India Signs Enigmatic Peace Deal with Nagaland
On the 3 August 2015, India and Nagaland representatives signed a historic peace agreement in New Delhi, bringing to conclusion two decades of peace talks. While welcoming the opportunity for peace and a “new beginning” that this agreement reportedly represents, UNPO expresses its deep concern for the lack of transparency in providing detailed information regarding the substance of the accord.
The National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN-IM) has signed a peace accord with the Indian Government, with whom it has held a 60-year long struggle for an independent homeland for the 3 million Naga living in Nagaland, an area located between India, Burma and China.
Peace talks between the Indian Government and the NSCN-IM have been underway since 1997. In a press conference held on the 3 August 2015 shortly after the signing of the agreement, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi recognized that due to the decades-long struggle “wounds are deep”, yet heralded this peace agreement as a “new beginning”. PM Modi further conveyed his intention of developing the region by enhancing investments in infrastructure, which have long been devastatingly neglected by the Indian Government.
On the other hand, NSCN-IM Secretary General Thuingaleng Muivah asserted that the two parties “have come close to understanding each other and have worked out a new relationship between the parties”.
While this landmark agreement symbolizes a significant opportunity towards a peaceful resolution to the struggle, and the first building block of trust and goodwill between the parties, UNPO is profoundly concerned that no details regarding the peace agreement are known as of yet, a blatant breach of transparency. The publication of the clauses of this agreement will play a decisive role in determining whether this broad framework of peaceful conflict resolution is to be successful in providing closure to the longstanding issue.
Photo courtesy of STR/AFP
