Angelina Jolie Watch

Angelina continues  her international advocacy work by pinning an editorial for Time magazine which makes a case against Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir. Friday the International Criminal Courts presented the United Nations Security Council with evidence against the man many say continues to spearhead the genocide in Darfur. Here’s  what Angelina had to say:

Friday is a defining moment in the history of justice. The members of the United Nations Security Council will be presented with the results of the International Criminal Court’s Darfur investigation — an investigation that they requested. Their response will determine whether there is going to be an international standard of justice that holds perpetrators accountable for the worst crimes in the world.

The evidence the prosecutor has presented is clear and compelling. Millions of people have been displaced; hundreds of thousands have been killed; and at the center of it all stands Sudanese President Omar Hassan al-Bashir, who has been indicted on seven counts of war crimes and five counts of crimes against humanity.

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We’ve got our second look of Angelina as Evelyn Salt. According to a press release from Sony Pictures, principal photography has begun.  Looks like the Angelina garners a lot of excitement, even among jaded Hollywood.

“It’s great to be working with Angelina once again. She’s the only one who could bring this character to life. Salt will be tense and exciting, everything that thriller audiences expect, but also with a strong, multi-dimensional character at the center,” gushed Phillip Noyce, who also directed her in The Bone Collector.

“It’s always a thrill to start production. It’s especially gratifying to work on redefining this genre with such a talented actress. Angelina is a rare combination of intelligence, emotional range, and physical ability,” said producer by Lorenzo di Bonaventura

THe DC Examiner reports that Angie and costars Liev Schreiber and Chiwetel Ejiofor, “began local shooting at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel on Wednesday morning.”

Filming is expected to take place throughout DC  including L’Enfant Plaza and the Navy Memorial.

Salt’s screenplay was written by Kurt Wimmer (The Recruit, The Thomas Crown Affair) and rewritten by Brian Helgeland (Mystic River, Man on Fire). In addition to di Bonaventura, Salt is produced by Sunil Perkash (Enchanted). Executive producers are Ric Kidney and Mark Vahradian.

What’s Brad up to in Washington DC ?

Brad was spotted on K Street yesterday(Wednesday) afternoon, possibly meeting with attorneys.   As I expected he’s making good use of the couple’s time in DC. He’ll meet with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi today(Thursday).  I imagine he’ll talk about Katrina recovery since George Clooney talked with president about Dafur last week. (The longtime friends founded Not on Our Watch with Don Cheadle and Matt Damon.)

And what did you do today?

She’s done a wonderful job as usual.

A year for accountability
Angelina Jolie, goodwill ambassador to the UNHCR, hopes for progress in bringing war criminals to justice

On a recent mission for the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, I had the opportunity to visit a refugee camp in Chad just across the border with Sudan. Sitting with a group of refugees, I asked them what they needed. These were people who had seen family members killed, neighbours raped, their villages burned and looted, their entire communities driven from their land. So it was no surprise when people began listing the things that could improve their lives just a little bit. Better tents, said one; better access to medical facilities, said another. But then a teenage boy raised his hand and said, with powerful simplicity, “Nous voulons un procès.�? We want a trial.

A trial might seem a distant and abstract notion to a young man for whom the inside of a courtroom is worlds away from the inside of a refugee camp. But his statement showed a recognition of something elemental: that accountability is perhaps the only force powerful enough to break the cycle of violence and retribution that marks so many conflicts.

I believe 2008 can be the year in which we begin seeking true accountability and demanding justice for the victims in Darfur and elsewhere. Through accountability we can begin the process of righting past wrongs, and even change the behaviour of some of the world’s worst criminals.

The international tribunals for the former Yugoslavia and for Rwanda have shown the way in convicting heads of state and generals for genocide and crimes against humanity. The UN-backed special court for Sierra Leone has already sentenced three former leaders of a pro-government militia to jail for war crimes committed during the country’s civil war in the 1990s.

In Cambodia, the joint UN-Cambodian court to try top former Khmer Rouge leaders with war crimes and crimes against humanity has begun calling witnesses. It has taken a long time to get even this far, but a trial is likely in 2008. In The Hague, the International Criminal Court (ICC) has begun trials of two of the Congolese leaders charged with fomenting killings and rapes amid the violence that has raged there for over a decade.

