George Clooney snubbed by UN

The actor George Clooney, recently appointed a UN 'messenger of peace' for his work in Darfur, discovered the limitations of celebrity yesterday when a UN committee he was due to address simply refused to hear him. Led by the Russian ambassador Vitaly Churkin, and backed by the French, the committee of countries contributing troops to the peacekeeping effort in Darfur questioned why they should be told how to do their jobs by an actor and the meeting was cancelled.

Clooney, who had just returned from the troubled Sudanese region where at least 200,000 people have died in the past five years and more than 2m have been driven from the homes, had to tell his story instead to the media.

The actor said that on his recent trip, accompanied by UN assistatnt secretary-general Jane Holl Lute, he had witnessed that a lack of helicopters and other equipment was hindering the UN force from protecting civilians or even themselves. "There are some groups protecting 250-square kilometres of desert with no helicopters and no radios that work," he told the gathered journalists.

"So either give them the basic tools for protecting the population (and themselves) or have the decency to just bring them all home. ... And go back into your offices and wait until it's all over," he said.

Clooney, nominated for an Oscar for his role in Michael Clayton, told journalists how people he met in Darfur had pleaded for UN help. "When I stood in the hospital next to women who had been raped and set on fire they looked up to me and said 'Please send the UN', not the US, not China, not Russia, just the UN. You are their only hope," he said.

As for the UN ambassadors’ unwillingness to hear him out, Clooney, 46, joked: "I think I've lost my touch. But I'm going to bring in Brad Pitt and Matt Damon, and get all the really good-looking guys in there."