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07/05/2006: "IM talks date set on Jul 28/29"
IM talks date set on Jul 28/29 Sangai Express
New Delhi, Jul 4 : The Centre and major Naga insurgent group NSCN (IM) will hold a crucial round of talks in Bangkok this month end on the issue of extension of ceasefire, which expires on July 31.
The talks will be held on July 28 and 29 in the Thai capital during which matters relating to giving autonomy to Nagaland on the lines of that in Jammu and Kashmir will also come up, informed sources said tonight.
This forthcoming round of parleys is being considered crucial since the Naga rebels, who have been adhering to the ceasefire accord since 1997, are seeking extension of the truce agreement for six month unlike that of a year in the past.
The Centre's stand for July 28-29 peace negotiations with NSCN (IM), which has over 5,000 cadres in arms, will be firmed up at a meeting of Group of Ministers comprising Oscar Fernandes, Prithviraj Chavan and S Regupathy here on July seven.
At this meeting, Centre's interlocutor for the Naga peace process K Padmana-bhaiah will brief the Group of Ministers (GoM) on the last round of parleys that were held in the Hague from June 22 to 24. National Security Adviser M K Narayanan and Home Secretary V K Duggal will also be attending the discussions.
In a bid to expedite efforts to resolve the Naga insurgency issue, the Centre and NSCN (IM) leaders led by their General Secretary T Muivah have decided to meet every month.
"All issues, including that of renewal of ceasefire with NSCN (IM), will figure in the forthcoming Bangkok talks. Issues relating to the Constitutional aspects including that of autonomy will also come up," the sources said.
NSCN (IM) and the security forces in Nagaland have been holding fire since 1997 when the ceasefire accord was reached. The accord has been extended every year since then except last year when it was renewed for just six months on the insistence of the Naga outfit and further extended by another six months in February this year.
NSCN(IM) has been demanding a clear government stand on unification of Naga-inhabitated areas in northeast as well as an early and "honourable" settlement to the problem.
The sources said the Centre wanted to resolve the Naga issue as a "package" and would be responding point-by-point to the outfit's charter of demands.
"Talks are a continous process. These have to be held in many stages before things can evolve and get a concrete shape. We are not ruling out anything unless something concrete emerges," the sources said.
The sources said since the Centre is reluctant to concede the NSCN (IM)'s key demand for unifying all Naga- inhabitated areas in the northeast, the rebel group is focussing on "greater autonomy" for Nagaland.
The autonomy issue is part of the 30-point "charter of demands" submitted by the Naga outfit, and this includes a greater say in the utilisation of natural resources, a separate constitution, a separate flag and control in areas like finance and policing, they said. PTI
Rio meets Patil, discusses Naga peace talks Kuknalim.com
NEW DELHI, July 4:: Days after a crucial meeting between the Centre and the NSCN-IM in The Hague, Nagaland Chief Minister Nephiu Rio today met union Home Minister Shivraj Patil and was understood to have discussed the status of peace talks between the two sides.
The Chief Minister, sources said, requested Patil to speed up the peace process for bringing a lasting solution to Nagaland.
Rio also met the Centre's interlocutor in Naga talks K Padmanabhiah and believed to have discussed with him about the ongoing peace process and the ceasefire which comes to an end on July 31 next.
Rio also apprised the Home Minister about the prevailing law and order situation in the state where a ceasefire has been continuing since 1997 following a truce between the Naga rebels and the government, official sources said.
Rio requested Patil to provide central assistance for modernisation of Nagaland police and for raising a battalion of India reserve police, they said. The group of ministers, headed by Oscar Ferfnandes, had met the NSCN-IM team led by chairman Isak Chishi Swu and general secretary Thuingaleng Muivah at the Hague from July 22 to 24. (Agencies)
Konyaks warn NSCN factions against victimising civilians From Our Correspondent Assam tribune
DIMAPUR, July 4 – This time, it is the turn of the Konyaks of the Mon district of Nagaland to register their resentment against the recent violent clashes between the rival Naga underground factions in Konyak areas. The Konyak Union, has cautioned both the NSCN factions against ‘victimising any civilian.’
