Paly students among the estimated 5,000 people who attended the April 30 San Francisco rally for Darfur came away saying that the rallies were a positive effort towards ending genocide.

Attendees held hands in a line across the Golden Gate Bridge in a silent vigil at 10:45 a.m. for five minutes, and then proceeded to Crissy Field for a rally, live music, and speeches by Bay Area leaders such as Oakland representative Barbara Lee.

Wearing green t-shirts saying, "End the Darfur Genocide" on the front and "End the Genocide in Darfur April 30th 2006 San Francisco" on the back, attendees ranged in age from as young as babies to as old as hippies from the 60’s. Most of the rally goers belonged to high schools, colleges, or religious groups. Many of the students who attended the rally were from UC’s and other colleges such as Stanford, UCLA, and UCI.

A similar rally was also held in Washington D.C. where over 30,000 people attended. D.C. according to event organizers, rally had speakers such as George Clooney, who recently went to the Sudan/Chad border with his father to make a documentary.

“It was a good start,” said Paly history teacher Maureen McCorry who attended the silent vigil in San Francisco. “I expected more people, [but] I was pleased to see any high school students there because of prom.”

San Francisco] Chronicle [and] President Bush made another speech [about the genocide in Darfur].”

People in the U.S. may have not heard about the rallies for Darfur, but the rallies may have caused the Sudanese government to take action. On Friday, May 5, the Sudanese government and the rebel group, the Janjaweed, signed a peace treaty according to http://beawitness.org, an organization for Darfur genocide awareness. The treaty called for a cease-fire in Darfur as well as disarmament of the Janjaweed.

Itucas said that the rallies for Darfur have contributed to signing of the peace treaty.

“All of them [the rallies] put together made that effort,” Itucas said.

Yet the Darfur region is still very unstable and needs the help of peacekeepers. According to http://beawitness.org, President Bush has agreed that UN forces should be sent to Darfur, but the resolution has not been set into action.

“Now we need to make sure things really happen,” Itucas said.