The LA Times reviews a new documentary on the saddening war and wickedness in Darfur:

It’s a melancholic conclusion to a story of horror and savagery: an estimated 400,000 dead, 2.5 million refugees, countless women raped, rampant starvation and disease.

As other journalistic efforts have done, “Sand and Sorrow” lays blame on the Sudanese government, its army and the camel-riding Arab bandits called janjaweed.

Starting in 2003, the government in Khartoum used the janjaweed to launch a proxy campaign to crush the rebels in the Darfur province by attacking the civilian population. Having spent two decades fighting a rebellion in the south, Khartoum wanted to be rid of the Darfur rebels in the west more quickly.

The United Nations, rightfully ashamed of its inability to stop the Rwanda massacre of a decade earlier, passed resolutions condemning Khartoum. But China, a major buyer of Sudanese oil, blocked any direct action and was helped by Russia.

President Bush branded the killing a genocide and earlier this year called for new economic sanctions and a worldwide arms embargo against Sudan — but the silence from most nations, including those in Africa, has been deafening.

It looks sobering but worth a watch. Words can’t express the horror of the genocide there, but we should still try to communicate it.