Some 145 students, rights workers and Cambodian Muslims held a candlelight vigil at Phnom Penh’s Dubai Center Mosque Sunday as part of a global rally calling for an end to the genocide in Sudan’s Darfur region.
Demonstrators also toured Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum Sunday afternoon, wearing T-shirts that read, “We are victims of Cambodian genocide; we do not support any killings in Sudan.”
Tens of thousands of people in New York, London, Paris and dozens of other cities worldwide held demonstrations to mark “Global Day for Darfur” Sunday, calling on world leaders and the UN to end the conflict in Sudan.
Youk Chhang, director of the Documentation Center of Cambodia, which organized the events in Phnom Penh, said DC-Cam distributed fact sheets about the violence in Darfur during the day.
He said protesters were supposed to wear UN-style blue berets, as people did in the rallies in other countries, but they were unavailable so, instead, demonstrators wore blue baseball caps.
Ly Sok Kheang, coordinator of outreach programs at DC-Cam, said the mosque was the chosen site for the vigil as many of the victims in Darfur are Muslims.
At least 200,000 people have been killed in Darfur and some 2 million people have fled their homes since 2003. A peace agreement signed in May failed to halt the violence.
