US actress barred from Cambodia genocide museum for Darfur protest (AFP)

PHNOM PENH (AFP) - American actress Mia Farrow was on Sunday forced to cancel a ceremony in Phnom Penh highlighting human rights abuses in Sudan after authorities barred her access to the citys genocide museum.

Farrow and her group, Dream for Darfur, planned to hold an Olympic torch ceremony at Tuol Sleng prison -- a brutal interrogation centre under the Khmer Rouge -- as part of a campaign to highlight Chinas links to Sudan.

But the Cambodian government, which has close ties to Beijing, banned the ceremony, calling it "insulting" to the two million victims of the Khmer Rouge.

Cambodian police, some armed with truncheons and tear gas, blocked all road access to the museum, and an AFP reporter saw police push Farrows group when they refused to move from the genocide centre.

The star, joined by seven other activists, instead gave white lotus flowers to a policeman, and asked him to lay them in front of the museum.

"This flower honors all those who have perished, and celebrates for all those who have survived," Farrow said.

She told reporters later that the group was "disappointed" they could not hold the ceremony, while a Cambodian activist who helped organise the event accused China of quashing the movement.

"As a Cambodian, I am deeply deeply ashamed by the actions of our Cambodian authorities," said Theary Seng, head of the Centre for Social Development. "For me, its true that China interfered with our mission."

Farrows campaign aims to push China to pressure Sudan into ending the violence in Darfur, where the United Nations estimates at least 200,000 people have died in five years of war, famine and disease.

In the run-up to the Olympics, China -- which is by far the largest foreign investor in Sudan and absorbs almost two-thirds of its oil output -- has been under mounting pressure to use its clout on Khartoum.

China was the closest ally of the communist Khmer Rouge, under whose brutal rule up to two million Cambodians died of starvation, disease or execution during the late 1970s.

Farrows group has organised an Olympic-style torch relay through countries that have suffered genocide and Cambodia was the sixth stop after visits to the Sudanese border in Chad, as well as Rwanda, Armenia, Germany and Bosnia.