Russia and China have refused to back calls for sanctions against Sudan. Russia sells weapons, and other goods, to Sudan. Chinese companies are involved pumping oil in Sudan. Russia and China can block any UN attempt to impose sanctions on Sudan. However, after the Iraq experience, where 12 years of UN sanctions did nothing, it is thought that sanctions would be a gesture, and little else. 

Sudan says it has tried 200 Arab militiamen, from various  tribes, and found them guilty of waging war, assault and armed robbery. Some of these men had received the death penalty. It is estimated that as many as 50,000 people have been killed in the Darfur violence so far, and as many as a million driven from their villages. These trials were not witnessed by anyone outside the Sudanese government.