Sudan: The Passion of the Present

Thousands rally against Darfur genocide / Rally And Silent Vigil Observe "Day Of Conscience For Darfur"

Two stories concerning today's San Francisco rally:

(See also the batch concerning the event in Washington.)

From the "Contra Costa Times"...

Several thousand people formed a garland across the Golden Gate Bridge today [Sunday], hands joined and raised skyward, in silence.

Wearing T-shirts with words such as "End the Darfur genocide," they cast a jagged silhouette across the blue sky over the bridge walkway, surprising motorists, many of whom honked in apparent solidarity.

The moment of silence began at 10:45 a.m. and lasted several minutes and the vigil continued until noon. Gradually, the arms came down, as they got heavy, but many hands stayed joined; others rested, folded as if in prayer.

They protested a civil war in which the Sudanese government and its proxies have killed about 200,000 people in Darfur, in that nation's south, and driven an estimated 2.5 million people from their homes, according to the United States government. A pro-government Arab militia, the janjaweed, have systematically raped women and killed or maimed children and destroyed villages, displacing millions.

President Bush has labeled the deadly campaign a genocide.

Sunday's protest, which included people from a wide spectrum of the political map, called on Bush to take action as part of an international effort to stop the genocide. Another massive rally was held in Washington, D.C., where Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, actors, athletes, politicians and other celebrities urged the Bush administration to act.

"He (Bush) made a commitment to stop this genocide," said Jerry Fowler of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, interviewed on the Marin County side of the bridge shortly before the vigil. "We need to reinforce that with our voices.["]

Later today, Fowler spoke at a rally at Crissy Field that also was scheduled to feature Rep. George Miller, Rep. Lynn Woolsey, San Francisco's Roman Catholic Archbishop George Niederauer and others.

"What we can learn from the Holocaust is the consequences of remaining silent," Fowler said.

Eltayeb Ibrahim, 35, of Oakland, a native of Darfur, said he hoped the rally would "bring help to my people.

"For me, all the lives lost in Darfur, each one of them belongs to me," said Ibrahim, who came to the U.S. seven years ago.

Actions urged by protesters today included sending United Nations peacekeeping troops; sending NATO troops; and providing logistical and technical support to African Union peacekeeping troops.

The protest was the culmination of a grass-roots organizing effort that began last year with a symbolic letter-writing campaign in Petaluma, dubbed "Dear Sudan, Love, Petaluma," begun by Tim Nonn, one of the organizers of today's rally, said fellow rally organizer Gerri Miller, who began a similar campaign, ["]Dear Sudan, Love Marin" modeled on Nonn's.

"We were basically saying we are mothers, fathers, neighbors and friends, just like them, and even though we will never see their faces, we refuse to turn our backs on them," Gerri Miller said.

"It spread in the Bay Area and then all over the country," Gerri Miller said.

Marilyn Hirsch of Walnut Creek, a tutor of dyslexic children, had recently seen the movie "Hotel Rwanda," which plays against the background of a genocidal civil war in that nation. When she read an article about Darfur in February 2005 by New York Times reporter Nicholas Kristof "that really broke it open to the world."

She talked to people at her synagogue, Temple Isaiah in Lafayette, and wrote to senators and members of Congress. One day she came across a "Dear Sudan, Love Marin" letter and founded "Dear Sudan, Love Contra Costa."

The movement evolved into a nationwide coalition of human rights, religious and other groups that were at odds over many issues but agreed on a common goal to stop the genocide in Darfur.

"This is a big tent," Fowler said. "Left, right. Christians, Jews, Muslims, Buddhists."

The "Million Voices for Darfur" campaign collected more than 500,000 postcards that were supposed to be delivered to the White House today, Hirsch said.

Consciousness has been raised across the generations, as evidenced by the many children who rallied on the bridge alongside seniors.

Ayana Knowles and Kiara Sloan, both 10-year-olds from Castro Valley, learned about Darfur on TV's "Oprah"[.]

"In Darfur, there were rebels," said Ayana.

"The rebels were killing a lot of the kids and raping a lot of the women," said Kiara "They're making kids kill their parents.

"The children were called 'night walkers.' They would walk for six or seven miles at night to escape the rebels." [This actually refers to northern Uganda, which--along with DR Congo--was also featured in last week's "Oprah" show about Darfur. - EJM]

Both girls are talking about Darfur at school. Ayana goes to Strowbridge Elementary School, Kiara to Castro Valley Elementary School.

"We're both going to raise money for Darfur in our schools," said Ayana.

From NBC O&O KNTV...

San Francisco was the focus of West Coast events Sunday to protest what organizers called “ethnic cleansing” in the Darfur region of Sudan.

Darfur is the only African Muslim region in the otherwise Arab Muslim Sudan. [That description leaves out southern Sudan, which is largely African Christian/animist. - EJM]

Events for “Day of Conscience for Darfur” included a large rally at San Francisco’s Crissy Field and a silent vigil on the east sidewalk of the Golden Gate Bridge.

Rally speakers were to include: Congressman George Miller, Reverend Cecil Williams of Glide Memorial Church and Jerry Fowler, director of the Committee on Conscience of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, D.C., among others.

At the silent vigil for Darfur, some 2,000 participants spanned the 1.7-mile long Golden Gate Bridge.

The vigil and rally were organized by members of STAND (Students Taking Action Now: Darfur) and sponsored by the San Francisco Bay Area Darfur Coalition, Human Rights Watch, American Jewish World Service, Church World Service, and other national and local organizations.

Groups from other West Coast locations, including Seattle, Portland and Los Angeles, were scheduled to participate, along with a group of 30 Rwandans now living in Sacramento.

The Bay Area Darfur Coalition “applauds President Bush for his leadership in demanding U.N. action. However, U.N. troops aren't expected to arrive until 2007,” said Nikki Serapio, event organizer and a leader of STAND.

"Tomorrow's victims cannot wait another year...We urge President Bush to take the next step: to help deploy a strong NATO bridging force for Darfur until the U.N. can take over," Serapio said in a statement to the press.

Measure gasoline in lives per gallon (by Stebbins Jefferson)

Her column from yesterday's "Palm Beach Post"...

My friend frequently participates in peaceful public demonstrations. Given a cause that appeals to her sense of morality and justice, this now-retired elementary school teacher will join with others who take to the streets, her short legs keeping up with the crowd no matter how swift the pace. Because I value her friendship, I haven't the heart to tell her I believe she's wasting her time.

I know that if she were living in the Washington area, tomorrow afternoon [Sunday] between 2 p.m. and 4:30 p.m., she would be in the crowd on the National Mall. There, a coalition of more than 155 faith-based, humanitarian and human rights organizations will rally to stop the genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan. For this cause, I would join my friend, though I'm convinced that public protest will not halt the slaughter.

