Clooney calls for action on Darfur

Actor George Clooney expressed frustration today over the lack of action to end the conflict in Darfur which has killed hundreds of thousands of people.

“I wish we could stand here today and say that everything is moving forward. It’s not,” Clooney told a UN press conference.

“There are talks and more talks about who started the fight, who’s responsible and who’s to blame and the only people didn’t start this fight, are not responsible and are not to blame suffer and die.”

The Oscar winner met UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to brief him about the delegation he led to China and Egypt, which included actor Don Cheadle, American speed skater Joey Cheek and Kenyan Olympian Tegla Loroupe.

All four have been to Sudan at different times and Clooney said they spoke not just as “concerned citizens” but as witnesses.

“All of us can report that the situation is at best grave and about to get worse – 2.5 million refugees with now almost no aid, no protection, no hope,” Clooney said.

“They are all alone, and workers are leaving, are being kicked out on a massive scale, leaving these people their last great task, watching their families die one by one,” he said.

China has close ties to the Khartoum government and is one of Sudan’s biggest customers for oil. Beijing has resisted UN attempts to force Sudan to accept UN peacekeepers in Darfur.

Egypt has been trying to mediate with Sudan to find a way of ending the crisis in Darfur.

Clooney said China and Egypt believe a negotiated peace treaty is the only way to bring safety to the region.

“They both believe they have a role to play in this process and must do more to get all the parties to the table – in time. It’s just not enough,” Clooney said.

More than 200,000 people have been killed and about 2.5 million people displaced in three years of fighting in Darfur between African rebels and government troops allied with Arab militia known as janjaweed.

A May peace agreement signed by the government and one of the major rebel groups was supposed to help end the conflict in Darfur. Instead, it has sparked months of fighting between rival rebel factions that has added to the toll of the dead and displaced.

The conflict has spread into neighbouring Chad and the Central African Republic.