September 13, 2005

CHICAGO – The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) was one of more than a dozen human-rights and faith-based organizations that hosted a rally and vigil to mark the one-year anniversary of the Bush Administration's declaration of genocide in the Darfur region of western Sudan in Africa. "A Day for Darfur: Stop the Genocide, Protect the People" was Sept. 8 in Washington, D.C.

"The United States is appalled by the violence in Darfur, Sudan," President George W. Bush said Sept. 9, 2004. "We have concluded that genocide has taken place in Darfur. We urge the international community to work with us to prevent and suppress acts of genocide. We call on the United Nations to undertake a full investigation of the genocide and other crimes in Darfur," he said.

The purpose of "A Day for Darfur" was to draw media attention back to the crisis in Darfur and to suggest some positive steps the Bush Administration can take in leading a global response to the genocide, said Kimberly C. Stietz, research assistant, Lutheran Office for Governmental Affairs (LOGA), the ELCA's federal public policy office, Washington.

Stietz said the news media are focused rightly on recovery efforts following Hurricane Katrina, but the ELCA considers the situation in Darfur one of the world's "silent emergencies," many of which have been long forgotten by the news media.

Government-backed militias, known as the Janjaweed, have killed an estimated 400,000 Darfurians in the past two years, Stietz said. Another 2.5 million Darfurians were displaced when the militias destroyed their villages, she said.

There is a false sense that the violence is subsiding, because there are fewer reports of fighting in the villages, Stietz said. The militias destroyed more than 40 percent of the villages in Darfur, and the violence followed the Darfurians into refugee camps along the nation's border with Chad, she said.

By declaring the conflict in Darfur genocide, the U.S. government has placed itself in a position of global leadership to protect the people of Darfur and bring the conflict to an end, Stietz said, yet "completely not enough" has been done in the past year.

About 500 people gathered for a noon rally in Lafayette Park in front of the White House to hear a series of speakers and to unfurl a petition with 100,000 names that Africa Action collected, Stietz said. The unfolded petition and signatures reached the White House gates, she said.

Rally organizers and speakers suggested that the United States support full funding for African Union forces in Darfur and back African Union efforts to assemble a multinational presence in that region of Sudan.

The speakers included Salih Booker, executive director, Africa Action; the Rev. Robert W. Edgar, general secretary, National Council of Churches USA; Fatima Haroun, Sudan Peace Advocates Network; Ruth Messinger, president, American Jewish World Service; David Rubenstein, coordinator, Save Darfur Coalition; and the Rev. Jim Wallis, founder and editor-in-chief, Sojourners Magazine.

The Rev. Paul A. Wee, former assistant general secretary for International Affairs and Human Rights of the Geneva-based Lutheran World Federation, addressed an evening vigil at the Lutheran Church of the Reformation, Washington.

"The United Nations Charter expresses the tension between 1) the need to protect universally-guaranteed human rights and 2) non-intervention in the internal affairs of a sovereign state," said Wee, retired ELCA pastor, Alexandria, Va.

"Ironically, the very charter that is designed to prevent genocide and other threats to peace, by acknowledging a non- interference clause, has inadvertently contributed to a state of affairs that allows genocide to take place," Wee said. "There exists a great deal of fear among members of the U.N. that the territorial sovereignty of their countries will be invaded, not for humanitarian, but for political, ideological and strategic purposes."

In addition to the ELCA and other organizations the speakers represented, the day's events were planned by the Armenian National Committee of America, Faithful America, Greater Washington Jewish Task Force on Darfur, National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, National STAND Coalition (Students Taking Action Now: Darfur), Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, Sudan Peace Advocates Network, TransAfrica Forum and United Methodist Church.

The ELCA social statement "For Peace in God's World" states that the church opposes "genocide and other grievous violations of human rights such as torture, religious and racial oppression, forced conscription, forced labor, and war crimes." It also says that the church denounces "beliefs and actions that ordain the inherent right of one people, race, or civilization to rule over others."

The ELCA's Lutheran Office for Governmental Affairs maintains information at http://www.ELCA.org/advocacy/ on the Web. The ELCA social statement "For Peace in God's World" is at http://www.ELCA.org/socialstatements/peace/ on the Internet.

ELCA News Service