Typically, demonstrations are held to make the public aware of an issue and to shame those with power into righting what's wrong. Neither of these reasons applies in this case.

Since early 2003, we've known about the "ethnic cleansing" going on in the western area of Sudan. Three Darfur groups (the Sudanese Liberation Army, [the] Sudanese Liberation Movement and the Justice and Equality Movement) began the conflict to demand equal rights and representation in the national government in Khartoum. That effort was put down, but the Sudanese government continued the systematic annihilation of Darfur civilians. To date, the government-sponsored militia known as Janjaweed has slaughtered farmers, burned and pillaged rural villages and used rape as a weapon to drive residents out - all with air support and monetary assistance from the national government.

In September 2004, then-Secretary of State Colin Powell declared the conflict between rebels and the Sudanese government "genocide," a status that, once acknowledged, should have led to intervention by the United Nations and NATO. Two years after that assessment by our government, except for humanitarian aid groups, the U.S. and the international community have abdicated moral responsibility to intervene. As the carnage continues, aid agencies report that between 180,000 and 300,000 have died, 1.8 million have been forced from their homes and 200,000 have become refugees.

Looking at pictures of the starving, emaciated women and children in refugee camps on the border of Chad, many of us accept their plight as predictable consequences of centuries of tribalism and religious differences. (Most of the residents of Darfur are black; the rest of Sudan and the government mostly Arab.) That simplistic rationale makes sense to those of us aware that, historically, such prejudices have canceled humans' respect for each other's dignity.

That simplistic rationale also blinds us to the reality that at the crux of the genocide in Darfur is the international lust for oil. The government of Sudan that once ignored the impoverished region where black Africans eked out a living now wants to rid that land of its people in order to gain control of the oil that flows beneath the arid soil without having to share the profits with the people of Darfur. Fortunately for an oil-hungry world and unfortunately for the owners of land in Darfur, the region, approximately the size of France, is oil-rich. Where oil flows, greed and corruption follow.

Sudan is the seventh-largest producer of oil in Africa. In consequence, the international community has refused to interfere because maintaining good relations with Khartoum could enhance possible access to the fuel that now drives the world economy. Meanwhile, genocide continues unabated. As does oil exploration by foreign countries. So while the Janjaweed terrorize Darfur civilians, the whole world watches in silence. I predict that once Darfur is cleared and the Sudanese government can dispense its oil to the highest bidders, an international sense of morality will emerge from hiding and allow other countries to get involved in Sudan. The world has priorities that precede human lives.

I won't be at the "Save Darfur" rally in Washington, but when I fill up at the corner service station, rather than the cost per gallon, I'll be wondering how many human lives are being spent to keep my car running.

Ending the Darfur silence ("Boston Globe" editorial)

From today's edition...

THE MOST compelling humanitarian challenge of these times is to stop the genocide in Darfur. In the past three years, more than 400,000 people have been annihilated and more than 2 million driven from their homes by the National Islamic Front regime that rules Sudan and its proxies, Arab militias known as Janjaweed. And all that time -- while helicopter gunships were strafing villages, soldiers were raping women and girls, and Janjaweed raiders were smashing babies' skulls -- the nations of the world did little more than bemoan the complexities standing in the way of a life-saving mission. Now, they are even forcing cuts in United Nations food aid for lack of funding.

So it is heartening that private citizens from around the country are converging on Washington, D.C., for this afternoon's rally to end the genocide in Darfur. Some will see a film on Darfur in the morning at the [U.S.] Holocaust [Memorial] Museum, a site that is all too fitting. Speakers at the afternoon rally will include clergy, human rights activists and scholars, and members of Congress. Among local figures scheduled to speak are the Rev. Gloria White-Hammond, chairwoman of the Million Voices for Darfur Campaign, Samantha Power, author of ''A Problem from Hell: American and the Age of Genocide," and Representative Michael Capuano, co-chairman of the Congressional Sudan Caucus.

The spirit of the rally is captured in a quote from the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. that appears in the schedule of Sunday's events: ''In the end, we will not remember the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends."

In the case of the Darfur genocide, it is not the silence of people but the silence of governments that is certain to echo down the corridors of history.

The campaign to save the 2 million displaced persons of Darfur -- who are still alive but threatened with malnutrition, disease, and unrelenting violent assaults -- must pass to private citizens because the governments of the world will not act to stop this genocide without pressure from below. This must be moral as well as political pressure, and it must come from men and women who share with the people of Darfur a kinship in what was once called the Family of Man.

Despite occasional statements of concern, the Bush administration, the United Nations, the European Union, the African Union, and the Arab League have all found convenient excuses for declining to take the actions needed to assure immediate humanitarian assistance, to arrange and enforce a cease-fire in the conflict between rebels and the Khartoum government, and to begin returning survivors to their torched villages.

Private citizens have to demand action to save their brothers and sisters in Darfur because nation-states have no conscience.

MPs push for action on Sudan: Motion backs creation of special UN force

From CanWest (thanks to Sudan.Net)...

As rallies Sunday across the United States pressed for an end to the violence in western Sudan, a group of Canadian politicians has been quietly working to bring Canada's power of moral persuasion to the conflict.

They're calling on Canada to add its voice to a growing international chorus that wants the United Nations to put together a "peacemaking" force of international troops to go into the troubled Darfur region of Sudan -- possibly in defiance of the country's rulers in Khartoum -- and forcibly end what they are calling a genocide.

As it did with Canada's military mission in Afghanistan earlier this month, Parliament will hold a non-binding "take note" debate on Darfur on Monday night in Ottawa that won't lead to any substantive vote or result.

But something that has been going on behind the scenes does have implications for Canada. MPs from the Conservatives, Liberals and NDP have all signed their names to a motion quietly tabled in Parliament last week calling on the Canadian government to "recognize the situation in Darfur as a genocide."

It calls on Canada's UN ambassador to bring forward a motion to deploy an international force under Chapter 7 of the UN Charter -- the section that can lead to armed intervention in a state where the government can't protect its own people.

Liberal MP Keith Martin, who signed the motion, said this represents a test of Canada's "Responsibility to Protect" doctrine that it has pushed on the UN. The doctrine places the safety of individuals -- not the sovereignty of a country -- first when determining when the international community should intervene in a crisis.

"Darfur would be an excellent opportunity to actually put meaning behind those words through action," Martin said.

"We have a wonderful collection of international laws and regulations that protect people from being murdered en masse but they're just pieces of paper. ... We have a responsibility to protect."

The Bloc Quebecois also supports the initiative in general, but hasn't signed the motion because it objects to specific wording.

In the last three years, armed militias backed by the Sudanese government have driven more than three million African civilians from their homes in Darfur in an apparent attempt to clear the region of non-Arabs. Tens of thousands have been killed.

A poorly equipped African Union peacekeeping force of about 7,000 troops has been unable to protect civilians, most of who are now forced into squalid refugee camps, where malnutrition is reaching crisis levels.

