Since its inception in 1983, the SPLM/SPLA has struggled tirelessly and has gone a long way towards the achievement of the New Sudan. By 1991 the SPLA was poised to capture Juba, the principal town in Southern Sudan, an event which would have ended the war in favour of forces for the New Sudan.

But in the late 1980s the world was literally moving from one historical era, characterised by the cold war, to a new one whose dimensions are still emerging. This epochal and global change had serious repercussions on and in the SPLM/SPLA. The NIF took full advantage of the situation in the Movement and for the first time in eight years of its existence the SPLM lost the military initiative in 1991 when there was a split in the movement, between those who responded to the changing circumstances by opting for a political solution with the NIF regime within the framework f the NIF Sudan and those who responded to the changing circumstances by opting for a political solution with the NIF regime within the framework of the NIF Sudan and those who chose to continue the armed struggle to achieve the objective of the New Sudan despite the odds and changed circumstances.

The SPLM/SPLA resolved to initiate fundamental reforms within the Movement with the aim of achieving a rejuvenated SPLM/SPLA that is capable of addressing the changing internal, regional and international situation, so that the Movement still remained committed and capable of achieving the objective of the New Sudan.

Committed to implementing fundamental reforms within the Movement and achieve the necessary historical transition with the rest of humanity the movement held the First SPLM/SPLA National Convention in Chukudum in April 1994, attended by over 700 delegates from all over the New Sudan. In September 1995 the Movement held a senior officers conference attended by over 800 delegates, to debate and resolve on measures to reorganise and develop the SPLA into an organic army to implement a resolution of the National Convention which separated the SPLM and SPLA, with the former, becoming the political movement and the SPLA its military wing.

In the same month, September 1995, the Movement held a major conference on humanitarian issues involving SPLA commanders the NGO community working in the New Sudan, donors and human rights groups. A follow-up conference on humanitarian issues was later held in November 1995 by popular request from the delegates to the September conference.

On April 30 to May 5th 1996, the SPLM held another important conference on Civil Society and establishment of Civil Authority in the New Sudan (CANS).

This conference was attended by over 600 delegates from civil society and more than 60 foreign observers. The conference on civil society was another watershed in the SPLM/SPLA metamorphosis towards a rejuvenated Movement and establishment of the New Sudan.

By the end of 1995 the SPLM/SPLA had transformed itself and successfully made the historical transition, and as a result on October 25th 1995, the new SPLM/SPLA, robust and rejuvenated, launched a major military offensive. Within three months the SPLA captured Parajok, Owiny-ki-Bul, Polataka, Magwe, Panyikwara Ame, Moli, Pageri, Loa, Ashwa and continued the advance towards Juba at Kit bridge where the front lines remain. By February 1996, the SPLA had completely destroyed the Ashwa Front, which was the main NIF military front in the South. The NIF lost more than 10,000 Government troops killed in this front alone and the SPLA captured a lot of military equipment.

In summary after four years of difficulties the SPLA regained the military and political initiative from October 1995. The balance of forces on the ground shifted completely and irreversibly in favour of the SPLA. In March 1996 the SPLA continued with the initiative and opened two new fronts in Pochalla in South East Upper Nile and Yabus in Southern Blue Nile.

Meanwhile the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), including the SPLA, opened a new front, the Eastern Front in the Kassala/Port Sudan area, and armed struggle effectively moved to the Northern Sudanese opposition parties, including the UMMA Party, the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) and the Communist Party.

Seven of these parties have organised armed resistance against the NIF regime and have military units in the Eastern Front, including the SPLA which is represented in the Front by the New Sudan bridge (NSB). The other six parties with military units are the UMMA Party, DUP, the Beja Congress, Sudan Alliance Forces (SAF), Sudan Federal Democratic Alliance (SFDA) and the Legitimate Command, led by the former Sudan Army Commander-in-Chief.

In October this year, the NDA established the Joint Military Command (JMC) for the Eastern Front and appointed the SPLA leader as its Chairman. The JMC will liaise and co-ordinate military operations of the seven NDA armies in the Eastern Front, and develop itself into the military wing of the NDA.

The developments, the evolution of the SPLM/SPLA, the formation of the New Sudan Bridge, the growth of the NDA and the recent launching of the Eastern Front and formation of the Joint Military Command have greatly improved the possibilities for fundamental change in the Sudan; for the Sudan to find itself and achieve a just peace and the New Sudan.

Since its formation, the SPLM/SPLA has adopted a principled position to seek a peaceful resolution of the conflict through dialogue and peace talks with the Government of the day in Khartoum and as a result there has been many initiatives and peace talks to find a peaceful solution to the Sudanese conflict over the last ten years. These started from March 22 1985 two years after the formation of the SPLM/SPLA, when the Movement called for an all-party National Constitutional Conference aimed at reaching a comprehensive peace. The idea was still-born as Numeiri was overthrown the following month.

The Koka Dam Declaration. The idea of a national constitutional conference was pursued during the period of Swar al-Dhahab's Transitional Military Council (TMC) which took over from the Numeiri regime. The SPLM/SPLA called upon all Sudanese political parties to a conference to be held in the town of Koka-Dam in Ethiopia in 1986. The conference was attended by over 50 delegates from all the Sudanese political forces except the NIF and the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP). The Koka Dam Conference resolved on major issues of the Sudan including the necessity for secularity of the state and a democratic Sudan and issued these in the famous Koka-Dam Declaration.

