In an exclusive interview with CNN International, actor George Clooney discussed the arrest warrant for Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir and reflected on his recent visit to the Darfur/Chad border, giving his take on what needs to be done about the crisis there.

ANNA COREN, CNN ANCHOR: Actor George Clooney has made the crisis in Darfur a personal crusade. He’s been trying to call attention to it for years. But when I spoke to him a short time ago, he sounded somewhat hopeful.

GEORGE CLOONEY, ACTOR: The truth is that the International Criminal Court, which has come down with this-with these charges, with these indictments and an arrest warrant, is only-only as powerful as we make it, those of us in the rest of the community, because obviously the government of Sudan is probably not going to be handing over President al-Bashir. More than likely, the U.N. is not going to be going in to take him out, or the United States certainly isn’t going to be going in to take him out.

So what it requires and what we’re hoping is that this is — it shines a spotlight, again, on how — how dangerous this regime has been to its civilians, and hopefully that’s a way to start to push the people who profit from it, like China, into — into at the very least making it more difficult for them-for the government to act the way it does.

COREN: This is the first time that a sitting president has been charged by The Hague. I mean, that in itself is quite significant, but do you believe that Omar al-Bashir will actually be brought to justice?

CLOONEY: I like to think of things in longer terms than the idea that it will happen immediately. I think that-not very many people thought Milosevic or Charles Taylor would be brought to justice. It didn’t happen immediately. It takes some time.

I think at some point, my hope would be that, you know, it’s a very complicated issue, because there are people there on the ground, and any form of overreacting can make it dangerous for them. So I think the trick here is going to be patience.

COREN: Now you’ve recently visited the region and can give us your impressions of what’s taking place in Darfur?

CLOONEY: I was in Darfur a year ago. About eight, nine days ago I was right at the border of Darfur and Chad. And what you found was that the European forces, which are going to be changed over to MINURCAT, but the EUFOR forces in Chad have had a certain degree of success in being able to protect the refugees who’ve come over the border because they’ve had a much stronger mandate.

The problem is across-over the border, the U.N. forces, the U.N. peacekeepers have been given such a watered-down mandate because the Security Council has given them such a watered-down mandate, that they’re not really able to do much. They can’t-they don’t have helicopters, which they could really use, to get there. Their communications are not good. They’re still understaffed, and they’re not really able to react in time to bring safety. So you find that just across the border, it’s much more dangerous than it is in Chad.

What’s interesting, you know, when you talk to people who’ve just come over the border, their reaction -anyone who gets to Chad, of course, immediately says "justice," which is what the ICC indictments are, is they’re asking for justice, which in a normal world, of course, is the only answer. But unfortunately, in the world they live in, it’s not always normal.

COREN: On the issue of intervention, I mean, you recently met with President Obama to discuss Darfur. What was your feeling as to where he wants to go on this issue? Do you think that he will tackle it? Do you think that — will he be proactive?

CLOONEY: He will be proactive. He and I did a press conference when he was just a senator back in the day on the subject of Darfur. Secretary Clinton, Vice President Biden have all been very vocal on this subject long before they were the administration, when they were simply senators.

I met with the president. We talked briefly. I basically got him up to speed on what I saw. I spent a good deal of time with the vice president, talking about what their feelings towards policy are and what their next steps are.

They assured me, meaning to assure other people, that one of the first steps is to appoint a full-time diplomatic envoy, not someone who can — just shows up when violence spikes.

They first have to assess exactly what their policy is.

COREN: George, in your blog, you write and I quote, "Finding a new outrage is the only way to catch the world’s attention." Do you believe that the world has become too tolerant of what’s taking place in Darfur?

CLOONEY: I think the world has become too tolerant of all of these outrages.

The world is tolerant of the Congo and the world is tolerant of Zimbabwe. And the truth of the matter is, two or three times, you know-the world is tolerant of Burma-two or three times you can get that story out, and then it becomes a story we’ve seen before. It’s just as tragic, and we go away and we have a rally and everyone will feel like, well, we’ve accomplished something. And you’ll do something, you’ll put a Band-Aid on a gunshot wound, basically, and at the end of the day, these people are still there and they’re still living in this tragedy. And it’s not fixed.

We are too tolerant. And we are -we become more tolerant the longer it goes on.

COREN: George, we certainly admire the work that you have done in raising awareness for Darfur, and we thank you for joining us here on CNN.

CLOONEY: I’m glad to be here. Thank you very much.

GEORGE CLOONEY ON CBS

The Oscar-winning actor George Clooney brought some Hollywood glamour to the United Nations, as he used his star power to turn the spotlight on Sudan’s war-torn region of Darfur.

Together with Nobel Peace Prize recipient Elie Wiesel, Clooney urged members of the U.N.’s Security Council to help end atrocities in the region.

U.N. staffers gathered outside the basement meeting room Thursday to catch a glimpse of the actor burst into a huge round of applause as Clooney, dressed in a sober suit and tie, arrived with Wiesel for the informal briefing organized by the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity.

Inside, Clooney told the U.N.’s most powerful body that if must send replacements for the African Union’s 7,000 peacekeepers in Darfur when their mandate expires at the end of the month. If it did not, aid workers would have to leave and the 2.5 million displaced people who depend on them would die.

"After September 30 you won’t need the U.N. You will simply need men with shovels and bleached white linen and headstones," the actor warned.

The Sudanese government has refused to approve the replacement of African Union peacekeepers by a U.N. force, saying it would violate the country’s sovereignty.

More than 200,000 people have been killed and over 2 million have fled their homes since 2003 when ethnic African tribes revolted against the Arab-led Khartoum government.

