The world community must insist on a strong U.N. presence in Darfur and in New York City on Sunday, September 17, thousands of people and organizations around the world will be strongly proclaiming, "Stop the genocide."

The Unitarian Universalist Service Committee and colleague organizations are mobilizing supporters to join thousands of activists for a major rally in Central Park to demand an end to the genocide in the Darfur region of Sudan.

Unitarian Universalist and other Save Darfur activists will come together at the Unitarian Church of All Souls, 1157 Lexington Ave. in New York City, for a special "Rally Before the Rally." UUSC President Charlie Clements will be a featured speaker at the All Souls "rally." He will then be among the leaders of a rousing march for 17 blocks to the Central Park "Voices to Stop Genocide."

Tentatively scheduled to attend the pre-rally is Rosemarie Feigl, an 80-year-old Holocaust survivor. Feigl, of New York City, was rescued from Nazi Europe by UUSC founders Martha and Waitstill Sharp, and is now urging activism to end genocide.

The Rally Before the Rally begins at 12:45 p.m. with a special service at All Souls church, followed by the march to Central Park at 1:30 p.m. The major Rally and Musical Performances will be held in the park's East Meadow from 2-5 p.m., and is intended to send a strong message to U.S. and world leaders that a forceful international presence is essential to bringing peace to the Darfur region.

Joining forces with UUSC to organize a significant UU presence at the rally are the Unitarian Universalist United Nations office and the Unitarian Universalist Association. The UU march to the major rally is expected to include several hundred Darfurian refugees from the Philadelphia area where our colleague organization the Darfur Action Alert Coalition has arranged for buses to take them to New York.

The rallies, part of a Global Day of Action to Save Darfur, are timed to coincide with the opening of the 61st General Assembly of the United Nations. The United Nations has agreed to send troops to protect the civilians who are being massacred in the conflict. However the Sudanese government has said it will not permit UN peacekeeping forces in Sudan, where government-backed militias have been the leading force in the "ethnic cleansing" in Darfur.

Despite a peace agreement between the government and rebel forces, the humanitarian crisis in Darfur continues to intensify. The U.N. Security Council has approved a U.S.-supported initiative to plan for a transition from the African Union force now in Darfur to a new, larger and more robust U.N. force.

Darfur, a region in western Sudan, is home to what the United Nations has called the world’s worst humanitarian crisis. Since February 2003, over 400,000 men, women and children have died while another 2.5 million innocent civilians have been forced to flee their homes.

The Unitarian Universalist United Nations Office, the Unitarian Universalist service Committee, and the Unitarian Universalist Association of Congregations are determined to continue in this struggle until the people of Darfur are safe and peace is restored in the region.