The conflict has spread to neighbouring Chad, which means full-scale war is looming.

"I realize we can't do everything, everywhere," said Saskatchewan Conservative MP Maurice Vellacott, who wrote to his government on April 7 asking for a debate.

"We're stretched with our troops with what we've got for our engagement in Afghanistan. But I'm reminded we've got to start somewhere. You've got to do what you can[.]"

Prime Minister Stephen Harper and Defence Minister Gordon O'Connor sent out mixed signals recently on whether the Canadian Forces have the capability, given the heavy commitment in Afghanistan, of contributing to a UN military force of up to 20,000 troops from many countries.

But the MPs also point out that Canada could use its moral clout, while some argue that it has a duty to put action behind the rhetoric of its high-minded "responsibility to protect" proposal.

Actor George Clooney, meanwhile, was drawn to the Darfur situation only recently, following his Oscar win for his role in Syriana.

The actor recently returned from a trip to Darfur and said last week that he wanted to "use the credit card you get for being famous" to draw attention to what he said is "the first genocide of the 21st century" and one that cannot be ignored like Rwanda, Cambodia and Bosnia were.

Clooney got face time with Oprah Winfrey and on prime time CNN current affairs shows this week. He will be the star attraction at a rally today [Sunday] in Washington, one of 15 across the U.S. that will unite various non-government and religious groups, from the Christian right to Jews.

As a politician who has worked hard behind the scenes for years, Martin said he isn't the least bit troubled by such celebrity endorsements.

"So long as people draw attention to this, I take my hat off. The worst thing is inaction.

"Historically, we've sat around and wrung our hands while people have been slaughtered from Rwanda to Sierra Leone to the Congo and beyond."

"New York Times" Columnist Talks About Darfur at Muhlenberg

From Allentown/Bethlehem/Easton's WFMZ-TV (video linked from source page)...

(See also the earlier post regarding his recent speech at Marquette.)

The situation in the Sudan was also on the minds of some folks right here in the Lehigh Valley today [Sunday].

Pulitzer Prize winning columnist Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times spoke today at the Empire Theater in the Baker Center for the Arts on the [campus] of Muhlenberg College in Allentown.

The program was titled "Darfur : The First Genocide of the 21st Century."

He admits it's strange for a columnist to spend so much time and effort on one story but he has been greatly affected by the atrocities he has witnessed in the Sudan.

16:35:36.07 - 16:35:44.12 [video time code for soundbite]
Kristoff: [It's] kind of hard after seeing these things just to tune out and go on to writing about the things that we columnists normally worry about.

Kristof says he has made six trips to the Sudan and he is frustrated that not much has changed.

UN human rights chief to visit Sudan / UN Envoy Assessing Human Rights in Sudan

Two stories from over the weekend:

From the CBC (from yesterday)...

The United Nations' top human rights official, Canadian Louise Arbour, is due to arrive in Sudan later Saturday for a tour of the troubled Darfur region.

The visit comes amid growing pressure on the Sudanese government to end fighting in the area.

The conflict erupted in 2003 when mostly non-Arab tribes revolted, accusing the Arab-led government of neglect.

Khartoum retaliated by arming mainly Arab militias, known as janjaweed, who are blamed for driving more than two million people from their homes and into squalid camps in Sudan and neighbouring Chad.

Deaths linked to the campaign number about 200,000. Jan Pronk, the UN representative in Sudan, said the fighting is killing about 400 people every month, twice the rate of a few months ago.

Arbour, the UN's high commissioner for human rights, will spend six days in Sudan, during which time she will visit conflict-wracked Darfur for the first time in two years.

Increased instability in the region means it is impossible for aid workers to reach some areas.

The UN, meantime, said it must halve the rations of millions of people in the refugee camps because of a lack of funding.

By VOA's Noel King (from today)...

A top U.N. envoy is in Sudan to assess the human-rights situation in the embattled nation. United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Louise Arbour is to meet with government officials and human rights groups, and will tour the western Darfur region, meeting with community leaders, and visiting camps for the displaced.

The U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights has arrived in Sudan, amid increasing concern over the humanitarian situation in Darfur.

Louise Arbour is to meet with government officials from both northern Sudan and the autonomous southern government, before traveling to Darfur to meet with officials and rights groups in the region.

Arbour has previously criticized the actions of the Sudanese government in Darfur.

U.N. Human Rights Commission spokesman Jose Diaz says the visit is intended, in part, to confront the government of Sudan on what it has done to improve the situation in Darfur.

"The high commissioner was in Darfur a year-and-a-half ago. And, this time, she is coming to see the situation now, and to see how it has evolved since then," he said. "What she saw at that time was extremely alarming. What we have seen since then, at least the reports we are getting from our human rights monitors, is that the situation has, in some cases, stagnated or worsened. She is going to speak very plainly and very forcefully about the situation, and try to get from them what they plan to do, and what they have done to address the situation."

Arbour's visit follows an attempted visit by Jan Egeland, U.N. under-secretary general for humanitarian affairs, earlier this month. Egeland was denied entry into the country, even though he had a valid visa.

Egeland later suggested he was being blocked from Sudan, in order to prevent him from seeing how badly the situation in Darfur had deteriorated.

Human rights commission spokesman Diaz says Arbour has not faced any restrictions.

The crisis in Darfur spiraled further out of control this month, after rebels swept through Chad and launched an attack on the Chadian capital of Ndjamena, in an attempt to unseat President Idris Deby.

Mr. Deby lashed out at Sudan, cutting diplomatic ties, and charging that the rebels had received support from Khartoum.

The Darfur conflict began when rebels rose against the Khartoum government, complaining of economic and political marginalization. The government armed militias now known as Janjaweed to crush the rebellion.

Tens of thousands have died, and about two million more have been displaced as a result of the fighting.

Some hope Chad's vote will bring calm. Skeptics abound. / Risk of civil war hangs over one-sided Chad poll

Two stories from today:

(See also the batch posted earlier in the day.)

By Claire Soares, for the "Christian Science Monitor" (in Monday's edition)...

Often likened to a desert fox, Chadian President Idriss Deby is proving true to form, refusing to be smoked out of his hole despite Army desertions, unrest within his own clan, and increasingly daring rebel attacks.

On Wednesday, Mr. Deby is expected to be reelected for a third term - something he was banned from doing until his ruling party pushed through constitutional changes that were rubber-stamped in a referendum last year. But observers say the May 3 polls are unlikely to turn the page on troubles that threaten to suck in the whole central African region.

"These elections are a load of rubbish, so if they go ahead or not is of no importance to the Chadian people, and will not stop us from doing what we planned," says Albissaty Saleg Allazam, the spokesman for the United Front for Democratic Change (FUC) rebel group, which last month launched its most daring attack yet, into the capital, N'Djamena.

