Clooney: Cast Raises Millions for Darfur

Good Ol' Kentucky boy...

Clooney: Cast Raises Millions for Darfur
Jun 27, 2007 - Clooney: `Oceans Thirteen' Cast Raises Millions for Darfur

"Ocean's Thirteen" stars have donated $5.5 million to humanitarian efforts in Sudan's Darfur region, according to actor George Clooney. Clooney told The Associated Press in a telephone interview from Rome that he was joined by Brad Pitt, Matt Damon, Don Cheadle and producer Jerry Weintraub in raising $9.3 million for Darfur, most of which was contributed at a dinner during the film's premiere last month at the Cannes Film Festival.

Clooney said more than half the money has already been donated to various charities dealing with Darfur. He said his group wants to keep emptying and replenishing the coffers of the humanitarian organization they co-founded, called Not On Our Watch, to focus global attention on the plight of the 2.5 million civilians in Darfur who have fled their homes. "There are only a few things we can do protect them where we can, and provide food, water, health care and counseling," he said. "We're just trying to get them to live long enough to get to the next step."

More than 200,000 people have died in the Darfur region of western Sudan since 2003, when local rebels took up arms against the Sudanese government, accusing it of decades of neglect. Sudan's government is accused of unleashing in response a militia of Arab nomads known as the janjaweed a charge it denies. Clooney announced the latest donation from Not On Our Watch $1 million to the U.N. World Food Program which will be used to help the U.N. agency deliver food and other necessities by helicopter to inaccessible villages in Darfur.

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[waltky]

Jimmy ain't grinnin'...

Jimmy Carter Blows His Top in Sudan
Oct 3, 2007 - Patience of Elders Tested in Sudan; Jimmy Carter Faces Down Sudanese Security in Darfur Over Meeting With Refugees From Conflict

Former President Carter got in a shouting match Wednesday with Sudanese security services who blocked him from a town in Darfur where he was trying to meet with refugees from the ongoing conflict. The 83-year-old Carter walked into this highly volatile pro-Sudanese government town to meet refugees too frightened to attend a scheduled meeting at a nearby compound. He was able to make it to a school where he met with one tribal representative and was preparing to go further into the town when Sudanese security officers stopped him.

"You can't go. It's not on the program!" the local security chief, who only gave his first name as Omar, yelled at Carter, who is in Darfur as part of a delegation of respected international figures known as "The Elders." "We're going to anyway!" an angry Carter retorted as a crowd began to gather. "You don't have the power to stop me." U.N. officials told Carter's entourage the Sudanese state police could bar his way. Carter's traveling companions, billionaire businessman Richard Branson and Graca Machel, the wife of former South African President Nelson Mandela, tried to ease his frustration and his Secret Service detail urged him to get into a car and leave.

"I'll tell President Bashir about this," Carter said, referring to Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir. Carter later agreed to a compromise by which tribal representatives would be brought to him at another location later Wednesday. But the refugee delegates never showed up. The Darfur conflict began when ethnic African rebels took up arms against the Arab-dominated Sudanese government, accusing it of decades of neglect. Sudan's government is accused of retaliating by unleashing a militia of Arab nomads known as the janjaweed a charge it denies. More than 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million displaced in four years of violence.

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[waltky]

Clooney speaks up for Darfur...

Clooney urges Sudan to let peacekeepers in
February 01, 2008 : OSCAR-WINNING actor George Clooney today appealed to Sudanese President Omar al-Beshir to allow the full UN-African Union peacekeeping force into strife-torn Darfur.

"These peacekeepers are not an occupying force, there are not there to spread democracy or infringe on religious belief," he said on his first visit to UN headquarters since UN chief Ban Ki-moon appointed him Messenger of Peace earlier this month. And Clooney said China, as a close ally and trading partner of Khartoum, had a key role to play in urging the Sudanese government to cooperate.

"It's China that can hold the Sudanese government to the commitments it made to the UN and to China specifically," Clooney said. "The international community looks more and more to China for leadership and with that comes great responsibility. You can be the difference to millions of people's lives. "I am proud to be here as a messenger of peace," said the Hollywood heartthrob, who earlier was mobbed on his arrival by dozens of excited female UN employees.

