The following picture was snapped on the tarmac of a Sudanese airport, specifically on the portion reserved for military aircraft:

This is not actually a United Nations aircraft. According to this New York Times article it is a Sudanese military airplane altered to have the appearance of a UN aircraft. This airplane and many like it have been used to ferry munitions to Darfur, perform observations for military operations, and even to provide direct support (a euphemism for bombing and strafing) in military operations – this is all clearly wrong.

The government of Sudan is known to be providing assistance to the militias that are burning and killing their way through Darfur. This picture is just one small crumb of an overwhelming mountain of evidence that the Sudanese government is not only guilty of the crime of genocide, but intends to continue their activities. The world community knows this, and has known this long enough for the Sudanese government supported militias and forces to murder more than 200,000 and displace an additional 2.3 million.

The appropriate response to this, of course, is sanctions (sarcasm). Because they work so well in suppressing this sort of activity. Sanctions seem to be the only tool in the tool chest of the United Nations but sanctions have an Achilles heel. Sanctions are only really (marginally) effective when nations abide by them. In the case of Sudan, outside investment has never been as active as it is now. China, specifically, is moving into Sudan big time.

What interest could China possibly have in Sudan? Why oil, of course, the resource that has encouraged so many to look the other way for so long in so many other areas of the world (so long as the oil keeps flowing).

What’s the world to do when sanctions don’t work (as they seldom do), at least in part because powerful members of the world community (China) are so openly and obviously immoral? The situation as it stands is ridiculous. China’s abuses of rights are bad, but we know that the government of Sudan is committing horrible crimes that are in another scale entirely. We know that our efforts to isolate and marginalize the government of Sudan, as a punishment for those crimes, is being actively undermined by China. What is going to have to happen to spark some action here? I get the feeling that we might just continue to turn a blind eye to Sudan up until the time that Sudanese aircraft begin their bombing runs over the east coast. And China will be there to complain when we retaliate.