanhope said. "Canberra has the advantage of hosting the torch later in the global tour, and will be able to learn from the experience of other cities along the way."
China's communist leadership has faced a public relations disaster since protests of its rule turned violent March 14 in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa, sparking waves of unrest in surrounding provinces. China reported a death toll of 22 from the violence, but Tibet's exiled government says 80 Tibetans were killed. Nineteen died in subsequent violence in Gansu province, it said.
A rising chorus of international criticism and floated calls for a boycott have unnerved the Chinese leadership, which has turned up efforts to put its own version of the unrest before the international public.
"Everybody's very sensitive to what's been happening in Tibet in recent days and we hope that the Chinese will bring peace very quickly," Gosper said in an Australian TV interview Tuesday. The Olympics "is not a nasty event, this is an event of celebration.
"I think that detractors who try and draw attention to their own issues ... are only doing their own causes harm."
Gosper, who won a silver medal for Australia at the 1956 Olympics, said the spirit of the Olympics was at stake.
"It's symbolic of sport at its best, it's symbolic of peace and good will," he said. "And whilst there are detractors, we're hopeful the torch will come through as it should as an ideal of the Olympic and what it represents