Kiir not qualified to grant amnesty: opposition official

August 13th 2018 (Nyamilepedia) – South Sudan’s embattled President, Salva Kiir Mayardiit is not qualified to grant amnesty because he has been ordering the army to commit atrocities in the country, opposition official told the Nyamilepedia on Sunday.

South Sudan President, Salva Kiir, last week issued an executive order for granting a general amnesty to opposition leaders including Dr. Riek Machar whom he said had waged war against the state.

In an exclusive interview with the Nyamilepedia on Sunday, David Lawrence Lual, a member of the alliance’s delegates at the talks in Khartoum who is also a member of the alliance’s Security Sub-Committee, said they reject the amnesty offer by Kiir given that it is irrelevant in a time that the parties have signed a peace agreement.

“We reject President Kiir’s amnesty offer for all opposition groups. Because amnesty offer is irrelevant since the parties had already signed a peace agreement in Khartoum,” Lual said.

He further pointed out that President Kiir is not qualified to offer amnesty to any person saying he is a part of the ongoing killings in the country.

“Besides, President Kiir is not qualified to grant amnesty to anyone, because he has been overseeing the atrocities committed by his SPLA forces,” he said.

Asked whether the permanent ceasefire is holding across the country, Lual added that the government violated the deal as the South Sudan army tried to get out of their trenches to attack SPLA-IO forces in Bahr AL-Ghazal region.

“Till recently there have been a number of violations by the SPLA-IG forces. Especially in Western Bahr El-Ghazal region, when the Government forces attacked the IO forces while the parties were here signing peace,” he said.

“Well this depends on the level of commitment from all the parties. We signed the two papers on the outstanding issues of Security Arrangements and Governance in good faith and we are hoping to finalize the whole agreement,” he said.