South Sudan security declasifies civil war report

The South Sudan National Security Service (NSS) has unfold that the links of some politicians and military officers with the start of the civil war in the country. The report is the first record to be disclosed following an order by President Salva Kiir for a declassification review of materials that have remained out of the public view in the 2013 and 2016 conflict. The document was released by the National Security Agency and the UK-based law firm BRL. It has stood by its claim that an attempted coup by Riek Machar and other politicians was the cause of the 2013 and 2016 conflicts despite the African Union finding no evidence for this narrative.

The AU Commission of Inquiry on South Sudan said in its report released in October 2014: "From all the information available to the Commission, the evidence does not point to a coup." The Commission further said the war started with a fight between members of the presidential guard in Juba on 15 December 2013. Kiir said that for the implementation of the 2018 peace agreement to be genuine, transparency into the root cause of the 2013 and 2016 conflicts was needed. He added, “I need to state clearly that those who will be implicated by the declassified information that is going to be released are guaranteed the presidential pardon. So there is no cause for alarm over this." 

Ateny Wek Ateny, President Salva Kiir’s spokesperson, told Radio Tamazuj this morning that the declassified report is about intercepted telephone conversations and meetings in 2013 and 2016 by people who were planning a coup or change of government by force of arms. "Also the law says that after 5 years such information is supposed to be declassified so that it is made public and the people can know what happened,” said Ateny. "He [Kiir] also gave the people who were involved in planning these violent coups an amnesty because he forgave them.” Ateny said: "The government has been implementing the peace agreement. Also, there has been an argument by many entities and people that the root causes of the conflict have to be investigated and revealed so that the public is aware of them.”