Join the MovementSign up to join the network of 30,000 working to end slavery

Rally at UN Against Sudan Genocide a Success

MLK Day Rally Across From UN Draws Diverse Crowd of New Yorkers

NEW YORK — Despite blistering cold, New Yorkers stood outside the United Nations yesterday, calling for an end to the genocide in Darfur, Sudan. The numbers and warmth of the gathering was evidence to the world that people of conscience will not allow the Darfurian plight to go unnoticed.

Simon Deng, a former Sudanese slave, spoke eloquently about his own experience of abduction and servitude as a young child. He called on Americans to send a message to world leaders that inaction in the face of genocide is unacceptable and morally irresponsible.

"Immediate action must be taken to end the genocide in Darfur. The international community cannot allow another Rwanda to take place," Deng said. "The Sudan UN Mission is right here in our neighborhood. It's easy for us to send a message to the rulers of Sudan."

Charles Jacobs, founder and president of the American Anti-Slavery Group (AASG) said:

Long before the Taliban blew up the Hindu holy statues, the extremist Government of Sudan blew up black Sudanese churches. Long before Australians were blow to bits in Bali, African men, women and children were being slaughtered in their villages in Sudan. Long before Jewish children were blown up in shopping malls in Tel Aviv, Sudanese children were slaughtered in their market places, or if lucky, taken away as slaves. By the time the last Spaniard was murdered on a train in Madrid, over a million blacks in South Sudan had been killed in a jihad declared by Khartoum.

The world did not care much about these blacks and so now we have the second genocide in Sudan — this one is not against the Christians and Animists in the South, but against the black Muslims in the West.

Roughly 100,000 people have died in Darfur with nearly two million displaced, left to wander the desert searching for shelter or relocated to refugee camps. Among the worst crimes being committed is the wide-spread rape of women and young girls.

The rally was organized by the New York chapter of the AASG. The Boston-based AASG is a human rights group dedicated to abolishing modern-day slavery and has been leading the struggle to stop slave-raids and genocide in Sudan for over a decade.