October 6, 2020 6:05:38 am
In a letter sent to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in February, the head of the NSCN-IM, Th Muivah, had requested that the Naga peace talks be moved to “a third country.” (Proceedings)
In a letter sent to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in February, the head of the NSCN-IM, Th Muivah, had requested that the Naga peace talks be moved to “a third country.”
He had also demanded that the talks take place directly “at the Prime Minister level” and without preconditions.
“If our stay in India is not more welcome, then all necessary arrangements must be made for us to leave India and political talks to resume in a third country,” Muivah wrote.
After relations between the Center’s interlocutor, RN Ravi, and the IM deteriorated over the past year, since the conclusion of formal peace talks last October, the IM had been called to Delhi to continue the dialogue, which it was carried out by senior IB officials. These “informal talks” concluded in September, and IM leaders returned to Dimapur in Nagaland.
On Monday, the IM published Muivah’s letter, saying that he wanted the Naga people to “know” how insensitive the PMO was to Naga groups.
“… We confidently hope that the Prime Minister of India will respond positively. Today, NSCN, being responsible to the Naga people, published the letter to inform the delay and the lack of response from the Indian Prime Minister’s office to our people, ”he said in a statement.
The IM has faced pressure from the Indian government, on the one hand, and the people of Nagaland, on the other, who have been calling for an early resolution of the Naga problem. Organizations of civil society and tribal leaders in Nagaland have also issued statements that people no longer want a separate flag and constitution if this were not possible to negotiate, an issue that has been a point of friction between the Center. and the IM. The IM’s letter, the sources said, was to shift responsibility for the delay in a solution to the Indian government.
In his letter to the prime minister, Muivah wrote that after 22 years of negotiations, “a serious stalemate” had emerged over a separate flag and constitution.
He stated that when the ceasefire agreement was signed in 1997, it was decided that “the political dialogue will be at the highest level, that is, at the level of the Prime Minister, without preconditions and outside India in a third country.”
In the past, the Naga dialogue took place in Paris, Zurich, Geneva, Vienna, Milan, The Hague, New York, Bangkok, Kuala Lumpur and Osaka.
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