BEIJING, Aug 5: The international torch relay for the Beijing Olympic Games should not have happened and had gone close to being a disaster, former IOC vice-president Dick Pound said here on Tuesday.

Pound said he had recommended it should not take place, and in future the relay — which was disrupted in several of the foreign legs by pro-Tibet and Darfur protesters — should be restricted to the host country.

“This [relay] came very close to a disaster which was beyond us, BOCOG [the Games organising committee] and the Chinese government,” said the frank-talking Canadian lawyer.

“I had recommended that the international torch relay should not take place and I thought the executive board had agreed that. The risks were there and they should have been assessed. There was a crisis.”

But for the devastating earthquake in Sichuan Province which killed nearly 70,000 people earlier this year, Canada at least would have boycotted the Games, Pound said.

“We were in full boycott mode and it was only in the aftermath of the earthquake that it diverted attention away from the boycott.

“But the IOC must ask why there are Western governments who are not being represented at the opening ceremony.

“It must be looked into in the aftermath of the Games how this happened and we must do away with the international part of the torch relay. I think they are wonderful in the host country.”

IOC President Jacques Rogge, who beat Pound to succeed Juan Antonio Samaranch to the IOC presidency in 2001, had earlier ruled out stopping the relay at future Olympics despite the trouble.

But he admitted following disruptions the IOC would review the procedure of how it took place.

Most of the trouble occurred on the European legs, especially at the initial lighting of the flame in Greece which was a severe embarrassment to organisers.

Violent protests followed in London, Paris and San Francisco.

At the time Rogge said he was “very concerned” by China’s crackdown in Tibet but also deplored the protests in San Francisco.—AFP