In the midst of a three-dimensional degeneration - death, displacement and disease - the prolonged misery looks to be the future for Darfur. Since the conflict broke out in 2003 between the mutinous rebels and the authoritarian government, the region has suffered more than 300,000 deaths, and some 2 million have been displaced.

Sudan is the biggest country in Africa. It is also one of the most bitterly divided nations in the world. It expended 40 of its 50 independent years in war and rebellion. Years of neglect, exploitation and authoritarianism have sharpened the edges of popular distrust, anger and frustration which constantly threatening to dismember the country.

Sudan's first civil war burst out between the north - dominated by richer Arab Muslims - and the south - populated by poorer Christians and animists. The fighting lasted 17 years and cost half a million lives. The war culminated in the granting of autonomy for the south. Peace finally prevailed, but was too weak to endure in perpetuity.

After a ten-year hiatus the second civil war erupted when the government abrogated southerners' self-rule and implemented Sharia law. It spanned over 20 years. It resulted in the deaths of 2 million civilians and another 4.5 million were displaced. While the second war was tapering off in the south, another one broke out in the western region of Darfur, thus proving the saga of violence in Sudan is not dead yet.

Darfur is the third and the most recent episode of a horrific serial violence between the government and the people. Accusing the authoritarian leadership in Khartoum of favouring Arab Muslims, the impoverished black Africans of Darfur, though broadly Muslim, brought their simmering discontent to a deadly boil as the region vitiated in drought, poverty and neglect. The discontent was accompanied by the ethnic acrimony which seethes beneath the political and social surface of Darfurian life.

The Sudanese Liberation Army (SLA) emerged in direct confrontation with the government. It was followed by another rebel outfit calling itself the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM). Another minor group too had splintered out of the SLA.

The Darfur crisis is a recent phenomenon but its vicious exasperation was constructed by years of tension over land and grazing rights between the mostly migrating nomadic Arabs, and the native blacks from the Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa tribes.

Just as the government started to feel its vulnerability at the rising of rebel groups, it unleashed the Janjaweed (an amalgam of Arab militia culled from Darfurian and Chadian tribes) They were given free licence to kill the rebels as well as anyone joining the rebel army, to torch the huts, to rape women feeding the rebels and to steal whatever they could. The air force, the army and the Janjaweed worked together in turning the land into killing fields. Fleeing refugees were left helpless and without means for survival.

The current crisis in Sudan is the result of the country's leadership monopolising power and privilege; of its oppression of people with selfish and myopic exploitation; of its neglect of welfare of people blinded by its addiction to Arab favouritism.

The US accused the government of committing genocide. The UN stated that the government had committed war crimes, and there was no intent to commit genocide. War crimes or genocide, the heart of the matter was that human lives were brutally consumed in a bestial sport of wholesale massacre, gang rape and mob violence deliberately sponsored by the state.

Belated but sturdy international pressure, and the threat of sanctions forced the government to disarm the Janjaweed, but there is little evidence that this has happened. The urge to 'ethnically cleanse' is still in the cards. In the theatre of war the Janjaweed, notwithstanding government "ban", still plays its villainous part in acts of violence. To add legitimacy to its role, the government converted the Janjaweed into police and regular soldiers. And that is tantamount to contracting out a bunch of seasoned robbers to operate a bank in the name of providing public service. Instead of summoning the killers to face trial the leadership in Khartoum has turned them into 'custodians' of society.

Omar al-Bashir, Sudan's authoritarian President, had called the Janjaweed "thieves and gangsters" but his statement was nothing more than a diplomatic twist adorned with political sophistry to mislead the rest of the world. His notoriety dates back to 1989 when he seized power and vowed apocalyptically to purge renegades, opponents and dissenters both Muslims and non-Muslims alike and declared that betrayers did not deserve the honour of living. His ascendancy to power doubtless beckoned dire events for Sudan. He was instrumental in awarding power and position to members of Arab clan which members of Fur, Masalit and Zaghawa tribes saw as an exercise to undermine their leadership and strength of their communities in their homeland. It inculcated a hatred of the leadership, and escalated their anger to an unbearable point of lethality.

It took aeons for the world to take notice of the scale of violence in Sudan. It is not uncommon for the world to suffer from political stoicism when it comes to responding to nations that matter less or until a crisis gets out of control. It took at least a year and a half for the US to 'recognise' the atrocities perpetrated in Sudan. And it took a couple of years for the UN to 'acknowledge' mass murders and rapes in Darfur in its 176-page report. Sometimes it defies common sense when the rest of the world watch and wait until a bloodbath of Rwandan magnitude takes an unimaginable toll of human lives.

