TO: ASSIGNMENT EDITORS & PRODUCERS
Concerning Sunday April 30 Save Darfur rallies in Washington and San Francisco, below are:
1. Media Advisory concerning participation by global humanitarian agency Church World Service (CWS) 2. (Advance) CWS Speakers Comments for both rallies 3. Complete speakers list for Washington rally
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CONTACTS: Lesley Crosson, Church World Service, (212) 870-2676, lcrosson@churchworldservice.org 24/7: Jan Dragin, (781) 925-1526, jdragin@gis.net
MEDIA ADVISORY
Thousands Expected at Sunday Washington, San Francisco 'Save Darfur' Rallies
At Capitol Rally, Church World Service Head Calls Continuing Darfur Atrocities "A Moral Outrage"
EDITORS NOTE: EMBARGOED RALLY COMMENTS BY CHURCH WORLD SERVICE EXECUTIVES INCLUDED WITH THIS ADVISORY
Washington, DC - Thurs April 27 - Global humanitarian agency Church World Service executives will join with Americans and other humanitarian leaders on both coasts this Sunday (April 30) for two of the latest in a series of rallies intended to increase pressure on the U.S., United Nations and other world bodies to stop the genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan.
An advocate for definitive world body intervention in the Darfur crisis since its inception, Church World Service Executive Director Rev. John L. McCullough says the persisting genocide and lack of effective global response is "a moral outrage."
In Washington, a national Save Darfur Coalition rally is expected to attract several thousand protesters from cities throughout the U.S., with speakers including actor George Clooney, Nobel Prize winner and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, Church World Service Executive Director Rev. John L. McCullough, Rwandan humanitarian Paul Rusesabagina, Pulitzer Prize winning author Samantha Power, International Crisis Group Senior Advisor John Prendergast, a variety of national interfaith leaders, members of congress, and others. More than 160 organizations are co-sponsoring the Capitol event.
In San Francisco, an estimated 2,000 are expected to attend three events on Sunday, sponsored by the San Francisco-Bay Area Darfur Coalition. A third rally is also slated for Sunday in Chicago.
Sunday also marks the deadline set by the African Union and UN Security Council demanding that a peace accord be reached between the government of Sudan and two rebel groups in Darfur, after prolonged and stumbling negotiations that have been going on- and off- in Abuja, Nigeria, since 2004.
This week's U.S. rallies highlight renewed pressure at international levels being brought to bear on the government of Sudan and its Arab Janjaweed militia to cease the unremitting violence and reported atrocities against primarily black African Darfurians.
On Tuesday (April 25) the African Union proposed a peace deal for Sudan's Darfur region that would require the government to disarm its Janjaweed militias as a key step towards ending the three-year-old conflict.
On Monday, the UN Security Council voted to impose sanctions on four Sudanese nationals accused of war crimes in Darfur.
WHAT, WHERE, WHEN:
WASHINGTON, DC RALLY:
Save Darfur Coalition Rally to Stop Genocide
Date: Sunday April 30, 2006 Program Time: 2:00 - 4:30 PM (Crowd Assembly 1:30 - 2:00 PM)
Location:
National Mall, between 3rd and 4th Streets in front of the U.S. Capitol (Metro Station -- Federal Center SW [Orange and Blue Lines])
Washington Rally Contact: Chuck Thies, Rally Director Phone: (202) 478-6148 e-mail: rally@savedarfur.org
The Washington rally is also the final stop of the "Tour for Darfur: Eyewitness to Genocide," a 21,000 mile photo exhibit and speaking tour of 22 cities in 11 states to raise public awareness about the Darfur crisis. The tour's featured speaker is Brian Steidle, a former Marine captain and U.S. representative to the African Union's peacekeeping mission in Darfur from September 2004 to February 2005.
SAN FRANCISCO RALLY:
"Darfur Days of Conscience"
Three Events
To raise awareness of the 2.5 million displaced victims of the Darfur region
Date: Sunday, April 30, 2006
Silent Vigil: Program Time: 10:45 AM Location: Golden Gate Bridge - East Sidewalk
Rally for Darfur: Program Time: 1:30 PM Location: Crissy Field, The Presidio
Songfest for Darfur: Program Time: 4:00 PM Location: Temple Emanu-El
The Bay Area Darfur Coalition represents individuals and groups including a string of related community advocacy organizations: "Dear Sudan, Love Marin" and its counterparts in Petaluma, the East Bay and the Peninsula.
