DAVOS, Switzerland, Jan 29 (AFP) - Angelina Jolie fans may have to settle for re-runs because the US actress has found humanitarian work with the UN's refugee agency more fulfilling and interesting than her erstwhile day job.
"It's harder for me to go back to work now, I've had a few months off and I'm having trouble going back to work," the award-winning star of "Girl, Interrupted" and "Tomb Raider" told media at the World Economic Forum Saturday.
"I'm finding my time at home with my son and taking him around, and travelling to UNHCR programs or other parts of the world is just more fulfilling and more interesting to me. And I know it's more important."
All the same, she added, keeping near the spotlight is crucial to continued aid for people helped by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees.
Jolie, who has spent four years as a goodwill ambassador for the UN agency, had carried out field missions to 20 countries, including Cambodia, Ecuador, Ivory Coast, Sierra Leone, Sri Lanka, Sudan and Thailand.
She said the first year was spent under radio silence because "I wanted to have at least a solid year to know that I really supported UNHCR, and to know what I was talking about."
The US celebrity has met with business leaders here and is also discussing the fundamentals behind refugee crises, aside from the Asian tsunami which she noted was essentially a natural disaster.
"All of these other deaths are avoidable, and a lot of these situations are man-made, and we can stop them," she stressed.
Talks with corporate chiefs went well, Jolie added, because "at the end of the day, businessmen have children, businessmen do care," and understand they have a responsibility.
Recounting her experiences in the field was harder, however, since it invariably revived strong memories.
She nonetheless recalled the time she met "a six-year old girl who had carried her baby sister across a border and had her parents killed in front of her and was just rocking and staring at something".
Six months later Jolie learned the girl was better and wanted to start school, which left the international aid worker thinking "My God, how is she even focusing on anything?"
Sharing the podium with Jolie was Wendy Chamberlain, deputy high commissioner for the UN agency, who told reporters the agency was currently protecting 17 million "persons of concern", primarily in Africa.
That figure is down however from 20 million people a few years ago.
The UN agency is currently active in the Darfur region of Sudan, and is also helping 230,000 refugees in neighboring Chad, "our newest and biggest operation in Africa", Chamberlain said.
She tipped southern Sudan as the next crisis area, with 150,000 Sudanese refugees in Uganda who could take the recent signing of a peace treaty as the sign to "get up and return, and that may happen overnight".
01/29/2005 18:20 GMT - AFP