Here's something from the Horse's mouth. The commander of the UN mission to Rwanda, Romeo Dallaire (who is now a Canadian Senator) has written an open letter to Martin Agwai, the Nigerian General in charge of the UN mission to Darfur.
Romeo said that the chances of success are poor and he will be betrayed by the United Nations, the various governments and the very officials who will be backing the mission.
"You can anticipate being let down by everyone on whom you depend for support, be that troops, funding, logistics or political engagement," Senator Dallaire wrote. "Bear in mind that whoever fails you will, in the end, be the most active in blaming you for whatever goes wrong."
"This is a daunting mandate, and you enter into this mission facing long odds," Senator Dallaire said. "The intentions of the regime in Khartoum toward an effective, impartial implementation of the Unamid mandate are deeply uncertain."
I quote from the Guardian report
But the retired general's sharpest words question the political resolve of the UN and AU, which he says should be held to account for any lack of support when the new force is deployed. "Only by shining a spotlight on those failures in every possible way can you mobilise the attention necessary to get the action you need," is the advice he offers General Agwai.
Senator Dallaire's warnings are relevant given his experience in Rwanda in 1994. His calls for reinforcements to help his UN force stop the genocide there were rejected by the security council. He was discharged from the Canadian army in 2000 suffering post-traumatic stress disorder. He tried to take his life several times but recovered and became a prominent human rights advocate.
As I have written before, this has all the signs of being a generalised total disaster. Also see my previous short comments on this topic.
All this to be taken with a grain of piquant salt!
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