Protest mars Beijing torch lighting ceremony

By Karolos Grohmann

ANCIENT OLYMPIA, Greece (Reuters) - Human rights demonstrators breached tight security and tried to hijack the Beijing Olympic torch lighting ceremony and relay in ancient Olympia on Monday.

Just before the torch was lit inside the archaeological site that played host to the Olympics in ancient Greece, three demonstrators managed to break a tight police cordon.

One of them, carrying a black banner with five interlocked handcuffs in the pattern of the Olympic rings, approached Beijing Games chief Liu Qi during his speech in front of hundreds of officials but was quickly led away by police.

Liu did not get distracted by the commotion and continued his speech, while television footage immediately cut away from the incident.

"The Olympic flame will radiate light and happiness, peace and friendship, and hope and dreams to the people of China and the whole world," Liu told the assembled crowd.

Exiled Tibetans had pledged to demonstrate against China's security crackdown in the region and what they say is the IOC's hesitancy to pressure Beijing to improve its human rights record.

Press freedom group Reporters Without Borders (known by its French acronym RSF) said three of its members had tried to stage the protest on Monday.

"If the Olympic flame is sacrificed, human rights are even more so," the group said in a statement on its Web site (www.rsf.org/).

"We cannot let the Chinese government seize the Olympic flame, a symbol of peace without condemning the dramatic human rights situation."

RSF secretary general Robert Menard unfurled a second black banner from the VIP area where he was seated.

DEMONSTRATORS RELEASED

The detained three demonstrators were released late on Monday after a prosecutor charged them with offending public sentiment without provocation, a misdemeanor. Their trial date will be set soon, police said.

Smaller protests also took place during the first few kilometers of the relay leading to another six people being detained. Police said a total of nine people were briefly detained.

"It is always sad to see such a ceremony disrupted," International Olympic Committee (IOC) president Jacques Rogge told reporters.

IOC vice president Lambis Nikolaou, a Greek, was outraged by the disruption.