UNITED NATIONS, Dec. 15 (UPI) -- The actor George Clooney came to U.N. World Headquarters in New York for the second time this year to press for action in Sudan's troubled Darfur region.
Clooney and a small delegation of actors and athletes met Friday with outgoing U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan, who has made putting an end to persistent violence in Sudan a priority in his final years in office.
Clooney was last at the building in September, when he met with the 15-member U.N. Security Council and called the Darfur crisis the first genocide of the 21st Century.
"We're at a stalemate," he told reporters Friday. "There's a fire in the theater and someone's got to get up and yell that."
Clooney also said he was speaking out to keep the promise he made to refugees this summer during his visit to Chad, which neighbors Darfur. The U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees estimates an influx of 218,000 Darfurian refugees fled into Chad.
Clooney also urged the international community to insist journalists are given full access to Darfur.
"We're not sure what exactly is going on," Clooney said.
The delegation also included the actor Don Cheadle, Olympic speed skater Joey Cheek and Kenyan Olympic distance runner Tegla Loroupe.
The delegation had just returned from a human rights mission in China and Egypt, where they urged global cooperation in bringing an end to the violence in Darfur.
China, which has strong business ties with Sudan, holds a permanent seat on the U.N. Security Council and will be the host of the 2008 Olympic Games.
Cheek said the "Olympic ideal" is incompatible with turning a blind eye on human suffering, and urged China to take a lead in ending the Darfur crisis.
