Former political detainees said Wednesday that President Kiir's comments that he had spared their lives in Juba after an alleged coup in December 2013 were "very unfortunate."
The faction known as the ‘former detainees’ initially comprised eleven top SPLM officials whom President Kiir arrested after South Sudan’s civil war began on 15 December. The group is led by former SPLM Secretary-General Pagan Amum, and includes also John Luk, Deng Alor and Kosti Manibe, and former governor Chol Tong, among others. President Kiir accused the eleven of attempting a coup, but all eleven were eventually released.
"Kiir did not spare our lives. It is the system that he put in place that spared our lives, not Salva," Kosti Manibe, a spokesman of the former detainees’ group, told Radio Tamazuj on Wednesday.
“The remarks are unfortunate. Kiir has been saying he regretted that he did not kill us, but rather he made us to go through a fair process, and it the process that released us,” he explained.
He noted that seven arrested officials among the former detainees were found innocent by a committee set to carry out investigations, but the four were taken to court and eventually released.
Manibe accused Kiir of forcing them into the exile following the 2013 crisis, pointing out that there was no any agreement or conditions to keep them out of politics in South Sudan.
“IGAD told us that it is the government, because your security is not guaranteed here in Juba. We were forcibly put on the plane and exiled. We never went to see our families. The clothing that we were wearing under detention is what we got onto the plane with to Kenya,” he said.
“We went into exile without passports and papers. We were just put on a plane,” he added.
The opposition group said Kiir had initially refused a proposal by the region to include the former detainees in the peace talks in 2014. “It was IGAD that prevailed and said we must be part of the talks, and Salva did not like it,” he said.
Addressing citizens who gathered at the Dr. John Garang Mausoleum in Juba on Tuesday to pay their last respects to the late army chief, James Ajongo, President Kiir said the mistake of his government was sparing the lives of his former deputy Riek Machar and former detainees’ group.