ANCA AND AFRICA ACTION CALL ON BUSH ADMINISTRATION TO TAKE DECISIVE ACTION ON DARFUR GENOCIDE AT WHITE HOUSE VIGIL
WASHINGTON, MAY 30, NOYAN TAPAN. Armenian Americans from the Greater
Washington DC area joined with local student leaders and community
activists last week to protest the ongoing Genocide in Darfur,
Sudan. Congressional Armenian Caucus Co-Chair Frank Pallone (D-NJ)
was among speakers at the May 25th White House vigil, organized
by the Armenian National Committee of America (ANCA). Rep. Pallone
thanked attendees for calling attention to the situation in Darfur,
Sudan, and went on to draw parallels between Armenian and Darfur
genocides. “It’s very reminiscent of what happened in the case of
the Armenian Genocide,” stated Rep. Pallone. “There were people
that were speaking out that were not listened to. In the case of the
Turks, they were out there in the fields, constantly killing people
and moving people into the desert. While there were those who were
speaking out [about the Armenian Genocide], the Western powers really
weren’t doing anything about it. We don’t want to be in that situation
again here in the United States.” During the vigil, representatives
of the ANCA, Africa Action, the Armenian Youth Federation, Genocide
Education Project, Armenian American activists and supporters gave
impassioned remarks about the importance of continued activism to press
for decisive action by the Bush Administration to end the violence
in Darfur. Among the speakers joining Rep. Pallone and Nahapetian
were ANCA Executive Director Aram Hamparian; Communications Director
Elizabeth Chouldjian; Africa Action Executive Director Salih Booker,
Director for Public Education and Mobilization Marie Clarke Brill,
and Program Associate Akenji Ndumu; Genocide Education Project
Education Director Sara Cohan; Armenian American activist Sylvia
Parsons; and AYF member Megan Young. Hamparian expressed concern
about the U.S. Government’s inaction following a September, 2004,
statement properly characterizing the killings and rapes in Darfur
as “genocide”. “By using the term genocide – and not acting on our
legal and moral obligations, our invocation of the term genocide
is hollowed of meaning. Our commitment to the Genocide Convention
is undermined. Those whose lives it was within our power to save
are abandoned,” explained Hamparian. The ANCA has participated in
previous Darfur vigils, protested outside the Sudanese Embassy,
spoken at genocide prevention conferences, and generated support –
both at the grassroots level and in Washington, DC – for Congressional
legislation aimed at ending the slaughter in the Darfur region. Up to
400,000 people have already died and more than 2,000,000 dislocated
in Darfur over the past two years. Recent reports confirm that the
situation on the ground is deteriorating, and the humanitarian crisis
is reaching desperate proportions.
From: Emil Lazarian | Ararat NewsPress