Pat Dollard

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Pictured: A demonstrator carrying a black flag with handcuffs used to symbolize the five Olympics rings, runs behind Liu Qi, the president of Beijing’s Olympics Organizing Committee who speaks in Ancient Olympia, Greece, during the Olympic flame lighting ceremony.

ANCIENT OLYMPIA, Greece – Protesters disrupted the Beijing Olympics flame-lighting ceremony in Ancient Olympia on Monday and a Tibetan woman covered in fake blood briefly blocked the path of the torchbearer.

Protesters ran onto the stadium field during the ceremony, evading massive security aimed at preventing such disruptions in the wake of China’s crackdown on Tibet.

One man ran behind Liu Qi, president of the Beijing organizing committee and Beijing Communist Party Secretary, as Liu was giving a speech. The protester unfurled a black banner showing the Olympic rings as handcuffs.

Three protesters from the Paris-based press freedom group Reporters Without Borders face misdemeanor charges of disrespectful behavior at a public event. Police said the men, who had been accredited to attend the ceremony as journalists, were being held in the nearby town of Pyrgos.

“If the Olympic flame is sacred, human rights are even more so,” the Paris-based group said in a statement. “We cannot let the Chinese government seize the Olympic flame, a symbol of peace, without denouncing the dramatic situation of human rights in the country.”

China’s Communist leadership has faced a public relations disaster since demonstrations against Chinese rule turned violent March 14 in the Tibetan capital of Lhasa, leading to waves of unrest in surrounding provinces. People who sympathize with the Tibetan cause have also staged rallies in other countries.

The death toll from the violence in Tibet has varied and been impossible to confirm independently. China’s reported death toll is 22, but Tibet’s exiled government says 80 Tibetans were killed. Another 19 died in subsequent violence in Gansu province, it said.

China state TV cut away from the protest at the ceremony and showed a prerecorded scene, preventing Chinese viewers from seeing the incident. Chinese television commentators did not mention the demonstration.

(AP)