- Title: USA: Activists demonstrating against violence in South Sudan arrested in New York
- Date: 10th April 2014
- Summary: NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, UNITED STATES (APRIL 10, 2014) (REUTERS) DEMONSTRATORS OUTSIDE A BUILDING HOUSING THE SOUTH SUDANESE U.N. MISSION ACTIVISTS REFUSING TO LEAVE FROM IN FRONT OF THE BUILDING WHILE NEW YORK POLICE DEPARTMENT (NYPD) WARNS THEM NYPD OFFICER ANNOUNCING THAT IF ACTIVISTS LEAVE VOLUNTARILY, NO CHARGES WILL BE FILED, OTHERWISE THEY WILL BE ARRESTED FOR DI
- Embargoed: 25th April 2014 13:00
- Keywords:
- Location: Usa
- Country: USA
- Topics: Politics
- Reuters ID: LVAF0522TYW2TQ3FB6A5DOJ9YBL
- Story Text: Two dozen demonstrators in New York protested on Thursday (April 10) against the ongoing ethnic violence in South Sudan. They held a rally and marched to the building near the United Nations (U.N.) which houses the South Sudanese mission.
After seeking to block the entrance to the building, three demonstrators were arrested for disorderly conduct. They included American radio talk show host Joe Madison, South Sudanese activist William Ator and Sharon Silber of the New York Coalition for Sudan.
The demonstrators and activists said they were seeking to draw attention to the plight of Southern Sudan, which has erupted in large scale ethnic violence since last December.
Thousands of people have been killed and more than 800,000 have fled their homes since fighting was triggered by a power struggle between President Salva Kiir and Riek Machar, his former deputy whom he sacked last year. The conflict, which has taken on a largely ethnic dimension between the Dinka and Nuer tribes of Kiir and Machar respectively, has brought oil-producing South Sudan, a country the size of France, to the brink of civil war.
Before he was arrested, Madison addressed the demonstrators, many of whom were South Sudanese, now living in the United States.
"Now is the time for the United States, the United Nations and yes, the world to step up. I know we're focused on the Ukraine. But right now there are more people dying in South Sudan than in the Ukraine. There are tens of thousands who have died," Madison said.
The demonstrators and activists had marched from Dag Hammarskjold Plaza near the United Nations towards a building, a few blocks away, that houses the Southern Sudanese U.N. mission.
While marching they sang songs in Chollo, a South Sudanese dialect, and held up banners which read 'Stop the War' and 'More than 5000 Chollo people were killed in South Sudan crisis'.
Simon Deng, a prominent South Sudanese activist, who had worked as a slave when he was a boy, led the march.
Referring to the displaced people in South Sudan, Deng said: "We have 30,000 now, then tomorrow is going to be 60,000, then why did we separate from Northern Sudan in the first place? We are supposed to enjoy the dividend of peace. We the people of Southern Sudan, we the people who suffered the most. And then after we got independent, after we rejoiced the independence together, now look what we're doing to ourselves. We are doing the most gruesome killing to ourselves, more than the North has inflicted on us. This is a shame on us, we the people of Southern Sudan and it is a shame to any Sudanese who will not come out and condemn this atrocity."
While speaking to Reuters prior to his arrest, Ator explained his decision to volunteer for arrest.
"Joe Madison as an American to be arrested. Me as an American and originally from Southern Sudan, I volunteered to be arrested so the rest of the world will know exactly what's going on in Southern Sudan. And that will be a strong message to the leader of Southern Sudan and the leader of the world to stop the war. We don't want war," he said.
The demonstrators are hoping the United States and the U.N. will step in and help stop the violence in South Sudan.
The violence, the worst since South Sudan won independence from Sudan in 2011, has caused a humanitarian crisis. At least 3.2 million people - more than a quarter of the population - face food shortages, the U.N. says. Aid agencies say insecurity is hampering their operations. - Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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