Olympic Torch Relay Curtailed, Rerouted amid Protests

SAN FRANCISCO — Angry and sometimes violent skirmishes between demonstrators prompted officials to cut short and radically change the only North American appearance of the Olympic torch on Wednesday, turning a symbol of world harmony into one of conflict.

Flanked by police in riot gear, with an amphibious vehicle and police sedans blocking access from the front and rear, torch bearers took a surprise route away from thousands of protesters who had massed along the city's waterfront Embarcadero beginning before dawn on Wednesday.

At times, police outnumbered spectators along the revised parade route because of the last-minute change. Authorities, determined to prevent protesters from trying to grab the torch like they did in Paris and London, wielded long batons and pushed back anyone who tried to get near the flame.

A closing ceremony intended to celebrate the end of the torch relay was canceled just minutes before it was supposed to begin. An impromptu ceremony by officials was later planned at San Francisco International Airport before the torch was scheduled to leave the United States on a China Airways flight for Buenos Aires, Argentina.

Confused spectators and protesters along the original route were left bewildered.

"We are so disappointed," said Tim Zu, wearing a Beijing 2008 shirt and carrying a small Olympic flag. He took a day off work with plans to see the historic torch run, only to be in the wrong place.

"I don't know who to blame but this didn't benefit anyone - not the protesters, not the city" and not fans of the Olympics, he said.

San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom told The Associated Press that Wednesday's events were changed because of the size of the tense mob of people gathered near the planned original starting point of the torch run.

There was "a disproportionate concentration of people in and around the start of the relay," Newsom said. "We felt by the time we got everybody on the sidewalks, too much time would have passed."

Accompanying Newsom, U.S. Olympic Committee Chairman Peter Ueberroth said he was satisfied with the relay. He said the United States had struck the right balance between preserving the freedom of speech for protesters, providing an exhilarating experience for the torchbearers, and preventing a repeat of the chaotic demonstrations that accompanied the torch in London and Paris.

"As close as anybody can do in a free society, so far it's looking very good," Ueberroth told the Associated Press. "Virtually anybody and everybody is being heard."

While many were in San Francisco to support the Olympics and catch a glimpse of the flame, many more were here primarily to demonstrate in support of China or against its human rights policies and its recent crackdown on Tibet.

Supporters of China, many waving red Chinese flags and singing patriotic songs, were as numerous as pro-Tibetan demonstrators.

"We're here to support our country" and see the torch, said college student Sisi Wu, a native of China who drove five hours with friends and slept in her car overnight to be a part of Wednesday's historic event.

In the end, though, she and her friends were in the wrong place to even catch a glimpse of the torch.

Sporadic violence broke out all along the original parade route.

About a half-hour before the torch was lit - only to be secretly carried by van to a location about a mile away - a large group of protesters stopped a municipal bus and vandalized it, according to police.

Elsewhere, China supporters and pro-Tibetan protesters pushed and shoved and shouted at each other.

Andrew French, wearing a "Free Tibet" T-shirt and carrying a sign quoting the Dalai Lama, Tibet's exiled Buddhist leader, said he was sprayed in the face with pepper spray by a pro-China demonstrator.

"It's all about trying to create a peaceful world," French said. But, he added, "my eyes are still burning."

Not far away, China native Adam Min taunted a group of protesters carrying Tibetan flags, matching their calls of "Free Tibet" with shouts of "Liar! Liar!"

"There's always two sides to a story, and they're not telling the truth," said Min, who was born in China but moved to California 20 years ago.

Chinese officials chose San Francisco as the only North American stop on the 85,000-mile, six-continent torch run in part because of its large Chinese population.

An estimated 20 percent of San Francisco's population is Chinese, and the city is the home to the biggest Chinese population in the world outside of China.