Hundreds Rally in DC for Darfur

With time inexorably slipping away in a bloody hourglass, hundreds of activists gathered in Lafayette Park last Sunday to demand action on Darfur. The demonstration was one of more than 400 held worldwide as part of "Global Days for Darfur" organized by a coalition of religious organizations, student groups and Amnesty International. At the local event, Rev. Walter Fauntroy, former Martin Luther King lieutenant and the first DC Delegate to Congress, connected the struggle to obtain civil rights in the US and to free South Africa with today’s struggle for the people of Darfur. The coalition called on the United States and other world governments to set a timeline and benchmarks for implementation of an African Union/UN peacekeeping force in Darfur, protect displaced civilians in neighboring eastern Chad and support the introduction of UN peacekeepers there, and to provide funding for African Union and United nations peacekeepers to protect civilians and stabilize the area. Click here to email Dr. Zalmay Khalilzad,  U.S. Representative to the United Nations, or call the White House comment line -- 202-456-1414 – to tell the Bush Administration to act now.
- reported by Rick Powell