Rally in DC for Darfur draws thousands

Thousands of people from across the country rallied in Washington, DC, on Apr. 30 to demand an end to genocide in Sudan's Darfur region, marking the first massive US outcry since the government-backed killings of civilians erupted there in 2003. Busloads of university students, evangelical Christians, Jewish groups, teachers' unions and African-American civic organizations packed the National Mall in front of the Capitol, chanting "enough is enough" and waving placards that read "stop the genocide." The rally, one of several that took place across the country, aimed to push the US government to take stronger measures to help civilians in Darfur who have been driven from their homes by government-backed militias. Nobel Peace Prize winner and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel told the crowd that converged near the US Capitol that "Darfur deserves to live. We are its only hope." Other speakers at the rally included Washington's Roman Catholic Archbishop Theodore McCarrick and actor George Clooney, who visited Darfur last week. In the crowd below, giant puppets in African clothing cradled a puppet of a dead baby. A boy on his father's back held up a sign that said, "Now you know." T-shirts, banners and signs showed the diverse backgrounds of the protesters: the Baltimore Teachers' Union; a Texas chapter of Young Judea, a Jewish youth group; a group called New Yorkers Against Genocide. "We are responding to a conflict in a part of the world that a lot of people don't know exists," said Kim Stietz, interim director for international policy of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America. "From a spiritual perspective, we are called to be a voice for the voiceless." The permit for the rally estimated a turnout of 10,000 to 15,000 people, but several of the speakers said they felt that the crowd was larger than expected. The Save Darfur Coalition, a group of about 100 humanitarian organizations that seeks to raise public awareness of the genocide, organized the event. During another Darfur protest on Apr. 28, five members of Congress were among 11 people arrested outside the Sudanese Embassy in Washington. Rep. Tom Lantos of California, a Holocaust survivor and human rights advocate, was one of the lawmakers who was willingly arrested. Lantos was taken into custody by the Secret Service along with Democratic Reps. Jim McGovern and John W. Olver of Massachusetts, James P. Moran of Virginia and Sheila Jackson-Lee of Texas. Six members of religious and humanitarian aid organizations were also arrested. Other protesters clapped and shouted as the lawmakers were put in plastic handcuffs and loaded into the back of a white police van. Some demonstrators carried pictures portraying the conflict; others held a painted banner with an image of a crying woman and the words "Stop the killing now." The 11 protesters, who face fines on charges of disorderly conduct and unlawful assembly, were trying to focus attention directly on the Sudanese government. The lawmakers read a list of four demands of the Sudanese government: to issue a cease-fire, to allow United Nations peacekeeping forces to enter the country, to grant full access to humanitarian organizations and to continue peace talks. The killings in Darfur began in February 2003, when two rebel groups had stepped up their armed struggle against the government in Khartoum. The government responded by arming militias known as Janjaweed, who began killing civilians of non-Arab tribes considered sympathetic to anti-government rebels. About 180,000 people have been killed and three million driven have been driven from their homes. Congress and the Bush administration have declared the killings in Darfur to be genocide. Yet $50 million that the United States pledged in support of the ill-equipped African Union troops who are protecting civilians there has been tied up for months in bureaucratic wrangling. The US also supports transferring the task of protecting civilians to the United Nations, which has more resources than the African Union, but so far Russia and China have blocked the move. The Bush administration issued an executive order on Apr. 27 freezing the assets of four Sudanese government ministers deemed to have posed a threat to the peace process in Darfur. But demonstrators called on the administration to do more. Elamin Wadi, a refugee from Darfur who took part in the Apr. 30 protest, said: "We hope to send a message to the American government and then have the American government send a message to the Sudan government."