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ANCA to Hold Darfur Genocide Vigil at White House on May 25th

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  • ANCA to Hold Darfur Genocide Vigil at White House on May 25th

    Armenian National Committee of America
    888 17th St., NW, Suite 904
    Washington, DC 20006
    Tel: (202) 775-1918
    Fax: (202) 775-5648
    E-mail: [email protected]
    Internet: www.anca.org

    PRESS RELEASE

    FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
    May 19, 2005
    Contact: Elizabeth S. Chouldjian
    Tel: (202) 775-1918
    ANCA TO HOLD DARFUR GENOCIDE VIGIL AT WHITE HOUSE

    -- May 25th Protest to Call for Decisive
    U.S. Response to Unfolding Genocide

    WASHINGTON, DC - Armenian Americans, the descendents of the
    first genocide of the 20th century, will host a White House
    vigil on May 25th to help bring an end to the first genocide of
    the 21st century - the systematic massacres, mass starvation,
    and ethnic cleansing taking place today in the Darfur region of
    Sudan, reported the Armenian National Committee of America
    (ANCA).

    Up to 400,000 people have already died and more than 2,000,000
    dislocated in Darfur over the past two years. Recent reports
    confirm that the situation on the ground is deteriorating, and
    the humanitarian crisis is reaching desperate proportions.

    This special Armenian American vigil, hosted by the ANCA, will
    take place on Wednesday, May 25th vigil, from 5:30 - 6:30 pm in
    Lafayette Park, across from the White House on Pennsylvania
    Avenue. The gathering will be the most recent in a series of
    vigils, organized every Wednesday by Africa Action, a leading
    advocate for U.S. and international action on the Darfur
    Genocide. For directions or more information, contact ANCA at
    (202) 775-1918 or [email protected].

    New York Times Columnist Nicholas Kristof, a leading voice for
    U.S. action on Darfur, has written to the ANCA about the
    situation in Sudan. In a powerfully worded letter, he touched
    on the unique responsibility of Armenians, as victims of
    genocide, to help end the ongoing suffering in Darfur and to
    work toward preventing future crimes against humanity. In
    congratulating the ANCA for holding the vigil, he stressed that,
    "Obviously, crimes against any part of humanity require a
    response from all the rest of humanity, but I think any group
    that has suffered a systematic attack also has a particular
    responsibility to make sure that doesn't happen again to some
    other group." The full text of Kristof's letter is provided
    below.

    The ANCA has participated in previous Darfur vigils, protested
    outside the Sudanese Embassy, spoken at genocide prevention
    conferences, and generated support - both at the grassroots
    level and in Washington, DC - for Congressional legislation
    aimed at ending the slaughter in the Darfur region.

    For more information about Darfur:
    http://www.africaaction.org

    To send a free ANCA WebFax protesting the Darfur Genocide:
    http://www.anca.org

    #####

    Text of letter from Nicholas Kristof (NY Times) to the ANCA

    Dear Aram,

    Congratulations on holding the vigil against the genocide in
    Darfur. Obviously, crimes against any part of humanity require a
    response from all the rest of humanity, but I think any group
    that has suffered a systematic attack also has a particular
    responsibility to make sure that doesn't happen again to some
    other group.

    In 1915, Americans didn't despise Armenians or want them to die.
    But rather the feeling was very similar to that today: the
    Ottoman Empire was a long way away, the victims spoke a
    different language and belonged to a different culture and so it
    was difficult for average Americans to identify with them, the
    president was absorbed by other foreign policy considerations,
    like staying out of World War 1, and there was no magic solution
    to solve the killings. And so President Woodrow Wilson did next
    to nothing, just as President Bush is doing far too little about
    the genocide in Darfur today.

    Because Darfur is even farther away today, culturally, than the
    Ottoman empire was then, let me just tell you what I saw on one
    of my trips to Darfur. People were spread across the horizon,
    seeking refuge near some wells and under trees. Under the first
    tree I visited, I found a man who had been shot in the throat
    and jaw and left for dead along with the bodies of his wife, his
    children and his parents; his brother came back that night and
    carried him to safety. Under the next tree I found a woman whose
    husband and children were missing and presumed dead. Under the
    third tree were two small orphans, malnourished, aged four and
    one, whose parents had both been killed. And under the fourth
    tree was a woman whose husband had been killed, whose two
    children had then been killed in front of her, and who then had
    been kidnapped with her two sisters and gangraped. Afterward,
    her sisters were killed, but she was mutilated but released to
    limp away naked as a warning to what would happen to women in
    the area. Those were the people under just four trees next to
    each other -- there were more trees, more victims, more
    tragedies, as far as the eye could see.

    Those are the kinds of incidents that occurred to Armenians 90
    years ago, and that America did not respond to adequately. And
    today, they are happening to another people, the black Africans
    of Darfur, and again we are not responding adequately. We always
    say "Never Again" to genocide, but we interpret it too narrowly,
    to mean that Armenians will not be massacred again in Turkey, or
    that Jews will not be slaughtered again in Germany, while the
    real meaning should be that the world will not tolerate another
    people to be systematically killed because of who they are. And
    the best way of giving meaning to dead Armenians, or dead Jews,
    or dead Rwandans, is to make that phrase "Never Again" truly
    meaningful -- by ensuring that we act to limit the number of
    Dead Darfurians tomorrow.

    Nicholas Kristof
    May 12, 2005
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