A ROW is raging over a top law officer's claim that the streets of Atlanta, host of this year's Olympics, are more dangerous than those of war-ravaged Sarajevo.
City leaders, already sensitive to Atlanta's reputation of being the murder capital of the United States, went on the defensive after Georgia Attorney General Mike Bowers compared the city with the Bosnian capital.
"I'm willing to bet it's safer to walk the streets of Sarajevo than walk the streets of my home town," Bowers said in a speech to a crime seminar.
Police chief Beverley Harvard said Bowers' comparison of Atlanta with Sarajevo, which hosted the 1984 Winter Olympics, was ridiculous. "His comments are reckless, irresponsible and inaccurate," fumed Atlanta Mayor Bill Campbell.
Bowers, tipped to be a Republican candidate for state governor in 1998, said he simply wanted to drive home his concerns about rampant crime.
Olympic Games organisers declined to be drawn into the dispute, but the attorney general's outburst is the latest in a flood of negative publicity over Atlanta's violent image.
Olympic security officials say the visitors will have nothing to fear during the Games, to be staged from July 19th-August 4th. A multi-million dollar security operation is planned, involving tens of thousands of security officials.
