PARIS, April 10, 2008  - France's interior minister faulted the Chinese organisers of the Olympic torch relay for its chaotic run through Paris, saying in an interview Wednesday that French police merely provided technical support.
   "The Olympic rule is that the organising country is always responsible for
preserving the flame," Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie told Le Parisien
newspaper.
   "They made the decisions concerning the flame during its journey in Paris,"
she said. "They decided during many stretches of the run to take cover in a
bus or not to make some scheduled stops."
   Protests in Paris Monday by human rights campaigners angry at China's
crackdown in Tibet forced organisers to extinguish the torch five times and to
seek refuge with the relay athletes in a bus.
   Alliot-Marie said she had ordered an inquiry into reports that French
police seized Tibetan flags from protesters "to determine whether confiscated
objects did not represent any danger."
   She said French police were responsible for general security during the
event, but that the "bubble" surrounding the athletes carrying the torch were
the responsibility of the Chinese organisers who provided the security guards.
   "The police services were ordered to prevent anyone from penetrating inside
the security bubble," she said. "The police services provided technical
support."
   President Nicolas Sarkozy described the protests that marred the torch
relay a "sad spectacle", adding that "most demonstrators did so in a very
proper way."
   The torch run was set to continue in San Francisco on Wednesday, with
organisers bracing for more protests, having already cancelled part of the
route.
   International leaders are under pressure to boycott the opening ceremony of
the Olympics in Beijing on August 8.
   French judo champion David Douillet, who was among the torch runners,
assailed the Chinese security detail, calling them "robots" and "attack dogs".
   "They push you around, badger you and insult you in Chinese," Douillet told
RTL radio.
   Former British Olympic champion Sebastian Coe, who heads the London 2012
Games, was overheard this week by a British broadcaster describing the Chinese
officials guarding the Olympic flame as "thugs".
   He said that organisers of the French leg of the torch relay should "get
rid of those guys" because the Chinese guards "tried to push me out of the way
three times" during the relay in London on Sunday.

AFP