Darfur refugees remember Nanking, call for China to help
December 16, 2007 (LONDON) – Sudanese refugees, who escaped the ongoing violence in Darfur yesterday lit candles outside the Chinese Embassy in London in memory of the victims of the Nanking massacre, showing solidarity with its survivors in the week of its 70th anniversary.
The Nanking Massacre was an infamous genocidal war crime committed by the Japanese military in Nanjing, then capital of the Republic of China, after it fell to the Imperial Japanese Army on December 13, 1937.
The Darfuris also took the opportunity to call on the Chinese Government to use its power as Sudan’s primary economic partner to bring an end to the suffering in Darfur
Abdul Jabar, President of the Darfur Union, the umbrella body for Darfuri survivors in the UK, said “We are very sorry about what happened in China. Yet today, in Darfur, the same thing is happening. More than 300,000 people have been killed. More than 3,000 villages have been burned. Women, girls, have been raped. Who has been doing that until now?
Jabar appealed on the Chinese government to stop supporting the Sudanese government saying “The people of China should stand with the population, stand with the civilians, stand with the people who have no weapons. And our government is killing our people. If you are not happy about that, you have to take action now.”
The Aegis Trust, a group focused on combating genocide around the world, last week released a short film about the Rape of Nanking on the 70th anniversary of the fall of the city to the Japanese Imperial Army. The Rape of Nanking marked the start of a campaign in which over 12.5 million Chinese civilians would be killed.
(ST)