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Home ministry offers peace pipe to north-east insurgents

Nitin Gogoi in Guwahati

The Union home ministry appears to have embarked upon a strategy of reconciliation with several insurgent groups in the north-east.

The new game-plan is in keeping with the announcement by Home Minister L K Advani in the Lok Sabha earlier this month that the Centre is willing to talk to any militant group provided they accept that the parameters of such negotiations are within the ambit of the Indian Constitution.

In a significant development, Advani, during a two-day tour of the north-east on March 26-27, announced that a major Naga underground faction could be included in the peace talks that are currently on in Nagaland according to suggestion made by Nagaland Chief Minister S C Jamir.

The SS Khaplang faction of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland has been kept out of the talks so far.

The Centre has been in the negotiation mode with the seemingly more powerful faction of the NSCN, led by Th. Muivah and Issac Chisi Swu for over three years. Currently the process has been stalled since Muivah is under arrest in Thailand where he was caught travelling on a forged passport earlier this year.

"The Centre is considering SC Jamir and (Nagaland governor) OP Sharma's proposal to invite the NSCN-K to participate in the peace talks. The outfit's involvement in the peace process will be good for Nagaland," Advani said in Tripura's capital Agartala. The home minister said Jamir and Sharma made this proposal when they met Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee over the weekend in New Delhi.

Along with the decision to include the Khaplang faction of the NSCN in negotiations, the Centre has also announced a ceasefire with the Bodo Liberation Tigers Force, a militant Bodo group which, unlike other insurgent groups in the region, is fighting for a separate state for Bodo tribals rather than seeking an independent country. In fact, a preliminary round of talks have already been held between the top leadership of the BLTF and Union home ministry officials.

However, there is no word on whether the other armed group among the Bodos called the National Democratic Front of Bodoland, mainly operating out of the jungles of neighbouring Bhutan, has approached the government for negotiations.

The decision to include the Khaplang faction in the Naga talks is seen by analysts as the Centre's way of sending a signal to the Muivah faction that it cannot go on dragging its feet. The Muivah faction's leaders are reluctant to continue negotiations until their leader is released from jail in Thailand. Muivah is expected to serve at least one year in jail before he can be set free.

Jamir, who has been insisting that all Naga factions must be included in any negotiations, has finally got his way, with the Centre now on the verge of inviting the Khaplang faction.

Nagaland has been in the grip of insurgency for over four decades.

Another major group, the United Liberation Front of Asom, fighting for an independent Assam but currently on a retreat because of a stepped up offensive by the security forces, has however not shown any inclination for talks with the government, although both the Assam government and the Centre have kept the door open for negotiations.

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