Monday, 21 January 2008

Authorities block Mia Farrow from genocide ceremony in Cambodia

CBC News
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Canadian Press: THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

PHNOM PENH, Cambodia - Cambodian police blocked American actress Mia Farrow from holding a genocide memorial ceremony today at a Khmer Rouge prison.

At one point, officers forcefully pushed Farrow's group away from a barricade.

The Cambodian government had barred the ceremony and police sealed off roads leading to the Khmer Rouge's infamous Tuol Sleng prison, which is now a genocide museum in the capital, Phnom Penh.

Farrow and her group arrived at one of the barricades and refused to go away.

Police started pushing the group, which eventually returned to a waiting car and drove off without anyone getting hurt.

An estimated 1.7 million Cambodians died during the Khmer Rouge's genocidal reign from 1975-1979.

Farrow was in Cambodia as part of tour of seven nations that have suffered genocide to call attention to the current humanitarian crisis in Sudan's Darfur region.

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