New Delhi, August 22
The prolonged Amsterdam talks, which have just ended were a nerve-wracking exercise over the extension of the ceasefire in Nagaland. The talks remained hanging by a slender thread.
With Mr T.H. Muivah, chief of the NSCN, proving to be recalcitrant at the talks between the government and the NSCN in the Dutch city, the government was forced to hold out the threat of breaking off negotiations and calling off the ceasefire.
Mr Muivah initially offered to extend the ceasefire only by a month. The government team, however, retorted by asking whether the NSCN(I/M) was joking, according to reliable sources here.
The two-member team of negotiators was led by the interlocutor K. Padmanabhiah. Also available on the sidelines was an undeclared and political emissary, the Union Minister, Mr Oscar Fernandes, who was present in Amsterdam at the behest of the Nagas but who did not join in the negotiations. Mr Fernandes went to Amsterdam on some vague official pretext but, was actually there to back up the government team.
Sources revealed that with the Nagas hanging tough after marathon meetings, which on an average lasted six hours, the wires between the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) and Amsterdam remained live. The Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, and the National Security Adviser, Mr M.K. Narayanan, were at times had to keep awake at night while the negotiations were on. Sources said that the team in Amsterdam was all for calling off the ceasefire.
The NSCN(I/M) was upset with the Manipur Government decision to celebrate a “Unity Day’’. Mr Muivah told the government negotiators that there was no point in carrying on and he would have to consult his cadre as well as the Naga Ho-Ho (a Naga consultative body) if further talks were to continue.
With Jammu and Kashmir and Andhra Pradesh continuing to remain problematical and with the growing Naxal menace, Mr Narayayan was learnt to have directed the team that the seven-year ceasefire must be extended. With this brief the government team went back to the negotiations.
This time Mr Muivah offered a three-month extension. Sources said Mr Padmanabhiah, a former Home Secretary, then lost his cool and asked the NSCN not to link the extension of ceasefire with the Mainpur question.
Mr Muivah finally relented and offered six months beyond which, he said, he would not budge. The government team wanted a year. Eventually after burning plenty of midnight oil a six-month extension with the provisions for “further extension after mutual negotiations’’, was agreed to.
Having secured the extension which ensures peace in the North-Eastern state, the government has to put together a serious package to placate the NSCN.
As reported earlier by The Tribune the eventual package is likely to be a “Kashmir-type settlement’’.
Mr Muivah and his top leadership are expected to come to India in a couple of months for what could hopefully be a “breakthrough round of negotiations’’ but, sources said “now it can be told that that peace in the North-East was hanging by a rapidly fraying thread.’’
The ceasefire, held for seven years by now, has been brought about by several
rounds of negotiations, some of them as many as eight to nine a year. NSCN leaders Muivah and Issac Chisi Swu have been mostly living abroad, their coming to India for negotiations is regarded important as talks with them might bring about a breakthrough eventually.
The actual solution could be based on devolution of powers slightly more than those listed in the Kashmir settlement earlier.
The Nagas have almost given up the demand for sovereignty, but in return are insisting that a greater Nagaland be created by including Naga-dominated areas from Manipur. This, however, remains a volatile issue in Manipur and it remains to be seen how the Centre and the NSCN (I/M) group will overcome this hurdle.
The Correspondent, who is an anchor with SAB TV, regularly writes for The Tribune
