Australia fears Olympic torch "hooliganism"

By Rob Taylor

CANBERRA (Reuters) - Australia's government fears an outbreak of "football hooliganism" at the Olympic torch relay with thousands of pro-China and pro-Tibet activists massing for demonstrations, Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said on Sunday.

Police in the capital Canberra have erected steel fences along the 20-km (12.4 miles) relay route to keep demonstrators at bay, while war veterans have pleaded for a "peace precinct" free of protest ahead of the nation's most sacred memorial day.

"I urge people if they do turn up, that whatever point of view they want to put, they put that point of view peacefully and do it in a way in which Australians would regard as appropriate," Smith told Australian television.

"I'm very concerned that unless people turn up with that attitude we'll have the Olympic torch equivalent of football hooliganism," he said.

The Chinese Students and Scholars Association last week said it hoped 10,000 students and Chinese Australians would mass in Canberra for the April 24 torch relay to guard against pro-Tibet or Falun Gong "scum" and "running dogs".

The torch relay has drawn a wave of anti-China protests during stopovers in Europe and the Americas following Beijing's crackdown last month on Tibet unrest. The flame arrives in Kuala Lumpur on Monday, before traveling to Jakarta and Canberra.

The Canberra relay will be held the day before Anzac Day, on which Australians stop for candle-lit dawn services and parades in every city and town to commemorate their war dead.

Veterans this week called for a "peace precinct" on a boulevard fronting the Australian War Memorial, which is lined by statues and shrines to those killed in war. The torch relay will pass along the boulevard, as well as the national parliament.