The warning said, “the public will be compelled to resort (to their own course of action) against whichever faction fosters violent activities.”
The resolution to this effect was arrived at the 26th general session of Konyak Union, the apex body of the tribe, at the Council Hall, Mon town on June 27, following a day-long deliberation of the frontline organizations and villagers of the tribe. The day-long session viewed with serious concern the factional clashes particularly in places like Tizit, Naginimora, Wakching, Mon, etc. and appealed to both the factions to exercise restraint in the interest of the public, sources from Mon said.
The meeting also resolved to work for unification of the Nagas in order to find an acceptable settlement to the Naga political issue. Meanwhile, the Konyak tribal leaders also resolved to ban hunting specially during the breeding session and use of chemicals in streams, rivers, etc, within Konyak-inhabited areas and empowered the village councils to strictly enforce the aforesaid resolution/order, the release added.
We the people of Manipur are too democraticBy Jangmang Haokip Sangai Express
It is a saying “Too much of everything is bad” that holds true to every human civilization. Unfortunately, our State Manipur has seen too much of everything since the past some years and today the situation has reached almost to the point of bursting. Everything has its own limit and nothing is so good beyond its limit.
Unlike many parts of the country and the world over, Manipur has inhabitants of the same kind of people and culture. Comparing with other people in other parts of the world where several groups or communities quite distinct from one another racially and culturally stay together peacefully, but here we the people of Manipur though with no distinctiveness but same in everything, except in religious belief, and occupying this tiny State - Manipur, apparently choose to be different. Looking from this angle, we could be the most united people on earth, but to the surprise of all, we deliberately choose to pick points of differences and deliberately ignored those of similarities. This is the root cause of all the socio-economic and political problems of our society.
Not to speak of many things, we the people of Manipur are too democratic to be controlled and governed democratically. We are too free to do whatever we choose to do as if we are outside any law. We have the full freedom to adopt any means to express our feelings. We have too many things to grumble with. Issues and problems usually come to us in battalion and we are always ready to address them in the manner we like and not according to the situation and the circumstances.
Democracy is a system of governance which is by the people, for the people and of the people but not a license to do whatever we like to do. Democracy and human rights goes together that resulted to the birth and growth of peace and development. Today we achieved only chaos and backwardness where peace and development got full grown wings and flew away.
In Manipur, everybody including students has become lawless thereby bringing more and more problems beyond our capacity to solve. This is not because of some other reasons but because of our too much love for democracy.
On the other side, selfishness or love of oneself is too much. Here in our state, we openly used democracy as an official license to sabotage peaceful life and destroy public properties. We are so destructive to other and ourselves but we justified our ruthlessness by saying that we are struggling for our rights and interest. However, we tend to forget that one cannot safeguard his or her interest at the cost of someone’s rights and interest. In the absence of mutual respect for our rights and interest, nobody has any right to protect his or her rights/interest.
Here, example of our ruthless behaviours are plenty, in the name of something or because of just merely some events, the existing various social organizations will not hesitate to take the law unto their hands and disrupt peaceful public life by adopting various methods of agitations like imposing numberless days of economic blockade on the lifeline of the state, organizing rallies, sit in protest, general strikes, bandhs etc etc
Thus, no single day passed off without bandhs or strikes of one form or the other in our state thereby disrupting the growth of economic and pushing ourselves backward everyday. In this way we are suppressing and pushing down one another day by day non stop but we are crying for advancement at the same time. On the other hand we always blame the Government for all the failures and short coming in our state but failed to see the things lacking in us. It is crystal clear to say that as long as we continue to be too democratic in dealing things, our future is very bleak.
Here everybody seems to have the permission to safeguard its own interest by paying the least attention to others’. We failed to realize that nobody can safeguard his or her own interest singularly by ignoring or trampling the interest of others. But we are busy doing that out here in our state.
To be democratically conscious is good but ours is already too much. The worst part in our system is the democratic consciousness we have is guided by self-interest. For instance, the Nagas of Manipur will only look for the Naga interest and will deliberately struggle for it with the least thought for others.
