Opinion: Senior Youth of South Sudan Welcomes the Government Report

Press statement,

April 3, 2022 — The Senior Youth of South Sudan (SEYOSS) was founded on 18th December, 2017, to organize South Sudanese to protest for the Revitalization of Peace Agreement, and to demand that the state accord South Sudanese their basic Human Rights and fundamental freedoms particularly the unconditional release of the political prisoners.  

On 28th March, 2022, South Sudan President, Gen. Salva Kiir Mayardit made a Press Statement in which he directed the National Security Service and the London Based BRL law firm, to promptly declassify information on the root causes of the ongoing conflict in South Sudan. 

In line with this presidential order, the report dubbed ‘‘Pushing the Reset button for South Sudan’’ was released and sent to social media for wider public perusal.

We, the Senior Youth of South Sudan (SEYOSS) , wish to state that we have received and welcome the report. We therefore commend the government for availing this report, because it is better than none. 

In this regard, we urge South Sudanese especially the learned and Senior Youth, to create ample time to read the report intensively and exhaustively so as to have different versions and knowledge on the root causes of the conflict in our country.

In the same vein, the Senior Youth of South Sudan are hereby warned to shun fallacies in the manner in which they react or respond to the report. And as such, no one should make the mistake of disregarding it or take the report as gospel truth, because at times, the report can be untruthful or truthful depending on the personality, credibility and the confidence that the public has on the authors of the report. 

In view of the above, we encourage the Senior Youth of South Sudan to be guided by the principles of Natural justice, and hence Youth should avoid rushing to conclusion considering the fact that the persons named and accused in the report are legally presumed innocent until proven guilty. As a matter of fact, the issue of coup d’etat is irrefutable however, as to who did what and where is another issue altogether. 

Finally, we call on the government and the proponents of the report to open their ears and allow the readers including the accused persons to read and react to the report accordingly.  

Signed by;

Board of Convenors,

Senior Youth of South Sudan (SEYOSS)

Nairobi, Kenya