11:35 AM – Smiling, with open arms, and full of hellos, 15 Darfuri men flood the LA Federal Building. They drove from Phoenix, AZ to be here. All have families inside of Darfur. One man’s mother was forced to journey to Camp Djabal in E. Chad, where we will be in less than a week, and then into witness protection in Europe. Another only hears news from Khartoum. His family is spread through displacement camps and no one has a phone.
“We have been through this. Seen these things happen. We don’t know how to organize. So when we know when there is something [for Darfur], we come. We drop work, nothing [else] matters. We feel we need to do something.”
Drumming and chanting over the noise of horns and wheels treading on asphalt, they sing. I know they sing about Sudan, and I every once in a while I hear, Bashir’s name – they are also singing about Justice.