Farrow in Hong Kong ahead of Olympic torch relay
HONG KONG (AFP) — US actress and activist Mia Farrow touched down Thursday in Hong Kong, promising not to disturb the Olympic torch relay as she campaigns over Darfur and China's links to the Sudan government.
Amid fears here over freedom of speech ahead of Friday's leg of the relay -- which has been dogged by protests on its worldwide journey -- Farrow said she had been questioned briefly by officials on her arrival.
"They were very polite and very nice," she told reporters at Hong Kong airport. "They wanted some assurance that we are not here to disrupt the torch relay, which of course we are not.
"They wanted to know what we were here for, what was our agenda. They read out a statement about Hong Kong's position vis-a-vis the passage of the torch.
"We are not going anywhere near the torch, nor would we want to disrupt the torch," she added.
Friday's relay is expected to offer a last chance for pro-Tibet protesters and critics of China's rights record to target the torch before it passes from the relatively open former British colony to the more restrictive mainland.
Farrow has been pushing China to help stop violence in Sudan's conflict-riven Darfur region, and is expected to deliver an address here on Friday entitled "Darfur and the Olympics."
Asked what she thought Beijing should do on the Sudan issue, she said the government could press leaders in Khartoum to "cease the aerial bombardment and ground attacks" and let in a full complement of international peacekeepers.
The United Nations said last month that the death toll in Darfur from five years of war, famine and disease had reached 300,000.
More than two million people are believed to have fled their homes since the Sudanese government enlisted militia allies to put down a revolt in the region in 2003.
