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US representatives arrested at Sudan protest

Posted on: Friday, 28 April 2006, 13:35 CDT

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Five members of the U.S. Congress were arrested at the Sudanese Embassy on Friday to protest violence in that country's Darfur region.

The lawmakers, all Democrats, were Reps. Tom Lantos of California, James McGovern and John Olver of Massachusetts, James Moran of Virginia, and Sheila Jackson Lee of Texas.

A few members of the Save Darfur Coalition also were arrested from the gathering of about 50 demonstrators, a spokeswoman for the coalition said.

Those arrested were taken to a police station and released about two hours later after paying $50 fines.

The lawmakers intended their arrests to draw attention to the Darfur conflict that the United States calls a genocide, McGovern said.

The protest came before a planned Sunday rally on the National Mall sponsored by the coalition, which comprises about 160 faith-based, advocacy and humanitarian organizations. Sunday is the deadline for talks aimed at settling the three-year conflict in Darfur.

U.N. and U.S. officials have accused the Sudanese government of arming marauding Arab militias, who have raped, pillaged, and killed tens of thousands in Darfur, and driven into squalid camps some 2 million villagers. Sudan has denied the charge.

"I don't think any human being can listen to the testimony of the people who have fled, and see the savagery that is going on there and not feel compelled to do something," McGovern said in a telephone interview after his release.

The lawmakers had been told they could not trespass on the embassy property. They made their statements off the property, then stood on the embassy steps.

The lawmakers did not heed police warnings, and "were arrested one by one," Lantos' spokeswoman Lynne Weil said.

"After the Holocaust, the world declared that never again would we stand by and let genocide take place. And yet the slaughter in Darfur continues," Lantos, a survivor of the Holocaust, said in a statement.

Source: REUTERS

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