A rally to draw attention to the plight of child soldiers in Africa went awry this weekend as protesters waited in vain for someone to recognize their cause.
The Invisible Children organization held its third international awareness event, the Rescue, at Tiguex Park near Old Town on Saturday.
About 150 people attended the symbolic abduction, where they waited for a political or media official to show up and "rescue" them. Attention from local officials was a requirement for each event to end, according to specifications from the international organization.
The group was still waiting as of Sunday evening.
UNM Junior Carlyn Frank, a leader of Invisible Children in Albuquerque, said participants left photographs of themselves at Civic Plaza and marched to the park on a rope in imitation of the abduction child soldiers go through thanks to Joseph Kony's Lord's Resistance Army, based in northern Uganda.
"We are symbolically abducting ourselves for the children that have been abducted and are fighting in the LRA," she said. "In the past two years alone, (Kony) has abducted hundreds of children and murdered thousands of innocent civilians in the northeastern Congo . so we are really just trying to build awareness about this war."
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Through the night, students, parents and protesters camped out on blankets in the park's soccer field, waiting for someone to respond to their effort.
However, with Sunday morning came disappointment.
In response to being ignored, the group marched to City Hall, where they sat and waited for the political or media attention required to "rescue" them and end their protest, Frank said.
Once at City Hall, the group was confronted by several police officers for not having a permit to protest on a weekend, she said.
Kimberly Dimiceli, a teacher at Rio Ranch High School and sponsor of the group, said officers told them they had to sit quietly and not scream or cause a commotion. Officers also made the group move from where they were waiting several times because they didn't have a permit.
APD spokespeople could not provide information about the incident Sunday.
Frank said the group will reconvene its rally in front of City Hall today at 8 a.m.
Invisible Children has been working for six years to bring world leaders' attention to human-rights violations in Africa in the last two decades.
Heather Bloemhard, a physics graduate student at New Mexico Tech who participated in the Rescue, said she devoted her time to the cause because she is disturbed that a war of this proportion is still happening.
"I am the same age as this war . and the fact that there is an entire generation that has never known peace simply because of where they were born really struck a chord with me," she said. "It seems unfair that simply because they were born in Africa, and they're Ugandan, that they have to deal with this."
In Africa's longest war, according to Invisible Children's Web site, the Lord's Resistance Army has terrorized the regions of Uganda, the Democratic Republic of Congo and Western Equatoria, killing thousands and abducting children to fight in the army.
Zoe Cruss, a CNM student who participated in the Rescue, said she wants to be proactive in changing the course of the war, even from afar.
"I really want to help and feel like I'm making a difference," she said. "I don't just want to sit at home and watch what's happening on the television. I want to get out and help people."
Bloemhard said she can't be complacent in the face of a crisis like this.
"With the climate of everything that's happening in the world currently, it's not guaranteed that something similar couldn't happen to me, and if it were to happen to me, I would want someone to stand up for me," she said.
