Lantos Arrested Protesting Sudan

Representative Tom Lantos was arrested today, while commiting an act of civil disobedience, blocking the entrance to the Sudanese Embassy. Multifaith Voices for Peace and Justice has actively been working with Congressman Lantos' office, encouraging him to take a leadership role promoting UN/NATO action to stop the genocide in Darfur.

Today's arrest demonstrates that our voices are being heard! Read the story from the San Francicso Chronicle:

(04-28) 08:51 PDT WASHINGTON - Five members of Congress, including Rep. Tom Lantos (D-San Mateo) were arrested today when they blocked the front entrance at the Embassy of Sudan in Washington, D.C. Their protest and civil disobedience was designed to embarrass the military dictatorship's ongoing genocide of its non-Arab citizens.

All told, 11 people were arrested outside the Sudanese embassy on Massachusetts Avenue, including six activists as well as representatives Sheila Jackson Lee (D-Houston), Jim McGovern (D-Worcester, Mass.), Jim Moran (D-Virginia) and John Olver (D-Massachusetts). They were held in a jail cell for about 45 minutes and then released.

"If you're looking for lack of international morality, Darfur encompasses all aspects," Lantos said before his arrest. "Here we see the slaughter of innocent black women, children and men by a monstrous regime."

Lantos, 78, was first elected to Congress in 1981. Two years later, he founded the Congressional Human Rights Caucus. As the only Holocaust survivor ever to serve in Congress, he has pressed the Bush administration to take steps to deter the state-sanctioned murder and rape of hundreds of thousands of people in Sudan's Darfur region.

"We have been calling on the civilized world to stand up and to say, 'Enough,' " Lantos said. "The slaughter of the people of Darfur must end."

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