How important is religion? The case of the Sudan peace negotiations
Oslo Forum 2006 Background Paper
Throughout the Sudanese civil war from 1983 to 2005, religion was a core issue for the conflicting parties. Endre Stiansen analyses the negotiations between the Government of Sudan (GOS) and the Sudanese People’s Liberation Movement (SPLM) to explain the weight religion was given in relation to other issues and concludes that though difficult to tackle and the primary reason for entrenched conflict, religion was at the same time the very road to compromise as religious issues proved inseparable from other issues related to political power.