Video: George Clooney Talks to Chris Wallace About His Fight to Help Sudan March 2012

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Full Interview: George Clooney Talks to Chris Wallace About His Fight to Help Sudan
by Fox News Sunday Posted in: George Clooney, John Prendergast, Sudan

Today on Fox News Sunday, Chris Wallace sat down with actor George Clooney and activist John Prendergast. Recently, Clooney testified in a Senate hearing about his recent trip to the dangerous border area between Sudan and South Sudan. He spoke about the targeting of civilians by Sudanese government forces.

Chris asked Prendergast why the Sudanese government is targeting these innocent people in the mountains. He said, “There’s a civil war in Sudan. As many people remember, South Sudan seceded after a referendum in which 99 percent of the Southerners decided to leave Sudan. The Sudan that’s left behind without the South is at war in a number of places.”

Prendergast went on to explain, “It’s ethnic cleansing in these areas where the active war zones are. So instead of fighting directly against the rebels, they go after the civilian supporters of those rebellions.”

Clooney described what he witnessed happening to people in the Nuba Mountains, “Once we got into the conflict zone, you can see first of all the remnants of a fairly active war. There were dead bodies laying around. But as we got further north … there were villagers who would come out with signs that say no more antonovs.”

With China depending on Sudan for six percent of its daily imports, Clooney believes that since both China and the United States have economic interests in the region, the two nations need to “ work together to solve the problem.”

Chris asked Clooney if he’s hoping for a situation where something like a no-fly zone was implemented. Clooney answered, “If you’re standing there and you see a kid with both his hands missing from some jerk, you know, 10 thousand feet in the air just dropping bombs out indiscriminately on innocent people, you’d really like to see a NATO plane come and just take those guys out of the air. That’s your gut reaction.”

However, that’s not realistic Clooney continued saying, “In the real world, what we’re talking about, you’re not going to see NATO in there … so we have to look at things we can do realistically to try and put pressure on the government to stop doing it.”

What would he like to see President Obama doing to stop the growing violence? Clooney said there needs to be “high level meetings with the Chinese to talk about working together,” and in addition, “to use all those techniques we’ve learned going after terrorists to find their money.”

Chris admitted, “I’m embarrassed to say this, but we would not be doing this segment frankly on Sudan if you weren’t a part of it. Is that the point to use your celebrity to shine a light on atrocities, on war criminals that frankly the world is all too willing to ignore?”

Clooney replied, “I’m the son of a newsman, as you are. I grew up around news … I’m a big believer in the importance of information and news. And I saw my father in the seventies doing really good stories and then getting bumped because there was a Liz Taylor story that was going to be out.”

He recalled talking to his father, Nick, in 2006 and saying to him, “Let’s go to Darfur and you be the newsman and I’ll be Liz Taylor, and let’s get it on air.”

At the end of the interview, Clooney described how he can go from the world of Hollywood to seeing a child with his hands blown off. He said, “It’s a tricky thing,” but “it’s cleansing your palate from doing all the other things that sometimes feel self serving.”

Clooney remains defiant in his efforts, stating, “I don’t make policy, I can just make it louder.” Last Friday, he was arrested along with his father and Prendergast for protesting outside the Sudanese embassy.

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