I almost believe them

Under Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs, Jan Egeland, has been denied entry to Darfur. The Sudanese government has offered a number of reasons, including the fact that the trip would coincide with the Prophet Muhammad's birthday and that Egeland might be at risk after the recent Danish cartoon controversy (Egeland is Norwegian, and Europeans all look the same). Egeland claims that the Sudanese government doesn't want him to see how bad things have become in South Darfur. But why? What does it matter whether U.N. officials see how desperate things have become? The situation in Darfur has already been well documented, I'm not sure what piece of information would finally force the international community to act. The Sudanese government has already demonstrated that, like so many genocidal regimes before them, they have learned to play the intervention avoidance game. Really, I just can't see their motivation for keeping him out.