Introduction

Like all other post-conflict development policies, a DDR process starts when a civil war has come to an end. However, the political and military dynamics of post-conflict environments can differ significantly, and not all peace agreements lead to a successful transition from war to peace. Increased involvement of the international community in the implementation of peace agreements has led to a broad repertoire of post-conflict development policies that are all thought to enhance the sustainability of the peace. DDR is one element of post-conflict development policy that aims to facilitate a peaceful transition from war to peace.

This chapter and the next will deal with DDR in Sudan. While the next chapter will look at the formal DDR process from the perspective of DDR policymakers, the current chapter will present the post-conflict reality from the point of view of the armed movements, taking into account the perspective of the leadership and the soldiers themselves. The peace agreement between the SPLA and the Sudanese government instigated a transformation process in the SPLA. As will become clear, many aspects of the SPLA's peace policies have the same rationale and objectives as DDR policies have: improving post-conflict security by neutralizing factions and individuals who pose a potential security threat. These policies will be described in this chapter, to serve as a starting point for an analysis of the official DDR process under the Comprehensive Peace Agreement in the next chapter.

The second objective of this chapter is to understand the reality brought about by the peace agreement from the perspective of the target group of DDR policies: the individual combatants, whose lives we have been exploring in the previous chapters. Among them were both men and women, of different ages, with different socioeconomic backgrounds. Most had experienced traumatizing events, either before or after they had become soldiers. Some had joined the movement at the onset of the war and had already been soldiers for over two decades, while others had joined only a few years before the agreement was signed and were still young. Some had managed to find opportunities for pursuing their education and had gone up in rank since joining the movement, while others lingered in the lower ranks. Many had joined the movement to seek relative security, while others had joined and stayed with the movement as a result of force.