George Clooney urges UAE to help in ending Darfur crisis

December 9, 2007 (DUBAI) — US movie star George Clooney, who has campaigned strongly to end bloodshed in Sudan’s Darfur, said on Sunday he hoped the United Arab Emirates could use its influence in the region to help end the conflict.

“We are trying to find places (through which) we can have a real conversation with people in Sudan and President Omar al-Beshir. And obviously here (in the UAE) they have an influence,” Clooney told AFP in Dubai, which is one of seven emirates that makes up the Muslim Gulf state of the UAE.

The Oscar-winning actor is in Dubai to attend the regional premier of his new film “Michael Clayton” at the start of the cosmopolitan emirate’s fourth international film festival.

Clooney has used his star power to draw attention to the almost-five year conflict in western Darfur region, in which more than 200,000 people have died from the effects of war, famine and disease, while 2.2 million others have been left homeless.

The Darfur war pits black ethnic groups against Khartoum government troops backed by Arab militias.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Sunday at summit of European and African leaders in Portugal urged his Sudanese counterpart to allow the rapid deployment of a UN-led peacekeeping force to stem the bloodshed in Darfur.

“We told him it is in Sudan’s best interests … that there is a halt to the massacres on its territory and that in order for the massacres to stop, the hybrid (UN-AU) force needs to be deployed as soon as possible,” said Sarkozy.

(AFP)