Hundreds cheer on Olympic torch in Tanzania

About 1,000 people cheered and marched with a team of 80 athletes and a Cabinet minister who are participating in the Tanzania leg of the Olympic torch run.

Officials said that they were not expecting any of the disruptions that have hit other torch runs in the world.

Kenyan Nobel Peace laureate Wangari Maathai, however, pulled out of the relay in Tanzania to protest against China’s human rights record.

Vice President Ali Mohamed Shein lit the Olympic torch, passing it on to Cabinet minister Mohamed Seif Khatib who led the relay team from the main train station in Dar es Salaam, which is Tanzania’s commercial capital, to the city’s main stadium, about three miles away.

The crowd that marched behind the relay team, waved miniature Olympic flags and chanted “We are happy the torch came to Tanzania,” and “We are glad to receive it.”

Major demonstrations have followed the torch’s relay around the world on the way to Beijing for the summer Olympic Games.

Thousands of protesters angry at China’s human rights record have demonstrated. The procession in Argentina on Friday was the most trouble-free so far.

The torch leaves the only African stop on the relay and heads to Oman tonight.