A May peace agreement signed by the government and one of the major rebel groups was supposed to help end the conflict in Darfur. Instead, it has sparked months of fighting between rival rebel factions that has added to the toll of the dead and displaced.

"The United States has called it genocide," Clooney told council members. "For you it’s called ethnic cleansing. But make no mistake — it is the first genocide of the 21st century. And if it continues unchecked it will not be the last."

In stark words he told the U.N. diplomats: "In many ways it is unfair, but it is nonetheless true that this genocide will be on your watch. How you deal with it will be your legacy, your Rwanda, your Cambodia, your Auschwitz."

"We were brought up to believe that the UN was formed to ensure that the Holocaust could never happen again. We believe in you so strongly. We need you so badly. If not the UN, then who?" Clooney asked.

Wiesel also urged council members to send peacekeepers. "You are the last political recourse of Darfur victims and you can stop it."

"Remember Rwanda?" Wiesel said. "I do. Six hundred thousand to 800,000 human beings were murdered. We know then as we know now they could have been saved and they were not."

Clooney and Wiesel gave a brief press conference after the meeting ended. Clooney tried to hang back, saying: "We’ll let the Nobel Prize winner do the talking," but most of the questions were directed at him.

Clooney said had he chosen this cause because it was "the first genocide of the 21st century".

Wiesel, however, stopped short of calling the killings in Darfur a genocide. "I call it a process of genocide," he explained. "If we let it continue it will end in genocide. Genocide is not a one-time action. It’s a process. They began a process. And therefore I think the United Nations will have to accept that definition. I am usually very, very careful in using that word."

Clooney and his journalist father, Nick Clooney, spent five days in Darfur in April, gathering personal stories of the death and suffering that has ravaged the African region. Both Clooneys have continued working since their return to publicize the plight of refugees.

"I am not here to preach to anybody about what they should do or how they should feel, whether they should believe me or not," Clooney told CBS News Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith. "I am here because cameras are going to follow and we are going to go to the U.N. and shine a camera on those people that say this is what we believe, and say now stick to it."

Wiesel, who survived the Nazi death camps at Auschwitz and Buchenwald during World War II, has worked for human rights in many parts of the world and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986.

"Because we went through that period of suffering and humiliation we must do something so that other people should not go through any suffering and humiliation," he said.
The Oscar-winning actor George Clooney brought some Hollywood glamour to the United Nations, as he used his star power to turn the spotlight on Sudan’s war-torn region of Darfur.

Together with Nobel Peace Prize recipient Elie Wiesel, Clooney urged members of the U.N.’s Security Council to help end atrocities in the region.

U.N. staffers gathered outside the basement meeting room Thursday to catch a glimpse of the actor burst into a huge round of applause as Clooney, dressed in a sober suit and tie, arrived with Wiesel for the informal briefing organized by the Elie Wiesel Foundation for Humanity.

Inside, Clooney told the U.N.’s most powerful body that if must send replacements for the African Union’s 7,000 peacekeepers in Darfur when their mandate expires at the end of the month. If it did not, aid workers would have to leave and the 2.5 million displaced people who depend on them would die.

"After September 30 you won’t need the U.N. You will simply need men with shovels and bleached white linen and headstones," the actor warned.

The Sudanese government has refused to approve the replacement of African Union peacekeepers by a U.N. force, saying it would violate the country’s sovereignty.

More than 200,000 people have been killed and over 2 million have fled their homes since 2003 when ethnic African tribes revolted against the Arab-led Khartoum government.

A May peace agreement signed by the government and one of the major rebel groups was supposed to help end the conflict in Darfur. Instead, it has sparked months of fighting between rival rebel factions that has added to the toll of the dead and displaced.

"The United States has called it genocide," Clooney told council members. "For you it’s called ethnic cleansing. But make no mistake — it is the first genocide of the 21st century. And if it continues unchecked it will not be the last."

In stark words he told the U.N. diplomats: "In many ways it is unfair, but it is nonetheless true that this genocide will be on your watch. How you deal with it will be your legacy, your Rwanda, your Cambodia, your Auschwitz."

"We were brought up to believe that the UN was formed to ensure that the Holocaust could never happen again. We believe in you so strongly. We need you so badly. If not the UN, then who?" Clooney asked.

Wiesel also urged council members to send peacekeepers. "You are the last political recourse of Darfur victims and you can stop it."

"Remember Rwanda?" Wiesel said. "I do. Six hundred thousand to 800,000 human beings were murdered. We know then as we know now they could have been saved and they were not."

Clooney and Wiesel gave a brief press conference after the meeting ended. Clooney tried to hang back, saying: "We’ll let the Nobel Prize winner do the talking," but most of the questions were directed at him.

Clooney said had he chosen this cause because it was "the first genocide of the 21st century".

Wiesel, however, stopped short of calling the killings in Darfur a genocide. "I call it a process of genocide," he explained. "If we let it continue it will end in genocide. Genocide is not a one-time action. It’s a process. They began a process. And therefore I think the United Nations will have to accept that definition. I am usually very, very careful in using that word."

Clooney and his journalist father, Nick Clooney, spent five days in Darfur in April, gathering personal stories of the death and suffering that has ravaged the African region. Both Clooneys have continued working since their return to publicize the plight of refugees.

"I am not here to preach to anybody about what they should do or how they should feel, whether they should believe me or not," Clooney told CBS News Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith. "I am here because cameras are going to follow and we are going to go to the U.N. and shine a camera on those people that say this is what we believe, and say now stick to it."

Wiesel, who survived the Nazi death camps at Auschwitz and Buchenwald during World War II, has worked for human rights in many parts of the world and was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 1986.

"Because we went through that period of suffering and humiliation we must do something so that other people should not go through any suffering and humiliation," he said.