George Clooney has called on the international community to refocus its attention on the ongoing conflict in Darfur and pressure Sudanese government officials to put a stop to mass "torture rapes" committed by armed forces.
The actor and humanitarian has teamed up with fellow activists Akshaya Kumar and John Prendergast from the Enough Project, which aims to end genocide and crimes against humanity, to pen an opinion piece for the New York Times, detailing the violence faced by civilians.
In the article, published on Wednesday (25Feb15), Clooney and his associates insist it is vital for world leaders to pay attention to the escalating situation and demand action to ensure the people of Darfur are not forgotten and subjected to the "mass atrocities", which "continue to occur in Darfur with no external witness" after Sudanese officials reportedly forced the shut down of the United Nations human rights office in the country's capital of Khartoum.
They go on to detail the widespread rape of women in so-called "model villages", which have been set up by the government for refugees displaced by violence to settle.
They write, "These 'torture rapes' are just one tool in Sudan's criminal arsenal, which also includes aerial bombing of hospitals and agricultural fields, burning of villages and the denial of food aid."
To combat this, Clooney, Kumar and Prendergast encourage politicians to use trade sanctions to hit the country where it hurts in a bid to "pressure Sudan to observe human rights and to negotiate for peace".
They state, "The next wave of American sanctions should target the facilitators, including Sudanese and international banks, that do business with the regime either directly or through partners."
The activists are also urging gold trade leaders to initiate audits of suppliers to crack down on sales of the precious metal mined from conflict zones to prevent funds benefiting war criminals, just like they did to those in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
Concluding the piece, they write, "The 'torture rapes'... are a reminder to the world that the same conditions that led the United States' declaration of genocide in Darfur are still firmly in place, with devastating human consequences. We must not forget the survivors, and we must impose deterrent costs on the orchestrators and their enablers."
The cause is one close to Clooney's heart - he and Prendergast run the Satellite Sentinel Project, which searches out and captures atrocities and illegal activity in the warzone from hundreds of miles above the earth.
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