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Five N-E separatists groups hold talks with India to end violence

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Guwahati, Feb 9, IRNA -- At least five frontline separatist groups 
from India`s troubled northeast are holding secret talks with New 
Delhi to end more than five-decades of violent insurgency in the 
region, officials Monday said. 
"Top leaders of five underground groups active in the northeastern
states of Assam, Manipur, Tripura, and Meghalaya are engaged in either
formal or informal talks with the government of India," Chief Minister
of the northeastern state of Mizoram, Zoramthanga, told IRNA by 
telephone. 
"The rebel groups do not want their identities to be revealed at 
this stage as it could jeopardize the peace process. Some more groups 
are likely to come for talks soon." 
Fifty-four-year-old Zoramthanga was a former separatist guerrilla 
leader and was the second-in-command of the Mizo National Front (MNF) 
that surrendered en-masse in 1986 after waging a 20-year bush war 
against the Indian government. 
Zoramthanga is now acting as a mediator in the ongoing peace talks
between New Delhi and the Isak-Muivah faction of the National 
Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN), a rebel group fighting for an 
independent homeland in Nagaland state. 
"I am acting as a facilitator at the request of the Indian 
government to bring the northeastern underground groups to the 
negotiating table," the Chief Minister said. 
Zoramthanga said the breakthrough made in holding peace talks with
five more rebel armies could usher in peace in the region. 
"I sincerely hope a new era of peace would dawn in the northeast 
with more and more underground groups willing to talk of peace rather 
than guns and bombs," the Chief Minister said. 
Six of the seven states -- Assam, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, 
Nagaland and Meghalaya -- have suffered the pangs of militancy since 
India`s independence in 1947, leaving an estimated 50,000 people dead.
There are at least 30 militant groups in the region at present 
with their demands ranging from secession to greater autonomy and the 
right to self-determination. 
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End