The Kukis will also have a sleepless night in trying to safeguard their own interest by paying scanty attention to others. Likewise, the Meiteis are also not lagging behind the two. Our too much love for freedom to do whatever we like guided by selfishness is doing great harm to our common good.
All said and done, we must develop the sense of fraternity and remove excessiveness of mindset in order to build a peaceful and prosperous society.
Problem of too many Kings Editorial Sangai Express
The tragedy with Manipur is that there seems to be no one to run the affairs of the State while on the other hand there seems to be too many power centres, each dictating what the people should do and not do. In other words, no one seems to know who is calling the shots and governing the State for there are too many power players on the one hand while on the other no one seems to be accountable for all the ills dogging the place. On paper we have a democratically elected Government and at present we have the Congress led SPF Government supported by the CPI. However the ground reality tells a different story for during the last couple of years it is not the Government which has been deciding how the people should live but a number of voluntary organisations, which have come under the impression that it is within their rights to impose their writ on the people. It was certainly not the Government which took the initiative to formulate the common syllabus but student organisations which took the initiative and decided what should be taught to the young students. It was not the Government which decided that Meitei Mayek should be introduced in the educational institutions of the State but a voluntary organisation. That it took the proponents of Meitei Mayek to torch the State Central Library to bring the Government to its knees and take up steps to introduce the indigenous script is pregnant with meaning. During times of festival it is not the Government which keeps an eye on the price of goods but voluntary organisations such as student bodies. In fact the situation is so confusing today that no one seems to know who or what is calling the shots and adding to the confusion is the lack of accountability of anyone or any body.
If the situation was not so serious, it would have elicited guffaws from everyone, but the fact stands today that situation has come to such a pass that the people have to be told what is good for them to watch on the television and what is not. Development works continue to suffer for various reasons and while the honourable Chief Minister takes every opportunity to take pot shots at the militancy movement for derailing all development projects, his detractors call the SPF Government the percentage Government which dips its hand into each and every single developmental funds that are pumped in by the Centre. Who is deciding the fate of the people, the Government or the various voluntary organisations which have all sprung up in the name of public interest is the interesting question that is facing the people of Manipur. In the ultimate analysis, we will not be too far off the mark if we were to comment that the people are today the ball in a game of ping pong which is whipped and smashed to different directions by the different power players to score a point. Blame it on the critical phase through which Manipur is passing through or blame it on the inefficiency of the Government or the lop sided and radical views of some voluntary organisations, but the fact stands that whatever the case, Manipur is today a failed State where anybody can rule without being accountable to the people and this applies to all the power players.
NSCN (K) blames rival on ‘federal’ deal Sentinel
KOHIMA, July 4 (UNI): The NSCN(K) today accused rival faction NSCN-IM of betraying the Nagas by diluting their demand of sovereignty to autonomy or Kashmir-like status of separate State and a separate chapter for special provisions in the Constitution of India.
The NSCN(K) ‘Ministry of Information and Publicity’ (MIP) secretary, in a release, ridiculed the peace talks between the Centre and the NSCN-IM but added that it would not be a stumbling block.
It, however, said if the people of Nagaland wanted to know more about autonomy, they could study the Bodoland Autonomous territory to be administered by Bodoland Territorial Council. On federal relationship, the NSCN(K) said, “India already has a federal system of governance and if it is regarding Kashmir-like status, then Nagaland has a special provision of Article 371(A) which guarantees exclusive rights to the people of Nagaland in relation to land and natural resources”.
“All other special constitutional provisions for the State of Kashmir are subservient to Article 371(A) granted to Nagaland,” it further said and questioned the NSCN-IM leadership of going back on their demand of sovereignty. The NSCN(K) declared that it would not be a stumbling block to the peace talks between the Centre and the NSCN-IM.
It rather urged both parties to expedite the peace process and put an end to insurgency in the Northeast and create peaceful atmosphere.
The outfit further alleged that the proposals submitted and being discussed in the talks were far lower than Shillong Accord provisions and expressed apprehension that such an accord could ‘unleash another bloodbath’ in Nagaland.
