Faith-based Organisations Unite for 'Save Darfur Coalition'

Following the raging war crisis in Darfur, Sudan, organisations have joined the ‘Save Darfur Coalition’ for a huge rally on Sunday, April 30, in the United States.

|TOP|More than 160 faith-based, human-rights and humanitarian organisations will unite for the coalition, which will go beyond just signing petitions.

Among the organisations are: The American Jewish World Service, the American Society for Muslim Advancement, the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, the National Association of Evangelicals, Amnesty International,the United States Holocaust Museum, the National Black Church Initiative and an array of regional and local organizations.

Also among the organisers is the Boston-based American Anti-Slavery Group, which worked for years to awaken Americans to the mass killings and slavery perpetrated in the south of Sudan on black Christians and animists by the very same Sudanese government in Khartoum that is now guilty of conducting with its murderous militia, the Janjaweed, the genocide in Darfur. In addition, joining the coalition is Christian Solidarity International, which redeemed many thousands of slaves from northern Sudan over the years, and still is. At least 40,000 black Christian and animist slaves are still in the north.

More than 400,000 people have died so far in Sudan, the United States calling it “genocide.”

|AD|When a revolt broke out in Darfur in 2003, the government began arming citizen militias, known as the Janjaweed, and sent them to intimidate and bring order to the rural villages. As a result, women are systematically raped and called "slaves" by the Janjaweed, with their husbands forced to watch. Babies are ripped from their mother's arms and killed on the spot, and those who aren't directly attacked by the mobs are being starved to death by the destruction of their crops.

George W. Bush was the first and only world leader to have said plainly that the mass killings in Darfur are genocide. At Freedom House in Washington on March 25, the president emphasized: "When we say genocide, we mean genocide must be stopped." He continued by pointing out that the African Union's small force in Darfur is not enough: "There should be a NATO overlay of support.”

On PBS' "The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer," NATO head Jaap de Hoop Scheffer say that "Africans feel very strongly" that they should take care of problems on their own continent. So, he added, one "should be careful" about imposing oneself on them. "There is not yet the need for declaring a willingness for [NATO] to participate." There is not yet a need when more than 300,000 unarmed African Muslims in Darfur have been killed or died of disease; 2 million have been displaced; and when the United Nations' chief humanitarian coordinator, Jan Egeland, declared on April 4 that barbarism in Darfur "is changing dramatically for the worse."

The April 30 "Rally to Stop Genocide" will take place between 2 p.m. and 4 p.m. on the National Mall, between Third and Fourth streets in front of the U.S. Capitol Metro Station Federal Center SW (Orange and Blue lines). The crowd will assemble from 1:30 p.m. to 2:00 p.m. Among those invited to attend the "Rally to Stop Genocide" on April 30are President Bush, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, the four chairs of the Congressional Sudan Caucus and other members of the House and Senate.

Speakers will include Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient Paul Rusesabagina, who risked his life to save more than 1,000 people at the hotel he managed during the genocide in Rwanda, a story told in the riveting movie, "Hotel Rwanda." Also, the former National Basketball Association star Manute Bol, a native of Sudan; Iman Rauf, founder and CEO of the American Society for Muslim Advancement; and Ruth Messinger, executive director of the American Jewish World Service, which has so far raised more than $2 million to provide emergency relief and support for the survivors of genocide in Darfur.