Five members of congress arrested at Darfur protest

Reporters had been forewarned by the Save Darfur Coalition that Monday’s protest, featuring a handful of House Democrats, would involve “civil disobedience.”

And sure enough, Reps. John Lewis (D-Ga.), Jim McGovern (D-Mass.), Donna Edwards (D-Md.), Keith Ellison (D-Minn.) and Lynn Woolsey (D-Calif.) wandered past the official police line at the Sudanese Embassy in Washington on Monday morning — and were gently cuffed and carted away by the Secret Service, which is responsible for protecting foreign dignitaries.

The five — who were protesting deteriorating human rights conditions in Sudan — were held on misdemeanor trespassing charges and released in time for their afternoon votes, a Woolsey representative said.

Lewis — a legendary civil rights leader who was severely beaten by racists in the early 1960s in Alabama — issued a brief statement prior to his arrest:

“I don’t understand how the world can just stand by and watch the slaughter of innocent victims in Darfur,” he said. “Haven’t we learned the hard lessons of Rwanda and Bosnia, of the Holocaust?” Read more >>>>>>>>>>>>>>