Naga peace talks: New row as NSCN-IM chief violates pact by staying in resort

NEW DELHI: A fresh controversy has broken out between the Centre and the Naga rebel group NSCN-IM over the stay of the latter’s general secretary Thuingaleng Muivah at a resort in Dimapur last week, in contravention to the ceasefire agreement signed by NSCN-IM with the government of India, ET has learnt.
The union home ministry raised the issue with the Nagaland government in a letter dated February 11, 2020 questioning the presence of the 86-year-old NSCN-IM leader at Dimapur in the first week of February.

Officials familiar with the developments told ET that Muivah was in Dimapur to meet GoI interlocutor RN Ravi for the peace talks but did not leave after the discussions ended. Instead, he stayed back at the Niathu resort in Dimapur owned by a senior politician, sources said. While the Nagaland government facilitated Muivah’s stay, they had also sought clearance from Assam Rifles which looks after the ceasefire ground rules (CFGR).

According to officials, there are two divergent views among the security establishment for allowing Muivah to stay as it not only violated the ceasefire agreement but the place where Muivah was staying had to be declared a camp (as per the agreement). “Besides Muivah, there were guards who were part of his security. The decision to designate a camp was to be taken by the Centre,” another official explained.

NSCN-IM, in a statement issued on March 2, berated the MHA’s directive to the state government on the presence of its leadership in Dimapur and said, “This is a serious insult to the Naga people as the NSCN leadership is in India on the official invitation of the GoI which was amongst others officially mentioned in the 2002 Amsterdam Joint communiqué and 2002 Memorandum Of Understanding at Milan, Italy.”

Muivah has been staying at lutyens bungalow in New Delhi but as the peace talks progressed, he and some other leaders were shifted to the NSCN-IM camp at Hebron. “After the interlocutor was appointed as Nagaland governor, it was easier for the two sides to hold deliberations in Nagaland,” said an official who did not wish to be named.

Ravi held another round of discussions in New Delhi on March 9 with NSCN-IM and Naga National Political Groups (NNPGs) where representatives from the Naga rebel group reiterated their demands for a separate flag, constitution and pan-Naga identity.

“Until and unless, GOI recognises the Naga national flag and Naga constitution (Yehzabo) as inseparable from the agreement which would be chalked out, there would be no solution because that would be tantamount to deviating from the principle of the Framework Agreement. A solution without a flag and constitution can never be honoured,” the emissary of NSCN-IM collective leadership VS Atem is said to have told Ravi on March 9.