Kiir aide says those implicated by NSS report must apologize to enjoy amnesty

JUBA – A senior South Sudan presidency official has told this newspaper that South Sudanese politicians implicated by the National Security Service (NSS) report on the beginning of the 2013 and 2016 conflict will have to apologize to the South Sudanese to enjoy amnesty.

This afternoon, the NSS released a damning report claiming that First Vice President Dr. Riek Machar Teny, Vice President Taban Deng Gai, as well as senior SPLA-IO commander General Peter Lim Bol were responsible for what the government in Juba claimed to be a ‘coup’ attempt in 2016.

In December 2013, fighting erupted at the presidential guard battalion between the Dinka and Nuer soldiers after SPLA commander General Marial Chinuong ordered disarmament of the Nuer elements of the presidential guard sparking civil war following the killing of Nuer civilians in Juba the following day.

Speaking to journalists in Juba on Monday afternoon, Kiir said he has directed the National Security Service to release the report which he said would expose individuals behind the eruption of conflict in December 2013 and the infamous dogfight at the presidency in July 2016.

Kiir however assured those who are now implicated in the report of a presidential amnesty.

But speaking to Sudans Post his evening, a senior presidency official who requested not to be named that the government will ask those behind the ‘coup’ to apologize to the people of South Sudan in order to get the presidential amnesty the president promised yesterday.

“The president’s statement yesterday was very clear. That people who will be implicated by the report will be granted amnesty so that the peace process can continue and so we don’t have chaos again,” the presidency official said from Juba.

“Now, the next step is in the field of those named in the report. Anyone named in the report will need to apologize to the people of South Sudan regardless of which party that person belongs to. They must apologize, not to the president, but to the people of South Sudan so that the president, with his powers given by the constitution, pardons them,” the official added.