ELCA NEWS SERVICE

September 13, 2005

ELCA Observes 'A Day for Darfur' to Stop the Genocide
05-171-FI

     CHICAGO (ELCA) -- 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.

For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or [log in to unmask]
http://www.elca.org/news