Morung Express News
Dimapur | October 20
The latest round of peace talks between the Government of India and the NSCN (IM) ended in what a top official from the latter described as ‘tug-of-war’. Reliable sources disclosed that the Amsterdam talks remained stuck despite three days of intensive talks with both sides ‘defending their respective positions’. The presence of international ‘experts’ during the parleys helped in keeping the peace process afloat, an NSCN (IM) source disclosed. It may be mentioned that three experts namely Michael C van Walt van Praag of the Netherlands-based non-profit organization called Kreddha, Anthony Regan a constitutional adviser to the Bougainville parties to the Bougainville peace process in Papua New Guinea and Yash Ghai Professor at the University of Hong Kong and known to be a distinguished academic and renowned constitutional lawyer were present during the current round of talks.
Besides the formal points put forward to the Government of India, which were discussed point by point, the NSCN (IM) negotiators reportedly wanted Delhi to ‘translate into reality’ the unique history of the Nagas already accepted by Delhi. However, despite the tug-of-war situation at the talks table, the negotiation process remained ‘positive’, it was informed. And although nothing could be finalized both sides were hopeful that the process would move ahead in the coming round of talks. No dates have been fixed because of the tight schedule of the Group of Ministers headed by Oscar Fernandes.
Meanwhile in a major breakthrough to help strengthen the ceasefire mechanism, the NSCN (IM) and the Government of India recently agreed to broaden the membership of the Ceasefire Monitoring Group by including two persons each from Indian and Naga civil society groups. This was decided by the Ground Rules Committee headed by Emissary to the Collective Leadership VS Atem recently. Sources informed that Delhi had already dispatched its Special Secretary Home to Kohima to work out the modalities in this regard. It was informed that the names of the two Naga representatives to be included in the CFMG will have to be decided by the civil society groups themselves.
It may be mentioned that as per the revised ground rules signed on January 13, 2001 representatives of the Government of India and the NSCN (IM), in New Delhi, it was agreed upon that for implementation of the ground rules modalities the CFMG will also include representatives from the NGOs. However, it was also agreed that any accidental encounter or violation should not be allowed to jeopardise the peace process and the effect of any such incident should be localised through mutual consultations.
