Sirhan’s Mother Goes To U.N.

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32120, 16 October 1969, Page 2

Sirhan’s Mother Goes To U.N.

(N.Z. Press Assn.— Copyright)

NEW YORK. Oct. 14.

The mother of Sirhan Bishara Sirhan, the convicted assassin of Senator Robert Kennedy, travelled 3000 miles from California to address the United Nations General Assembly yesterday.

She nearly broke down in tears when she was barred from the chamber, United Press International reported. Mrs Mary Sirhan had come to discuss the plight of Palestinian Arab refugees, but as she apprached the General Assembly, she was stopped by Mr Constantine Stavropoulos,

Under-Secretary General in charge of General Assembly Affairs.

“Something makes me very 1 sad,” said Mrs Sirhan as tears welled in her eyes. "He (Mr Stavropoulos) told me I cani not do it by myself. He told me the Palestine people have no power.” Mrs Sirhan was told individuals were not allowed to address the General Assembly

unless they formally represented a nation, but Mr Stavropoulos said he would deliver Mrs Sirhan’s message to the Secretary General (U Thant). Speaking of the plight of Palestinian Arabs, Mrs Sirhan said: “They are suffering for 20 years. They haye no home. Their children are still living under tents for a roof and cold earth for their cradle. “I came for peace and justice,” she said, asked why she made the car trip to New York from her home in Pasadena, California. She said her son. who has appealed against a death sentence imposed for Senator Kennedy’s shooting in 1968, “is under the . power of God and justice.”