Rangel Arrested In Sudan Genocide Protest

I'm protesting today to urge the United States government and the United Nations to take immediate action to stop the genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan. An international peacekeeping force must be mobilized to restore order in Darfur and to save the lives of the millions of African villagers currently at risk. We have to use any available means to compel the Sudanese government in Khartoum to stop assisting the murderous Janjaweed militias in their campaign of genocide, and we must assure that aid groups are given unfettered access to the millions of refugees who currently lack proper food, water, and shelter. I'm here today not just because of the thousands dying in Sudan; I'm also here for myself. My children or my grandchildren will ask me what I did when thousands of innocent men, women, and children were being killed, and if I say that I did nothing other than issue statements and speak harsh words, the blood of these people will not just be on the hands of the Sudanese government-it'll be on my hands as well.

What is going on in Sudan is an atrocity. It's criminal. And it's sinful. And I'm not a very religious person, but I understand enough about religion to know that every Jewish, Christian, and Muslim leader in this country; every council of churches, synagogues, and mosques; and every American who prays to their God should be here with me, decrying these acts as sin, pure and simple.

Secretary of State Colin Powell recently returned from a visit to the Sudan. During that time, he threatened the government in Khartoum with travel restrictions and sanctions if they did not take actions to diffuse the genocide that has left nearly 30,000 people dead, a million displaced, and threatens to kill a million more.

While I applaud Secretary Powell for his efforts, I am worried that our government is constructively engaging a government who has, by almost all accounts, been the primary sponsored of genocide in Sudan. The Khartoum government has directly contributed to the slaughter of tens of thousands of black Africans in Darfur, and I believe more than dialogue and sanctions are needed to stop the violence and return the displaced villagers to their homes.

The situation in Sudan has clearly reached the level of a genocide. US Agency for International Development Administration Andrew Natsios has declared that at least 300,000 people will be dead by years end, in the best-case scenario, and over a million will perish if things continue on their present course. We must take immediate actions to condemn the government of Sudan for their complicity and save the lives of these innocent people.

People all over this country knew the pain being inflicted on blacks in the South long before the Civil Rights Movement started. But the movement only really took hold when word of the beatings, the lynching, the bombing of little girls, and the brutal attacks spread across the country, and made people take action. Well, we have word about what's going on in the Sudan. So now, it's up to us: act, or be complicit.

I urge the Administration and the United Nations to immediately send a multinational peacekeeping force to Sudan and to provide the region with enough enriched food, medicine, and water to support the hundreds of thousands that are displaced. These people will die if we do not act now.

Office of U.S. Rep Charles Rangel (D - New York) website.
http://www.house.gov/rangel/

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