"I can tell you that there will certainly be another action, even more striking," Mr. Allazam wrote in an e-mail response to questions, declining to give any more details.

N'Djamena's residents are ostensibly getting on with day-to-day life, with markets open and battered taxis and bicycles plying the dusty streets. But even the briefest conversation betrays the insecurity that is weighing on them as the clock counts down to the polls.

"We know the rebels will be back because they've not achieved their goal," says unemployed 20-year-old Abel Nassour. "The politicians are all sending their wives and children out of town because they are worried about their safety, but we don't have the luxury of doing that. How can they hold elections in these conditions?"

Adding to jitters about a fresh attack, officials in Central African Republic said last week that two aircraft, each carrying 50 armed men with suspected links to rebels, had landed illegally in the lawless northern region that borders Chad. Meanwhile, the Chadian Army continues patrols in villages outside the capital.

Although there have been multiparty polls for the past decade, this time no opposition candidates are contesting. Deby's face smiles out from all the campaign photos, and his party's blue and yellow flags, emblazoned with two crossed guns, flutter in almost every street.

But there is little in the way of election fever and his convoy of five Hummers, flanked by truckloads of soldiers, elicits little more than a wistful stare or an angry aside in the world's fifth-poorest country. "I'm not going to vote on Wednesday, what would be the point?" sighs Mr. Nassour, to nods of agreement from a small crowd around him. "The result will be the same. It's Deby against Deby."

The political opposition, who accuse the president of favoring his own clan and skimming off oil profits while the country disintegrates in a pool of poverty and corruption, have branded the polls a farce and refused to take part. That leaves Deby facing four friendly candidates, two of whom are ministers in his government and two of whom lead parties allied to him.

"This ballot will not confer any legitimacy, so everyone will contest. I see chaos ahead," said Ibni Oumar Mahamat Saleh, spokesman for the 20-party opposition coalition.

The rebels and opposition leaders accuse former colonial power France of propping up Deby, who himself seized power in a coup in 1990. As rebels were advancing on the capital last month, French planes fired warning shots at the advancing column.

Analysts say that the French consider the current regime the least worrisome option, and that Paris is worried the country will descend into anarchy if Deby should fall.

The fact that the Sudanese government is widely believed to backing the rebels only complicates the situation, given that there are more than 200,000 refugees from Darfur sheltering in camps strung across eastern Chad.

On top of this, UN officials estimate that 50,000 Chadians are displaced in the eastern part of the country, having fled their homes during attacks over the last four months. Many have lodged with friends and family until now, but the fear is that as the annual hunger season bites, food will run out and they too will require emergency assistance.

April and May are crucial months, when half-a-year's worth of food has to be prepositioned at the camps before the rains arrive and render roads impassable.

"Our operation in eastern Chad is on a knife edge, even at the best of times," says Stefano Porretti, country director for the World Food Programme. "We have warned for some time that any deterioration in the situation could have dire consequences for those we are assisting, and now some of our worst fears might be realized."

By Reuters' Pascal Fletcher...

Chad's President Idriss Deby is leading his country to a one-sided election on Wednesday that will return him to power for five more years but could trigger a civil war in the landlocked central African state.

The president, a former army chief who seized control in a 1990 revolt, presents himself as a guarantor of unity and stability in the former French colony twice the size of France which has been plagued by ethnic feuding and conflict since independence in 1960.

He portrays his government, which receives aid and investment from France, the United States and Taiwan, as a strategic bulwark resisting the spread of Arab fundamentalism in sub-Saharan Africa, a threat he says is posed by neighbour Sudan, where China is the major backer.

"Idriss Deby -- architect of peace and democracy" reads one of the campaign posters put up by his ruling Patriotic Salvation Movement (MPS) party along with blue and yellow party flags around the dusty and dilapidated capital N'Djamena.

Rebels fighting to oust Deby, who raced from the east in pickup trucks to strike at N'Djamena earlier this month, say they will try to disrupt the May 3 polls and have announced a plan to coordinate fresh attacks.

"We'll do everything in our power to stop this vote," said Timan Erdimi, a nephew of Deby and former close aide who leads a newly formed rebel group, the Rally of Democratic Forces (RAFD).

Another damper on the presidential election, Chad's third in a decade, is a boycott by the main opposition parties which condemn the vote as a farce aimed at keeping Deby in power.

His four challengers comprise two members of his own government and two candidates from allied parties. This, critics say, makes Wednesday's vote a foregone conclusion.

Analysts fear Deby's rejection of calls to postpone the polls and refusal to negotiate with the rebels will drag Africa's fifth-largest country and its more than 10 million people into another debilitating conflict.

"The election will be the beginning, not the end of Chad's troubles," Suliman Baldo, Africa Program Director of the Brussels-based think tank International Crisis Group, told Reuters.

"If it goes ahead, it could lead Chad to civil war."

DARFUR DANGER

Observers say if the situation in Chad deteriorates this can only worsen the parallel ethnic and political conflict in Sudan's neighbouring Darfur region, which has spilled marauding horse- and camel-riding raiders, armed rebel groups and thousands of refugees into desolate eastern Chad.

Deby has warned that unless the United Nations speeds up plans to secure Darfur, his country may no longer be able to safely shelter nearly 300,000 Sudanese refugees.

"If Chad implodes, or goes into civil war, there will be no way of finding a lasting solution to Darfur," Baldo said.

Deby's political strength had been sapped by coup scares and high-level desertions from his government and army in recent months, including members of his own Zaghawa ethnic clan his opponents say he has favoured to the detriment of the nation.

Upping the pressure on Deby, the rebel United Front for Democratic Change (FUC), whose fighters carried out the April 13 attack on N'Djamena, said at the weekend they would coordinate military operations with Erdimi's RAFD.

Erdimi, speaking by satellite phone, put combined rebel forces at more than 12,000 and said they were present around Guereda and Adre in the east.

A sense of insecurity pervades even close to the capital N'Djamena.

At Linia, 30 km (18 miles) to the east, Reuters reporters ran into jeeploads of government troops who brushed aside questions and raced off eastwards, their heads swathed in the coloured turbans worn by Sahel desert fighters.

A column of 100 rebel vehicles had passed through Linia on April 12 on their way to attack N'Djamena. But contradicting reports by diplomats of heavy fighting there, local villagers said the rebels treated them well, paid for water, cigarettes and food, and camped unhindered nearby.

"They told us 'we are all Chadians'," one village elder said.

Deby dismisses the rebels as "traitors, mercenaries and adventurers" backed and armed by Sudan, a charge Khartoum denies.

AU gives Darfur parties 48 hours to strike deal / Darfur peace talks extended / Deadline for Darfur peace accord extended by 48 hours / AU extends deadline for Darfur peace deal by 48 hours / Extension for Darfur peace talks

Five new stories (updated both to reflect a newer version of the Reuters story and to add the ones from AFX, DPA, and the BBC):

(Many of the British "quality" newspapers [the "Scotsman", the "Guardian", the "Independent", and the "Telegraph"] are running original stories on the talks in their Monday editions; however, because of this new development, they're now essentially outdated.)

