Cambodian police blocked American actress Mia Farrow from holding a genocide memorial ceremony at a Khmer Rouge prison yesterday, at one point forcefully pushing her group away from a barricade.
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.
"My heart -- our hearts -- are breaking for what happened in Cambodia today, especially for the survivors of genocide," Farrow said at a news conference.
The Cambodian government had barred the ceremony several days ago, and yesterday police sealed off all roads leading to the Khmer Rouge's infamous Tuol Sleng prison, which is now a genocide museum in Phnom Penh.
The actress and seven other activists arrived at one of the barricades, about 150m from the museum's gate and refused to go away, linking their arms in a human chain.
Police pushed the group, shouting, "Go! Go! Go!" and blowing whistles. Farrow and the others eventually returned to a waiting van and drove off, a reporter at the scene said.
Nobody was hurt or arrested during the standoff, said Theary Seng, director of the Cambodian advocacy group Center for Social Development, which was working with Farrow.
The Cambodian government said days ago it would prevent the 62-year-old actress from going through with the ceremony.
Government spokesman Khieu Kanharith accused Farrow's group of trying "to exploit the bones of the dead Cambodians" to further a political cause.
"Why don't they just go to China to do that?" the spokesman said yesterday.
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