Washington, DC. ---- (July 15, 2004) -  Congressman Bobby Rush was arrested today at 12:50 p.m. in front of the Sudan Embassy by the United States Secret Service.  Rep. Rush follows former Congressman Bob Edgar, now the President of the National Council of Churches, who was arrested Wednesday (July 14) and New York Congressman Charles B. Rangel who was arrested Tuesday (July 13). 

Rep. Rush marched on the sidewalk in front of the Embassy with 50 other protesters before he walked up the steps to the doorway of the Sudanese Embassy.  The Congressman was asked to leave twice by uniformed Secret Service officers and he refused. He was then handcuffed and taken in a paddy wagon to D.C.’s Third District Police station.

Rep. Rush is lending his voice to the cries of the Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) and other international protesters in demanding the Sudanese government end its support of the militia who are murdering hundreds of people a day.  The protesters are demanding an end to the genocide in Sudan. The CBC is demanding sanctions against the government of Sudan. Last week former Congressman Walter Fauntroy and talk show host Joe Madison were arrested.  High profile arrests will continue until the world community wakes up.

In addition to the arrests, radio talk show host and civil rights leader, Joe Madison entered the third day of a hunger strike.  Madison demands an immediate end to the Sudanese government’s obstruction of humanitarian aid to victims of the Sudanese genocide. 

The Sudan Campaign calls on the Security Council of the United Nations to adopt Chapter 7 sanctions on Sudan, to suspend the membership of the government for Sudan on the U. N. Human Rights Commission, and to enable slave and other victims of the Sudanese government’s declared jihad against Black Africans to return to their homes.
 
This year marks Congressman Rush's tenth year and his sixth term in the U.S. Congress. Snce his election on November 3, 1992, to the U.S. Congress, representing the First Congressional District of Illinois, his political effectiveness has been recognized by the Democratic leadership, his congressional colleagues and most importantly, by his congressional constituents.

The Sudan Campaign is the direct action effort of a coalition of organizations working on behalf black Africans in Sudan that have suffered violence and slavery at the hands of their government.  Partner organizations include The Center for Religious Freedom at Freedom House, the Institute on Religion and Democracy, the American Anti-slavery group, the Wilberforce Project and others.