By Reuters' Estelle Shirbon (which does not overwrite the AlertNet source page of the Reuters story in the earlier batch)...

(Earlier versions of this new story are also still available on AlertNet.)

Mediators from the African Union (AU) agreed in the early hours of Monday to give the warring parties from Sudan's Darfur region an extra 48 hours to strike a peace deal after a midnight deadline expired.

International pressure on the government of Sudan and three Darfur rebel factions intensified in the build-up to the deadline, but only the government said it would sign an 85-page settlement drafted by the AU. The rebels insisted they wanted more of their demands to be met.

"We shall stop the clock for the next 48 hours so that the opportunity is used ... by the parties to engage amongst themselves," said Salim Ahmed Salim, chief AU mediator, during a late-night plenary session at the peace talks in Abuja, Nigeria.

U.S. officials at the talks had earlier requested the extension, arguing that it would allow for agreement on two critical security issues -- the disarmament of Janjaweed militias and the integration of rebels into the Sudanese army.

The AU draft requires the government to disarm the Janjaweed, who have been used by Khartoum to fight the rebels and who are accused of atrocities against civilians.

This provision is particularly problematic for the government because there are many tribal militias in Darfur that are considered legitimate by their communities, and Khartoum does not want to find itself having to disarm these. Also, there is some contention on how to verify Janjaweed disarmament.

The rebels want some of their fighters to be integrated into the Sudanese armed forces and they have complained that the AU draft does not meet this demand to their satisfaction.

Diplomats have said that an exchange of concessions on the two issues represented the best hope of breaking the wider deadlock in the peace talks. U.S. diplomat Cameron Hume listed a series of suggested compromise solutions on both issues.

FRUSTRATION

The AU draft is the result of tough negotiations on security, wealth-sharing and power-sharing that have dragged on for two years while the conflict in Darfur has escalated.

The rebels have a host of other objections to the proposed settlement on issues ranging from political representation for the region to compensation for the victims of the conflict.

"We have to negotiate to reach consensus point on these issues," said Minni Arcua Minnawi, leader of one of the factions of the rebel Sudan Liberation Army (SLA). He said he was hopeful the extra 48 hours would be enough to clinch agreement.

But decision-making is arduous for the rebels, who are split into two groups and three factions with a history of infighting.

"To be frank, it has often been frustrating for all of us to deal with you," Salim told the rebels during the plenary.

"The Abuja process has provided you with recognition and a platform ... Should you decide to walk away from Abuja without an agreement, you should not count on the same recognition and the same opportunities for political primacy," he said.

The rebels took up arms in early 2003 in ethnically mixed Darfur, an arid region the size of France, over what they saw as neglect by the Arab-dominated central government.

Khartoum used militias, known locally as Janjaweed and drawn from Arab tribes, to crush the rebellion. The fighting has killed tens of thousands of people while a campaign of arson, looting and rape has driven more than 2 million from their homes into refugee camps in Darfur and neighbouring Chad.

All sides have continued fighting despite a 2004 ceasefire, according to the AU which has 7,000 peacekeepers in Darfur. Aid groups say violence prevents them from delivering food and medicine to tens of thousands of refugees.

In Washington, several thousand Americans, led by religious leaders, entertainers and politicians, marched to urge the United States to halt "genocide" in Darfur.

From the AP...

African Union mediators brokering peace talks among warring parties in Sudan's Darfur region said Sunday they were extending by 48 hours a deadline for the peace parley's end.

Salim Ahmed Salim said the talks would continue until midnight on Tuesday, pushing back a scheduled Sunday end to talks that have gone on for two years but so far failed to halt violence behind the deaths of 180,000 people.

Salim, a lead mediator for the 53-nation AU, said the bloc had bowed to requests from the United States and others to continue work on a proposed deal to end fighting.

"The African Union has extended the deadline of the peace talks by 48 hours as requested by the United States and other international partners to allow extensive consultations to go ahead," he told reporters at the talks' site in the Nigerian capital, Abuja.

The African Union, which is mediating the talks to end the conflict behind one of the world's worst humanitarian crises, had set midnight Sunday as the peace conference's end, pressing Darfur's warring parties to sign a peace deal circulated in recent days.

The Sudanese government indicated approval for the draft deal, but rebels said the pact failed to meet their demands for autonomy in the vast western Darfur region or vice-presidential representation in the Khartoum government.

"We are not going to sign it as it is," said Hahmed Hussein, a spokesman for the Justice and Equality Movement, who said in a statement he spoke for both Darfur rebel groups. The other main insurgent group, the Sudan Liberation Movement, earlier asked for more time to consider the document.

For Sudan's war-wracked Darfur region, the only other option to continuing talks is to entirely abandon long-running negotiations meant to end a conflict that has already taken 180,000 lives and left 3 million homeless.

Decades of low-level tribal clashes over land and water in Darfur erupted into large-scale violence in early 2003 when some ethnic groups took up arms, accusing the east African nation's Arab-dominated central government of neglect.

The central government is accused of responding by unleashing Arab tribal militia known as Janjaweed to murder and rape civilians and lay waste to villages. Sudan denies backing the Janjaweed, whom the United States accuses of genocide.

Nearly two years of peace talks have failed to quell the violence and all sides have roundly ignored a cease-fire agreement monitored by 7,000 African Union soldiers on the ground in Darfur, the size of France.

Sudan has indicated it might accept a U.N. force in Darfur if a peace treaty is signed. A beefed-up UN force with a strong mandate is seen as one option to impose peace in Darfur -- and calm an African region where violence is on the upswing.

Darfur's violence has spilled into neighboring Chad, where many Darfur refugees are taking shelter, and threatens to escalate. Osama bin Laden last week urged his followers to go to Sudan to fight the proposed U.N. presence.

As talks have continued, the plight of 3 million Darfur refugees has worsened. The U.N. World Food Program said on Friday that it was cutting rations in half for those survivors, citing a lack of funds. The U.N. says the Darfur crisis is among the world's worst humanitarian crises and with the dry season approaching and harvest stores dwindling, Darfurians face even harder times ahead.

International pressure has mounted on Darfur's warring parties in recent days as talks advanced.

In Washington, actors, athletes, politicians and religious leaders rallied Sunday to call attention to the Darfur conflict and urge greater U.S. involvement. More than a dozen rallies were planned in U.S. cities over the weekend.

Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called on China and Russia to join the United States in pushing Sudan to accept U.N. forces.

From AFX...

(An earlier version is also still available.)

A deadline for a peace agreement in Sudan's war-torn Darfur region was extended by 48 hours early on Monday, the African Union's negotiator Salim Ahmed Salim said.

