Madam, - Your Editorial of January 31st, "Acting on Darfur", is correct: military measures are essential in Darfur, where dialogue and diplomacy to date have clearly failed the 3.5 million vulnerable people relying on aid for survival.
The problem is the same as it was on day one - and that is what's so frustrating. For over three years, the UN paid lip service to the issue, holding discussions, meetings and more discussions and more meetings, while diplomatic wrangling and talk shops debated the conflict's finer points. And for three years Khartoum, backed by a veto-yielding China, has been resolute that a UN force will not enter the region under any circumstances.
Meantime on the ground, security has hit rock bottom and aid agencies - whose staff have been deliberately targeted, and in recent weeks subjected to vicious sexual assaults - have been forced to flee the Darfur arena, leaving the already devastated population further exposed and at risk.
Given the Sudanese government's record, it seems quite likely that - with international observers out of the way - Khartoum wants to get on with completing the genocide that is already under way.
Ultimately, Darfur's pain will end only when one nation finds the moral fibre to act now to prevent further tragedy by taking unilateral action and sending in a protective force to finally bring this saga to an end.
If there are lessons to be learned from Darfur, perhaps the most important one is this: the world has the means, the resources and the technology to prevent large-scale loss of human life and to limit suffering. All that is lacking is the will. - Yours, etc,
JOHN O'SHEA, Goal, Dún Laoghaire, Co Dublin.