Pat Dollard | Young Americans

CANBERRA, Australia - The Olympic flame arrived in Australia on Wednesday for the next leg of the torch relay and was immediately whisked away to a secret location to avoid anti-China protesters.

Criticism of China’s human rights record has turned the torch relay into one of the most contentious in recent history. Anti-Chinese protests have dogged stops in Greece, Paris, London and San Francisco. Many countries, including Australia, have responded by modifying routes and boosting security.

Yard-high fences were being erected along the route through the Australian capital, Canberra, where 80 runners will carry the torch on Thursday. The torch will thread along a 10-mile route that passes Parliament House and within 200 yards of the Chinese Embassy.

Hundreds of police will guard the torch to prevent the type of interruptions that have marked the relay in other cities in the flame’s global journey to the Beijing Olympics in August.

The flame arrived at an air base in Canberra from Indonesia and was greeted by government and Olympic officials and Aboriginal elder Agnes Shea, who said she hoped the torch’s stay would symbolize “good will for all mankind.”

A group of four people waved Chinese flags outside the gate of the base; there was no sign of protesters.

Officials said the flame’s location was being kept secret between its arrival and the relay Thursday because of the threat of protests.

“I don’t know, and I don’t want to know,” Australian relay organizer Ted Quinlan told reporters. “Originally, it was going to a hotel but there’s a distinct possibility it’s going to go to the embassy.”

Chinese ambassador to Australia Zhang Junsai told Channel Nine television news Tuesday that Chinese security officials still may intervene, saying: “If the flame is attacked I believe they will use their body.”

However, Australian officials said Wednesday that all security would rest with them. “I don’t know if I can be any clearer than that,” Phelan said. The officials have no special powers of arrest or immunity from prosecution if they were to intervene during the relay, he said.

One torchbearer withdrew from the relay earlier this week, saying the symbolism of the relay had changed after China’s Tibet crackdown last month.

Other torchbearers said the Olympics were the wrong place to make political protests. Ian Thorpe, a five-time Olympic gold medalist swimmer who will carry the torch Thursday, said the protests “shouldn’t be centered around a specific event.”

Pro-Tibetan and pro-Chinese demonstrations were expected Thursday. Both sides say they want the event to be peaceful.

Simon Bradshaw, campaign coordinator of the Australia Tibet Council, said he expected about 500 supporters for what he said would be peaceful protests in Canberra.

“This is not an attempt to mar the Olympics, and it’s certainly not an attack on the Chinese people. It’s a message of support for Tibet,” Bradshaw told The Associated Press.

About 4,000 Chinese students are expected in the capital to support the torch relay.

At a news conference of relay officials that was dominated by questions about security, Qu Yingpu, a spokesman for the Beijing Games organizing committee traveling with the torch, conceded there had been some problems said it had been a success so far.

“Definitely,” he told a news conference. “Like everything else, we have ups and downs, but we are quite easy with that.”

(AP)