Cambodia denounces ICC over issuing arrest warrant for Sudanese president [-Dictator Hun Sen defending another dictator?]

PHNOM PENH, April 9 (Xinhua) -- The arrest warrant issued by the International Criminal Court (ICC) for Sudanese President Omaral-Bashir has been destroying the international efforts to deal with the matters of the Darfur region, said Cambodian Prime Minister Hun Sen here on Thursday.

"The arrest warrant for the governing Sudanese president from the court in Hague of Holland will lead to nothing, as you all can wait and see," he told the annual work-review conference of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forests and Fisheries, which was held at the Royal University of Agriculture.

On March 4, ICC issued the arrest warrant against the Sudanese president over charges of war crimes and crimes of anti-humanity. So far, Omar al-Bashir is still working in his country in the capacity of president.

"The Sudanese people and troops with weapons in their hands will not allow the court to arrest their leader," said Hun Sen.

The ruling Sudanese president has his privilege in leading the country, he said, adding that "I do not know why ICC did like that."

In addition, the premier stressed that ICC can not follow suit in Cambodia to arrest the surviving leaders of the former Democratic Kampuchea (DK) regime (1975-1979).

"Those DK leaders now stay in a place here and we ourselves can arrest them for tribunal," he added.

Currently, five senior DK leaders are under custody of the Extraordinary Chambers in the Courts of Cambodia (ECCC), which was co-installed by UN and the Cambodian government two years ago to put these people on trial on charges of crimes against humanity and war crimes.

Beauty and the Beast staring contest

A policeman (L) stops US Actress Mia Farrow (R) and Theary Seng (C), head of the Centre for Social Development, as they attempt to enter the Tuol Sleng Genocide museum in Phnom Penh, January 20. Actress Mia Farrow arrived in Cambodia and attempted to defy a ban on holding a ceremony at a former Khmer Rouge prison, as part of her campaign on Darfur, activists said. (AFP/Tang Chhin Sothy)

Mia Farrow should also lead a protest against the Hun Sen's regime collusion with China

Actress Mia Farrow protests outside the Chinese embassy in Washington DC

Cambodia accuses actress Mia Farrow of hijacking its tragic past

Wed, 16 Jan 2008
DPA

Phnom Penh - Cambodian officials Wednesday accused a group spearheaded by American movie star Mia Farrow of hijacking the country's tragic past for politics and barred it from taking a symbolic Olympic torch through a genocide museum. The actress was planning to light an Olympic torch at the Toul Sleng Genocide Museum in the capital where up to 16,000 people were tortured or killed by the Khmer Rouge in order to draw attention to the war in Sudan and China's close ties to that government.

China, one of Cambodia's closest allies, is preparing to host the Olympics in August. It has been accused of failing to use its economic clout in Sudan to end violence in the Darfur region, where the United Nations estimates that at least 200,000 people have died so far in a protracted war.

The Olympic torch-style relay Dream for Darfur has so far visited five countries where genocides took place, including Germany.

"Toul Sleng is a place to come quietly with incense to respect our dead, not for torches and politics," Toul Sleng director Chey Sopheara said by telephone.

"Please don't plus our victims to other issues. To do what the foreigners want would disturb our dead. How can they compare Toul Sleng with a sporting event?"

Farrow's organization has partnered with German-funded local non-government organization Center for Social Development. Its American-Khmer director Theary Seng has denied the guesture is political, but Cambodian officials disagree.

"It's naive to say this action avoids politics. We cannot allow it. We would not allow them to make these sorts of displays about any embassy here," government spokesman Khieu Kanharith said.

"If they wanted to make a protest against the American bombing of Cambodia, we would not allow that too," he said in reference to Richard Nixon's secret bombing of Cambodia from 1970 which many people blame for giving the Khmer Rouge the impetus to come to power.

Kanharith described Farrow, 62, and her local counterparts as "a group of foreigners lacking insight who do this for money" and warned against cheapening the memory of Cambodia's victims.

Up to 2 million Cambodians died under the Khmer Rouge regime.