The head of British Law firm 9BR chamber says his report on the alleged coup attempt in 2013 and 2016 was planned by key elements within the ruling SPLM party to take over power from president Kiir.
The report titled “Push the Reset Button for South Sudan,” declassified by the president and released to the general public on Wednesday implicated Riek Machar, Taban Deng, Pagan Amum, among others, for plotting the coup in 2013.
Steven Kay QC describes his report as “an independent” based on the telephone intercept obtained evidence.
“I was particularly directed to telephone intercept conversation recordings was preserved in South Sudan, and I was given access to them. The report I produced with my team analyzed the intercept evidence and was able to establish a pattern of fact,” Kay said.
Kay says the international community and some regional bodies ignored President Salva Kiir’s concerns about the fact of coup attempt in 2013 and in 2016.
He says people believe on the false narrative taken up by the international institutions and have ignored the government account on the cause of the conflict.
“When you get an international institution disregarding the words of the President, it’s something worthy of examination to see who is telling the truth, “He stated.
He says the key participants within the conflict mentioned in the report conspired to take power and use violence on 15 December 2013.
Kay refuted the finding of the African Union Commission of inquiries headed by former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo, released in 2014, and regarded the conflict as a political dispute within the ruling SPLM party.
He denied the allegation of having received 17 million USD to write the report and called on the AU to apologies to the government for failing to review the evidences that were in government possession about the coup plotters.
“It was a great shame to me looking at the work of the African Union Commission of inquiries to South Sudan. They did not take the time to analyze the telephone intercept that I did,” he said.
The commission of inquiry on South Sudan mandated to obtained evidence and conducting general investigations on human rights violations and other abuses committed during the armed conflict on 15 December 2013.
He say the AU and international community