• Military

• WMD Menu                           

• Introduction
• Systems
• Facilities
• Agencies
• Operations
• Countries
• Hot Documents
• News
• Reports
• Policy
• Budget
• Congress
• Links

• Intelligence
• Homeland Security
• Space

India to begin peace talks with Naga rebels this week

IRNA - Islamic Republic News Agency

Guwahati, July 26, IRNA
India-Naga-Peace
Indian negotiators and tribal separatist leaders are expected to hold fresh talks abroad this week to discuss extension of a ceasefire aimed at ending nearly six decades of violence, a rebel leader said on Tuesday.

"Talks are likely to take place Friday in a third country although we cannot disclose the name of the country or the city at this moment," Kraibo Chawang, Leader of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN), told IRNA.

"The talks will cover the issue of extension of the ceasefire," Chawang said over telephone from Dimapur.

NSCN leaders, Isak Chishi Swu and Thuingaleng Muivah, are expected to take part in the meeting with New Delhi's chief peace interlocutor K. Padmanabhaiah.

The meeting assumes significance with the peace talks running into rough weather over the rebel group's demand for redrawing the map of the Northeast and the term of the ongoing ceasefire expiring July 31.

The NSCN is engaged in peace talks after entering into a ceasefire with New Delhi in August 1997. There have been at least 40 rounds of negotiations since the ceasefire began. The talks were deadlocked with the Indian government virtually turning down the rebel group's demand for redrawing the map of the northeast.

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 sizeable Naga tribal populations.

The three regional governments of Assam, Manipur, and Arunachal Pradesh have already rejected the NSCN demand for unification of Naga dominated areas.

"We cannot predict whether or not the ceasefire will be extended.

It all depends on the attitude of the Indian government," Chawang said.

"There is simply no point in extending the truce if the government is not sincere on its commitment and assurances to solve the problem permanently."
Both Swu and Muivah live in self-imposed exile and have been operating out of some South Asian cities for the past 38-years.

They shuttle between cities like Bangkok, Amsterdam, and Manila.

Nagaland, where more than 25,000 people have lost their lives to insurgency since India's independence from Britain in 1947, is a majority Christian state of two million people.

2160/1422