With growing global outrage… Al-Fasher besieges the militia

Sudan Events — Agencies

There is no doubt that the steadfastness shown by the Armed Forces, the joint forces and the citizens in Al-Fasher was a national epic in every sense: for more than two years Al-Fasher remained the rock against which the Rapid Support Forces’ attacks shattered, until conditions inside the city deteriorated to the point that resistors there were reduced to eating a single meal a day of “(ambaz)” under a tight siege, facing daily morning and evening attacks, marches and indiscriminate marking of residents’ homes. Evidence of Guilt: The militia entered the city and, as usual, immediately launched campaigns of slaughter, killing, dragging victims, liquidating local residents and hunting down journalists, politicians, administrators and their families. Strangely, the militia did not abandon its habit of filming the atrocities it committed and brazenly posting them in public, thereby offering the world its own evidence of guilt and implicating its leaders. Videos filmed by militia fighters show the atrocities perpetrated against those fleeing Al-Fasher and against families raided in their homes, and show the militia’s second-in-command Abdelrahim Dagalo congratulating fighters and ordering the recording of what he called the “spoils” looted from government institutions—naming those who stole them, transferring ownership to them, and legalizing theft and plunder. The evidence the militia presented of its crimes shocked the world, which had no choice but to condemn it and act, as the chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee said: “The atrocities in Al-Fasher were not accidental but a plan of the Rapid Support Forces.” War Crimes: To understand the plan and why the militia documents the crimes, Dr. Abdullah Ali Ibrahim says the Rapid Support Forces are in reality simply “a Qatari station,” adding: “People come and go and fight with a wolf strategy — a strategy applied to mercenaries in the 30-year war, whose pay came from profiting by looting villages and towns and leaving them ruined in people and buildings. Looting and killing are not incidental to the militia’s conduct; were they not part of its doctrine, the RSF would not have wasted the opportunities to profit from Al-Fasher, from which it emerged defeated and cursed.” The Office of the Prosecutor of the International Criminal Court announced it had opened a preliminary investigation into crimes committed in Al-Fasher, expressing deep shock at the scale of violations against civilians and confirming that the facts documented by UN and human rights organizations may amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity under the Rome Statute. The prosecutor called on witnesses, survivors and field workers to give testimony, stressing that videos and photographs are crucial elements to prove the crimes and hold those responsible to account. Mass Killings: Maj. Gen. M. Salah Mohamed Khaled says the militia’s actions in Al-Fasher were expected: “We should not bury our heads in the sand — what did people expect from a militia that knows nothing but killing, looting and theft? It was to be expected that they would turn immediately to killing.” He added: “They killed no fewer than three thousand citizens in the first hours after entering Al-Fasher. That is a large number; it simply means their guns were on the trigger facing unarmed citizens and children. I believe they themselves documented these undeniable crimes; had we been serious as human beings about defending people’s rights, there would be no equivocation or silence.” He continued: “I witnessed horrific scenes — imagine the terror of peaceful people forced to the ground while these atrocities are committed against them, then the international community talks about human rights. Have they not seen these crimes? I wager no one has seen or committed such crimes — not even an army, nor even a militia, has perpetrated such acts in the world.” He said: “The killing in Al-Fasher is collective and identity-based, yet we are still discussing truces and negotiations. What this militia committed is a cowardly act that brings shame; we must not remain silent but must move and stir the conscience of the world. By ‘the conscience of the world’ I do not mean its officials but the free peoples shocked by these massacres. The world must know and understand who we are fighting here: these people have nothing to do with humanity.” He added that international reactions in Britain, Germany and even the United States have placed the militia’s allies in a difficult position, because defending a state that supplied weapons used to kill Sudanese is hard, and defending the behavior of this militia is even harder; hence the global response to the Al-Fasher case, which has now surrounded the militia after growing international and regional indignation over what happened. He concluded: “We must address what happened both officially and popularly in a constructive manner and develop it so that this militia, its leaders, supporters and backers receive the necessary punishment.”