The Olympics are meant to be a symbol of peace, or so we’re frequently told by Jacques Rogge of the International Olympic Committee. The Games are supposed to be a moment where the world comes together, focused on sport and not politics. I think it’s a pleasant fiction that the Olympics are not political, but it must be hard for even the most ardent believers in the peaceful symbolism of the Olympics when you have stories like this connected to the Olympic torch’s ascent of Mount Everest:

Nepalese soldiers and police guarding the slopes of Mount Everest are authorized to shoot to stop any protests during China’s Olympic torch run to the summit, an official said Sunday.

Chinese climbers plan to take the torch to the summit of Everest – the world’s highest peak on the border between Nepal and Tibet – in the first few days of May. During that time, other climbers will be banned from the mountain’s higher elevations.

Police and soldiers “have been given orders to stop any protest on the mountain using whatever means necessary, including use of weapons,” Nepal’s Home Ministry spokesman Modraj Dotel said, adding that the use of deadly force was authorized only as a last resort.

Giving security forces permission to shoot Olympic protesters is about as far as you can get from a symbol of peace.

I wonder if this is what they have in mind when it comes to protests that must be stopped through the “use of weapons”?

Tenzin Dorjee and other Tibetan independence activists protest the Olympic torch on Mount Everest in April, 2007.

I simply cannot understand why any government working alongside the Chinese and the IOC would think it is a good idea to authorize deadly force against those who would protest the Olympic torch. I wonder what Jacques Rogge has to say about Nepal’s willingness to shed blood to defend his flame.

Update:

Buckaroo Banzai at Tibet Will Be Free has more.