Despite his mistrust of Khartoum, he doesn't seem to think it has been let off lightly. "Concessions have been made," he says, "but all the key countries have said that if Sudan does not honor them, they will undertake the next step."
While Steidle's campaigning ignited US public awareness of the Darfur genocide, it also alienated aid agencies and some elements in the US State Department, which feel his outspokenness has harmed their mission.
"I was told by a state department official that the agencies can't get their [Sudan] visas in a timely manner because of me," he says. "I was like, too bad. You have to wait two weeks instead of 48 hours. Too bad. The world should have known about a genocide." He cites the recent resignation of the director of the Save Darfur Coalition, the broad-based advocacy group that has spearheaded the high-profile campaign in the US, as evidence of the Sudanese government's success in intimidating the aid agencies into silence. "We can provide food and tents forever, it's not going to stop the situation. It has to go hand in hand with advocacy."
Steidle plans to keep on going. A documentary based on his experiences and using some of his pictures, is showing in the US.
As with so much to do with action over Darfur, the model for the next stage of Steidle's protest is Rwanda: he is in California lobbying studios to make a feature film. "Feature films reach millions of people. Even if you haven't seen Blood Diamond you know what it's about. The same with Hotel Rwanda. Hollywood is a great tool." Steidle has talked to Don Cheadle, star of Hotel Rwanda and a big voice in the Darfur campaign, as well as Steven Spielberg, who used his clout as an artistic adviser to the 2008 Beijing Olympics to urge China to reappraise its oil-fuelled relationship with the government of Sudan.
I ask Steidle what stays with him from Sudan. Instead of an atrocity story, he talks about the time he and a documentary crew were talking to Darfur refugees in Chad. "When we interviewed the people," he says, "we'd put the camera on them and say, all right, now speak to America, tell them directly what you want. And they'd look at the camera and they'd say, thank you for everything you've done for us."
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