The UN's Shaming in Darfur

David Aaronovitch in The Times discusses the world's failure to stop the Sudanese genocide of Darfurians.

Between 65,000 and 255,000 people in Darfur have died and another million and a half are now exiles. Yet we’ve known about all this for years. Where has the outrage been?

Michael Moore, the [Liberal Democrats'] foreign affairs spokesman, “took up the post in March 2006, and is a leading campaigner against the Government’s Iraq policies” and not much else. “Latest news from Michael Moore”, as of yesterday, included slagging off the Government over Afghanistan and Iraq and slagging Israel off over Lebanon. On Darfur — zip.

But surely the Stop the War Campaign wants the Sudanese Government’s war on its own people stopped? The front page mentions Iraq 11 times, Afghanistan 5 times, Lebanon 5, Darfur 0.

A better question, though, might be about what has happened to the Start the War Campaign — we muscular liberals and others who said “Never again” after Rwanda, but have since been watching “Again” happening in the Sudan.

This week the United Nations must insist that Sudan accept the UN force, or we must accept that the UN can offer no protection from genocide.