Catastrophe foretold  Burning villages, bombers and helicopter
gunships scouring the African skies, refugees fleeing as
diplomacy continues its maddeningly slow pace: the view from
Darfur again points to disaster as the Sudanese government
pursues a new offensive against rebel areas - while doing all it
can to block the deployment of an effective UN peacekeeping
force.  There are certainly plenty of diversions in Iraq,
Afghanistan, Gaza and, recently, Lebanon. But Darfur, arguably,
is the worst of them all, another Rwanda or post-Tito Yugoslavia
in the making. Arguments about whether what is happening there
constitutes genocide or "just" ethnic cleansing are as
irrelevant as whether Iraq is experiencing civil war or "just"
extreme sectarian violence: whatever the label, the situation is
dire and will probably worsen within days or weeks, warn both
the UN and the EU.  Kofi Annan sounded an uncharacteristically
tough note yesterday when he served notice that Khartoum would
be held responsible for any deteriorat