WASHINGTON (ABP) — As Congress considered a resolution declaring the ethnic cleansing crisis taking place in western Sudan as genocide, a diverse coalition of religious leaders and congregants protested governmental inaction on the crisis.
Around 300 people staged a “die-in” July 22 in a park just across Pennsylvania Avenue from the White House. The protestors laid down in 90-degree sun for 20 minutes to draw attention to the estimated 1,000 black Sudanese dying daily in Sudan's Darfur province.
The protesters and a group of speakers who addressed them demanded worldwide governments — including that of the United States — address the crisis more forcefully.
“What is the right thing to do? The right thing to do is to call it 'genocide,'” African-American radio personality Joe Madison told the crowd, who responded with loud affirmations.
The crisis began in early 2003, when some black African militias in Darfur attacked Sudan's Arab-controlled government to protest long-standing inequities between black Sudanese and the Arab power structure.
The government responded by arming Arab militias — collectively known by the Arabic name “Janjaweed” — who, according to a variety of human-rights groups, have terrorized black Darfur residents by carrying out a systematic campaign of murder, rape, destruction of crops, and forced displacement of whole villages.
As a result, according to the U.S. Agency for International Development, nearly a million black Sudanese are at risk of death from starvation and disease due to tight quarters in refugee camps and the militias' blocking of relief shipments of food and medicine. According to various estimates, between 30,000 and 100,000 people have already died as a result of the ethnic cleansing.
The United Nations has been slow to react to the crisis, with its Security Council divided on how to proceed against the Sudanese government. Although U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell visited Darfur in June and President Bush has called attention to the issue, the White House has not yet officially called the crisis “genocide” or committed the U.S. to military intervention in the situation.
Powell was scheduled to meet on the evening of July 22 with U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan to discuss the situation in Darfur. No details of their meeting were available by press time for this story.
The protestors demanded immediate action. “When your neighbor's life is in danger, you do not stand idly by,” Jim Wallis, founder of the evangelical social-justice group Sojourners, told rally participants. He cited Leviticus 17 and Jesus' story of the Good Samaritan in calling world governments to immediate action.
The protest was the latest after three weeks of high-visibility protests in front of the Sudanese Embassy in Washington. A host of religious leaders, media personalities and politicians have been arrested at the embassy. Among them have been several members of Congress and Bob Edgar, president of the National Council of Churches. Leaders of various human-rights groups have vowed to continue the arrests.
For its part, the Sudanese government has repeatedly denied aiding the Janjaweed and has laid blame for the crisis on black Darfurian rebel groups. “Regrettably, these armed groups are enjoying sympathetic coverage in the United States and Europe by placing the blame for the humanitarian situation on the government of Sudan and militias it is alleged to support,” read a statement posted on the Sudanese Embassy's website July 19.
“Politicization of the situation in Darfur and its use as a tool to destabilize the government of Sudan must be considered the major factor of the humanitarian disaster there.”
But, at the protest, Wallis said international officials who don't call the Sudanese government to account will themselves be called to account. “Political leaders, making a decision about who should care [about the crisis in Darfur]: Remember, God cares,” he said.
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