Picture this - dashingly handsome Hollywood actor George Clooney togged out in cargo pants and a photographer's flak jacket, a camera slung over his shoulder and his eyes squinted in the baking sun of western Sudan as he goes from camp to camp, interviewing the survivors of wide scale ethnic cleansing.

Given some of Clooney's recent acting roles, as a top-flight McCarthy-era journalist in Good Night and Good Luck and as a CIA operative mired in the dirty dealings of the oil industry in Syriana, the setting could be a backdrop for one of his movies. But the location this time is not a movie set and there are no actors, only the real survivors of an actual humanitarian crisis.

Clooney is one of just a handful of celebrities in recent years that have tried to capitalize on their fame, devoting time, effort and money in order to raise awareness about humanitarian causes around the globe.

The idea of film and music industry celebrities championing worthy causes is not necessarily new - the 1950s McCarthy era had its Humphrey Bogart; the 1960's-70's Vietnam War era had its "Hanoi Jane" Fonda; the devastating African drought and shameful South African apartheid of the 1980s had their "Live Aid" and "Sun City" musicians. But in recent years, it seems that some big-name celebrities have become increasingly vocal over a particular issue that means a lot to them on a personal level. U2 lead man Bono campaigns tirelessly for aid and debt relief in Africa, actress Angelina Jolie speaks out for refugees, and Clooney highlights the humanitarian crisis in Darfur.

The Crisis in Darfur

Sudan, Africa's largest country, has 37 million people belonging to hundreds of tribal, ethnic and linguistic groups, making it difficult to govern. The country has been mired in a series of conflicts since it gained independence from Britain and Egypt in 1956, the longest of which was a 21-year civil war in the south that pitted Muslims against Christians and animists, leaving 2 million dead before the signing of a peace agreement in January, 2005. Since early 2003, Sudanese government forces and "Janjaweed" militias have waged war against two loosely allied rebel factions - the Sudanese Liberation Army/Movement and the Justice and Equality Movement, both located in the western Sudanese region of Darfur. According to Human Rights Watch, government forces have waged a deliberate and systematic campaign of "ethnic cleansing" against civilians who come from the same three ethnic groups as the two rebel groups. The government forces and "Janjaweed" are mainly Arabs, while the rebel forces and most of Darfur's civilian population belong to various African ethnic groups.

Since fighting began in Darfur, according to reports by the World Food Programme, the United Nations and the Coalition for International Justice, 3.5 million people are now hungry, 2.5 million have been displaced both within Darfur and to neighboring Chad, and it is estimated that between 200,000 and 400,000 people have died due to the violence. Even those who have not been directly affected by the violence are in need of some form of international aid, as the local economy has collapsed due to the fighting, and hundreds of thousands are on the brink of starvation.

A recent Human Rights Watch mission to the bordering nation of Chad reported massacres taking place that are very similar to the onslaught that has consumed Darfur during the past three years, adding to fears that the conflict may be spreading.

Since early 2003, Sudanese government forces and "Janjaweed" militias, both primarily Arabs, have waged war against two loosely allied rebel factions, belonging to various ethnic groups .

In 2004, the U.S. House of Representatives approved the term "genocide" for what was taking place in Darfur, and the U.S. government has increased its aid packages to the region. A peacekeeping mission comprised of an under-funded and under-equipped African Union (AU) force is in place, but it has been unable to protect Darfurian civilians from violent attacks by the Janjaweed, nor can they protect the international aid workers bringing much-needed food and medical supplies to the conflict zone. Despite the AU peacekeepers, increased aid and a May 5, 2006 peace accord signed between the warring factions, the violence against civilians continues. Efforts to interject a stronger multi-national peacekeeping mission have been stymied by diplomatic rows over the sensitive issue of putting large numbers of Western soldiers on African soil.

A real stumbling block to progress is that the United Nations has not yet deigned to call what is happening in Darfur "genocide". Secretary General Kofi Annan has called it "the worst humanitarian crisis in the world today." Despite this, the U.N. has failed to authorize a chapter 7-mandated peacekeeping mission to the region, much as it failed to do in Rwanda in 1994.

