Pretending to care was fun while it lasted

Jan Egeland, U.N. undersecretary for Human Rights, has warned that hundreds of thousands of people in Darfur face starvation if the situation there does not improve and says the region is returning to the "abyss of 2004".

Egeland said this is "a test case for the world for having no more Rwandas and no more massive loss of innocent lives." Is he even paying attention? If this was a test, the world failed a long time ago. Now he wants Western nations to send more money to support the African Union while they pander to the genocidal regime in Khartoum. And of course, wealthy Western nations will send money, because it somehow eases our guilty consciences. So what if the African Union forces won't be able to prevent the deaths of thousands of people in Darfur. At least we're doing something.

For the past few weeks the world has played a game and pretended that they might finally act in Darfur. Now we've decided to return to status quo and the most Darfuris can expect from the United Nations is the occasional statement about how things are becoming hopeless.

Since the African Union is expected to transfer responsibility in six months time, I predict we'll play this same game again in late July. Am I just being cynical? Let them prove me wrong.