Pacific News Service, CA
New California Media, CA
July 16 2004
Ethnic Media, Activists Decry Crisis in Sudan
News Report, Compiled by Peter Micek,
Asbarez Armenian Daily, Council of Islamic Organizations of Greater
Chicago, Jul 16, 2004
WASHINGTON — Armenian activists joined with Rep. Charles Rangel and
leading African American and human rights activists at a
demonstration July 13 outside the Sudanese Embassy calling for United
States and international pressure to end the genocide in the Darfur
region of Sudan.
The Washington protest, organized by the Sudan Campaign, featured the
arrest of rep. Charles, Rangel, a senior Democrat and New York
Congressman who serves as the Ranking Member on the influential
United States House Ways and Means Committee.
Staff and activists with the Armenian National Committee of America
also participated in the protest. Armenian and Black media gave ample
coverage to the protest.
“When human lives are in jeopardy, there should be outrage,’ Rangel
said.
Some 30,000 have already perished over the past 18 months in Darfur,
Sudan, with approximately one million forced to flee their homes. If
the Sudanese government does not allow for the distribution of
international humanitarian assistance, the death toll could rise to
350,000, according to conservative estimates.
In a July 15 press release, the Council of Islamic Organizations of
Greater Chicago, said `an apparent ethnic cleansing campaign’ against
non-Arab, ethnic Sudanese has led to refugee camps with little access
to food or medical care.
`It is a neglected humanitarian tragedy,’ said Jihad Shoshara of the
Council’s newly created Darfur Awareness and Relief Program.
Rangel was arrested for trespassing after stepping to the door of the
Embassy. He was released within hours from a Washington, D.C., jail
after paying bail of 50 dollars. Former member of Congress and
current president of the National Council of Churches Robert Edgar
was arrested at the Sudanese Embassy the next day.
Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA) Executive Director Aram
Hamparian, Government Affairs Director Abraham Niziblian and ANCA
interns, led by Director Arsineh Khachikian, joined the midday
protest which included some 150 activists and representatives from a
diverse coalition of Sudan Campaign partner organizations including
the Congressional Black Caucus, Center for Religious Freedom at
Freedom House, Institute on Religion and Democracy, American
Anti-slavery group, Wilberforce Project, and Christian Solidarity
International, among others.
“We marched today, in the name of all Armenians, to do our part to
help end the cycle of genocide,” said Hamparian. “As the descendants
of survivors of the Armenian Genocide, we bear a special burden to
fight intolerance and to demand moral leadership – and decisive
action – from our government to prevent hundreds of thousands of deaths
in Darfur.”
Niziblian, in an interview with the Associated Press (AP), was quoted
as saying that, “A lot more people should be protesting and taking to
the streets now.”
The Sudan Campaign is led by Rev. Walter E. Fauntroy, co-founder of
the Congressional Black Caucus, and Joe Madison, a civil rights
activist and radio personality in the Greater Washington, DC area.
The group has been holding noon-time protests in front of the
Sudanese Embassy for the past month, during which several leading
human and civil rights activists have been arrested.
During his remarks, Madison announced that he is launching a hunger
strike until the Sudanese government takes action to end the
obstruction of humanitarian assistance from reaching hundreds of
thousands in need in Darfur.
Over the past month, the ANCA has called attention to the atrocities
in Sudan through a series of letters to Congressional offices, urging
them to take a stand to stop the cycle of genocide through support of
Congressional initiatives regarding Sudan as well as for the Genocide
Resolution (H.Res.193, S.Res.164), which reaffirms United States
commitment to the principles of the Genocide Convention.
On June 23, Niziblian participated in a press conference organized by
the Congressional Black Caucus and Africa Action. The ANCA has urged
Armenian Americans to add their names to the Africa Action petition
drive for Sudan, by visiting
The coming rainy season in Sudan will make roads impassable,
obstructing relief efforts to the camps, the Council of Islamic
Organizations of Greater Chicago said. The United Nations, it said,
has called the situation in Darfur `the world’s greatest humanitarian
crisis.’
It is a neglected humanitarian tragedy, said the Council’s Jihad
Shoshara.
`There are people who are dying and nobody knows about it.’
The Council opened a relief fund and asks, `Muslims and fellow
Americans of all faiths,’ to spread awareness of the situation and
contact elected representatives.