Simon Deng’s Freedom Walk a Success
Simon Deng and his Freedom Walkers completed their 300 mile walk on Wednesday, April 5, 2006. They were greeted in Washington D.C. by senators and human rights activists. The walk took 21 days.
“I walked to be the voice of those who have no voice” Deng said at a rally, speaking for the hundreds of thousands suffering in modern day slavery and human rights abuses in Sudan.
On April 5, 2006, the U.S. House of Representatives approved the Darfur Peace and Accountability Act. The act authorizes sanctions against those responsible for the genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan.
According to Isaac Rowlett, president of STAND at New York University, “The walk went incredibly well. We had swelling numbers of people come out to provide us with places to stay, good food, and with warmth and love. It’s been a definite success.”
The Freedom Walk initiated by Simon Deng may have ended, but the conflict in Darfur is continuing to worsen. Jan Egeland, a top U.N. envoy, was barred from visiting the war zone. He said an additional 200,000 people have been forced from their homes over the last four months because of the violence. “Many believe the problems are over in Darfur. They are getting worse,” Egeland told journalists in Kenya after leaving southern Sudan.
A rally will be held on April 30, 2006 in Washington DC and in other cities across the United States and Canada. Act now to stop the genocide in Darfur.
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