PRESS CONFERENCE ON SITUATION IN DARFUR

 

The people in Darfur and those in Chad’s refugee camps were being left to watch their families die one by one, film actor/director George Clooney said at Headquarters this morning.

Speaking on the situation in Darfur at a press conference sponsored by the Permanent Mission of Canada to the United Nations, he said the humanitarian crisis ravaging the Darfur region of western Sudan and the eastern part of neighbouring Chad was at its tipping point, affecting an estimated 2.5 million refugees who had almost no aid, protection or hope.  Humanitarian workers had been kicked out on a massive scale.

Accompanying Mr. Clooney were fellow actor Don Cheadle; Joey Cheek and Tegla Loroupe, Olympic athletes from the United States and Kenya, respectively; David Rubenstein of Save Darfur, and Ambassador Lawrence Rossin.  The group had been invited by the Governments of China and Egypt to discuss the steps required for the restoration of peace.

Mr. Clooney said both countries had agreed on the need to do more.  China was the Sudan’s largest trading partner and wielded great economic influence, while Egypt had a long shared history with its southern neighbour and carried great political weight with President Omar Hassan El-Bashir.  Both countries believed that a negotiated peace treaty between rebel factions and the Government was the only way to bring peace back to the region and that they had a role to play in the process.

However, things were not moving forward, he said, adding: “There are talks and more talks about who started the fight, who is responsible, who’s to blame.”  If one walked 50 miles through the desert to a refugee camp, at the very least, one should, upon arrival, be protected from rebel attacks.  Egyptian First Lady Suzanne Mubarak had suggested that her country host a forum on humanitarian issues and women in Darfur.  She was also willing to travel to a refugee camp in Chad and bring awareness of their plight back to the Arab world.

He said Egypt’s Minister for Foreign Affairs had offered doctors and humanitarian workers to help fill the void left by the aid workers forced to leave, while China’s Assistant Foreign Minister had pledged to share his great concern over the humanitarian situation with the Government of the Sudan.  Both Egypt and China had suggested, separately, that United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan would be highly effective as a special envoy upon leaving his post at the end of the year.

Stressing the need to encourage the Darfur rebel groups to return to negotiations, he said a strong and effective civilian protection force must move into the strife-torn region at the invitation of the Sudanese Government.  Those with influence over Khartoum, including China, Egypt and the Russian Federation, among others, should use that influence energetically.

He pointed out that calls for patience translated into inaction at the present point.  Priorities must be linked to human survival rather than political processes.  The time would come when the situation would all be sorted out, whether that would be after 50,000 more deaths or 2 million.  But the question then would be, “Where did the nations of these United Nations stand?”

Mr. Cheadle, who starred in the film Hotel Rwanda about the 1994 genocide in that country, said the Darfur story deserved at least as much media space as the one about Britney Spears’ lack of underwear.

Answering a correspondent’s question, one member of the group said both Egypt and China felt that, in order for a United Nations force to be deployed, a peace deal must be negotiated and the rebels brought to the table.  While the idea of a hybrid African Union-United Nations force was moving forward, the question was, what the helmets would look like, who would be in charge and how it would be funded.  Negotiations were continuing about allowing the present African Union force greater control and access.

In the Arab world, as well as globally, there had been a “deafening silence” in the media about the Darfur situation, one group member said.  Aid workers were being attacked and medical supplies burned.  Those stories must come out, but not “buried on page 17”.  One participant noted that 2.5 million people were at great risk.  “There is a fire in the theatre and somebody has to jump up and yell that.”

Noting that China would be hosting the Olympics in 2008, Mr. Cheek said that would give the country a chance to show the world it was a “true super power”, adding that, in the spirit of the Olympian ideal, he intended to gather as many international athletes as possible to work on getting the Darfur story out.  “Peace is everybody’s business,” Ms. Loroupe added.

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For information media • not an official record