China, a 'friend' of Sudan, loves the country's oil and other resources more than it cares for the lives of innocent civilians. China's oil purchases fill Sudan's coffers, part of which customarily gets channelled towards terror activities. China has invested about $15 billion in Sudan's oil projects; 7 per cent of its oil-imports flow from Sudan or conversely Sudan pours 60 per cent of its oil into China. It is a political marriage of convenience between a dictatorial communist regime, and a despotic Islamic government that shows compunction neither for human rights nor human lives. Amnesty International accused China of selling an array of weapons to human rights abusers such as Sudan and Myanmar. It is no surprise then that Chinese-made AK-47 rifles made their way to Darfur, and their bullets into the hearts of hundreds of thousands of victims. China staunchly stands by its friend Sudan despite the latter's continuing odious dalliance with genocide, or mass murder.

Scores of refugee camps besmirch Darfur thanks to war and devastation. About 1.8 million refugees have sought refuge in the camps of Darfur while some 200,000 have spilled into neighbouring Chad. Even the refugee camps do not provide foolproof safety to the refugees. The Janjaweed still attack the refugees at will. Besides, the refugees face the threat of diplomatic fallout between Sudan and Chad as the neighbours charge one another with supporting each other's rebel groups. Incidentally, both the eastern region of Chad and Darfur has a similar ethnic make-up. Letting the current situation spiral out of control could instigate destabilisation of Chad or even a war between Sudan and Chad.

What next?

Darfur, the epicentre of Sudan's present day violence, is still drowning in the unstable waters of political uncertainty. After prolonged international indifference to the sickening plight of Darfuris, the US and Britain put pressure both on the government and the rebels to strike a peace deal. The UN moved in to offer an international peacekeeping force in order to reinforce the resource-stretched African Union (AU) peacekeepers. Diminished in manpower, material as well as money, the AU troops look more an embarrassment than an international peacekeeping unit. Despite several bouts of politicking and negotiations with the government of Sudan the UN peacekeeping force is yet to put its foot in the region.

Omar al-Bashir's diplomatic chicanery pierced the veil of illusion that enveloped the peace accord signed in Nigeria after two years of painfully slow negotiations. As the peace pact entered into a stalemate, it has now opened the door to further violence. The Sudan government's pledge to resolve the crisis is ringed with an aura of duplicity. When the government agreed in writing to allow the UN peacekeeping force to man the conflict-ridden region, it augured peace in the region. After months of dilly-dallying by the government to allow the UN troops to provide succour to existing AU peacekeeping operations, al-Bashir came up with his trademark political twist. He delivered a murderous thrust at the peacekeeping efforts by the UN. He dealt a damaging blow to the hopes of millions of suffering refugees desperately yearning to return to their demolished, shattered, debris-reduced homes. He flatly rejected to let UN troops step into Sudan. Vowing not to let his country "re-colonised" al-Bashir ruled out any possibility of international military intervention as long as he stayed in power.

The fighting has subsided for the moment, but ethnic rancour is still keeping the embers of hatred stirring. The resolution of crisis is further complicated by the tribal in-fighting within the SLA between the Fur and Zaghawa groups. Once united against the government, the SLA now stands divided. Seeing unfairness in the deal struck by Zaghawa with the government, the rival Fur rejected the peace deal. Fur saw the agreement as favouring the government and the minority Zaghawa tribe. The tribal fissure reflected Khartoum's manipulative genius in splitting the SLA.

Surrounded by confusion and confrontation innocent the refugees remain terrified and terrorised, repelled and repressed, angered and alienated while the time bomb of hellish delirium keeps ticking.

A combination of rebel in-fighting, non-implementation of the peace accord and refusal to allow the UN troops threaten to jeopardise humanitarian aid work in the region already afflicted with illness and disease. It portends to refuel ethnic warfare at the cost of people's welfare. As time runs out, hope for peace evaporates. Amidst chaos al-Bashir is sitting on a crest of luck as China and Russia who have strategic interests in his country willingly protect him with a diplomatic shield. At a time when Saddam Hussein, Slobodan Milosevic and Charles Taylor are charged with mass murders or genocide and facing trial, al-Bashir so far remains untouched.

Sudan's President has a clear role to play than just promising to stop the killing in Darfur. Actions speak louder than words. Should al-Bashir fail to dissolve the Janjaweed, to conduct an impartial, unbiased, independent investigation into the atrocities with fairness, to pave way for compensation to reach the victims of crime and to work out a solution with the rebels, the UN must promptly do its duty to intervene even if it means 'no-invitation' from Mr Omar al-Bashir.