Jolie lashes at West refugee policy
Wednesday,
October
11,
2006
Geneva
(Reuters):
Hollywood
star
Angelina
Jolie
accused
the
West
of
cold-heartedness
and
hypocrisy
in
trying
to
shut
out
migrants,
including
refugees,
from
Africa
and
other
hotspots.
More
than
7,000
people
have
died
trying
to
get
into
Europe
over
the
past
decade,
according
to
Jolie,
whose
comments
appeared
in
the
magazine
''Refugees'',
published
by
the
UN
High
Commissioner
for
Refugees
(UNHCR),
for
whom
she
is
a
goodwill
ambassador.
She
expressed
outrage
at
a
photo
which
appeared
recently
in
the
quarterly
magazine,
taken
on
an
unidentified
Mediterranean
beach
in
Spain
in
2002,
which
showed
a
couple
relaxing
under
an
umbrella
not
far
from
the
washed-up
corpse
of
a
black
man.
''We'll
never
know
who
he
was
or
why
he
ended
up
there
and
the
couple
on
the
beach
apparently
couldn't
care
less,''
Jolie
wrote.
''Someone's
son,
someone's
brother,
or
someone's
loved
one.
In
fact,
you
or
me,
if
we
had
been
born
at
another
time,
or
in
another
place.''
Jolie, who has been to more than 20 countries since becoming a UNHCR goodwill ambassador five years ago, said it was a scandal that such a rich world was not feeding all people in refugee camps, especially in Africa. Many would-be refugees fell into the hands of unscrupulous smugglers ''who push them into overcrowded boats or hide them in the backs of containers, or tell them to walk across minefields or scale barbed wire fences in the middle of the night''. ''Many have also died trying to get into the United States and Australia. But we don't notice,'' wrote the Oscar-winning actress, who is filming in India.
Ignoring simmering conflicts had proven damaging and expensive, she said, citing Bosnia, Rwanda and Afghanistan. ''I have been to some of these countries, or to their neighbours, where most of the refugees remain,'' said Jolie. ''It is a truly humbling experience, a shocking eye-opener. It has made me realise that we are all -- myself included -- behaving like the couple sitting under their umbrella on the beach, gazing studiously out to sea,'' she said.
The couple, donated 100,000 dollar to a foundation established in his memory, Pitt's spokeswoman said. The gift to the Daniel Pearl Foundation was presented on what would have been the 43rd birthday of the late Wall Street Journal reporter, who was abducted in Pakistan and killed in 2002 while researching a story in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks.
Jolie and Pitt arrived in India last week to begin production on the Pearl biographical drama A Mighty Heart, based on a memoir of the same name by the correspondent's widow, Mariane Pearl, who Jolie plays in the movie. Pitt is a producer on the project through his Plan B film company, and British filmmaker Michael Winterbottom, whose credits include ''Welcome to Sarajevo'' and ''The Road to Guantanamo,'' is directing. Actor Dan Futterman, whose screenplay for the film Capote earned an Oscar nomination, portrays Pearl in the movie.
''On this day our thoughts go out to Danny's family,'' Pitt and Jolie said in a statement issued to People magazine through their representative, Trevor Neilson. Pitt's personal publicist, Cindy Guagenti, confirmed the donation. The Daniel Pearl Foundation, which promotes cross-cultural understanding through journalism and music, was observing Pearl's birthday with a series of music festivals around the world, the Pitt-Jolie statement said.
Jolie, who won an Oscar for her supporting role as a psychiatric patient in ''Girl, Interrupted,'' gave birth this past summer in Africa to her first biological child, daughter Shiloh Nouvel, with off-screen paramour Pitt. The two co-starred as married assassins assigned to kill each other in the action comedy Mr and Mrs Smith.
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