Western celebrities gather for Cambodia survival trek

February 6, 1980

About 150 politicians, charity workers, and celebrities from Europe and North America arrived in this eastern Thai border town Tuesday on the eve of a planned march to the Cambodian border. Organizers said their "March for Survival of Cambodia," aimed at drawing attention to conditions there, would go ahead as planned, although it has been condemned by the Vietnamese-backed administration in Phnom Penh as interference in Cambodia's internal affairs.

However, the organizers said they would abandon the march if they did not get permission to cross into Cambodia tomorrow to distribute about 200 tons of food and medicine.

Joan Baez, the singer, Liv Ullmann, the Norwegian actress, and Alexander Ginsburg, the Soviet dissident now living in the West, are among those taking part.