Senapati meeting flays UKLF Source: The Sangai Express
Imphal, Jul 04: The Naga general public meeting of Tahamzam (Senapati district) held on June 30 at Mini Stadium in connection with the detention (June 12-15) in Chandel district and ransom demand of Rs 8 lakhs by UKLF to District Supply Officer (DSO) S Puni evoked widespread anguish on the conduct of the armed outfit.
According to a press release issued by Naga People's Organisation the congregation observed unanimously that UKLF has nothing to do with the Naga people and its allotted fund.
The meeting also took grim note of the fact that S Puni was blind-folded and severely thrashed for failing to comply to the outfit's ransom demand besides being threatened with capital punishment.
The capital punishment threat was to avenge murder of a UKLF cadre in retaliation for raping a Oklong village girl, said the NPO release and added that the matter of rape case had already been compromised/settled.
In addition to the meeting resolving to staunchly oppose any Government agency from diverting public fund to UG organisation like UKLF which has no authority or concern over Naga people and land, it further decided to appeal to the UKLF to return Puni's belongings and unconditionally withdraw their (UKLF) demands including payment of Rs 8 lakhs, 40 percent of K oil for every extension point and 100 quintals of rice from every lifting of commodities, added the release.
The release also conveyed of the meeting advising UKLF to refrain from such unwanted conduct in the future and stick to their (UKLF) principle and aspiration.
Peace talks with ULFA evoke sentiments in Assam By Peter Alex Todd
Guwahati, July 5, (ANI): The ongoing discussions with the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) have evoked sentiments in Assam and people are hopeful that peace and tranquility would return to the state, bearing the brunt of insurgency. The Centre will consider the release of five ULFA cadres. This was decided after the third round of talks between the Central Government and the ULFA appointed civil society group, People's Consultative Group (PCG), in New Delhi last week. ULFA, in turn, has to show restraint and desist from violence.
At the end of the two-and-half-hour long marathon talks, the Central Government decided to consider one of the main demands of the PCG that is the release of cadres on the condition that the insurgent group change its violent character. The meeting was held in New Delhi the backdrop of series of blasts in Assam last month. Police in Assam believes that the blasts were the handworks of ULFA, while the insurgent outfit has denied such charges in a statement issued by its chief.
The joint statement issued after the talks say that the release of the five ULFA cadres is a possibility. But the ULFA in turn will have to ensure peace in the region by desisting from violence. If this happens then the direct talk with the insurgent groups can take place. So for direct talks restraint by the ULFA is a must. Assamese were elated after the positive outcome of talks. The common people of Assam want a peaceful life and they don't want their life to be at the receiving end of the insurgent groups violence and depredations.
"Peace and tranquility should be there. Peace brings progress in all cases economic front, educational front and social front," said Dr. B C Kalita, Professor, Cotton College, Guwahati.
"The common man wants peace. We want that direct talks are held between the ULFA and the government so that there is peace and the state moves towards development," said Mala Lama, a local resident. "I am very hopeful about this peace process and hope a quick and positive result," Bhushan Sharma, a local resident expressed optimism. People in Assam appreciate the efforts on both the sides. The Assamese people, who are yearning for peace, want that the insurgent groups operating in the state should shun the path violence and come to a negotiating table with the Government of India.
"The peace talks between the ULFA and the government is a good process. There should be a direct conversation. Releasing the ULFA prisoners would be a good step," said Preeti Majumdar, a local resident. The winds of change are blowing in Assam. With the younger generation going out for studies in various metro cities of the country, they now want peace and prosperity in Assam that lost development opportunities to the hands of insurgency.
The young blood of Assam feels that violence and uncertainty has affected the growth of the state. They know that that only through talks and democratic means any grievance or for that matter any development can take place. Recently journalists in Assam also came out against the ULFA for issuing threat to some media persons for publishing a survey showing ninety five percent of the Assamese disapproval for sovereignty. (ANI)
Soni announces steps to boost NE tourism By A Staff Reporter Assam Tribune
GUWAHATI, July 4 – Union Tourism and Culture Minister Ambika Soni today announced some measures to promote tourism in all the NE states, which, according to her, possessed immense untapped potential. Speaking at a press conference following the end of a conference with tourism ministers of NE states, Soni stressed her ministry’s commitment towards improving the tourism scenario in the North-east by promoting its tourist destinations through various activities like cultural festivals, and by improving infrastructure.
