Mediators Weakness Drags Jeddah Negotiations to Failure

News analysis
By Mohamed Wadaa

– Jeddah forum: the militia tactics is to prolong and expand the war, and get ready for another round of violations and crimes
– The mediators have failed to display a reasonable seriousness in dealing with the prerequisites of the international law on civilians’ status during wartime.
– Return to the time before April 15th, the militia regaining their privileges and roles is practically impossible
– People will not accept any ceasefire that does not include militia eviction from homes, living quarters and marketplaces

It is clear that the suspension of Jeddah forum is a reflection of its failure to display a reasonable degree of seriousness in supervising the negotiations, or in implementing what has been agreed upon by the parties, including the international legal procedures, even though that needs no new agreement as these are procedures related to the protection of civilians at times of war: Top of this comes the eviction of private homes, evacuation of hospitals and civil utilities and services institutions. The whole world has seen the rebel militia forces occupying private homes and public utilities. The whole world has been witness to the rebel militias erecting military checkpoints and trenches, assuming the state’s duties including search, arrest of civilians, collecting fees and conducting acts of felonies, hijacking, looting civilians’ properties and belonging in the marketplaces and at homes and destroying vital public installations.
The mediation failed to exert any real pressure in terms of binding the rebel militia forces to what was agreed upon in May, which represents a response to international humanitarian law.
These were not demands invented by the Sudanese army, but are at the heart of the necessary measures for a ceasefire, no sane person would imagine a ceasefire that approves the militia’s presence in private homes of citizens who are expected to return to their homes where they will be receiving assistance as stipulated in the second paragraph of the agreement.
The army delegation did not dwell on the importance of recovering looted and stolen properties from homes, marketplaces and public and private facilities, considering that the return of citizens and their relief is a priority. Some hirelings have been talking about the failure to arrest (27) from prisons, and these worthless ignore the escape of thousands of prison inmates who were released by the militia, including dangerous convicts who have been recruited by the militia in its war against the Sudanese state.
The alternatives is to return to the situation before April 15 which requires evicting homes and civilian utilities, recovering looted belonging, justice for the victims and the dead, overcoming war crimes, crimes of ethnic liquidation and forced displacement, which are crimes that cannot be reconciled or postponed, which is what the militia seeks through its intransigence and attempts to pressurize and bargain in order to reach an agreement that would overlook the war crimes and violations committed. Again the militia would raise the question of their salaries and how they would be restoring their political and financial privileges, as well as demanding jobs in the government that they lost.
What is happening in the Jeddah platform is not based on any international standards, and is not consistent with international laws, nor with the standards logic of negotiation to end any war, these are just tactics by the militia to prolong the war and expand its scope and prepare for another round of violations and crimes, coupled with the failure of the mediators to maintain neutrality and to show a degree of seriousness and intolerance with the prohibitively impossible demands of the militia,.
The Sudanese people, who were impacted by the war ignited by the rebel militia, look forward to the end of the fighting that devastating effect on the sustenance of the people and on the people themselves.
But at the same time, the people will not accept to be subjected to blackmailing and will not accept any ceasefire that does not include and guarantees the evacuation of homes, residential neighborhoods and marketplaces from the militia, so there a ceasefire that does not allow the return of displaced citizens to their homes, the delivery of humanitarian aid to them and the provision of a safe environment to practice their normal lives, is meaningless. And how could people return to a house emptied of furniture, a house where doors and windows were removed and vehicles stolen by rebel militia and their mercenaries from neighboring countries. This is absurdity that will not last for long, the rebel militia and its allies are complicating that will ultimately give in as the situation will turn against them and they will succumb in humiliation… without even any mediators
4 December 2023