UN closes its ears to Clooney's message on Darfur By Chris Stephen February 2, 2008 Scotsman.com Original Source: http://news.scotsman.com/entertainment/UN-closes--its-ears.3737666.jp THE red carpet and flowers were out this week at the United Nations' headquarters for its star ambassador, the actor George Clooney, to give his report after a harrowing trip to Darfur. The Oscar-winning star had even brought his parents along to see him give one of the most important performances of his career: a speech highlighting a new surge in violence in Sudan. But at the last minute, someone pulled the plug. Clooney, designated the UN Messenger for Peace, had a message someone did not want to hear. Sources at the UN said France and Russia were the nations that objected to the idea of an actor reporting on the horrors he had witnessed in Sudan and neighbouring Chad. The rebuff is the first suffered by one of a chain of celebrity envoys the UN employs to highlight its work around the world. But it raised questions about whether their role is anything more than cosmetic and whether celebrity involvement is a good or bad thing. Clooney himself refused to be silenced, gathering journalists in an adjacent room to broadcast a plea for action. I am the son of a newsman, he said. The job of messenger comes with the responsibility to deal with facts, not to tell people what they want to hear, but to tell them the truth, unfiltered. But this truth is not what some UN members want to hear, especially regarding Darfur. Despite fine words and half a dozen resolutions, the UN – or more accurately its member states – has washed its hands of the problem. Four years after Sudan began a campaign of ethnic cleansing that has killed 100,000 people and uprooted two million more and two years after war crimes investigations were authorised, the UN has failed to install a peacekeeping force or put serious pressure on Sudan to stop the violence. And, said the 46-year-old actor, the violence is now spreading to Chad. I was in Chad two years ago, and it's worse now than when I was there, he said. And Sudan isn't particularly better now. Officially, the UN says the meeting was a technical gathering where Clooney's participation was not needed. But privately many UN officials are furious. Russia said no, one official told The Scotsman. They waited till the very last minute, (then] they said: why do we need an actor to tell us how we should run peace operations? However Russia denied opposing the Clooney mission, saying the meeting in question was technical and not an appropriate forum for him to attend. The Russian ambassador is fully supportive of the actions of celebrities in stressing UN's role, said Russia's UN mission spokeswoman, Maria Zakharova. Of course when we are talking about technical meetings we should keep to the procedure. Clooney himself said that while member nations were happy to hear good news from celebrity ambassadors, they were less willing to hear the bad news. There are groups that don't feel that I necessarily class-up the joint and don't feel that I should be speaking to them. His mission was more harrowing than any yet held by the UN celebrity ambassadors, a two-week jaunt undertaken in secret for security reasons. Clooney seemed to be the ideal candidate, as he is co-founder of Not On Our Watch, a humanitarian group dedicated to focusing attention on Darfur which has raised £4 million to help refugees. Until his rebuff, the UN had enjoyed great success in its use of celebrities to spread the word on issues like poverty and Aids. A-list celebrities such as Angelina Jolie, Geri Halliwell and Nicole Kidman sought to prove they had a serious side and confound critics by getting their hands dirty in a good cause. They followed in the footsteps of the likes of singer Bob Geldof, who organised the Live Aid concerts, and the late Diana, Princess of Wales, who highlighted the plight of landmine victims. But with Clooney, it seems, the UN has gone a step too far. The actor appears to have taken his role too seriously for some, highlighting the international community's continuing inaction. A 70,000-strong peacekeeping force agreed last July in conjunction with the African Union has not materialised: African nations have provided troops but none has offered the helicopters and heavy equipment needed to allow a force to operate. Clooney, who won an Oscar for Syriana, insists he will continue his role of highlighting the situation in Darfur. I am very proud to be here as a messenger of peace, and that message is that the world is watching, and that at this point we cannot afford to fail, he told journalists at what rapidly became a standing-room-only press conference. Staff at the UN headquarters were certainly happy to see him, crowding the corridors as he walked by, waving and calling hi guys. An Oscar's a nice thing to have in your life, but this isn't just sort of an honour, it's a responsibility, said the actor, who did not leave empty-handed. The diplomats might not have wanted to hear what he had to say, but they did arrange for a little ceremony to be held, at which he was given a lapel pin marking his designation as the UN's Messenger for Peace. I don't know that I'll achieve anything, he said afterwards. What I expect to do is not sit on the sidelines and talk about it, but get involved.