Members of Congress, Darfur Activists Arrested

Five members of Congress and leading Darfur activists were arrested today in front of the Sudanese Embassy in Washington, D.C. The group gathered to protest the dire humanitarian crisis in Darfur, Sudan, which was exacerbated by the government's recent expulsion of 13 international aid agencies. State-sanctioned violence in Darfur began in 2003, forcing an estimated 2.5 million people from their homes and into camps where they are dependent on aid. Now, the government's decision to prevent major aid agencies from providing food, water, and basic services to the people living in the camps means that starvation and disease loom.
"We need to shake up the status quo, and that's why we're getting arrested today," said Enough's John Prendergast, standing next to the police barricade surrounding the Sudanese Embassy.
Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA), Rep. Donna Edwards (D-MD), Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN), Rep. John Lewis (D-GA), Rep. Lynn Woolsey (D-CA), Jerry Fowler of Save Darfur Coalition, and John Prendergast of the Enough Project led the protest.
Following speeches by the protest's headliners, the group stepped onto the property of the embassy and was given three warnings by the U.S. Secret Service to leave. As the protesters stood defiant, police handcuffed each of the leaders and escorted them into a Secret Service vehicle.
Update: The members of Congress and Darfur activists were released from jail this afternoon. Upon his return to our office, Enough co-Founder John Prendergast had this to say about the event:
We hope our message is heard in the White House in Washington and at the Presidential Palace in Khartoum. The time to end the genocide is long overdue, and the best way to do that is for the Obama administration to take the lead in helping to construct a credible peace initiative for Darfur and a more effective means to promote the implementation of the North-South peace deal.
Video, pictures, and updates can be found here.
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why don't they go and
why don't they go and arrest joseph kony?
Arrests
Wishing that the US Secret Service also had the 70,000 who attended the 2006 Washington rally and the 30,000 who attended the 2006 NY rally to arrest...
Nell Okie
Members of Congress, Darfur Activists Arrested. By Laura Heaton
With all the respect to both Laura Heaton & Enough co-Founder John Prendergast; to me they are simply selling rotten fish to Darfurians for a few dollars more before selling it to the international society. What they say and what they write is absurd. I am sure that they know nothing about the environment or the nature of the conflict in Darfur nor the combination of the citizens there. For your information, many tribes have been living in that part of the Sudan for decades. Citizens there are mainly divided into Nomads and Peasants. Due to drought and little amount of rain, they found themselves involved in conflicts which take place from time to time and a range of clashes that lead to the loss of lives from both sides and when such a thing takes place, they used to elect wise men from both parties and resolve the issue even in the case of lost lives. Life was going on and they were living together as it had always been. Then came the weapons from Chad during the fighting between the opponents and the government. Many possessed arms and started attacking villages and travelers with the assistant of their weapons. Citizens there examined and suffered long years of what was known as "Armed Robbery", where so many lost their lives in addition to the looting trucks, machineries and valuable properties were taken across the Borders to Chad. What do you expect people to do?? Leave their homes or keep paying in blood and money the price of the attacks of the highway gangs. That was the case in Darfur at that time and I know and you know that all those who lead such a life are considered as terrorists but not those in Sudan, Sudan is an exceptional case, same as the shameful warrant against President Omer Al Bashir, which started with eight charges and they are now abridged to five to suit the President of Sudan. Maybe, it is time for honest people who care for Darfur and the Sudan, to have a neutral view of the conflict in Darfur, that is to say: have same distance from both parties, if they really wanted to help Darfur. The enough team is to be responsible for the consequences of the misleading information which they really lack credibility. People in Iraq and Afghanistan are dying on daily bases for more than six years now because of false information from the CIA in the second place and Bush administration in the first place; they were asking for the fabricated and misleading information to launch their private war, I hope that Enough Team will be wise enough not commit the same mistake. But still the Enough Team hasn't have enough to even discuss the Bush confessions or the facts that are now on the open on the scandal of Iraq war, I don't see or hear any ICC warrants. Anyhow, let us go back to Darfur and let us begin by digging facts from their resources; I say: " In the name of all Sudanese including those of Darfur, I invite Laura Heaton & Mr. John Prendergast to visit the Sudan and I am positive that they will change their mind in regard of the charges launched against a nation in the name of President Omer Al Bashir, allegations which nobody accepted not even the ICC jury, who discovered that their warrant was met with opposition even by those who are in disagreement with Al Bashir. Let us save Darfur by being honest to their problem and by saying the Truth the Whole Truth and nothing but the Truth.
Excuse me?
I completely agree with you - that is, the part where you suggest that people better know what they are talking about before they get on their soapbox and act like they have all of the facts.
And, since I do agree with that, I am all the more firmly behind Mr. Prendergast and his Enough Project because he HAS been to the Sudan. He speaks from experience, not hearsay. He was jailed in Southern Sudan for writing a couple of harshly critical reports on human rights abuses there, so they put him in prison the next time he entered the country.
Mr. Prendergast and other members of the Enough Project team have witnessed the human rights atrocities in the Sudan firsthand; their credibility is impeccable.