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Actor George Clooney leaves the Washington Metropolitan Police Department after being arrested outside the Embassy of Sudan in Washington, D.C., Friday. (AFP-Yonhap News) |
WASHINGTON (AP) ― Film actor George Clooney and his father were arrested Friday during a protest outside the Sudanese Embassy, and the actor said he has asked President Barack Obama to engage China to help stop a humanitarian crisis in northern Africa.
The protesters accuse Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir of provoking a humanitarian crisis and blocking food and aid from entering the Nuba Mountains in the county’s border region with South Sudan.
Clooney, his father, Nick Clooney, and others were arrested after being warned three times not to cross a police line outside the embassy. Those taken into custody included civil rights activists Ben Jealous, Martin Luther King III, and actor and comedian Dick Gregory.
Several members of Congress also were arrested, handcuffed and placed into a U.S. Secret Service van.
The arrests came after Oscar winner Clooney, a noted advocate for Africa’s poor, met this week with Obama, testified in the U.S. Senate and attended a state dinner for British Prime Minister David Cameron.
Clooney told the Associated Press before he was arrested that he can only hope to draw attention to the crisis in Sudan but that he doesn’t know if any progress has been made. He said he was impressed, though, with Obama’s engagement on the issue.
“It’s amazing to sit down with a world leader who knows all of the intricacies of what’s going on in Sudan,” he said.
The actor said he asked Obama to involve China more in pushing for a solution in Sudan. He said international leaders need to “follow the money” flowing to Sudan’s leaders to expose corruption.
“This is a moment where we have a chance to do something, because if we don’t, in the next three to four months, there’s going to be a real humanitarian disaster,” Clooney said before his arrest.
“It’s such a silly thought to think you’re actually succeeding in any of this,” he said. “But if it’s loud enough and you keep making it loud enough at the very least people will know about it, and you can’t say we didn’t know. That’s the first step.”
<관련 한글 기사>
조지 클루니 주미 수단대사관 시위중 체포
(워싱턴 AFP=연합뉴스) 미국 할리우드 스타이자 사회활동가인 배우 조지 클루니 가 16일(현지시간) 워싱턴 주재 수단 대사관에서 수단 정부군의 민간인 학살에 항의 하는 시위를 벌이다가 체포됐다.
클루니와 동료 활동가들은 이날 주미 수단 대사관 구내에서 나가라는 요구에도 시위를 계속하다 경비원들에 의해 플라스틱 수갑이 채워져 대사관 바깥에 있는 경찰 차에 인계됐다.
클루니는 수단 분쟁에 대해 오래 전부터 관심을 기울여 왔다.
최근 두 차례 수단을 방문한 그는 남부 코르도판에서 정부군이 민간인을 잔혹하게 탄압하고 있다고 비판해 왔다. (연합뉴스)
