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Sudanese Ex-Slave and New Yorkers Rally Against Sudan Genocide

Central Park Rally to Take Place Days After Holocaust Remembrance Day

NEW YORK — On Sunday, May 8th, just days after Holocaust Remembrance Day, New Yorkers will gather to protest the genocide being waged against the black African population of Sudan, particularly in the country’s western Darfur region.

The rally is scheduled to begin at 4:30pm by the 72nd Street entrance to Central Park (Cherry Hill). Speakers include Congressman Anthony Weiner, Ruth Messinger of the American Jewish World Service, Simon Deng, of the American Anti-Slavery Group, and other human rights activists. Deng, a former Sudanese child slave and current US citizen and Manhattan resident, will discuss his experience as a slave and the larger campaign of genocide that has ravaged Sudan for decades.

"The murder and enslavement of black Africans in Sudan has gone on long enough," says Mr. Deng. "I am fortunate to have survived and come to this wonderful country, but if the international community continues its policy of inaction there will be no one left to save."

Experts estimate that between 300,000 and 500,000 people have died in Darfur, Sudan in the last two years. About two million more have been displaced at the hands of the Sudanese government and janjaweed, Arab militias supported by the Sudanese regime. The United States Congress and State Department have called the violence in Sudan a genocide.

The rally is being organized by Not Now, Not Ever, a student-run non-profit organization working to raise awareness about the genocide in Darfur, Sudan. Event co-sponsors include the American Anti-Slavery Group, Yeshiva University, Human Rights First, the Genocide Intervention Fund, the Anti-Defamation League, and the American Jewish World Service.

Cindy Bernstein, Director of Communications for Not Now, Not Ever and primary organizer of the event, chose the Sunday after Holocaust Remembrance Day to bring home the point that "we must not only say 'Never Again' but make sure that those words have real value and fulfils a transformation from intention to action." The Yeshiva University junior hopes to educate New Yorkers about the Sudan genocide through the Central Park rally.

The American Anti-Slavery Group (AASG) is America's leading human rights group dedicated to abolishing modern-day slavery worldwide. Since its founding in 1994, AASG has helped free over 80,000 slaves and has been working to end genocide in Sudan for a decade.

For information or to schedule an interview with Simon Deng contact Liora Kasten at (617) 426-8161.