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Naga rebels in India reiterate demand for `Greater Nagaland

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

New Delhi, March 7, IRNA -- An influential separatist group in 
India`s northeastern corner has renewed its demand for merger of all 
Naga tribal inhabited areas in the region ahead of fresh talks with 
New Delhi Wednesday, a rebel leader informed IRNA`s correspondent on 
Monday. 
"We, on our part, are going to press our demand for unification 
of all Naga inhabited areas in the northeast," National Socialist 
Council of Nagaland leader Kraibo Chawang told IRNA from Nagaland`s 
commercial hub of Dimapur. 
Guerrilla leaders of the NSCN led by Thuingaleng Muivah are 
expected to hold a fresh round of talks with a team of government 
ministers and New Delhi`s chief peace negotiator K. Padmanabhaiah. 
The last round of talks between the two sides ended 
inconclusively last month in New Delhi. 
"The pace of the talks is tardy, but it is moving on the right 
track," Chawang said. 
Muivah along with the outfit`s senior leader Isak Chishi Swu 
arrived in New Delhi in December at the invitation of Prime Minister 
Manmohan Singh for furthering peace talks. 
The two self-exiled leaders are operating from South-East Asian 
cities for the past 38-years. 
"We expect New Delhi to honor our unification demand and pave the 
way for a permanent solution to the Naga insurgency problem," the NSCN
leader said. 
The NSCN, the oldest and the most powerful of around 30 rebel 
armies in India`s northeast, wants the creation of a `Greater 
Nagaland` by slicing off parts of neighbouring states of Assam, 
Manipur, and Arunachal Pradesh that has sizable Naga tribal 
populations. 
The NSCN is currently holding peace talks with New Delhi after 
the two sides entered into a ceasefire in 1997. 
Nagaland, where more than 25,000 people have lost their lives to 
insurgency since India`s independence from Britain in 1947, is a 
Christian majority state of two million people. 
The three regional governments of Assam, Manipur, and Arunachal 
Pradesh have already rejected the NSCN demand for unification of Naga 
dominated areas. 
"We are not demanding territories of our neighbors, but simply 
claiming our own land that is part of history," Chawang said. "There 
can be no compromise on our demand for merger", he added. 
The demand for integrating Naga inhabited areas has led to angry 
protests with thousands of people in the past few days taking to the 
streets in Assam. 
"We are ready to shed blood to protect our territorial integrity,"
Arunim Das, a protestor in Assam`s main city of Guwahati said. 
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