Maine Adds Voices to Aid Darfur ; Refugees and Advocates From Portland Travel to a Rally in New York City.

Summary

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Tens of thousands of protesters gathered at the East Meadow of Central Park on Sunday afternoon to demand United Nations peacekeepers be deployed to stop genocide in Darfur. For most, it was a cause of conscience. For 30 members of Maine's refugee community, however, the compulsion was cultural survival.

The assembled crowds parted for the members of Portland's Fur community as they stood shoulder to shoulder before the stage. They waved American and Sudanese flags and displayed signs in English and Arabic demanding justice and relief for families and friends killed and displaced in the genocide perpetrated against the people of Darfur for the past three years.

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Extract

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Maine Adds Voices to Aid Darfur ; Refugees and Advocates From Portland Travel to a Rally in New York City.

"There, there is fear, but here, everyone has a right to speak the truth," said 24-year-old Abdelhafiz Younis, who left Sudan in 2000 after government officials kidnapped his father,...

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