Organizers for the Bay Area events include the San Francisco Bay Area Darfur Coalition, UC Berkeley and Stanford Students Taking Action Now Darfur (STAND), American Friends Service Committee, American Jewish World Service, Dear Sudan, Human Rights Watch, Jewish Community Relations Council, and United Church of Christ.
WHO:
* Speakers list for the Washington rally is below.
* Speakers at the San Francisco Rally for Darfur include Reverend Cecil Williams of Glide Memorial Church, Fidele Lumeya, International Emergency Response Program Associate Director, Church World Service, Jerry Fowler of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, and other community leaders.
BACKGROUND:
Both rallies are part of a national "Million Voices for Darfur" campaign to generate one million postcards for delivery to President Bush, who recently pledged to push for additional UN and NATO help to protect the people of Darfur. We applaud the President's leadership, but the work is far from done. We are urging President Bush to take steps necessary to end the genocide and build a lasting peace.
Church World Service urges the following advocacy actions: * That the U.S. government use its position in the UN Security Council to strengthen the international response in Darfur * That the Security Council issue a broader mandate for peacekeepin g in Darfur that allows for a clear role for the protection of civilians * That the broader peacekeeping mandate be coupled with sufficient assured international logistical and financial support * That the Security Council reconstitute the Africa Union troops on the ground as UN "blue helmet" peacekeepers
CWS has also been calling for the Security Council to authorize an expanded multinational peacekeeping presence in Darfur, capable of ensuring the protection of civilians.
Through its national fundraising campaign to help the victims of Darfur, global humanitarian agency Church World Service is responding in Darfur through an international alliance of NGOs from the U.S., Europe, and Sudan.
CWS and its partners are providing food, medicines, agricultural assistance and tools. The consortium is helping some 325,000 families directly, in addition to supporting hospitals and health centers serving up to 250,000 people and by providing water projects for additional communities.
Echoing national Darfur support, this week in Greensboro, North Carolina, where CWS's second largest national fundraising CROP WALK is held each year, the Greensboro Urban Ministry announced that it has launched the region's own "Dear Sudan, Love Greensboro" campaign, targeted to raise $40,000 for Church World Service's Darfur campaign during the month of May.
For more information about the situation in Darfur and CWS's humanitarian and advocacy work there, visit
EDITORS' NOTE: Prior to and following the national Darfur rallies, CWS executives Rev. John L. McCullough and Fidele Lumeya are available for media interviews on request.
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***EMBARGO - FOR RELEASE APRIL 30
FOLLOWING CLOSE OF WASHINGTON AND SAN FRANCISCO RALLIES
STATEMENTS BY CHURCH WORLD SERVICE PRESENTERS AT WASHINGTON AND SAN FRANCISCO EVENTS
WASHINGTON RALLY COMMENTS BY REV. JOHN L. McCULLOUGH:
In Washington, Church World Service (CWS) Executive Director and CEO Rev. John L. McCullough said, "What is happening in Darfur is simply wrong and a moral outrage.
"The people of Darfur no longer have time for diplomatic courtesies, and we have no patience for partisan politics," he said. "Already hundreds of thousands have died, and far too many others are at risk of the unrelenting tide of death that is sweeping across hot desert sands.
"We are America and we are Darfur"
McCullough, an African American and whose agency is committed to a comprehensive Africa Initiative, said, "The time for political posturing has expired; the time for decisive action is now. Hear us when we say, we are America and we are Dafur. We have reached the moment of our moral imperative, the intertwining of our lives, and we see our common destiny."
McCullough, who spoke at a similar Darfur rally on April 9 in his hometown, Montclair, New Jersey, told this weekend's Washington gathering, "There is a bond that defines not only the meaning of family, but our humanity as well.
"When Darfur is at risk, we are at risk," he said. "Religious intolerance and racism, economic indifference and greed, human trafficking and sexploitation, and more, contribute to the devaluing of our global family, and our collective sense of humanity.
"Our failure to act now risks breaking the bond of family, lessening our own humanity, and leaving us complicit in our own global genocide."
McCullough said it is past time for the international community, and with the full commitment of the United States, "to act decisively to safeguard the people of Darfur. We expect no less," he said.
SAN FRANCISCO RALLY COMMENTS BY FIDELE LUMEYA:
In San Francisco, CWS International Emergency Response Program Associate Director Fidele Lumeya likened humanitarian response to the people of Darfur to the two wings of a bird.
