Lethal Weapon star held at Sudan demo

LETHAL WEAPON star Danny Glover was arrested on Wednesday outside the Sudan Embassy in Washington during a protest over Sudan’s humanitarian crisis.

Glover was speaking to a crowd who were calling for a peacekeeping force to stop violence in western Sudan.

“We want an end to the hostility,” said Glover.

The actor was later charged with disorderly conduct and unlawful assembly, the US Secret Service said.

“We must continue to put pressure on the Sudanese government,” Glover said before he was handcuffed and led away by the US Secret Service on the steps of the embassy in Washington DC. “We must continue to demand justice and we must continue to demand peace for the people of Darfur.”

Glover has caused controversy in the US before, when he signed a statement criticising American policies towards Cuba and Iraq.

Meanwhile, rebels from Sudan’s Darfur region yesterday rejected calls to disarm or confine their fighters to their bases before a political solution to the conflict there has been decided and implemented.

At African Union-mediated peace talks in the Nigerian capital Abuja to end 18 months of revolt in remote Darfur, Sudan’s government agreed to enlarge an AU force in the area to help confine rebels to their bases while Sudanese forces disarm Arab militias known as Janjaweed.

Sudan has already agreed to about 300 AU forces in Darfur to protect more than 100 observers of a shaky April cease-fire.