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News of Jan
4, 2007
No Dates Yet for Talks with Naga Rebels
By Syed Zarir Hussain
Dimapur, Jan 4
Two weeks have elapsed since exiled Naga separatist leader
Thuingaleng Muivah arrived in New Delhi from Amsterdam, but there is
no sign yet of peace talks between the government and the rebel
leadership.
"No dates have been so far been fixed for talks," Phunthing Shimrang,
a senior leader of the Isak-Muivah faction of the National Socialist
Council of Nagaland (NSCN-IM), told IANS.
Muivah is currently in New Delhi at the invitation of Prime Minister
Manmohan Singh to hold peace talks. The rebel leader has been living
in self-imposed exile since the last 39 years and shuttles between
Amsterdam, Bangkok, Manila and other Southeast Asian cities.
But despite no formal dates fixed for talks, the mood in Nagaland is
not despondent.
"We are not disheartened at all and we take this silence as some
sort of a quiet expectation of something positive to happen," N.
Krome, president of the Naga Hoho, the apex tribal council in
Nagaland, said.
The delay in setting a date for talks by the central government
seems deliberate with Manipur going to the polls in February.
"The Naga issue is inter-linked with Manipur as the NSCN-IM is
demanding integration of Naga inhabited areas in the northeast. Any
wrong move could spark angry protests and could spoil the chances of
the ruling Congress party in Manipur in the upcoming elections and
hence an intentional delay in holding talks," a Naga church leader
said.
The NSCN-IM has been struggling for nearly six decades to create a
"Greater Nagaland" by slicing off parts of three neighboring states
to unite 1.2 million Nagas.
The demand is strongly opposed by the states of Assam, Manipur, and
Arunachal Pradesh.
"There cannot be any compromise on our demand. It is the historical
rights of the Nagas residing in the northeast to stay under one
administrative set up," another senior NSCN-IM leader said.
Despite the optimism expressed by some of the Naga leaders, there is
an undercurrent of tension with factional fights over territorial
supremacy between the two rival NSCN factions that claimed more than
200 lives in the past five years.
"Differences between two groups are unavoidable considering the
nature of the conflict," the Naga Hoho leader said.
"But there has to be a meeting point where the two groups have to
come together for the largest interest of the people and their
aspirations."
The rival NSCN faction led by guerrilla leader S.S. Khaplang had
threatened to assassinate Muivah if he visits Nagaland.
But despite the threat, Muivah is expected to arrive in Camp Hebron,
the general headquarters of the NSCN-IM located close to Nagaland's
commercial hub in Dimapur.
"Our leader is coming to Nagaland shortly although a formal date is
yet to be worked out," Shimrang said.
The violent insurgency in Nagaland has claimed around 25,000 lives
since the country's independence in 1947.
IANS
News of Jan
4, 2007
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