The Koka-Dam peace process was short-circuited by the 1986 elections which brought into power a coalition of the UMMA Party (with 101 seats) and DUP (with 68 seats) while the NIF (with 51 seats) was in the opposition. The remaining 100 seats in the 320 seat Parliament were either not contested because of insecurity in the South or distributed among several small parties. Mr. Sadiq Al-Mahdi declined to implement the Koka-Dam Agreement, giving two reasons for his rejection. He argued that the persons who signed the agreement on behalf of his party were not authorised to do so, and secondly, that the DUP a junior patner in his Government was not signatory to the Agreement.

The Sudan Peace Agreement. The SPLM decided to approach the DUP to negotiate a bilateral agreement with the view of bringing them on bard into the Koka-Dam Agreement, as the DUP was an important junior coalition partner in Sadiq- al-Mahdi's Government. The dialogue with the DUP led to the historic 1988 DUP/SPLM Sudan Peace Agreement, which essentially modified the Koka-Dam Declaration on the September Sharia laws of Numeiri by agreeing to freeze these laws rather than abrogating them as came in the Koka-Dam Declaration

However the senior Partner (UMMA) in the coalition Government opposed the DUP/SPLM Sudan Peace Agreement and actually voted it down on 21/12/1988, embarrassing situation for the DUP which forced them to resign, and hence the collapse of Sadiq (I) Government.

Following the resignation of the DUP, the UMMA formed a coalition Government with the NIF with the DUP in the opposition with Southern groups and others. The military situation in the South in the meantime deteriorated. The SPLA went on a major offensive capturing Torit, Liria, Magwe, Parajok, Nimule, Bor, Waat Akobo all in the first four months of 1989. This forced the army to join the public in pressuring the Sadiq (II) Government to accept the DUP/SPLM Peace Agreement as a basis for peaceful settlement. Indeed, the army went a step further to give the Prime Minister an ultimatum in a 21-point memorandum and asked the Prime Minister to respond within seven days.

Talk of military coup was in the air. In April 1989, the Prime Minister yielded to popular pressure and accepted the DUP/SPLM Peace Initiative. This infuriated the NIF and forced them to resign, and precipitated the collapse of the Sadiq (III) Government was formed. Sid Ahmed Hussein (DUP) became Deputy Prime Minister and head of a Ministerial Government delegation that travelled to Addis Ababa in May 1989 to work out details of the National Constitutional Conference with the SPLM/SPLA.

The Government delegation returned to Khartoum with positive results the peace agreement would be endorsed by the Cabinet on June 30th, and September 18th was set for holding of the National Constitutional Conference, which would end the war and usher the Sudan into an era of Peace and development. The Government delegation was to return to Addis Ababa to meet the SPLM/SPLA on July 4th to resolve any outstanding issues and complete arrangements leading to the scheduled September 18th National Constitutional Conference.

However, the NIF moved and staged their coup on June 30th, 1989 precisely on the same date the Sadiq (III) Cabinet was to endorse the DUP/SPLM peace agreement. At this juncture it is important to underline that the NIF staged their coup to prevent peace under the terms of the Koka-Dam Agreement and the DUP/SPLM Sudan Peace agreement. In the words of General Beshir himself, the coup was mad "to save the country from being taken over by the infidels and preserve the Islamic Arab identity of the Sudan" and that is why the NIF called their revolution "the National Salvation Revolution" the NIF feared that the September Laws (Numeiri's Sharia) would be abrogated at the National Constitutional Conference (due September 18th) or by the Military High Command which threatened a coup if the September Laws were not abrogated and peace achieved.

The June 30th 1989 coup was a momentous even in the history of the Sudan, and the country will never remain the same again. From this date the Sudan fractured and divided into three, and it is useful to analyse situation in terms of the "three Sudans" (NIF Sudan, Old Sudan and New Sudan) presented earlier as characterising the present situation in the Sudan.

Dialogue with the NIF Regime: Consistent with its principle of dialogue with the Government of the day, the SPLM/SPLA continued dialogue with the NIF Sudan to achieve peace. The first discussions were bilateral, held in August 1989, and only two months after the NIF seized power. Subsequent peace talks between the SPLM/A and the NIF Government include the Jimmy Carter Nairobi talks of December 1989 Abuja-I (1992) Abuja II (1993) and the current IGADD, peace process. Other peace initiatives include the Friends of IGADD, which includes six European and the United States and Canada, the Barcelona I and Barcelona II (in the Hague) process and several other informal talks between. The Movement has held more than ten distinct peace talks with the NIF regime in their seven years in power. The most serious of these talks were the Abuja and IGADD peace talks, of which the IGADD process remains the current initiative.

The IGADD Peace Initiative: After the collapse of the Abuja-I and Abuja-2 peace talks, the NIF Government started to look for new mediators. They approached the regional body of the Inter-Government Authority on Drought and Development (IGADD), of which Sudan is a member, and asked the IGADD leaders in their summit meeting of 1993 to mediate in the Sudanese conflict (Note: This year IGADD changed its name by dropping "Drought" and so it became IGAD) . An IGAD sub-committee on Conflict resolution in the IGAD sub-Region was formed, consisting of four leaders, namely, President Daniel Arap Moi of Kenya (as Chairman), and President Yoweri Museveni of Uganda, President Isaias Afwerki of Eritrea and Prime Minister Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia.

The IGAD mediators consulted with the SPLM/SPLA and the Movement accepted their mediation, and so the four IGAD heads of state and Government started and Government started their mediation efforts to end the Sudanese conflict by calling on the Government of Sudan and the SPLM/SPLA to start negotiations under IGAD mediation, and the IGAD peace initiative was formally and publicly launched in Nairobi on 17th March, 1994.