‘‘Why now?’’: South Sudanese react to report on 2013, 2016 coup plotters
South Sudanese citizens have expressed mixed views on the recently released report, which links top officials in government to what it describes as a botched coup in 2013, as well as the deadly clashes in 2016.
On Monday, President Salva Kiir issued a national address calling for the implementation of the peace agreement on justice and reconciliation where he warned the masterminds of the country’s violence to be ready to face the law.
On the same occasion, Kiir urged the National Security Service (NSS) to reveal a report which adversely mentions top government officials in the presidency, and details their conversations and how they allegedly planned to overthrow his government. The report was assembled by a senior British lawyer Steven Kay. However, it lacks the tagline for the author, date and place of publication.
On Wednesday by midday, the Office of the President shared the report on its Facebook page and noted: ‘‘International Report by Steven Kay QC and his team at 9BR Chambers, London on the attempted coups of 2013 and 2016 in South Sudan has been released.’’
This opened a floodgate of reactions. Some users trashed it as ill-timed and engineered for personal interests while others looked at it as an overdue gesture to make the contentious issues to rest.
For instance, a user named Kawach Deng Mou said: ‘‘Congrats, we read and understood it to the maximum who had initiated a long suffering of our civil population in the country.’’ For Manyok Maroun Monydhot, the amount of money spent in this report was way too much: ‘‘It’s so shocking how much they have spent on that reports. $17 million for that shady work. If there was accountability in that government, they would have to second guess spending that much money.’’ Deŋ Mayen also said: ‘‘What if this money was used to pay the same army that defended J1? After this, we also need the audio recordings.’’
