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Political protests mar Seville opening

Spanish crown prince Felipe officially opened the seventh World Athletics Championships during a colourful opening ceremony last night. The opening was marred by political protests on the Basque issue and led to several arrests.

The Cope radio station reported that at least seven people were arrested during the two-hour ceremony.

The protests culminated when two human event mascots flanking the giant stage set up in the Olympic stadium tore off a part of their costume to reveal a Spanish slogan which translated into ''repatriate Basque prisoners".

It seemingly went unnoticed for several minutes by the 45,000- strong crowd until both were dragged off the stage by security forces. Another man was arrested in the stands during the speech of Seville's mayor Alfredo Sanchez Monteseirin when he unveiled a banner with what also appeared to contain be a Basque slogan.

The incident on the sensitive Basque issue will cause a furore in Spain.

Basque separatists have been peaceful in the past months in their fight for an independent state against the Spanish authorities as the ETA group declared cease fire.

But Basque nationalists have frequently demanded that all those imprisoned during the long conflict should serve their sentences in the province and used the world's biggest single sport event of the year to express their protest.

Around 1,900 athletes from a record 204 countries will participate at the nine-day competition, which kicks off today with the first three of a total 46 medal events (24 men, 22 women), the women's pole vault, and men's 20km walk and shot put.

Also in action in the heats and second round of the 100 metres today will be United States superstars and defending champions Marion Jones and Maurice Greene.

Before the political protests, the drug abuse issue also remained high on the agenda on the eve of the world's biggest single-sport event of the year and last major sports competition of the millennium.

The International Olympic Committee announced after meetings with the ruling athletics body IAAF it plans to introduce voluntary blood tests at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney to further clamp down on substance abuse.

French 100 metres runner Christine Arron, meanwhile, claimed in a general way she believed that doping was still frequent in the sport and that nothing has changed since Ben Johnson was caught for steroid abuse at the 1988 Olympics.

''I am sure that many in the (men's 100m) 1988 Olympic final (besides the caught Ben Johnson) were doped. I also think that a lot of athletes are doped today. I have my doubts. I can't name anyone special, it is just my suspicion,'' Arron told a news conference.

Arron also said she favoured blood tests in the wake of a series of prominent positive tests such as Merlene Ottey, Linford Christie and Javier Sotomayor over the past weeks.

Other athletes like Greene have criticised the test methods, but IOC boss Juan Antonio Samaranch gave the IAAF his full support.

''Personally, I believe that athletics deserves to be congratulated because of its fighting doping with facts, not just words. The IAAF should be an example for other federations,'' he insisted.

Samaranch and other dignitaries then joined a 60-strong sellout crowd in the Olympic stadium (Seville are bidding for the 2000 Games) for the opening ceremony which had a distinct Andalusian flavour.

Based on the legend of Hercules who is the founder of Seville, the two-hour show featured flamenco groups, famous dancer Joaquin Cortes and singer Estrella Morente.

Felipe, the prince of Asturias, officially opened the championships after the athletes' parade and after security was considerably tightened around the VIP seats following the mascot incident.

The IAAF boss Primo Nebiolo said the championships should become ''an example of trust, peace and friendship for the entire world".

Monteseirin made no reference to the protests, but said everyone's thoughts were especially with the people in Turkey after Tuesday's earthquake which killed 9,000 people, but possibly tens of thousands more.

''We welcome you with our friendship and solidarity. Solidarity which, today especially in this festive atmosphere, we wish to offer and ask of you for those nations who are suffering. Here in Seville we are thinking of you in Turkey,'' he said.

UNI