May 10, 2005

Naga Talks Get Down to Basics


Naga leader Muivah will speak to local mediapersons at the NSCN (I-M) camp of Hebron and hold consultative meetings within the outfit and with NGOs.
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Kohima, May 8: The substantive issue of integration will be taken up at the Naga peace talks for the first time tomorrow. A day after the issue is taken up, National Socialist Council of Nagalim (Isak-Muivah) general secretary Thuingaleng Muivah will return to Dimapur on Tuesday.

Muivah will speak to local mediapersons at the NSCN (I-M) camp of Hebron and hold consultative meetings within the outfit and with NGOs.

“When the Naga people have endorsed what the collective leadership has stated, they have to be consulted again,” said the outfit’s deputy kilonser (minister), Kraibo Chawang.

The outfit will hold a crucial round of talks on Monday with United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government’s group of ministers, led by Oscar Fernandez.

“The tempo of the talks is progressing slowly now and we are hopeful of the future,” a source close to the leaders told The Telegraph over telephone from New Delhi.

“Substantive issues will be taken up on Monday,” the source added.

This will be the first time that the issue of integration will be taken up for formal discussions. He said in the past one-and-a-half years, representations had been made and the results are awaited.

Sources said the outfit is now going to put forward its strategy for integration. A salient feature in the strategy is the formation of autonomous councils for the Konyak and Zeliangrong tribes, populations of which are distributed beyond state boundaries.

While Konyaks live in Mon district of Nagaland and Myanmar, Zeliangrong populations are located in Nagaland, Assam and Manipur.

Sources said the outfit would ask the government to make the councils statutory bodies of permanent stature. Functional autonomy of these councils is being seen as a “key to sovereignty” by the outfit.

It has argued that a two-tier system of people’s councils and a legislative council should first be incorporated in Article 371-A.

Source: Telegraph