Becoming a Voice for the Voiceless

In an effort to focus more international attention on the atrocities taking place in Darfur, George Clooney and his father Nick Clooney, a former journalist, carried out a five-day visit to the region in April. During their stay, the Clooneys met with, photographed and documented the stories of some of the more than 1.8 million internally displaced people now living in camps in Darfur.

Following their visit to Sudan, the Clooneys appeared with dozens of speakers at a "Save Darfur" rally held on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., on April 30. Among the other celebrities and public officials who spoke at the rally were: Elie Wiesel, the Holocaust survivor and recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize; Senator Barack Obama, Democrat of Illinois; Nancy Pelosi, House of Representatives minority leader; Manute Bol, the former NBA player, who is Sudanese; the Rev. Al Sharpton; Paul Rusesabagina, the subject of the film Hotel Rwanda, who helped save more than 1,200 people from the Rwandan genocide; Joey Cheek, the Olympic speed skater; and Big & Rich, the country music group.

But the rally attendees seemed particularly anxious to hear Clooney speak, having just returned from Darfur. His message to the tens of thousands gathered on the Mall was somber.

"If we turn our heads and look away and hope that it will all disappear, then they will - all of them, an entire generation of people. And we will have only history left to judge us."

"If we turn our heads and look away and hope that it will all disappear, then they will - all of them, an entire generation of people," Clooney told the gathered masses. "And we will have only history left to judge us."

The Washington rally was one of nearly 20 events held nationwide by the Save Darfur Coalition, an alliance of more than 160 organizations, to raise public awareness and urge U.S. and international political action to protect the civilians of Darfur who are currently in danger.

To Stand By or to Stand Up

As New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof suggested recently, "Perhaps the most striking distinction in the history of genocide is not between those who murder and those who don't, but between ‘bystanders' who avert their eyes and ‘upstanders' who speak out."

In his dedication to raising awareness in the United States on the ongoing violence in Darfur, Clooney definitely has stood up to earn a spot in the latter category.

All the while George Clooney has been campaigning for more action on Darfur and other issues that are important to him, he has kept a lavish celebrity lifestyle. But it seems that in his case, the two are complementary - The Guardian reported, for instance, that Clooney donates 25 percent of all earnings from a recent Las Vegas casino venture to the "Make Poverty History" campaign.

‘Never Again'…Again and Again

Some of the momentum in recent activism over Darfur has likely arisen from the fact that just over a decade ago, the Rwandan genocide shocked a world that failed to act in time; a world that virtually stood by while upwards of 800,000 ethnic Tutsis were brutally massacred over a period of 100 days by their ethnic Hutu neighbors. Then, as after the Holocaust of World War II, the world vowed that "Never Again" would such atrocities be allowed.

Since 2003, however, similar atrocities have been taking place in western Sudan, and the world again has turned a blind eye. In all of 2005, the flagship United States CBS Evening News devoted just two minutes of airtime to coverage on Darfur.

With such blatant neglect of the issue by news media, and such little action by politicians and diplomats, it is inspiring that celebrities like George Clooney - who typically live their lives in the public eye anyway - have taken on the cause of raising awareness about Darfur.




Contributed by Conor Fortune. Fortune, a freelance journalist and former Rotary World Peace Fellow.

To read another Global Envision article about celebrity activism, see Bono and Tough Love.

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For more information on the crisis in Darfur please visit the Save Darfur Campaign.

Read more about the work Mercy Corps is doing in Sudan and how you can make a difference.

Mercy Corps board member Linda Mason recently visited Darfur and spoke to NPR about the crisis in Africa's largest country. Hear her comments in Journey to Darfur or read her article Bulls Without Horns.

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For more information and ways to help explore some of these other links:

Human Rights Watch

Make Poverty History

Save Darfur

The Coalition for International Justice

The United Nations and the UNHCR

World Food Programme






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