He shared his impressions of his recent tour of Darfur, Chad and the Democratic Republic of Congo where he accompanied UN Assistant Secretary General for field support Jane Holl Lute Lute on her recent technical mission. Asked how he would like the next US president to deal with the United Nations, the US actor replied: "Whoever he or she is, I would hope that they are infinitely more inclusive of the UN than the (current) administration."

Clooney, a passionate advocate for an end to war and famine in Sudan's Darfur region, was chosen as peace messenger in recognition for his tireless efforts to focus public attention on key international political and social issues. He has played a leading role in the international campaign to raise awareness of the humanitarian tragedy in Darfur, where at least 200,000 people have died from the combined effects of war, famine and diseases while another 2.2 million have been forced from their homes, according to UN figures.

More Clooney urges Sudan to let peacekeepers in | NEWS.com.au

[waltky]

Gee, wonder what was goin' on in Darfur while ever'body was watchin' the Beijing Olympics, wonder how many died?

Darfur Refugee Camp Attacked
Monday, Aug. 25, 2008 — Sudanese government forces attacked one of Darfur's largest refugee camps at dawn Monday, killing dozens of civilians, according to rebels and a witness in the camp.

Sudan's military acknowledged the raid but said soldiers were searching for smuggled weapons. The United Nations said it was "gravely concerned" about the situation inside the Kalma camp in southern Darfur after it received reports that Sudanese police vehicles surrounded it and subsequent attacks caused "injuries and deaths of civilians." The U.N. did not provide a death toll. But a resident of the camp, Mandela Abdullah Mohammed, told The Associated Press by telephone that he counted 32 dead bodies, including several women and children.

More than 50 vehicles "packed with armed men wearing police and security forces' uniforms ... hit us with rocket-propelled grenades and machine guns," Mohammed said. But a military spokesman said government troops were fired on first. "They were surprised by heavy gunfire from within the camp. There was an exchange of fire and a number of victims," said spokesman Sawarmy Khaled, without elaborating. He said the fighting had stopped by Monday night.

The assault comes as Sudan's president faces genocide charges for alleged government-backed attacks on ethnic Africans in the country's troubled western region. Up to 300,000 people have died and more than 2.5 million have been displaced since a rebellion began in Darfur in 2003. The International Criminal Court is expected to decide whether to issue a warrant for his arrest within months.

Kalma, which sits about 15 miles from the South Darfur capital of Nyala, is home to about 90,000 residents. Sudanese soldiers stormed the camp, a sprawling mix of mud huts and scrap-plastic tents, and immediately opened fire on civilians, said Nimr Abdel-Rahman, spokesman for the Sudan Liberation Army, a Darfur rebel group. He told AP by telephone from Darfur that 45 people were killed and 135 wounded. He was about 30 miles from Kalma but said the information came from witnesses and aid workers on the ground.

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UN criticises Sudan for killing civilians in Darfur
26 Aug 2008, The United Nations has criticised the Sudanese police for their alleged role in killing internally displaced persons (IDPs) at a camp in South Darfur.

A deadly firefight on Monday killed at least 25 people after Sudanese security forces thrust into one of the largest camps for displaced people in Darfur, witnesses and rebels said. "Such actions severely threaten the safety and security of civilians, who have a right to protection under international humanitarian law," UN spokesperson Marie Okabe told reporters as she urged restraint.

The UN Humanitarian Coordinator in Sudan has called for the immediate establishment of a humanitarian corridor at the Kalma camp, which is home to about 80,000 IDPs, so that the injured may be evacuated. The joint UN-African Union peacekeeping mission in Darfur (UNAMID) has sent police and military patrols to Kalma to confirm the details of the incident and provide any assistance needed. Okabe added that the mission's leadership is extremely concerned over the incident, stressing that the circumstances will be investigated and the entire situation is being closely monitored.

The mission has been in place in Darfur since the start of the year in a bid to try to quell the deadly fighting and humanitarian suffering that has afflicted the impoverished Sudanese region since 2003. In the past five years an estimated 300,000 people have been killed, either through direct combat, disease, malnutrition or reduced life expectancy, while another 2.7 million people have been forced to flee from their homes because of fighting between rebels, Government forces and allied Janjaweed.

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