A protest and rally in Cheesman Park Sunday urged pressure on China to help end the genocide in Darfur before Beijing hosts the 2008 Olympics.

Following a torch run in the park, dozens of protestors heard speakers address
China's special relationship with the Sudanese government, as a major trading partner and its chief arm supplier. A symbolic torch relay that will accompany rallies in60 U.S. cities will end Dec. 10 in Washington, D.C., to coincide with World Human Rights Day at the United Nations.

Ahmed Ali, of the Darfur Association of America told the crowd, "without your voice, Dafurians would never see the light in the dark tunnel we are now in."

Amid the battles between rebel factions and the government of Sudan, Ali said, the security forces now in place can't even begin to protect people in the capital of Khartoum, much less the thousands of refugees in squalid camps in the countryside from random violence.

"Your voice can save millions in the displaced camps," he added.

Colorado Speaker of the House Andrew Romanoff, joined ranks with those seeking to bring pressure to bear on China as U.N. Security Council leader to forge stronger protection for those affected by the long civil strife in Sudan. An estimated 200,000 people have been killed, many of them displaced and living in refugee camps.

While China helped passed a U.N. resolution for peacekeepers in Darfur, the measure was considered weak according to Romanoff.

Romanoff said while history will judge the murderous militant groups killing innocent people, and government of Khartoum and the Chinese government, he said our children and their children will read about the first genocide of the 21 century and ask "What did you do, when hundreds of thousands of men and women and children were raped, and tortured and killed? What did you do when millions of human beings were forced to flee in terror?"

Romanoff, who was in Beijing earlier this year, said the last thing the government there wants is for the 2008 Olympics to become known as the "genocide Olympics."

AnotherDarfuri speaker, Adam Tagi, spoke of the killing of civilians, his voice breaking as he described children being thrown into fires, and said he hoped that African nations might boycott the Chinese Olympic games if Beijing does not join in ending the slaughter.

T-shirt and wristbands were sold at the rally by students fromHarzl Middle School with the shirts displaying a drawing of Sudan and Darfur with the theme "Change the World. It just takes cents."