(The article I'm sharing below comes from the Toronto Star today, but the articles have been appearing for the last couple of days:
Did George Clooney break the law by sneaking into South Sudan?
NAIROBI, KENYA—In the second YouTube video in a week to highlight an African conflict, George Clooney makes an illegal and dangerous trip to the southern reaches of Sudan, where the actor witnesses what an American activist said Thursday was likely a Chinese-made missile sail overhead.
Clooney’s four-minute video highlights attacks on civilians in Sudan’s Nuba Mountains, a region that U.S. officials say could soon suffer a severe hunger crisis. The video comes about a week after a YouTube sensation about Joseph Kony, the leader of the brutal Central Africa militia the Lord’s Resistance Army.
In the Clooney video, which he wrote and directed, a man from the Nuba tribe is seen pushing Clooney to take cover after a rocket sails overhead. Mothers carrying children and young children lugging water jugs can be seen moving toward the rock caves.
Ryan Boyette, an American who lives in the Nuba Mountains, said Sudan’s military has been launching large, Chinese-made rockets against civilians — not military forces with the rebel group known as the SPLM-N. Boyette said most of the rocket victims are caught off guard because they don’t know the rocket is approaching.
Helen Hughes, an arms expert at Amnesty International, said the rockets can travel about 60 kilometres and deliver a “quite large” blast radius. The rockets are supplied by China. Hughes said the country can’t close its eyes to the evidence that its weapons are being used against civilians.
“These rockets are long-range, ground-launched unguided rockets, and they’re being used in Kauda, which is a civilian area,” said Hughes. “There are no military there. They’re being used indiscriminately and that’s a violation of international humanitarian law.”
The SPLM-N was or is aligned with the military in South Sudan, a new country that broke away from Sudan last year after decades of civil war. The Nuba Mountains were partitioned with the north although the black population there is ethnically and in some cases religiously different than the mostly Arab north.
South Sudan says it has severed ties with the SPLM-N. Sudan accuses it of continuing to aid SPLM-N fighters.
The Clooney video, produced with the advocacy group Enough Project, shows graphic footage of a boy who lost both hands in an attack. It also shows Clooney speaking to a child who recently had a bullet removed from his body.
Clooney asks one man during a conversation: “This is simply trying to clear people out ethnically because of the colour of their skin?” The Nuba man responds that Sudan wants to move black Nubans out and put Arabs in.
Boyette said that he has been frequently told by Nubans that they are scared of the Antonov airplane bombings so haven’t been in the fields to plant.
“But since they have used the rockets now they are scared to even get firewood and water nearby to cook for their children,” Boyette said.
Sudan has refused to allow aid agencies into the region. Nancy Lindborg, an official with the U.S. Agency for International Development, told a Senate committee that Clooney testified before on Wednesday that 250,000 people are on the brink of a famine.
The Kony video, produced by the advocacy group Invisible Children, has received about 80 million views on YouTube since its March 5 launch. The video was applauded in some corners for raising awareness about Kony and his group’s attacks on civilians. Critics called the video misleading and accused it of being a fundraising vehicle for an organization some critics said doesn’t spend enough on ground-level programs.
The Clooney video had received some 5,000 views two days after its Tuesday release.
Jonathan Hutson, a spokesman for the Enough Project, said Clooney was not aware of the popularity of the Kony video while shooting the Nuba people, because he was in Sudan during its release. Clooney is quoted in the Kony video as saying he wants warlords to be as famous as he is, but Clooney was referring to Sudan President Omar al-Bashir, not Kony.
“The purpose of the four-minute video is for Clooney to give a megaphone for the Nuba people on the ground and to raise awareness,” Hutson said. “Clooney wanted to make sure that the Nubans in the video were not portrayed as victims. He wanted to put the spotlight on the voices of civilians on the ground.”
Today, Clooney is meeting with Secretary of State Clinton
4:15 p.m. Secretary Clinton meets with George Clooney and Cofounder of the Enough Project, John Prendergast, at the Department of State.
Now, Rush will perhaps speak of this today, but President Obama has sent a few "advisors" into Sudan to help fight against the "Lord's Resistance Army."
Rush has talked about them to, saying that they are Christians fighting against the Muslim majority.
If Wikipedia is to be believed, they are also pretty vicious psychotics.
The Lord's Resistance Army (also Lord's Resistance Movement or Lakwena Part Two) is a militant group that was formed in 1987 in the Acholi ethnic region of Northern Uganda. Initially, the LRA was an outgrowth and continuation of the larger armed resistance movement waged by some of the Acholi people against a central Ugandan government which they felt marginalized them at the expense of Southern Ugandan ethnic groups, such as the Baganda. The group operates in northern Uganda, South Sudan, the Democratic Republic of Congo and the Central African Republic.
The LRA is accused of widespread human rights violations, including murder, abduction, mutilation, and forcing children to participate in hostilities. There have also been reports of cannibalism and child-sex slavery within the group.
It is led by Joseph Kony, who proclaims himself the spokesperson of God and a spirit medium, primarily of the Holy Spirit, which the group believes can represent itself in many manifestations. Ideologically, the group is a syncretic mix of of mysticism, Acholi nationalism, and Christianity, and claims to be establishing a theocratic state based on the Ten Commandments and local Acholi tradition.
What is the Enough Project?
Enough is a project of the Center for American Progress (CAP), based in Washington, D.C., which works to end genocide and crimes against humanity. Its Co-Founders are John Prendergast and Gayle Smith; its Executive Director is John C. Bradshaw, J.D.
The Enough Project was co-founded by the Center for American Progress and the International Crisis Group in 2007. Enough focuses on crises in Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and areas of Africa affected by the Lord’s Resistance Army.
History
The Enough Project was co-founded by CAP and the International Crisis Group in early 2007.
Focus on Africa
The Enough Project conducts research in several conflict areas in Africa including Sudan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Somalia, and the areas controlled by the Lord's Resistance Army. The Enough Project facilitates several campaigns and initiatives which work to bring attention to these crises. These include the RAISE Hope for Congo campaign, Darfur Dream Team, Sudan Now, and the Satellite Sentinel Project.
Note that all of these conflicts are native Africans against native Africans, hating each other because of religious differences and because they come from different tribes, each thinking it superior to the other.
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