Illinois congressman Bobby Rush arrested at Sudan embassy

By DENNIS CONRAD, Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON, July 15, 2004 (AP) — U.S. Rep. Bobby Rush was arrested Thursday during a protest rally at the Sudanese embassy accusing the government of the African nation of practicing genocide.

Rush was led away in handcuffs by U.S. Secret Service officers to a police van after having blocked the embassy’s entrance while shouting “Power to the people! Power to Sudan!”

Within a half hour, the Chicago Democrat was released from a Metropolitan Police Department station on $50 bond, said the congressman’s spokeswoman, Tasha Harris.

Rush was booked on misdemeanor charges of disorderly conduct and unlawful assembly, Secret Service spokeswoman Ann Roman said.

Earlier this week, Rep. Charles Rangel, D-NY, was arrested for unlawful assembly in a similar protest.

Embassy spokesman Abdelbagi Kabeir said Thursday it was difficult to understand the motive behind the campaign against the Sudanese government that some members of Congress were waging.

“There is no genocide,” he said. “There is improvement.”

Tens of thousands of civilians have been killed in the Darfur region of western Sudan in the past year and a-half, and an estimated one million people have been driven from their homes.

“People are dying because they can’t get the humanitarian relief they need right now,” Rush said, blaming the problem on the Sudanese government practicing genocide on the basis of ethnic and religious grounds.

Rush said the Bush administration should urge the United Nations to send a military peacekeeping force to Sudan.

“All we need is 2,000 troops and we can stop this,” he said.

Rush, a six-term House member and one of a handful who are ministers, said Thursday’s arrest was his first since several decades ago when he was a Black Panther activist and jailed repeatedly.