PHNOM PENH (AFP) — Actress Mia Farrow has arrived in Cambodia and plans to defy a ban on holding a ceremony at a former Khmer Rouge prison, as part of her campaign on Darfur, activists said Saturday.
She arrived in Cambodia with other members of her group on Friday, said Theary Seng, head of the Centre for Social Development, a Cambodian advocacy agency helping to organise the ceremony.
Farrow and her group, Dream for Darfur, plan to hold the ceremony on Sunday outside the notorious Tuol Sleng prison, which is now a genocide museum, despite the government ban, she said.
"Mia Farrow is now in Cambodia and the rally at Tuol Sleng still stands," said Theary Seng.
"We strongly urge all political parties to join the ceremony," she added.
The campaign aims to push China to pressure Sudan into ending the violence in Darfur, where the United Nations estimates that at least 200,000 people have died in five years of war, famine and disease.
But the government's chief spokesman, Khieu Kanharith, on Friday threatened to expel the activists and condemned the event as "insulting" to victims of the Khmer Rouge regime which devastated Cambodia during the late 1970s.
"We will not allow this. If this foreign group still insists on doing this ceremony, we will cancel their visas and expel them from Cambodia," he said.
Farrow's group has organised an Olympic-style torch relay through countries that have suffered genocide to draw attention to China's close ties with Sudan, as Beijing prepares to host the Games in August.
China was also the closest ally of the communist Khmer Rouge, under whose rule up to two million Cambodians died of starvation, disease or execution.
Cambodia would be the sixth stop for the group's relay, which began in Chad near the Sudanese border and continued to Rwanda, Armenia, Germany and Bosnia.
She arrived in Cambodia with other members of her group on Friday, said Theary Seng, head of the Centre for Social Development, a Cambodian advocacy agency helping to organise the ceremony.
Farrow and her group, Dream for Darfur, plan to hold the ceremony on Sunday outside the notorious Tuol Sleng prison, which is now a genocide museum, despite the government ban, she said.
"Mia Farrow is now in Cambodia and the rally at Tuol Sleng still stands," said Theary Seng.
"We strongly urge all political parties to join the ceremony," she added.
The campaign aims to push China to pressure Sudan into ending the violence in Darfur, where the United Nations estimates that at least 200,000 people have died in five years of war, famine and disease.
But the government's chief spokesman, Khieu Kanharith, on Friday threatened to expel the activists and condemned the event as "insulting" to victims of the Khmer Rouge regime which devastated Cambodia during the late 1970s.
"We will not allow this. If this foreign group still insists on doing this ceremony, we will cancel their visas and expel them from Cambodia," he said.
Farrow's group has organised an Olympic-style torch relay through countries that have suffered genocide to draw attention to China's close ties with Sudan, as Beijing prepares to host the Games in August.
China was also the closest ally of the communist Khmer Rouge, under whose rule up to two million Cambodians died of starvation, disease or execution.
Cambodia would be the sixth stop for the group's relay, which began in Chad near the Sudanese border and continued to Rwanda, Armenia, Germany and Bosnia.
5 comments:
"Khieu Kanharith, on Friday threatened to expel the activists and condemned the event as "insulting" to victims of the Khmer Rouge regime which devastated Cambodia during the late 1970s."
How is that insulting?
They would not dare to arrest Mia Farrow. She is stronger and more powerful than hun sen and youn. If she is arrested there will be outrage throughout the world. Mia Farrow is the world, hun sen and youn is one nation and one traitor. Who will win? The world will see the communist and the traitor's weakness.
Cambodia declare itself as the independent state, so it mains that what Cambodia have to do, is the cambodia matter, not first served the foreign interest. The question is, what real the definition of independent sate means?
ah Aka Moha Services Dey Jour(អគ្គមហាសេវាដៃចោរ) Hun Sen supports Darfur Genocide because ah Hun Sen(Bandith Plej Rean:បណ្ទិតភ្លេចរៀន) is a former khmer rouge soldier and the criminal against humanity in Cambodia.
see also:
http://hengpov.wordpress.com
http://hunsenmafia.blog.com
http://coupof56july.wordpress.com
ah Hun Sen massacred Khmer people on Sunday 30 march 1997
Maybe I am missing something, but why did Mia Farrow choose Cambodia to demonstrate against China in the first place? China won't pay attention to this anyway. And if, China won't be moved by Cambodia, or any other country the torch will pass through. Mia Farrow is a non-entity when it comes to politics. She should use her organization on the U. S. government instead. It doesn't do enough there anyway.
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