The police arrested actor George Clooney and other protesters. On Friday March 16 during a protest at the Sudanese Embassy in Washington. The arrested protestors included human rights activists, congressmen and faith leaders. George Clooney said moments before his arrest “We are here really to ask two very simple questions,”. “The first question is something inmediately and immediate, we need humanitarian aid to be allowed into the Sudan before it becomes the worst humanitarian crisis in the world.” The second thing, George Clooney said, “is for the government in Khartoum to stop randomly killing its own innocent men, women and children and to stop raping them and stop starving them. That’s all we ask.” Protesters had begun gathering in the street before the protest began and converged on the Embassy. When Clooney and the other protesters arrived, holding signs reading “Stop Bombing Civilians Now!” and “End the silence stop the violence.” The protesters arrested included United to End Genocide President Tom Andrews; Democratic Reps. Jim McGovern, Al Green, Jim Moran and John Olver, Martin Luther King III and NAACP President Ben Jealous. Jealous directed a message to the Sudanese president (Omar Hasan Ahmad al-Bashir) “This is what beginning of the end looks like.”, “We are protesting to make sure the Sudanese government knows that the world is watching,” McGovern said. “The United States Congress is watching. And we will be back again and again until they stop using food as a weapon; stop slaughtering innocent men, women and children; and stop spitting in the face of the world community.” After speeches by several of the protest leaders, a police officer told the protesters she was giving them a third warning, and that if they did not leave the protesters were going to be arrested. A few moments later, the arrests began. The protesters stood gently and calmly as they waited for the police to apply plastic handcuffs as the crowd of protesters chanted “al-Bashir to the ICC,” referring to the International Criminal Court, where Sudanese President has been indicted. George Clooney was charged of the crime with disorderly crossing of a police line and a misdemeanor, Secret Service spokesman Max Millien said “the Secret Service is responsible for security at foreign diplomatic missions in Washington”. George Clooney testified before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee last week about violence in the Nuba Mountains in South Kordofan, a state in Sudan near its border with independent South Sudan. George Clooney and other activists blame the Sudanese government for attacks in Sudan that have injured and killed innocent women, men and children. George Clooney told the Senate committee that the attacks are being orchestrated by Sudan’s government, led by the Sudanese president, government official Ahmad Harun and Defense Minister Abdelrahim Mohamed Hussein in Sudan the same three men, he said, who orchestrated long-documented attacks in Darfur. He paid a $100 fine to the police, choosing to forfeit that money to avoid a court appearance, said Gwendolyn Crump, a spokeswoman for the Metropolitan Police Department. George Clooney met with President Obama on Thursday to discuss his concerns about Sudan and all the injustice there in Sudan. George Clooney wants Sudan to have freedom and health also justice. George Clooney’s father (Nick Clooney) was among of the people arrested.
Article written by: Dylan Carlson
Article inspired by: http://articles.cnn.com/2012-03-16/us/us_washington-clooney-arrest_1_sudanese-embassy-sudanese-president-omar-al-bashir-ahmad-harun?_s=PM:US (CNN)
My opinion:
Oogh that was a long story. I agree with the protesters and George Clooney I think that Sudan should have humanitarian aid and also no violence. Because like I always say “choose the good” and I also don’t like to see people suffer. If Sudan continues like this it is going to create a huge crisis. Omar Hasan Ahmad al-Bashir is a dictator. The Sudanese president is never going to get out of power if people don’t do anything about it. So we do have to do something about it! Omar Hasan Ahmad al-Bashir is not only a threat to his people but to his country,
George Clooney (left) and Nick Clooney (right) (George Clooney’s father) arrested in Sudan protest.
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