DREAM DEFERRED
Financial Times, UK
Jan 17 2008
Mia Farrow is deeply concerned about the plight of Sudan’s Darfur
region, where government-backed militias are engaged in genocide
against the population.
The 62-year-old actress is part of the advisory committee for Dream
for Darfur, which is trying to pressure Beijing – a leading patron
of the Sudanese regime – to use its leverage in Khartoum to stop the
persecution of civilians in the blighted region.
It may have seemed logical for Darfur campaigners to expect sympathy
for their cause in Cambodia, which was devastated by the 1970s genocide
overseen by the Beijing-backed Khmer Rouge.
But Phnom Penh has vetoed Farrow’s plan to hold a ceremony and light
an Olympic-style torch this weekend at the Khmer Rouge’s notorious
former Tuol Sleng prison as part of a campaign to draw attention
to the Darfur crisis. Similar ceremonies have already taken place
in other countries touched by genocide including Rwanda, Armenia,
Germany and Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Cambodia explained its decision by saying that the activists were not
"doing this for humanitarian reasons but because they have a political
agenda against China".
China is Cambodia’s largest trading partner and one of its biggest
aid donors – which is perhaps why Phnom Penh is willing to let bygones
be bygones.