The New Jersey Coalition Responds to the Crisis in Darfur, in coordination with Save Darfur, is organizing New Jersey Lights the Torch for Darfur event. The event will be held on November 13 at 10 a.m. at the Martin Luther King Federal Courthouse & Building, 50 Walnut Street, Newark, New Jersey.

This event is the New Jersey leg of the symbolic Dream for Darfur Olympic Torch Relay, which is visiting more than 60 cities across the United States. The New Jersey Coalition is proud of the leadership role that New Jersey has played in this effort to end genocide in Darfur through divestment, state and national legislation calling for action, and keeping pressure on China to use its influence in Sudan.

At New Jersey Lights the Torch for Darfur, New Jersey-based advocates will join with invited speakers Congressman Payne, Governor Corzine, Senator Menendez, Senator Lautenberg, Darfurian refugees, and other notables to continue to show our strength in the growing grassroots movement to end genocide in Darfur.

The Dream for Darfur Olympic Torch Relay was launched September 9 to draw attention to the ongoing genocide in Darfur and China’s unique position in being able to stop it. As Sudan’s primary economic, political, and military partner, China wields great influence with the Sudanese government. Yet China has refused to use its power on behalf of the people of Darfur. Through inaction China has become complicit in the genocide. As the world prepares for the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics, an event that stands for peace and brotherhood, we must demand that China do everything in its power to end the killing in Darfur.

After years of ignoring its responsibility, efforts to pressure China are beginning to have an impact. The torch — a symbol of hope, humanity, and connection — will be carried through countries like Rwanda, Chad, Bosnia, and Germany and link the situation in Darfur with atrocities these countries have suffered. This massive undertaking is bringing the issue of genocide literally to the streets and will help people to understand the obligation China has to use its power to end the genocide.

After each genocide — such as Armenia, the Holocaust, Cambodia, Rwanda, Bosnia, or Nanjing — the world cries “Never Again!” Please join us in insuring that China, the power with the greatest leverage in Sudan, hears this cry before it is too late.