George Clooney on the Sudan, His Arrest, Kony 2012, and More

After his arrest on Friday, George Clooney hit the Sunday talk show circuit to talk about the problems in the Sudan and more.

-Lucia Peters, BettyConfidential.com

George Clooney
George Clooney

It's doubtful that you missed this little tidbit, but just in case you did, George Clooney (actor by day, activist by night!) got arrested on Friday outside the Sudanese Embassy in Washington, DC during a protest intended to warn of a humanitarian crisis at the border between Sudan and South Sudan. It was a peaceful protest-no violence!-which consisted of George and the other protesters (including his father, journalist Nick Clooney) blocking the entrance to the embassy; after being given orders to disperse by the police three different times, the cops moved in and arrested the protesters.

Naturally, George took to the talk show circuit on Sunday to further voice his concerns and draw attention to the problems in the Sudan. Georgie has previously accused Sudanese president Omar al-Bashir, government official Ahmad Harun, and defense minister Abdelrahim Mohamed Hussein of orchestrating systematic killings-essentially, an ethnic cleansing. "What we see going on there," he said to Fox News (yes, I realize it's Fox News, but George's points still stand), "is exactly what we saw going on in the beginning at Darfur." He went on to state that according to the terms laid out by the Geneva Convention, the actions of al-Bashir, Harun, and Hussein classify as war crimes.

He said of his recent trip, "Once we got into the conflict zone, you could see, first of all, the remnants of a fairly active war. There were dead bodies lying around…. But what it really comes down to is, it's a program of fear," he continued, noting that in one village they saw, 34 people had been killed in the last two months. But even more than just killing people, he said, they're keeping them in hiding. This means they can't farm; in fact, they missed their planting season this year, which (as you can imagine) will greatly impact their ability to survive in the coming year.

Interestingly, Fox News' anchor did say honestly to George that if he weren't involved, they wouldn't be doing the segment on the Sudan. When asked about how he's using his celebrity status as a way to shine a light on atrocities and war criminals, George said, "I grew up in a family that believed that… your job was to be involved with your fellow man. You have a responsibility to participate in the human condition, one way or another."

Watch the full interview, including George's take on Kony 2012 and more, here.



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