| | The rise of the SPLA/SPLM in 1983 marked a new era in Sudanese history. It shifted the emphasis of southern struggle against northern domination from separation to liberation. Furthermore, the political programme of the SPLA/SPLM produced both a divided south and a divided north as different factions grouped in support or in opposition to it. Religion, which had not been a crucial factor in the negotiations which produced the 1972 Addis Ababa Accord, now came to be seen by some parties as a major obstacle to peace. Tribal sentiments, relatively subdued and contained in the first civil war, have now come to the fore. Indeed, it is ironic that there was probably more national cohesion during the 1955 - 1972 separatist war than there is today when the protagonists advocate national unity. |
