New Haven Independent

“We cannot send troops!” hip-hop producer Russell Simmons told the crowd at one point. The next speaker, NAACP International Affairs Director Crispian Kirk, demanded the immediate dispatch of a “large international force of 20,000 troops” to stop the killing.

Darfurians in the crowd were clear about what they want: troops. “We want the United States to take the initiative. They freed the people in Kuwait. My people are dying right now. Our women, [even] 5 year-old [girls], are subject to rape,” Mohammed Yahya, who runs a group called the Damanga Coalition for Freedom and Democracy, pleaded in an impromptu address in the midst of the crowd. “Three, four, five months more, there will be no more Darfurians. They will wipe them out.”

Moussa Abdou lost two relatives and thousands of fellow members of the Zagowa tribe. “We want the government of the United States to push the U.N. very hard to send troops because of the people dying every day,” he said. He wants a coalition, not just U.S. troops. “We welcome U.S. troops, but they will become targets” if they’re alone.

Two young men from the U.S. Army set up on the periphery of the crowd to urge people concerned about Darfur to enlist.

Most of the rally’s speakers generally agreed with the goal of a multinational U.N.-led force. Most of the speakers avoided politics. Even though they said they do want President Bush and Congress to do more than they’ve done to stop the genocide, few mentioned Bush. Bush himself endorsed the rally. Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi did have staffers like Kira Chilcote signing up people for e-mail alerts, but they refrained from taking partisan shots. A woman from a group called America’s Impact urged people to sign up for information on how to vote in November’s federal elections on the issue.

Rally organizers made a point of including conservatives. Speakers included rabbis, priests, imams. They enlisted Bosnian and Rwandan and Armenian speakers, as well as evangelical Christians. It was stunning to see all those groups united in one cause in 2006 America.

The crowd was diverse, too.

Numerically, though, it seemed overwhelmingly white. And among the whites, there were a whole lot of yarmulkes and signs from synagogues from throughout the East Coast. New Haven’s busses were organized by the Greater New Haven Jewish Federation and the Slifka Center at Yale.

The cause struck a chord with Jews, who, in the wake of the holocaust, feel invested in the cry of “Never Again” to genocide. The New York Times found a couple of Holocaust survivors in their 60s who got up to catch a 4:30 a.m. bus from Cleveland to make the rally.