Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC)

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Norton Arrested at Sudanese Embassy Decries Rwanda II
May 16, 2006

       norton_johnson.jpg 

Congresswoman Norton with Reps. Eddie Bernice
Johnson (TX), and Barbara Lee (CA) 


Washington, DC-- As she was arrested today for trespassing at the Sudanese Embassy, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton (D-DC) recalled Thanksgiving Eve 1984, when she and three other prominent Washingtonians began the South Africa embassy arrests by visiting the ambassador “on false pretenses, inquiring about progress in his country.” Also arrested today were Mel Watt (D-NC), Chair of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) and five other Members of the CBC. The thousands of arrests at the South African Embassy resulted in American sanctions, but Norton said, “as urgent as the elimination of apartheid in South Africa was, it did not rise to the level of the continuing unabated genocide in Darfur today.” She said that the cut in half of rations to only 1,050 calories per person because our allies have not contributed promised funds to the United Nations World Food Program added cruelty to the continuing genocide.

Norton gave the Bush administration credit for providing most of the food available in Darfur, but said the President can bring much more pressure on Khartoum, which continues to encourage the rebel factions, and that the U.S. must step up action to get an African Union or a NATO peace keeping force into the country to stop the violence now. She said that she and many others have been disheartened by several peace agreements that have not brought any peace and are seeking more direct pressure on the Sudanese government from Washington.

The Congresswoman said, “After Rwanda, we said ‘never again’ but the genocide and rapes have not diminished and never again has come and gone. We have no less an obligation here than we had in South Africa to do much more to heighten awareness-- continuing arrests and much more. The continuation of unabated genocide and unthinkable abuse of women already will be remembered as Rwanda II.”

Norton was arrested at the South African Embassy in 1984, when she was a full-time professor of law at Georgetown University.
 
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