Everest torch silence breeds frustration

By Nick Mulvenney

EVEREST BASE CAMP (Reuters) - Sub-zero temperatures and altitude sickness were bad enough, but a lack of information about just when a special Olympic flame would start up Mount Everest made journalists doubly miserable at Base Camp on Tuesday.

More than 24 hours after arriving at the foot of the world's highest mountain, 10 foreign and 19 Chinese journalists had no clearer idea of when the assault on the summit from Tibet would begin, if it had not already.

The Everest flame is separate from the globetrotting Olympic torch that was paraded in Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City on Tuesday evening, the last international leg of a relay that has been dogged by protests and counter-protests over Tibet.

Officials are determined that this most prestigious stage of the global parade will not be spoilt by demonstrations.

All that was heard at Base Camp was the official mantra -- "the torch will go up Mount Qomolangma (Everest) on a day in May when the weather conditions are most suitable" -- and educated guesses as to exactly when -- Wednesday's 100-day countdown to the Beijing Games and Thursday's Labor Day holiday being the favorites.

"We are trying our best to give you information," said Liu Xuan, deputy director of the Tibet Information Office at the only press briefing on Tuesday. "We are hiding nothing."

Off the record, several of the large band of minders and interpreters accompanying the media admitted that there was an official silence because of security concerns.

A Japanese journalist who attempted to walk towards Base Camp proper on Tuesday afternoon was turned back by an armed security official.