By Paul TakahashiContributing Writer

About 20 students participated Sunday afternoon in a human chain of about 160 people in downtown Chicago to advocate sending U.N. troops into Darfur to end the on-going genocide.

Participants lined up on both sides of north Michigan Avenue, along Chicago’s Magnificent Mile, wearing light blue T-shirts to represent the color of the United Nations’ flag. The members of the chain stood side by side for an hour-and-a-half along the street, passing out flyers to pedestrians and answering questions about the situation in Darfur, a region of the African nation of Sudan. Sudanese refugees also attended the rally.

“I really liked it when people came up and asked me what it was about, because it was good to impart that kind of knowledge to random passersby,” said Communication freshman Lauren Virnoche, who attended the event.

The human chain was a joint effort by several Chicago area college and community organizations geared toward raising awareness about Darfur and funds for humanitarian efforts.

On campus, the Northwestern University Darfur Action Coalition informed students about the rally. NUDAC has raised $10,000 for the cause so far.

“The idea was stopping genocide and the message was to send an immediate deployment of U.N. peacekeepers to Darfur now to stop the genocide,” said Communication senior Susannah Cunningham, one of NUDAC’s coordinators.

More than 400,000 people have died in the on-going genocide in Darfur since 2003.

“I didn’t hear about the situation in Darfur until pretty recently, and I thought it was pretty ridiculous that I never heard about it before, since it’s a huge thing going on,” said Communication freshman Jacklyn Guerro, another participant.

Northwestern students had different reasons for attending the downtown rally.

Jing Zhou, a Medill graduate student, arrived in the United States from China one month ago.

“When I was in China, I did a lot of projects on the Nanjing massacre survivors, so I really feel connected to human tragedies and genocide in general,” Zhou said. “I see a lot of similarities.”

Cunningham said Darfur needs more attention within the United States.

“Every nation in the world agreed there was one thing that we just wouldn’t allow,” Cunningham said. “We allow a lot of different things. We debate about a lot of different things, but one thing we don’t debate about is genocide. It’s indefensible.”

Guerrero said she believes the rally made an impact on passersby.

“A lot of people came up to us and asked us questions,” she said. “Not only were we trying to make a stand politically, but we also raised awareness.”

Reach Paul Takahashi at [email protected].