Clooney, Wiesel warn UN of genocide in Darfur

Actor George Clooney and Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel appeared before the United Nations Security Council on Thursday to make an impassioned plea for immediate UN intervention in Sudan's Darfur region.

Clooney warned members that Darfur has become the first genocide of the 21st century and urged them to take action.

"Now my job is to come here today and to beg you on behalf of the millions of people who will die and make no mistake they will die for you to take real and effective measures to put an end to this," he said.

Clooney spent five days in Darfur in April with his father Nick Clooney, a journalist who writes a column for the Cincinnati Post. They've been working since their return to publicize the plight of the people.

The Security Council briefing was arranged through the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity.

"In many ways, it's unfair but it is nevertheless true that this genocide will be on your watch," Clooney said. "How you deal with it will be your legacy, your Rwanda, your Cambodia, your Auschwitz."

SC votes to create peacekeepingforce

The Security Council has voted to create a UN peacekeeping force for the region, but said it would not deploy it until the Sudanese government gave its consent.

Sudan so far has refused to allow UN troops to join or replace an African Union force now in Darfur.

Wiesel also hearkened back to Rwanda and said the UN should intervene to save lives, as it is authorized to do under the organization's charter.

"Do not wait for Sudan's invitation or consent," he said. "If they give it, good. If not, go in anyway."

Wiesel said the worst thing about the deaths of between 600,000 and 800,000 people in Rwanda was that the UN knew people were being slaughtered and did nothing to stop it.

"And we have been asking those who then were in power, why weren't they saved?" he said. "There is no answer except negligence and indifference."