Hundreds protest genocide in Darfur

A rally organized by teenagers drew from 700 and 1,000 people to downtown Seattle on Sunday to protest genocide in Darfur, Sudan.

The rally at Westlake Center and march to the U.S. Federal Building that followed was made up largely of young people who wore "Save Darfur" T-shirts and held "Stop Genocide" signs. They marched 10 blocks with a police escort.

When the group got to the Federal Building in Second Avenue, some of the students lay down on the ground to represent those who have died in Darfur. The event ended with a 10-second scream instead of a moment of silence — to "break the silence," organizers said, about the strife in Darfur.

The rally was organized by a group of 16 seniors from Seattle's Lakeside School and coincided with a much larger demonstration Sunday on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. The Lakeside students had been studying the violence in Sudan, and "we realized that we're just sitting there, talking about it," said student Andrea Jones, 17.

Arab militia, backed by the Sudanese government, have terrorized non-Arab tribes in the region in western Sudan over the past three years, killing and raping tens of thousands, burning villages and driving more than 2 million people into squalid camps in Darfur and neighboring Chad.

"I don't think any of us are idealistic enough to think that this march is going to change the world but in our eyes, it's better than being silent," Jones said.

The Lakeside School students' teacher, Bob Mazelow, said his students were upset when they learned about the situation. They teamed up with University of Washington students and a group called savedarfurwa.org to plan the rally, get permits, make signs and arrange for speakers.

"I think what's been surprising the most is that we are actually able to do this, because it just started out as this idea," Jones said. "It started with just a couple of kids wanting to do something."

One of the speakers was Ojulu Ogala, 33, a Sudanese refugee. "It means a lot," he said, "I mean, for somebody like me, who ran away from war. I thought maybe I would not get support at all, but here these kids organized this march."

Emily Heffter: 206-464-8246 or eheffter@seattletimes.com. Information from Reuters was included in this report.