Rock gig spotlights human trafficking

Composer Duncan Sheik, nominated for Best Original Score (Spring Awakening), poses at the 2007 Tony Award nominee reception in New York on May 16, 2007. (UPI Photo/Ezio Petersen)

SIEM REAP, Cambodia, Dec. 16 (UPI) -- A group of international rock musicians took part in a concert at the Angkor Wat temple in Cambodia to raise awareness about human trafficking.

Sponsored by the MTV End Exploitation and Trafficking campaign, a project supported by the U.S. Agency for International Development, the event was the first rock concert ever performed at the massive 12th century temple, which is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

More than 1,200 fans turned out to see and hear The Click Five from the United States, Placebo from the United Kingdom, U.S. Grammy- and Tony Award-winner Duncan Sheik, Australian pop star Kate Miller-Heidke, Cambodian hip-hop icon Pou Klaing and Cambodian pop stars Sokun Nisa, Meas Soksophia and Chorn Sovanrech.

"We're here to call attention to human trafficking, a form of slavery that is as big a problem today as perhaps anytime in history," Placebo lead singer Brian Molko told the invitation-only audience.

The concert also featured traditional Khmer dancers and clips from "Traffic: An MTV Special," a documentary about human trafficking that was funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development, the agency said in a news release.

MTV EXIT Director Simon Goff said: "Millions of people are currently living in slavery as a result of being trafficked. This is a grotesque human-rights abuse and we must all act to stop it."