Clooney and his team have been watching Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir very closely. They claim he is responsible for numerous war crimes, the most notable being genocide along the border dividing Sudan from its newborn neighbor, South Sudan. Clooney deserves praise for shining a spotlight on these horrors, though it is unfortunate that he should have to do so. In the celebrity-crazed society we live in, sometimes the words of stars speak louder than the actions of mass murderers.
South Sudan became an independent state on July 9, 2011, making it the most recently established sovereign nation on earth. The international community was quick to shift the majority of its attention elsewhere, namely to Iran and the states involved in the Arab Spring, despite the genocidal actions of al-Bashir. Before the split between north and south, conflict was confined to the region’s armies; now, the Sudanese military has directed its undivided attention to innocent civilians.
These attacks are directed toward villages thought by the Sudanese government to be the residence of rebel supporters. It is essentially “ethnic cleansing,” claims John Prendergast, co-founder of The Enough Project along with Clooney. The two freedom fighters also co-founded the Satellite Sentinel Project, essentially Google Earth for war criminals. Using satellites stationed miles above Sudan, Clooney and his team have collected photos showing mass graves unknown to the international community and tracked Sudanese troops as they wreak havoc along the countryside. Clooney turned his evidence over to the U.S. government at a formal Senate hearing and voiced his opinion on a means of combating these atrocities.
Similar to the Syrian situation, China and Russia have impeded international progress toward bringing a murderous dictator to justice in Sudan. Both nations have vetoed U.N. resolutions calling for the immediate resignation of al-Bashir, though there is a warrant for his arrest on counts of war crimes and genocide issued by the International Criminal Court.
Clooney claims that there is financial incentive for both China and Russia to take a stance against Sudan’s actions. South Sudan has completely halted its oil production until something is done to stop the killings. Both China and Russia receive a significant portion of their oil from the newborn nation. Clooney claims we should appeal to their economic greed, rather than to their humanitarian values, or lack thereof, as evidenced by Syria. We can only hope these measures are effective.