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Human Rights Activist Simon Deng Walks to End the Crisis in Darfur
Human rights activist Simon Deng is walking 300 miles (482 km) from New York to Washington, DC. The "Freedom Walk" will end in Washington on April 5, 2006. Joining Simon Deng on his walk is ex-NBA basketball star Manute Bol.
The walk is a call to action to end the crisis in Darfur and to bring an end to slavery in the Sudan. Mr. Deng and Mr. Bol are both from the southern Sudan and are calling on the United States to take action.
Simon Deng was taken from his home in southern Sudan as a child by an Arab family from the north. He escaped several years later and was granted political asylum in the US in 1980.
"The US government came out two years ago and told the world that genocide was being committed. Since they used that word nothing has been done while human beings are being butchered and slaughtered on a daily basis," Mr. Deng said before setting off on March 15, 2006.
Simon Deng worked as a messenger in the Sudanese parliament later becoming a national long distance swimming champion in Sudan. He is now an American citizen working as a lifeguard on Coney Island, New York and is a leader in trying to end genocide in the Sudan.
Today Mr. Deng crosses the country speaking out against slavery and the situation in Darfur, Sudan. Last May he was invited to speak before the UN Human Rights Commission in Geneva, Switzerland.
Mr. Deng hopes the Freedom Walk will change the US relationship with Sudan and convince Congress to pass the Darfur Peace and Accountability Act.
"We're going to walk for eight hours, sometimes nine hours... and thousands of others are going to join us before we reach Washington DC," he said.
"I thought I could forgive and forget," Deng says. "But villages are still being burnt, women are still being raped, and people are being sold into slavery. ..We Americans must act and act now."
Posted by Jackie on March 19, 2006
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