Crucial meet to discuss Naga issue likely next week

A crucial meeting between militant outfit NSCN-IM and the government's interlocutor is likely to be held next week to give fresh impetus to the ongoing Naga peace process. A delegation of NSCN-IM led by its general secretary Thuingaleng Muivah would hold parleys with new interlocutor R S Pandey to iron out differences on several vexed issues including integration of Naga-inhabited areas. The meeting will review the proposal given by the rebels to bring a lasting solution to the six-decade old Naga insurgency and the counter proposal given by the central government. NSCN-IM has proposed a federal relationship with the Indian Union with additional financial and legislative powers to handle while the central government offered financial package for socio-cultural development of Naga people. In the last round of talks in March, both sides resolved to their commitment to work out an honourable and negotiated solution to the problem. RS Pandey, while talking to NETV a few days ago, had said that the talk process is moving in the right track. Among other issues in the charter demand, the NSCN-IM pointed out certain taxation matters and preservation of cultural heritage, the sources said. Muivah, who along with four other Naga leaders, arrived Delhi on February 27 from Amsterdam. After the talks in March, he had gone to Nagaland and met NSCN-IM cadres, civil society members, NGOs and church leaders to discuss the issue. Pandey also undertook a visit to the northeastern states last week and met political leaders and other stake holders to get feedback from them.

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