Clooney has handcuffs attached by a security official after being arrested outside the Embassy of Sudan today. (photo: Getty Images/Win McNamee)
Police arrested actor George Clooney and others Friday during a protest at the Sudanese Embassy in Washington.
The arrested protesters included congressmen, human rights activists and faith leaders.
“We are here really to ask two very simple questions,” Clooney said moments before his arrest. “The first question is something immediate — and immediately, we need humanitarian aid to be allowed into the Sudan before it becomes the worst humanitarian crisis in the world.”
The second thing, he said, “is for the government in Khartoum to stop randomly killing its own innocent men, women and children. Stop raping them and stop starving them. That’s all we ask.”
Protesters had begun gathering in the street before the protest began and converged on the Embassy once Clooney and the others arrived, holding signs reading “Stop Bombing Civilians Now!” and “End the silence stop the violence.”
Those arrested included United to End Genocide President Tom Andrews; Democratic Reps. Jim McGovern, Al Green, Jim Moran and John Olver; Martin Luther King III; and NAACP President Ben Jealous.
Jealous directed a message to the Sudanese president: “This is what beginning of the end looks like.”
“We are protesting to make sure the Sudanese government knows that the world is watching,” McGovern said. “The United States Congress is watching. And we will be back again and again until they stop using food as a weapon; stop slaughtering innocent men, women and children; and stop spitting in the face of the world community.”
After speeches by several of the protest leaders, a police officer told the group she was giving them a third warning, after which they would be arrested.
A few moments later, the arrests began. The group stood calmly as they waited for the police to apply plastic handcuffs as the crowd of protesters chanted “al-Bashir to the ICC,” referring to the International Criminal Court, where Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir has been indicted.
Clooney was charged with disorderly crossing of a police line, a misdemeanor, Secret Service spokesman Max Millien said. The Secret Service is responsible for security at foreign diplomatic missions in Washington.
He paid a $100 fine, choosing to forfeit that money to avoid a court appearance, said Gwendolyn Crump, a spokeswoman for the Metropolitan Police Department.
Clooney met with President Obama on Thursday to discuss his concerns about Sudan.
Flanking Clooney in this picture are Congressman Jim Moran (D-VA) (L) and his father Nick Clooney. (photo: REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque)
Clooney is surrounded by the media after being arrested for protesting the escalating humanitarian crisis in Sudan. (photo: REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque)
Clooney testifies during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing next to John Prendergast, co-founder of the Satellite Sentinel Project, regarding Sudan at the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington Wednesday. (photo: REUTERS/Benjamin Myers)
Sudanese from the war-torn Blue Nile state collect muddy water, in order to avoid the 12-hour queue at a water pump, in South Sudan's Doro refugee camp in December. More than 80,000 Sudanese have sought refuge in South Sudan from clashes between government forces and insurgents on the northern side of the poorly-marked and tense border, according to the United Nations. (photo: REUTERS/Hereward Holland)