Make no mistake, the existence of these trials alone changes behaviour. Seeing the indictment of Thomas Lubanga and the detention of Germain Katanga by the ICC brought to mind a trip I had taken to Congo five years ago. In the Ituri region, where Mr Katanga’s reign of terror had been most intense, our group attended a meeting of rebel leaders. They had gathered in a field to discuss the prospects for a peace agreement—which were not looking very good. The conversation turned hostile and the situation grew extremely tense. At that point, one of my colleagues asked for the name of one of the rebels, announcing, perhaps a bit recklessly, that he was going to pass it along to the ICC.

It was remarkable: this rebel leader’s whole posture changed from aggression to conciliation. The ICC had been around for only five months. It had tried no one. Yet its very existence was enough to intimidate a man who had been terrorising the population for years.

Ending the cycle of violence

This is not an isolated example. Accountability has the potential to change behaviour, to check aggression by those who are used to acting with impunity. Luis Moreno-Ocampo, the prosecutor of the ICC, has said that even genocide is not a crime of passion; it is a calculated decision. He is right. Common sense tells us that when risks are weighed, decisions are made differently. When crimes against humanity are punished consistently and severely, the killers’ calculus will change.

My hope is that these examples of justice in the name of accountability will be just a few of the many to come. I hope that the Sudanese government will hand over the government minister and the janjaweed militia leader who have been indicted for war crimes by the ICC, and that the teenager I met in Chad will get to see the trial he seeks. I hope that those responsible for the atrocities in Darfur will be held to account, not only for that young man’s sake, but for the world’s.

Only through justice will we achieve peace. And only when there is peace will the world’s nearly 39m displaced persons and refugees be able to return home.

The strong preying upon the weak and the weak, upon achieving strength, extracting retribution: this is the nature of so many of the world’s conflicts. The role of aggressor and victim may alternate over time, the tools of destruction may become more sophisticated, but little else changes.

Despite the horror I have seen in my travels, the hopeful lesson I take is that we can begin to put an end to the cycle of violence and retribution that gives rise to war criminals and sets forth floods of refugees. Let 2008 be the year in which we see the principle of accountability put into action.

Source

Angelina Jolie, The Economist, Darfur, Sudan, Chad

She’s a super mom, a super star, a super significant other and now she’s a super columnist. Angelina has written a column for The Economist’s annual The World issue calling for accountability in Darfur. The high minded, intellectual publication features similar articles from “several presidents, an exiled god-king[gotta find out more about this one], the head of the United Nations and other political heavyweights.”

Here are some quotes from the article:

– “Accountability is perhaps the only force powerful enough to break the cycle of violence and retribution that marks so many conflicts.�?
– “I hope that the Sudanese government will hand over the government minister and the Janjaweed militia leader who have been indicted for war crimes (by the International Criminal Court in The Hague), and that the teenager I met in Chad will get the trial he seeks.�?
– “I hope that those responsible for the atrocities in Darfur will be held to account, not only for that young man’s sake, but for the world’s.�?

Other contributers include French president Nicolas Sarkozy, Mexican president Felipe Calderón, the Dalai Lama, New York mayor Michael Bloomberg, speaker of the United States House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi, and Korean-born United Nations secretary-general Ban Ki-moon.

The annual issue stays on newsstands all year long and retails for £4.95 in the United Kingdom.  You should be able to find a copy internationally.

This is Angie’s second column on Darfur. She wrote similar column for the Washington Post earlier this year.

I can’t wait to read the entire article. If anyone has scans please send them my way.

Source

Source

angelina jolie, darfur, the economist

Update on the UNHCR’s Darfur funding goal:

Dear Refugee Supporter,

Last month, the UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) issued an urgent funding appeal for its humanitarian operation in Darfur, Sudan. Without the proper support, the agency will be forced to scale back its life-saving relief efforts in the region. In response to the pressing need we set a goal to raise $20,000 by the end of October.

Thanks to your generous support, I am pleased to announce that we exceeded our target - $20, 129! With your help UNHCR can continue its mission to protect and aid the victims of the Darfur tragedy.

In an extremely difficult security environment, UNHCR provides protection and assistance to many of the more than 2 million people displaced by the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. This year alone an additional 250,000 people have been forced from their homes.

