George Clooney is calling for a boycott of luxury hotels around the world owned by the ruler of Brunei over the country’s new law that will make gay sex and adultery punishable by death.
“On this particular April 3rd the nation of Brunei will begin stoning and whipping to death any of its citizens that are proved to be gay,” Clooney writes in an open letter published Thursday on Deadline. “Let that sink in. In the onslaught of news where we see the world backsliding into authoritarianism this stands alone.”
The East Asian country — the first in the region to adopt Sharia law — announced late last year that it would begin enforcing harsh statutes, including stoning and amputation, for certain offenses. Homosexuality is already punishable by up to 10 years in prison in Brunei.
In his letter, Clooney credits Brunei’s oil with the country’s immense wealth. The Sultan of Brunei, Hassanal Bolkiah, Clooney says, owns “some pretty spectacular hotels” under a group called the Brunei Investment Agency. The Beverly Hills Hotel and the Hotel Bel-Air in Los Angeles are among the nine sites owned by the small nation’s ruler, writes the “Gravity” actor.
“The people who work there are kind and helpful and have no part in the ownership of these properties,” Clooney, a longtime human rights advocate, says in his message. “But let’s be clear, every single time we stay at or take meetings at or dine at any of these nine hotels we are putting money directly into the pockets of men who choose to stone and whip to death their own citizens for being gay or accused of adultery.”
The 57-year-old Academy Award winner concedes while he himself has stayed at many of the hotels because he didn’t do his homework, and that “any boycott would have little effect on changing these laws,” travelers shouldn’t stay at the Brunei-owned spots out of principle.
“Are we really going to help pay for these human rights violations? Are we really going to help fund the murder of innocent citizens?” Clooney asks.
“I’ve learned over years of dealing with murderous regimes that you can’t shame them. But you can shame the banks, the financiers and the institutions that do business with them and choose to look the other way.
Source: The Hill
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