George Clooney Arrested While Protesting In Front of Sudanese Embassy
George Clooney and several others were arrested in Washington, DC on Friday while protesting the Sudanese government.
Standing in front of the African nation’s embassy, Clooney accused Sudan’s president, Omar al-Bashi, of causing a humanitarian crisis by blocking aid into his war-torn nation.
“We are here really to ask two very simple questions,” Clooney said right before he was arrested. “The first question is something immediate — and immediately we need humanitarian aid to be allowed into the Sudan before it becomes the worst humanitarian crisis in the world.”
The Oscar winner added that the second thing “is for the government in Khartoum to stop randomly killing its own innocent men, women and children. Stop raping them and stop starving them. That’s all we ask.”
After ignoring three orders to disperse, Clooney, an outspoken activist about humanitarian issues in the Sudan, was cuffed by Secret Service agents and taken away peacefully. Clooney’s father, journalist Nick Clooney, was also arrested. Congressman Jim Moran of Virginia and NAACP President Ben Jealous were among the other protesters.
Clooney had announced his intention to protest earlier in the week, and had hinted that he expected to be arrested.
[CNN]