The minister identified the region’s culture and environment as areas that could draw in large number of tourists, both domestic and international. In this regard, she felt that the restricted area permit required for entry into some regions would have to be reviewed for increasing the flow of tourists. A single-window clearance system could be another step in attracting more foreign tourists. In her view, eco-tourism, rural tourism and cultural tourism could be promoted in the region through a well-planned programme. In this regard, public-private partnership would be able to make much required changes in infrastructure. She mentioned that establishment of new hotels in the region would be encouraged by granting them industry status.
The region’s entrepreneurs would have a role to play in giving a facelift to the tourism sector, and they would be encouraged to expand the existing infrastructure. In certain cases like building hotels, they would be able to enjoy a ten per cent subsidy. Referring to better projection of the region’s rich culture and heritage, the minister favoured organising cultural festivals showcasing the culture of the region in New Delhi and in various state capitals.
On air connectivity to the region, Soni said that its improvement would add to the convenience of tourists. She would also take up certain issues with the Civil Aviation Ministry. Meanwhile, the Assam Forest and Tourism Minister Rockybul Hussain handed over a memorandum to the minister, calling for increasing the plan outlay and initiating a special drive for funding tourism infrastructure. The memorandum also mentioned setting up a regional office of the Tourism Finance Corporation India in Guwahati and establishing a watersport institute in the State.
The Assam Minister of Tourism and Culture further requested the construction of an air strip near Kaziranga and a helipad at Majuli.
Hussain, moreover, requested an allotment of Rs 5 crore for renovation and modernization of more than a hundred forest IBs so that they could be transformed into tourist resources.
North-east a paradise unexplored, says Soni ‘Connectivity, permit regime, tax burden are hurdles for Tourism’ By a Staff Reporter Sentinel
GUWAHATI, July 4: A 90-second promo — Paradise Unexplored — has been prepared by the Ministry of Tourism showcasing a brief synopsis of the enchanting beauty of the eight north-eastern States to project them in the electronic media around the world. The North-east has so far been a ‘paradise unexplored’ because of three major hurdles — connectivity bottlenecks, entry permit regime and tax burden on the hospitality industry.
This was admitted by Ambika Soni, Union Minister of Tourism and Culture, while addressing a press conference after her two-day brainstorming session with the ministers and delegates of the eight north-eastern States here today. According to her, the major hurdles in boosting tourism in this part of the world are: inadequate connectivity, special entry permit regime in some States and burden of tax on the hospitality sector.
The Union minister, however, assured the States of the region of taking up the matter with the Ministries concerned to do away with the hurdles. She said that the UPA Government at the Centre was according special priority on the North-east, which is becoming the gateway to India, particularly in trade and tourism.
She said that taxes in this region needed to be ‘more rational’ and assured the States that she would take up the matter with the Ministry of Finance. A delegation of hoteliers, in their meeting with the Union Minister this morning, alleged that they were over burdened with taxes. The issue would be settled in consultation with the Finance departments in the State and at the Centre, she said.
The Union Cabinet had already decided to provide industry status to the hotels which would come up in the North-east and an announcement in this regard was expected to be made by a day or two, she declared. According to her, the Ministry of Tourism has laid stress on the Budget hotels, 10 per cent subsidy and single window clearance to encourage the private parties, as part of its goal to increase public-private partnership in the sector.
The abandoned residences of tea executives, PWD bungalows and guest houses would be promoted to well-furnished tourist rest houses, she said. “The tourism sector has the potential to become the largest source of employment generation,” she said. According to a statistics, at an average 47 jobs can be created with every one million rupees invested in this sector.
The Union minister said that she got some good ideas from the States of the region and asked them to prepare viable project proposals.
The Union minister, who left for Kolkata this afternoon, said that she would take up the matter of the Madhupur Xatra in Cochbehar with the West Bengal Government.
