USA: Actor George Clooney meets with Secretary General Kofi Annan regarding the crisis in Darfur

Award winning actor George Clooney visited the United Nations on Friday (December 15) on a humanitarian effort regarding the situation in Darfur, Sudan. He met with Secretary General Kofi Annan in regards his recent human rights mission to China and Egypt on Darfur. Clooney, along with a delegation comprised of actor Don Cheadle, Olympic athlete Joey Cheek and Kenyan Marathon runner Tegla Loroupe sat down with Annan at the United Nations to report what they learned on their trip. "We came here not only as a group of concerned citizens, but as witnesses of the devastation of the north, south and west Sudan," Clooney said to a group of reporters afterwards. He went on to say, "all of us can report that the situation is at best grave and about to get must worse" and described the situation in saying, "there are 2.5 million refugees with now almost no aide, no protection and no hope. They are all alone. The workers are leaving, or are being kicked out on a massive scale, leaving these people their last grave task of watching their families die, one by one. " As part of their humanitarian effort to help end the genocide in Sudan's Darfur region, Clooney and the others in his delegation were invited to meet with the governments of China and Egypt who both have relationships with Sudan and would like to see peace. Don Cheadle, actor and star of the film Hotel Rwanda, said that they learned from Egypt that they continue to have access into the Darfur region, and said, "we have to keep communication and we have to keep eyes in the region, because as soon as that goes away then those who will do the greatest ill, we do so with no oversight." "We want to keep the focus on people are dying and we need protection for civilians," said Cheadle. In September of this year, Clooney, along with Nobel Peace Prize winner and UN Messenger of Peace Elie Wiesel met with the UN Security Council members to urge them to act on the situation in Darfur.

ITN Source | December 16, 2006

Tags:. .source. .million. .friday. .governments. .recent