Rally to Stop the Genocide in Darfur Planned for April 30 at the National Mall in Front of the U.S. Capitol in Washington D.C.

Summary

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To date, some 200,000 Black Africans living in Darfur have perished at the hands of government troops and heavily armed, government-backed Arab militias, known as Janjaweed who have wreaked terror and havoc across Darfur through death squads and aerial assaults by government planes dropping bombs on villages. Emboldened by the world's indifference, Arab militias and Janjaweed death squads armed with Kalashnikovs and driving jeeps have even taken to attacking refugee camps inside the neighboring country of [Chad], threatening to destabilize that country as well.

Not surprisingly, Khartoum has reacted with belligerence, threatening violence should U.N. forces be deployed. It has also initiated a well-orchestrated propaganda campaign aimed at convincing African Union member nations including Libya, Egypt and Ethiopia that U.N. peacekeeping forces would be tantamount to a neocolonial occupation aimed at destroying Sudan's sovereignty. It has even gone so far as to accuse African countries that approve of the United Nations intervention of desiring to bring about another era of subjugation with "masters in the West and slaves in Africa."

According to a Zogby International survey that interviewed 1,000 respondents, by a 62 percent to 24 percent margin, Americans said they felt that "the U.S. has a responsibility to stop the killings in the Darfur region of Sudan." By a 70 percent to 13 percent margin Americans said they favored imposing a 'no-fly zone' with severe repercussions for Sudanese government planes that violated the no-fly zone.

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Rally to Stop the Genocide in Darfur Planned for April 30 at the National Mall in Front of the U.S. Capitol in Washington D.C.

"Let us remember: what hurts the victim most is not the cruelty of the oppressor but the silence of the bystander."

- Elie Wiesel

As the torrential rains poured down on the squalid refugee camp and the howling winds picked up, misery was plainly visible everywhere. It was particularly evident in the anguished eyes of mothers squat ting in the partial shelter of flimsy tents of billowing plastic...

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