UN Action

Comfortingly, troops from Rwanda have arrived in Darfur to protect international observers there. They're a part of a larger anticipated AU (African Union) force. Sudan has two weeks to placate the UN, which shouldn't be too hard since the UN is inclined to do nothing. Reuters:

Raids by Sudanese forces and Arab militiamen have worsened a desperate situation in Darfur, rights groups say, but the United Nations said Khartoum was making serious efforts to keep pledges to curb the violence.

The UN says there's no reason to get all excited here. Who you gonna believe?

Meanwhile, the UN has called an emergency meeting on a slaughter that took place in Burundi. "Most of the victims were women, children and babies, shot dead and burned in their shelters at the Gatumba refugee transit camp some 10 miles northwest of Bujumbura, near the central African nation's border with Congo, according to the U.N. mission in Burundi." Let's get those sternly worded warnings ready.

Drip, drip, drip. That's the sound of UN credibility dripping away.

Update: An AFP story has the nerve to repeat, "The UN Security Council on July 30 gave Sudan a stern warning to rein in militia accused of committing atrocities in Darfur within a month." I am not making this up, as Dave Barry likes to say.