In Darfur, UNHCR offers life-saving aid to those fleeing the conflict, providing access to basic relief items as well as shelter, medical care and education. With your thoughtful contributions, UNHCR can also continue to provide clean, safe water to displaced families, ensure counseling and assistance for victims of sexual and gender-based violence, and give protection to women and children.

Thank you for responding to our urgent appeal. UNHCR couldn’t do its life-saving work in Darfur without you!

Sincerely,

J. Michael Coburn
Acting Executive Director

The UNHCR aids refugees “fleeing across the border from Darfur” who “arrive in a remote, desert region[in Chad] where resources, particularly water, are scarce. Since early 2004 UNHCR has mounted a major logistics operation to move the vast majority of these refugees to camps at a safer distance from the volatile border.”

Unhcr, United Nations, Darfur

Today at the Clinton Global Initiative, in her role as co-chair of the Education Partnership for Children of Conflict, Angelina announced a program that will aid 1 million refugee children with education during and after conflicts.

“These are the children who most need a safe place to learn, a place to heal, a place to learn reconciliation, and a place to just be children. Some think we should only provide emergency relief to children in conflict … They say education is not life-saving. All of us here today would beg to differ.”

She feels education is the key to real change.

“Education can transform the lives of children in conflict, giving them the tools to create a better future for their families and their nations. This Partnership is putting words into action and demonstrating that even in the most difficult circumstances, every child can and should have a chance to learn.”

The Education Partnership for Children of Conflictt was founded by Jolie and [Gene]Sperling as part of a 2006 Clinton Global Initiative commitment. Housed at the Council on Foreign Relations, the Partnership helps fund new education projects for children in conflict, post-conflict, refugee and emergency situations. New projects developed through the Partnership will be announced annually at the Clinton Global Initiative.

Commitments from the Partnership include assisting 200,000 Iraqi refugee children and 300,000 children affected by the Darfur genocide.

Many more photos after the jump

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Here are more photos of our favorite couple at last night’s the Darfur Now premier. I know we love looking at Angelina and Brad but I want to give you a quick reminder as to what they are are bring attention to.

*Since the 1983 start of the civil war, more than 4 million people have been displaced, and an estimated 2 million have died. Opposition groups as well as the government have been accused of atrocities in the conflict.

*Since 2003, violence in Darfur — called ethnic cleansing by some and genocide by others — has left an estimated 50,000 to 80,000 dead and an estimated 1.2 million to 2 million people displaced. Survivors face severe shortages of food and clean water.

*An estimated 200,000 Sudanese have escaped to Chad, where they are living in refugee camps. Many are in desolate areas near the city of Abeche, where temperatures frequently exceed 100 degrees Fahrenheit.

*An estimated 2.3 million civilians in Darfur are in need of emergency aid, but bottlenecks created by both the government and the rebel forces cut them off from food and medical supplies.

*In 2001, Sudan was declared to be free of polio, but the disease is making a comeback in the wake of war. Health experts say the probability is high that more than 10,000 Sudanese have been infected with the virus.

The United State Holocaust Museum has lots of important information on how you can help.

On to the snaps.

angelina jolie, brad pitt, brangelina, darfur, darfur now, united nations, un, movies, documentary

Thursday Brad and Angelina attended the New York premier of Darfur Now, a documentary focusing on the crisis in Darfur, Sundan. The film was produced by Brad’s Ocean’s Thirteen costar Don Cheadle. Here’s a blurb on the film:

The ongoing atrocities in Darfur, Sudan, remain one of the world’s great challenges – not just to our politicians but to each of us individually. Eventually, when the crisis ends, what can we say we did to help resolve it? This is the question that drives Ted Braun’s urgent, necessary new documentary. Darfur Now follows six people who have taken up the challenge to help stop the murder, rape and displacement the Fur, Zaghawa and Masalit people of Darfur have suffered since 2003.

Since 2003, nearly 400,000 people have been killed in the Darfur genocide. Brad along with various other high profile U.S. citizens continue to pressure the African Union, The United States government and the international community at large to intervene in the crisis.

The event was held at the United Nations’ Dag Hammarskjoeld Auditorium

Lots more photos after the jump.

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