CALCUTTA, 7 December 2004 — The stage is set for the first meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and separatist Naga rebels fighting for an independent state in northeastern India.
National Socialist Council of Nagaland’s Issac Chisi Swu and Thuingaleng Muivah, who live in exile in Europe, arrived in New Delhi yesterday from Amsterdam for crucial talks with Manmohan and other senior leaders during their week-long stay in the Indian capital.
The rebel leaders, who arrived aboard a KLM flight, have a packed itinerary with several key meetings on the cards this week.
The NSCN also issued a statement that its top leaders have returned to India for “intensive and undisturbed” peace negotiations with Manmohan.
“The expectations are tremendous and we are hoping the two leaders will hold meaningful talks that could usher in an era of peace in Nagaland”, said K. Ao, an influential Naga tribal leader.
But the agenda for the long-awaited talks has not been revealed.
Indian officials refused to comment on the prickly issue of independence. The NSCN too is holding its cards close to its chest.
Aside from the prime minister, Swu and Muivah will meet Congress President Sonia Gandhi, Home Minister Shivraj Patil, former Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, Bharatiya Janata Party chief Lal Krishna Advani and communist leaders A.B. Bardhan and Sitaram Yechury.
The rebel leaders — once among India’s most wanted men — will also call on Rama Pilot, widow of late Congress arty leader Rajesh Pilot who played a key role in bringing them to the negotiating table.
In January 2003, the NSCN leaders set foot in India after more than 30 years, for much-hyped peace talks with Vajpayee but the negotiations did not make much headway.
The NSCN is fighting on behalf of more than 3.5 million Naga tribespeople for an independent homeland in northeastern India bordering China and Myanmar.
The Naga armed rebellion against Indian rule, often described as the world’s longest-running insurgency, started in 1947 and claimed an estimated 25,000 lives before a 1997 cease-fire agreement with New Delhi.
Nagas seek a homeland comprising Nagaland, parts of adjoining Manipur and Assam states and Naga-majority areas of western Myanmar.
According to Naga leaders, Vajpayee’s National Democratic Alliance government promised to “unify” the Naga-majority areas of Manipur, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh with Nagaland, but did nothing.
A meeting between Manmohan and NSCN leaders during the Indian premier’s trip to Bangkok in July was canceled at the eleventh hour for reasons which are yet to be disclosed.
But last month, NSCN accepted an invitation to meet Manmohan in New Delhi for talks.
