Rep. Donna Edwards, D-MD (L), is pictured with Vice President Joe Biden announcing $300 million in funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act for state and local governments, and transit authorities to expand the nations fleet of clean, sustainable vehicles and the fueling infrastructure necessary to support them on Earth Day at the New Carrollton WMATA (Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority) Station in Landover, Maryland, on April 22, 2009. (UPI Photo/Roger L. Wollenberg) | License Photo

Rep. Lynn Woolsey, D-CA, is pictured speaking during a news conference calling for an end to arming Iraqi factions and for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq on Capitol Hill in Washington on September 5, 2007. (UPI Photo/Roger L. Wollenberg) | License Photo

Rep. Keith Ellison, D-Minn., the only Muslim member of Congress, was one of the five members of congress arrested at the Darfur protest, April 27, 2009 (UPI Photo/Roger L. Wollenberg) | License Photo

Rep. John Lewis (D-GA) is pictured speaking to the press at the Pepsi Center prior to the official kickoff of the Democratic National Convention in Denver, Colorado on August 25, 2008. (UPI Photo/Alexis C. Glenn) | License Photo

Rep. James McGovern, D-Mass., is pictured here speaking during a news conference to present taxpayers with a bill that "shows how much each American family owes for the Iraq War" on Capitol Hill in Washington on April 15, 2008. (UPI Photo/Patrick D. McDermott) | License Photo

WASHINGTON, April 27 (UPI) -- Five members of Congress were arrested outside the Sudanese Embassy in Washington Monday as they demonstrated against the situation in Darfur.

Hundreds of thousands of people have died in Darfur in western Sudan in what the U.S. State Department has described as genocide.


The protesters spoke out against the general situation in Darfur and Sudan's expulsion of outside relief agencies.

A spokesman for Rep. Donna Edwards, D-Md., told The Hill that the five and organizers of the protest from the Save Darfur Coalition crossed a Secret Service perimeter around the embassy and ignored three warnings to leave the property. They were expected to be fined for a misdemeanor and released.

Members of Congress arrested were Edwards; Jim McGovern, D-Mass.; John Lewis, D-Ga., a veteran of the civil rights movement in the 1960s; Keith Ellison, D-Minn., the only Muslim member of Congress, and Lynn Woolsey, D-Calif.

Also arrested were Jerry Fowler, coalition president; John Prendergast, co-founder of the Enough Project, and Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism.

Anticipating arrest, Edwards and her colleagues hired a defense lawyer, Laura Rhodes, before the protest, the Edwards spokesman said.