Sudan: Another resource war?

"Never again", pledges a world, which last week commemorated a million Rwandans who died in the 1994 genocide. Yet in Sudan's western Darfur region a similar catastrophe is unfolding amid a deafening silence. "The only difference from Rwanda is the numbers," said last week the UN humanitarian coordinator for Sudan, Dr Mukesh Kapila. Human Rights Watch has accused Khartoum of crimes against humanity. Amnesty International charges the regime with breaking the Geneva conventions. Western governments fear disrupting the peace talks which they are mediating between Khartoum and its southern opponents for the last 6 months, trying to resolve 20 years of violent conflict in the south of Sudan. The international community talks of ethnic cleansing in Darfur, but dares not refer to genocide.