"With one wing we respond to humanitarian needs by providing materials aid. With the other, we join with other NGOs in urging that African Union peacekeepers be reconstituted as a UN peacekeeping force; that they be given a stronger mandate to protect civilians; and that they be supported with the participation of more peacekeepers from other countries around the world."
Lumeya, who is from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, urged for support for AU mediator Salim Saleh, for strengthening AU presence on the ground as cease fire observers and to re-establish security and protection in camps for displaced Darfurians "and, now, in the whole region," he said.
Lumeya, who participated in a February Darfur rally in Washington, told this Sunday's Bay Area audiences that long term solutions for Darfur required not just a "comprehensive" peace agreement but an all-inclusive peace agreement that involves civil society.
"The track one diplomacy used in North-South peace agreement was exclusive," he said, "and civil society actors were not invited.
"For long and lasting peace in Sudan, an all-inclusive, multi-track peace approach is recommended, as it creates an open space for all concerned parties to negotiate their peace," he said.
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WASHINGTON, DC SAVE DARFUR COALITION RALLY TO STOP GENOCIDE
Date: Sunday April 30, 2006 Program Time: 2:00 - 4:30 PM
SPEAKERS LIST:
Washington Darfur rally speakers will include:
Confirmed Speakers:
Joe Madison, Emcee (host of The Black Eagle, syndicated radio broadcast)
U.S. Senator Barack Obama (Illinois)
U.S. Representative Nancy Pelosi (California)
U.S. Representative Frank Wolf (Virginia, co-chair Congressional Sudan Caucus)
U.S. Representative Donald M. Payne (New Jersey, co-chair Congressional Sudan Caucus)
U.S. Representative Michael E. Capuano (Massachusetts, co-chair Congressional Sudan Caucus)
Bush administration official (TBA)
Governor Jon Corzine (New Jersey)
Lt. Governor Michael Steele (Maryland)
Elie Wiesel (Nobel Prize for Peace [1986], Holocaust survivor)
George Clooney (Academy Award Winner)
Nick Clooney (Journalist)
Paul Rusesabagina (Presidential Medal of Freedom recipient whose story was depicted in the movie Hotel Rwanda)
Russell Simmons (founder, Def Jam Recordings, Chairman Foundation for Ethnic Understanding)
Rabbi Marc Schneier (President/Founder, Foundation for Ethnic Understanding)
Cardinal Theodore McCarrick (Archdiocese of Washington, D.C.)
Imam A. Rashied Omar (Kroc Institute for International Peace Studies, Notre Dame University)
Dr. Richard Land (President, Southern Baptist Convention Ethics & Religious Liberties Commission)
Joey Cheek (U.S. Olympic Team speed skater, Gold & Silver medalist, Torino, donated his winnings to Darfur charity)
Salih Mahmoud Osman (lawyer and human rights activist from Darfur)
Tragi Mustafa (Darfur refugee, founded Save Women-Sudan)
John Prendergast (Senior Adviser, International Crisis Group; U.S. State Department, 1996-2000)
Samantha Power (Pulitzer Prize winning author, A Problem from Hell: America and the Age of Genocide)
Gayle Smith (Senior Fellow, Center for American Progress)
Manute Bol (former NBA star, born in Sudan)
Rev. Walter Fauntroy (New Bethel Baptist Church, Washington, DC)
Rabbi Steve Gutow (Jewish Council for Public Affairs)
Rev. John L. McCullough (Executive Director and CEO, Church World Service)
Former Marine Captain Brian Steidle (advisor to African Union forces in Darfur)
Rev. Gloria White-Hammond (National Chairwoman, Million Voices for Darfur Campaign)
Geoff Tunnicliffe (International Director, World Evangelical Alliance)
Simon Deng (Sudan Freedom Walk)
Rabbi David Saperstein (Director, Religious Action Center)
Ruth Messinger (Executive Director, American Jewish World Services, former Manhattan Borough president)
Nesse Godin (Holocaust Survivor)
Erin Mazursky (S.T.A.N.D. - Students Taking Action Now: Darfur)
Arielle Wisotsky and Eric Messinger (Help Darfur Now)
David Rubenstein (Save Darfur Coalition)
Check the web site for details at: rally@savedarfur.org.
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CONTACTS: Lesley Crosson, Church World Service, (212) 870-2676, lcrosson@churchworldservice.org 24/7: Jan Dragin, (781) 925-1526, jdragin@gis.net
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