'We have to stop the clock for the next 48 hours to allow the parties to hold more talks. The peace accord is on my desk and either of the parties can come and sign it,' Salim told a last-ditch meeting of negotiators from the rebels and the Sudanese government.

He was speaking at a meeting, attended by rebels from Sudan's western war-torn Darfur region and the Sudanese government with mediators from the African Union (AU) and international bodies, which started at 11:40 pm (2240 GMT).

The talks are aimed at ending a conflict in Darfur that has killed 300,000 people and displaced 2.4 million others in three years of fighting.

Earlier on Sunday, the AU-brokered peace deal had looked in peril as two rebel groups announced their refusal to sign it and the AU insisted the content of the agreement would not be changed.

The rebel Sudanese Liberation Movement (SLM) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) had issued statements of a 'joint position' not to sign the peace accord.

Reservations raised by the rebels include claims that the AU document did not consider giving the country's vice presidency to the Darfur region, nor did it adequately resolve other power-sharing and wealth distribution issues.

The Sudanese government delegation from Khartoum on Sunday reiterated its readiness to sign the peace accord.

'The government commits itself fully to apply the accord in good faith,' it said in a statement.

From DPA...

Having failed to strike a deal at the expiration of Sunday's African Union deadline for parties to the conflict in Darfur to reach an agreement, the AU extended the deadline by 48 hours.

The extension was announced Monday in Abuja by Salim Ahmed Salim, AU special envoy to the Abuja peace talks on Darfur, who enjoined the government of Sudan and the two rebel groups in the conflict to sign without delay a peace deal proposed by the AU mediation team.

The two rebel groups are the Justice and Equality Movement and the Sudan Liberation Movement and Army.

'The agreement has the support of the AU member-states, the UN, the EU, the League of Arab States, the United States and Canada because it paves the way for the restoration of normality in Darfur, laying the foundation for democracy and development,' Salim said.

'The consequences of not signing the agreement will be a drastic and negative impact on the people of Darfur, whose suffering and death will continue for no just reason. Indeed it will be a disaster for the people of Sudan and for the peace process and for the parties,' he said.

He said that by signing the agreement, the parties were not required to stop their political struggle but to pursue it by peaceful, democratic means.

The peace deal proposed by the African Union indicated the creation of a Transitional Darfur Regional Authority, with significant competencies and with effective representations by the rebel groups.

'At the same time, the rebel groups are to be given a major role in running the three existing states of Darfur. At the end of the interim period and following elections, an internationally monitored referendum is to be held to determine whether the people of Darfur want to have a region or to return to the status quo ante of three states', Salim said.

He said the mediation team also proposed that the northern border of Darfur should return to the border that existed on January 1, 1956, and the southern border to be dealt with according to the provisions of a comprehensive peace agreement.

From the BBC (which does not overwrite the source page of the BBC story in the earlier batch)...

Warring parties in Sudan's Darfur region have been given another 48 hours to reach agreement on a peace deal.

African Union (AU) mediators agreed the extension after a deadline at talks in the Nigerian capital, Abuja, passed without a deal.

The Sudanese government has agreed to sign the AU-backed agreement, but the rebels have no common position.

Two of the rebel factions have rejected the deal as it stands, but the main SLA group has not ruled out an agreement.

"We have to stop the clock for the next 48 hours to allow the parties to hold more talks," the AU's chief negotiator, Salim Ahmed Salim, said at a late-night meeting of negotiators from both sides.

"If we walk away from here, without a peace deal, the world will not forgive us," he said. "I urge the parties to reflect in the next 48 hours on how to breach the existing gap."

The extension came after a request from US officials for more time for the parties to resolve outstanding issues.

Long-standing neglect

The peace plan in question calls for pro-government Arab militias to be disarmed, and rebels fighters to be merged into Sudan's forces.

The 85-page draft also aims to end what Darfur rebels say is long-standing neglect of the province by the Khartoum government.

It calls for a one-off transfer of $300 [million] to Darfur, with $200 [million] a year for the region thereafter.

The Khartoum government announced its acceptance of the peace plan on Sunday.

The rebel groups have held a series of meetings to work out a common position.

Rebel refusal

Concern over the demand for rebel forces to lay down their arms before they are integrated into the Sudanese army appeared to be one sticking point.

Some rebel leaders are also reportedly demanding the Sudanese vice-presidency.

The small Justice and Equality Movement (Jem) and one faction of the main group, the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA), refused to sign the deal as the midnight deadline passed.

Jem spokesman Ahmed Hussein told the BBC the peace plan failed to address his group's "minimum demands" and favoured the Khartoum government.

However the chief negotiator of the SLA left the possibility open that a deal could be reached. The BBC's Alex Last says that if the SLA mainstream can be brought on board, others are likely to follow.

Washington rally

As the talks continued, campaigners held a series of mass rallies across the United States calling for an end to the conflict.

Speakers in Washington included the actor George Clooney, who described Darfur as "the first genocide of the twenty-first century".

"We're at the doorstep of something we thought was impossible to dream of in the twenty-first century," he said.

"If we turn our heads and look away and hope that it'll all disappear, then it will. All of them, an entire generation of people."

The United Nations' top human rights official, Louise Arbour, meanwhile, began a six-day visit to Sudan, with a visit to Darfur first on the schedule.

The AU - which has 7,000 peacekeepers in Darfur - has struggled to stop the violence between the rebels and the government-backed Janjaweed militias.

The conflict began in early 2003, when rebel groups began attacking government targets.

It has killed 200,000 people and driven more than two million from their homes.

Thousands rally in D.C. on Darfur / Thousands Gather in D.C. at Rally for Darfur / Thousands in U.S. rally against Darfur killing / Thousands Urge End to Sudan Genocide

Four new, post-rally stories:

From UPI...

Thousands of people gathered on the National Mall in Washington Sunday to urge U.S. and world leaders to do more to stop the genocide in Sudan.

The Save Darfur Rally to Stop Genocide featured dozens of speakers, including actor George Clooney, Olympic speed skating medalist Joey Cheek and numerous politicians and religious leaders from across the ideological spectrum -- from the liberal Rev. Al Sharpton to the conservative Rev. Richard Land.

Clooney's father, longtime journalist Nick Clooney, told the crowd the first order of business is to establish some protection for people in Darfur.

"Nothing we can do will help if they're dead," he said. "And they're dying every day."

Cheek called on Americans to put pressure on political leaders and the media to do more to stop the genocide.

"Just having a rally is not going to stop people being killed," he said.

The conflict in Darfur has created at least 2 million refugees and left at least 180,000 -- and perhaps as many as 300,000 -- people dead.

By Sudarsan Raghavan of the "Washington Post"...

(See also his preview story in today's edition.)

