/UPDATE/POLITICS-INDIA: Truce with Naga Leaders Means Peace, For Now

By Ranjit Devraj Reprint | | Print |

Ranjit Devraj

NEW DELHI, Jun 15 2001 (IPS) - India’s turbulent north-east was assured another year of peace following an agreement in Thailand Thursday between Naga tribal leaders seeking a separate homeland and government representatives, to extend a four-year-old ceasefire.

According to Union Home Secretary Kamal Pande, a major concession made to the rebels in the agreement, following two days of talks, was the geographical extension of the ceasefire to Naga- dominated areas outside Nagaland state.

“The most salient feature of the latest extension of the ceasefire is that it will be without territorial limits,” Pande told newsmen here, Thursday.

Pande said state governments in Assam, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh, which adjoin Nagaland, were consulted and assured that their territorial integrity would not be infringed upon as a result of the agreement.

The talks, held in the Thai capital Bangkok where Naga tribal leader Thuingaleng Muivah is facing trial for entering Thailand on a forged passport, nearly failed over the issue of including areas outside Nagaland within the geographical scope of the ceasefire.

Muivah’s powerful National Socialist Council of Nagaland, Isak- Muivah (NSCN-IM) has been demanding that the ceasefire apply not only in Nagaland but also in the adjoining areas of Manipur, Arunachal and Assam states, where it maintains bases.

A home ministry spokesman said earlier that acceptance of the demand posed the danger of legitimising Nagalim or “Greater Nagaland,” the creation of which is the stated goal of the NSCN- IM.

In return, the ceasefire would from now on follow “agreed ground rules” more closely, meaning essentially that the NSCN-IM would no longer resort to highway hold-ups and extortions.

It would also stop undertaking ambushes, sniping, the blockade of roads, disruption of communication links and economic activity in the north-east.

The conflict between the Nagas and India is one of the longest standing struggles of indigenous peoples. It is a legacy of British colonial rule in India and Burma, which ended soon after the cessation of the Second World War.

On independence in 1947, the traditional territory of the Naga tribes, which extends 37,000 square miles just south of the Chinese border, was divided between India and Burma and ignored a declaration of independence by the Nagas.

Nagalim or a hypothetical Greater Nagaland, independent from India, would also extend to the border areas of Burma where the Nagas have a strong presence.

The Naga movement has attracted the attention of the Unrepresented Nations and People”s Organisation (UNPO), which is based in The Hague, Netherlands.

Soon after the agreement to extend the present ceasefire was signed Thursday, Muivah was quoted as telling reporters in Bangkok that the extension was a “success for both the Indians and the Nagas.”

Former Union Home Secretary K. Padmanabhaiah, who led the Indian team in Bangkok, was quoted by Indian news agencies as saying: “We have one more year of peace.”

Peace was restored in Nagaland, after half-a-century of separatist insurgency, in 1997 when the Indian government and the rebels initially signed a ceasefire and agreed to work on a long- term solution of the Naga issue.

In spite of occasional breaches of the ceasefire and moves by the Indian government to deal separately with a rival faction called the NSCN-Khaplang, which is based in Burma, the ceasefire has held remarkably well.

The Nagas have also been engaged in armed conflict with the Kukis, a nomadic tribe related to the Chin people who are now mostly located in Burma and the Indian state of Mizoram, further complicating the picture and chances of a permanent solution.

But the NSCN-IM clearly commands the respect of the Naga people, in spite of the arrest and detention of Muivah in Thailand, where he faces charges of entry on a Korean Passport with fake visa entries and compounding it by attempting to jump bail on a Singaporean passport.

The NSCN-IM, which has been pressing the Indian government to intervene on Muivah’s behalf with the Thai government, is suspicious of New Delhi’s reluctance to use its clout in the matter in spite of pressure from human rights groups.

According to Athili, a representative of the Naga People’s Movement for Human Rights in New Delhi, there is a genuine desire for peace among the Naga people and the ceasefire has been welcome.

India’s Home Minister L.K. Advani is fond of holding up the Naga ceasefire as an example of conflict resolution which he says ought to be emulated in northern Kashmir, which has been hit by a more recent separatist movement.

Another separatist movement by the Sikhs in Punjab was dealt with by a “bullet-for-bullet” policy, which saw the extermination of the top militant leadership through a concerted army and police effort in the early nineties, inviting criticism by human rights groups.

However, the question of the future of the Naga people and a long-term solution remain unsettled and await initiative from the political leadership in New Delhi.