A Quintet of Plunder and Tyranny
By: Rashid Abdel Rahim
The meeting of the quintet scheduled for today is nothing more than a ploy to circumvent the truth and fulfill all ambitions and desires, except for what the Sudanese people hope for. The primary objective of this gathering is to exonerate the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) from all wrongdoing and even grant them a share of power, the distribution of which is to be determined within this very gathering.
This quintet, which claims to be building the country’s future, is working to bypass the legitimate authorities in a flawed process orchestrated by those who ignore the devastation wrought by the war.
The Sudanese people have come to know the RSF intimately, firsthand, through the bitter experience of a brutal war that confirmed for them that this misguided group is nothing but a force that knows only bloodshed, revels in killing and mutilating corpses, tortures citizens and prisoners, looting, theft, and the perpetration of every imaginable atrocity. This rebellion, with its atrocities in combat, lacks the capacity to manage the affairs of state, let alone participate in them. It possesses neither the ideas necessary to establish a functioning government nor the figures capable of building civil institutions. Those in charge are military personnel without education or knowledge, as evidenced by the biographies of its leaders and commanders.
Sudan’s experience with the Rapid Support Forces is an experience with tribal rule steeped in racism, which ignites war not against its enemies, but amongst its own constituent groups.
The international powers that seek to reinstate these groups to power are driven by self-interest and ambition. If their objective is achieved and the rebels return to power, our people will find themselves reliving a situation they have already endured and suffering the bitterness of past tragedies.
With the initial steps of the five-party plan, its flawed approach and invalid objective became apparent. What has been achieved is the exacerbation of divisions among the Sudanese factions that are supposed to comprise this coalition and be part of the authority it aims to establish. International groups have begun taking steps to achieve their objectives through this dubious activity. We have seen how the United States has rushed to propose what it has consistently advocated at every forum: a truce to allow for the delivery of humanitarian aid to those in need.
The United States is turning a blind eye to the reality that those truly in need of humanitarian assistance are the people suffering in rebel-held areas, where supplies are stolen and diverted to fuel the rebel military. Civilians are brutalized, and no one dares to complain or speak out. The United States knows, yet chooses to ignore, that aid is not stolen in government-controlled areas; rather, it is collected from civilians and distributed by them in community centers.
The framework agreement, which was one of the primary causes of the war, has resurfaced with this five-party agreement, and its key figures, most notably Ben Chambas and representatives of the African Union, have come to the fore.
There is no doubt that all those who are mediating independently, from the United States, the African Union, and others, have accumulated considerable experience. This experience is sufficient for them to realize that it is impossible to impose a solution on the Sudanese people that they do not want, nor to force them to accept a group they know and will not accept, nor to accept the exclusion of any entity they desire.
Most of the mediators in the Quintet are those who claim to uphold democracy or who adopt it as a system of governance in their own countries. Justice demands that they ask us to implement the system they desire or that they implement in their own countries, if they are truly sincere in their efforts and claims.