Clutching signs that read "Never Again", thousands of protesters from across religious and political divides converged on the Mall today [Sunday], along with celebrities and politicians, to urge President Bush to take stronger measures to end genocide in Sudan's Darfur region.

They wore skull caps, turbans, headscarves, yarmulkes, baseball hats and bandanas. There were pastors, rabbis, imams, kids from churches, and kids from synagogues. They cried out phrases in Arabic, and held signs in Hebrew. But on this day, they didn't come out as Jews or Muslims, Christians or Sikhs, Republicans or Democrats.

They came out as one to demand the Bush administration push harder for a multinational peacekeeping force to be sent to Darfur, and place other sanctions on Sudan.

"This is one world and we are all one family," Cardinal Theodore McCarrick of the Washington archdiocese told the crowd. "What happens to the people of Darfur happens to us."

By Washington standards, where protests often draw more than 100,000 people, today's rally was not large. Yet it was unique for being one of the most diverse rallies the capital has seen in years. Most demonstrations usually attract a uniform crowd, who often share the same political, religious and ethnic makeup, as was the case when Latinos dominated the massive immigration protests last month.

But today's rally brought together people from dozens of different backgrounds and affiliations, many of whom strongly disagree politically and ideologically on many issues.

"I have never seen this type of organizational arrangement," said Lawrence B. Mogga, a former Sudanese diplomat who was forced to flee his county, as he stared at the crowd from his perch backstage. "I think this is the first of its kind."

Today's rally, along with protests in 17 cities across the nation and Canada, was the largest public outcry for Darfur since the conflict began three years ago. It underscores growing public support across the nation to end the bloodshed, in much the same way that activists launched a social justice campaign in the 1980s to help end South Africa's apartheid system.

"The world policy on Sudan is failing," said actor George Clooney, who recently visited the Chad-Sudan border, where hundreds of thousands of Darfurians now live in refugee camps. "If we turn our heads and look away and hope it will all go away, then they will, and an entire generation will die."

His father, Nick Clooney, said: "We didn't stop the Holocaust. We didn't stop Cambodia. And we didn't stop Rwanda. But this one we can stop."

In recent months, universities, states, and municipalities have divested some of their investments from companies doing business with Sudan. Last month, Providence, R.I. became the first city to stop investing in Sudan. There are disinvestment campaigns at both the University of Maryland and the University of Virginia. And Maryland is considering a formal request by Lt. Gov. Michael S. Steele (R) to have the state's pension plan divest billions of dollars from firms with ties to Sudan.

The conflict began in February 2003, when mostly non-Arab rebels launched attacks seeking greater political autonomy. Sudan's Arab and Islamist government, in response, dispatched troops and pro-government Arab militias known as the Janjaweed to quell the uprising. The militias embarked on a campaign of terror, murder and raping civilians mostly from non-Arab ethnic groups, forcing hundreds of thousands to flee their villages. In 2004, the United States labeled the atrocities as genocide.

At about the same time, the mostly Muslim non-Arab villagers got an unlikely ally. American Jewish groups were growing alarmed by the atrocities being committed. They drew parallels to the Holocaust and how the world remained silent as Jews were killed. Many were also disturbed by the world's failure to stop the 1994 genocide in Rwanda.

They were determined not to let it happen again, and soon launched the Save Darfur Coalition. Since then, it has grown into a broad-based alliance of more than 160 faith-based groups that include religious and secular Jews, evangelical Christians, Catholics, Muslims, human rights organizations, Arab groups, black churches and Buddhists.

Today's rally comes as the humanitarian situation is worsening. At least 200,000 people have died and 2.5 million, most of them non-Arabs, have fled to refugee camps inside Darfur or into neighboring Chad, including 60,000 in the last month, according to the United Nations. U.S. and international diplomatic and political efforts so far have failed to stop the ongoing violence.

Demonstrators today came out to help Younis Tagelalla, a Muslim from Darfur, whose parents still live there, who looked in awe at the sea of black, white, and brown faces demonstrating in front of the Capitol.

"This is not about religion. This is about saving humanity," said Tagelalla, 40, a cab driver, who this morning got on a bus funded by a Jewish group and drove down from New York. "The whole world is behind us."

District resident Carl Triplehorn, a child protection expert with Save the Children, a non-government international relief organization, joined today's demonstration because of a sense of urgency -- and frustration.

"It's quite horrifying what's happening, and there isn't any place safe for anybody to go. People are being chased out of their villages. Children are being separated from their families. The raiders are going through the camps . . . Years ago, Congress declared this genocide, yet we're still watching this."

From Reuters...

Thousands of Americans, led by religious leaders, entertainers and politicians, rallied on Sunday to urge the United States to halt "genocide" in Sudan's Darfur region.

"Darfur deserves to live. We are its only hope," Nobel Peace Prize winner and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel told the crowd that converged on the National Mall in Washington, near the U.S. Capitol.

Other speakers at the rally included Washington's Roman Catholic Archbishop Theodore McCarrick, Illinois Democratic Sen. Barack Obama, and actor George Clooney, who visited Darfur last week.

"If we turn our heads and look away and hope that it will all disappear, then they will, all of them, a whole generation, and we will only have history to judge us," Clooney told the protesters.

Beating African drums and waving posters saying "Stop Genocide Now," the mostly white crowd had responded to a call from 160 religious, political and humanitarian organizations representing virtually all shades of U.S. opinion.

Smaller rallies also took place in 18 other U.S. cities, making this the largest public demonstration on the issue since the conflict in Darfur began three years ago.

"We know the march is not the beginning and end of it but it's an improvement," said Rabbi Shawn Zevit, director of outreach for the Jewish Reconstructionist Federation.

"It is a show of solidarity, given the United States is one of few countries trying to exert pressure. There is momentum right now and the feeling we can influence things," he said.

DEATH AND DISPLACEMENT

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice complained on the ABC's television show This Week that Washington was not getting enough support from some other members of the U.N. Security Council to take more decisive action against Sudan.

"We also do need more support, frankly, from members of the international community -- from China, from Russia," she said.

Arab militia, backed by the Sudanese government, have terrorized non-Arab tribes in the region in western Sudan over the past three years, murdering and raping tens of thousands, burning villages and driving more than 2 million people into squalid camps in Darfur and neighboring Chad.

Peace talks on the conflict in Abuja, Nigeria, which faced a deadline on Sunday to reach an agreement, appeared to be at an impasse, after two Sudan rebel groups said they would refuse to sign a proposed Darfur peace agreement in its current form.

"We are not going to accept this document for signature unless there are fundamental changes made to the document," Ahmed Tugod, the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM) chief negotiator, told Reuters.

The African Union said it would not reopen substantial negotiations on the proposed text after Sunday, following two years of talks.

The government of Sudan has said it was ready to sign the agreement.

A faction of another rebel group, the Sudan Liberation Army, said it would not sign the proposed deal unless its demands were met in full.

