Norton Arrested at Sudanese Embassy Decries Rwanda II

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.