June 6, 2006–Delegate to Congress Donna M. Christensen joined her Congressional Black Caucus colleagues in a peaceful protest on Tuesday in front of the Sudanese embassy to put pressure on that government to end the genocide in Darfur. Area police arrested Christensen and another colleague, Congressman Danny K. Davis of Illinois, when they refused to move off the steps of the embassy. This was the second protest staged by the CBC in recent weeks. Other CBC members were arrested in similar protests, according to the delegate.
Christensen said the CBC has been working on a number of ways to bring attention to the situation in Darfur, where millions of Sudanese have died. Christensen said the issue runs the risk of being put on the "back burner" so the lawmakers organized some peaceful protests.
"We staged press conferences where we refuse to move off the embassy steps and are arrested," the delegate said, adding that it was an "old civil rights tactic."
"Yes I was cuffed," Christensen said. "We were put in a police wagon, taken to a precinct and put in a cell while being processed. We were fingerprinted, paid our fine and released."
In a press release issued from her D.C. office, Christensen said, "As people of conscience, we cannot stand by and allow yet another genocide to occur without raising our voices as loudly as we possibly can in opposition to the atrocities that have been committed."
The release further explained the situation in Darfur, saying that "to date, an estimated 450,000 Sudanese have died since the beginning of the hostilities in 2003. More than 2.5 million Sudanese have been displaced from their homes and 3.5 million are currently in need of humanitarian assistance as a result of the crisis that is said to have been orchestrated by the government of Sudan and its allied Janjaweed militias."
According to the release, the CBC was the first to highlight the crisis in Darfur and on June 24, 2004, introduced H. Con. Res. 467 declaring genocide in the region.
Since then, the Congress, the State Department and the President have declared the activities in Darfur genocide and called on the government to create a just and lasting peace in the region.
Darfur is located in the Sudan region of Northern Africa, bordering the Red Sea, between Egypt and Eritrea.
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