The United States has labeled the violence in Darfur a genocide of the mainly African Muslim tribes by the government-backed militias known as Janjaweed.

President George W. Bush on Thursday issued an executive order freezing the assets of four Sudanese deemed to have posed a threat to the peace process in Darfur. But demonstrators called on the administration to do more.

Elamin Wadi, a refugee from Darfur who came to the United States in 2004, said: "We hope to send a message to the American government and then have the American government send a message to the Sudan government," he said.

Public pressure on Sudan has been building in recent months, with several universities and some states divesting assets from companies doing business with Sudan.

Jewish organizations had been particularly active in speaking out and some rabbis preached on the subject on Saturday. At B'nai Tzedek conservative congregation in Potomac, Maryland, just outside Washington, Rabbi Stuart Weinblatt told worshipers that Jews, as victims of the Nazi Holocaust, owed it to the world to stand up for the victims.

From the AP...

(See also the AP's two preview stories.)

Thousands of people joined celebrities and lawmakers at a rally Sunday urging the Bush administration and Congress to help end genocide in Sudan's Darfur region. ``Not on our watch!'' the crowd chanted as a parade of speakers lined up for their turn on a stage on the National Mall, the Capitol serving as a backdrop.

``The personal motivation for a lot of us is the Holocaust,'' said Boston-based Rabbi Or Rose of Jewish Seminarians for Justice. ``Given our history and experience, we feel an obligation to stand up and speak out.''

In an interview, refugee Hassan Cober said he was forced to leave his family and flee Sudan four years ago after many were killed and raped. He urged the United States and the United Nations to act quickly, saying he had no idea where his family was or if they were OK.

``We need deeds, not words,'' said Cober, now of Portland, Maine. ``They need to come to Darfur today, not tomorrow, because what is going on is a disaster.''

The organizers' permit anticipated 10,000 to 15,000 people would rally, one of several in U.S. cities this weekend against what the United Nations calls the world's worst humanitarian disaster.

``It is the socially responsible, good conscience thing to do,'' said Ron Fisher, who took a pre-dawn bus from Cleveland with his 15-year-old daughter Jordyn. ``It's an opportunity to show my daughter what people do when they care about something.''

The U.S. Park Police, which does not issue crowd estimates, reported no arrests.

The event attracted high-profile speakers such as actor George Clooney, just back from Africa; Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill.; House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi of California; Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Wiesel; Olympic speedskating champion Joey Cheek, who gave his bonus money to the cause; and Roman Catholic Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, archbishop of Washington.

``If we care, the world will care,'' Obama said. ``If we act, then the world will follow.'' Pelosi said Democrats for once agree with Bush: ``This genocide must stop.''

Clooney and his father, Nick, a former television anchorman, interviewed families in Sudanese refugee camps. The elder Clooney described their role as reporters. ``It's our job to tell you what we saw,'' he said. ``Thousands of people hanging on by the most gossamer of threads.''

His son, clad in a black T-shirt and khaki cargo pants, was the event's big draw. He said the United States' and United Nations' policies are failing - and citizens must demand change.

``This is in fact the first genocide of the 21st century, but there is hope: all of you,'' the actor said. ``Every one of you speaking with one voice, every one of you.''

Jendayi Frazer, who leads the State Department's Africa bureau, said Bush hasn't shied from calling it genocide. He's working to prevent more deaths, she said, while the United States provides $1.3 billion in humanitarian assistance. ``The strategy is working but you must continue to push for faster international action,'' she told the crowd.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, in a broadcast interview, noted developments Sunday in Nigeria, where Sudan's government said it was ready to sign a peace agreement to end the bloodshed. Rebels, however, rejected the draft deal.

``Obviously a peace agreement would be a very important step forward in getting this done,'' Rice said on ABC's ``This Week.''

Later Sunday, Deputy Secretary of State Robert Zoellick issued a statement ``urging the parties to finalize the agreement right away'' and bring peace between Sudan and rebel groups.

Sudan has indicated it might accept a U.N. force in Darfur to aid African Union troops if a peace treaty is signed.

Years of fighting between ethnic groups and Arab militias in western Sudan have left at least 180,000 people dead and about 2 million homeless. Bush met with Darfur advocates at the White House on Friday and lent his support to the weekend rallies. ``For those of you who are going out to march for justice, you represent the best of our country,'' Bush said.

Today Is the Day

For details concerning today's rallies (especially the one in Washington), check out the Save Darfur site.  (GI-Net has a somewhat-similar list.)  To echo Save Darfur's recommendation, try not to drive to the event, as nearby parking is very limited.  If at all possible, try to take Metro to the event; check out the WMATA site for more information--including updated system alerts.

A few additional Metro pointers...

(1.)  Since today is Sunday, "Reduced" fares (formerly called "Off-Peak" fares) are in effect all day; not only does that mean that you'll pay less, but also that it will be easier to figure out your fare.  (There are much fewer fare levels for "Reduced" fares than for "Regular".)

(2.)  Yes, the Orange and Blue lines do share the same track through most of D.C. (from Stadium/Armory to Rosslyn, the first station in Arlington County, Va.); as long as you're between those two stations, it doesn't matter which train you're on.

(3.)  Unlike other subway systems, eating and drinking are prohibited in Metro stations and on Metro trains.

(4.)  Save Darfur has been promoting the Federal Center SW station (Orange and Blue lines) as the best to use to get to the rally.  However, Refugees International will be holding a pre-rally gathering at 1:00 p.m. outside the Capitol South station (the station to the immediate east of Federal Center SW).  Also, if you're taking another line, it may be better to use a different station:  If you're taking the Red Line, you can transfer to Orange or Blue at Metro Center--or you can instead take the Red to Judiciary Square (two stops away from Metro Center).  If you're taking the Yellow or Green Line, you can transfer to Orange or Blue at L'Enfant Plaza (which is only one stop away from Federal Center SW)--or you can just leave the station at L'Enfant (on the south side of the Mall) or take Yellow or Green to Archives-Navy Memorial-Penn Quarter (on the north side of the Mall, one stop away from L'Enfant).

Also, here are some links for local news and traffic...

-- WTOP Radio (103.5 FM and 820 AM) --

(People who have been to D.C. before may need to note that WTOP recently moved from its old primary frequencies of 1500 AM and 107.7 FM to 103.5 FM [the old home of WGMS], although it also remains on 820 AM in Frederick, Md.  1500 and 107.7 are now home to a new joint venture programmed by the "Washington Post".)

-- WMAL Radio (630 AM; one of the few AM signals that can cover most of the D.C. area) --

-- WRC-TV (NBC 4) --

-- WJLA-TV (ABC 7) / NewsChannel 8 --

-- W*USA 9 --

-- WTTG (Fox 5) --

-- "Washington Post" --

-- "Washington Times" --

-- "Washington Examiner" (part of the national "Examiner" brand) --