A policeman tries to stop US actress Mia Farrow and Khmer survivor Theary Seng, who is an author and executive director of the Centre for Social Development, from making their way to lay flowers at Tuol Sleng genocide museum in Phnom Penh on Sunday.Photo: ReutersJanuary 21, 2008
Cambodian police blocked American actress Mia Farrow from holding a genocide memorial ceremony at a Khmer Rouge prison on Sunday, at one point forcefully pushing her group away from a barricade.
The Cambodian Government had barred the ceremony several days ago and today police sealed off all roads leading to the Khmer Rouge's infamous Tuol Sleng prison, which is now a genocide museum in the capital, Phnom Penh.
The actress 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, according to an Associated Press reporter at the scene. Nobody appeared to have been hurt.
Farrow, who is working with the US-based advocacy group Dream for Darfur, was in Cambodia as part of a seven-nation tour of countries that have suffered genocide to call attention to the humanitarian crisis in Sudan.
An estimated 1.7 million Cambodians died during the Khmer Rouge's genocidal reign from 1975-1979.
Thousands of Khmer Rouge prisoners were tortured at the Tuol Sleng prison before being executed outside the capital at the site known as "the killing fields".
Farrow had planned to light an Olympic-style torch outside the former prison to send a message to China - the next Olympic host and one of Sudan's major trading partners - to press the Sudanese Government to end abuses in Darfur.
The Cambodian Government, which has strong economic and political ties with China, said days ago it would prevent the 62-year-old actress from going through with the ceremony. The Government accused Farrow of having "a political agenda against China" and staging the event for political rather than humanitarian reasons.
Farrow denied that her intentions were political in an interview on Saturday, and said she was determined to press ahead with the ceremony.
"It's pretty harsh to be against a ceremony that honours the victims of Darfur and genocide survivors everywhere," Farrow said.
Dream for Darfur has taken its torch-lighting campaign to other places that have suffered mass killings - the Darfur-Chad border, Rwanda, Armenia, Germany and Bosnia-Herzegovina - to honour genocide victims and call attention to the violence in Darfur. The group plans to head to China following its Cambodia visit.
Dream for Darfur claims China has sold weapons to the Sudanese Government and has defended Khartoum's actions in Darfur at the UN Security Council, while Chinese oil operations in Sudan have helped fund genocide there.
China, the biggest backer of the Khmer Rouge's communist regime in the 1970s, is a major donor to Cambodia and has been described by Prime Minister Hun Sen as Cambodia's "most trustworthy friend".
Cambodian police blocked American actress Mia Farrow from holding a genocide memorial ceremony at a Khmer Rouge prison on Sunday, at one point forcefully pushing her group away from a barricade.
The Cambodian Government had barred the ceremony several days ago and today police sealed off all roads leading to the Khmer Rouge's infamous Tuol Sleng prison, which is now a genocide museum in the capital, Phnom Penh.
The actress 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, according to an Associated Press reporter at the scene. Nobody appeared to have been hurt.
Farrow, who is working with the US-based advocacy group Dream for Darfur, was in Cambodia as part of a seven-nation tour of countries that have suffered genocide to call attention to the humanitarian crisis in Sudan.
An estimated 1.7 million Cambodians died during the Khmer Rouge's genocidal reign from 1975-1979.
Thousands of Khmer Rouge prisoners were tortured at the Tuol Sleng prison before being executed outside the capital at the site known as "the killing fields".
Farrow had planned to light an Olympic-style torch outside the former prison to send a message to China - the next Olympic host and one of Sudan's major trading partners - to press the Sudanese Government to end abuses in Darfur.
The Cambodian Government, which has strong economic and political ties with China, said days ago it would prevent the 62-year-old actress from going through with the ceremony. The Government accused Farrow of having "a political agenda against China" and staging the event for political rather than humanitarian reasons.
Farrow denied that her intentions were political in an interview on Saturday, and said she was determined to press ahead with the ceremony.
"It's pretty harsh to be against a ceremony that honours the victims of Darfur and genocide survivors everywhere," Farrow said.
Dream for Darfur has taken its torch-lighting campaign to other places that have suffered mass killings - the Darfur-Chad border, Rwanda, Armenia, Germany and Bosnia-Herzegovina - to honour genocide victims and call attention to the violence in Darfur. The group plans to head to China following its Cambodia visit.
Dream for Darfur claims China has sold weapons to the Sudanese Government and has defended Khartoum's actions in Darfur at the UN Security Council, while Chinese oil operations in Sudan have helped fund genocide there.
China, the biggest backer of the Khmer Rouge's communist regime in the 1970s, is a major donor to Cambodia and has been described by Prime Minister Hun Sen as Cambodia's "most trustworthy friend".
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