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03/06/2010: "Muivah under fire for ‘diluting sovereignty’"

Muivah under fire for ‘diluting sovereignty’
The Khaplang faction of National Socialist Council of Nagaland — NSCN (K) — has hit out at NSCN (IM) leader and general secretary Thuingaleng Muivah for having reportedly climbed down over the demand for Naga sovereignty and conceding an autonomy and economy package.
The NSCN (K) criticism of Muivah came in the form of a statement issued by the “Ministry of Information & Publicity” of the “Government of People’s Republic of Nagalim” — its underground government — in which it said that instead of sticking to the sovereignty demand, Muivah had had made a 32-point charter of demands to the government of India.
“Conceding to arrangements such as autonomy or economic package is unacceptable. A section of people gave its support to the NSCN (IM) to push the sovereignty issue. But instead, a 32-point charter of demands was made to the Government of India, and not an iota of sovereignty issue is found mentioned,” said the press release issued in Dimapur.
Muivah, who arrived in New Delhi from Amsterdam on February 27, has since met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, Home Minister P Chidambaram and held discussions with interlocutor R S Pandey. While the government has conveyed to him that sovereignty was out of the question, the NSCN (IM) has reportedly put forward a 30-point charter of demands before the government.
“What baffles the Nagas is that Muivah says sovereignty cannot be negotiated whereas the Government of India has repeatedly declared that sovereignty and integration would not be discussed as it is not feasible at this juncture. What, then, is the true intention of Muivah coming to the Indian capital?” it added.
Asking Muivah to wind up the talks, the note also suggested that he should return to Nagaland and “reassess his so-called mandate”. Reiterating its stand on unity among the different Naga groups, the note said unless all Naga groups were involved, there would be no permanent and acceptable solution.

DAN proposal for NSCN-IM - State panel meet to discuss Naga talks, submit draft OUR CORRESPONDENT The Telegraph
Kohima, March 4: The political affairs committee of the Democratic Alliance of Nagaland (DAN) government will meet this week to chalk out a proposal for the collective leadership of the National Socialist Council of Nagalim (Isak-Muivah).
The move comes in the wake of Centre’s refusal to discuss sovereignty and integration of contiguous Naga areas with the NSCN (I-M).
Sources in the committee said the meeting was likely to be held here on Saturday. All the members of the committee will attend the meet to draft the proposal on the Naga political issue vis-à-vis its solution.
Kakheto Sema, a member of the committee, said the focus would be on the negotiations between the Centre and the NSCN (I-M), led by its general secretary Thuingaleng Muivah.
“We will discuss the current peace talks and submit a proposal to the collective leadership of NSCN,” he said.
However, he refused to disclose the likely proposals to be submitted to the NSCN (I-M) leadership.
The political affairs committee comprises representatives from political parties which are part of DAN. T.M. Lotha is its convenor while former Nagaland Speaker Z. Lohe is the secretary.
The members of the committee have been meeting all Naga militant groups, tribal hohos and organisations in the Naga-inhabited areas.
The committee, like last year, is also planning to convene a meeting of all Naga organisations to facilitate the peace process.
Sources said a special invitation would be send to the Opposition Congress, which, despite appeals from the state government, had said it would neither be part of the committee nor attend any meeting convened by it.
The Nagaland Assembly has constituted a 20-member joint parliamentary working committee, comprising ruling parties and the Congress, to facilitate the Naga talks. It will meet on March 22.
Go For Peace Times of India
The two sides have been talking for over a decade now, but a settlement to the Naga issue has proved elusive. Hopefully, the ongoing talks between the leaders of the Isak-Muivah faction of the National Socialist Council of Nagalim (NSCN), and the Centre will break the deadlock and take concrete steps towards resolving the issue.

A breakthrough isn't easy considering the history of the Naga insurgency. But the tenuous ceasefire agreement between the NSCN and Indian army has held for over a decade now. The ceasefire was meant to create the climate for negotiations and, finally, a settlement to the Naga concerns. It has succeeded only partially. Peace has endured in Nagaland but despite the many rounds of talks the two sides have failed to resolve the contentious issues. The least the ongoing talks can achieve is to extend the ceasefire and agree on further talks. But if the two sides are willing to be flexible, much more can be achieved.

A final settlement to the Naga issue tends to founder on two issues: the question of Naga sovereignty and the demand for a greater Nagalim. Both issues are tied to the Naga leadership's larger concerns about their community's political and cultural rights. But should absolute sovereignty from the Indian nation state be seen as a necessary condition for preserving these rights? The experience of independent India reveals that most linguistic and ethnic subnationalities have successfully addressed this question within the framework of the Indian Constitution, which provides sufficient guarantees for the rights of cultural, linguistic, ethnic and religious minorities. The NSCN should be more flexible on the sovereignty issue and negotiate for political autonomy. The federal principles enshrined in the Indian Constitution allow a great deal of flexibility on this front. Similarly, the NSCN must revisit the demand for a greater Nagaland. The region is a salad bowl of different ethnic and linguistic nationalities. Any redrawing of state boundaries will trigger unrest in the neighbourhood, including in Myanmar where many Naga tribes live.
An end to Naga insurgency will have enormous impact on the northeastern societies. The Naga rebellion has inspired and influenced numerous insurgencies in the region. Thousands of lives have been lost as a result. Peace in Nagaland will trigger development and trade in the region, unlocking the potential of its people. We must end the cycle of bloodletting and corruption that's crippled the region's prospects. That will also seal Muivah's and other Naga leaders' place in history.

Role of all Naga groups must: NSCN (K) Sobhapati Samom Assam tribune
IMPHAL, March 4 – Even as the Centre and NSCN-IM continued talks in the national capital with sovereignty for Nagaland and integration of Naga-inhabited areas being the key points, another Naga insurgent group, National Socialist Council of Nagaland -Khaplang (NSCN-K) said no solution can be achieved on the issue unless all Naga groups are involved.
“Unless all Naga political groups are involved, there would be no permanent acceptable solution”, MIP (Ministry of Information and Publicity) of NSCN-K said. An e-mail statement here said, “A time has come to redefine Naga political struggle through common vision and approach.”
The outfit claimed Th Muivah declared that except IM, all other Naga political groups are unmandated and therefore to include them would dilute his achievements and added that 13 years of fruitless political dialogue is never an achievement by any stretch of imagination.
Conceding to arrangements such as autonomy or economic packages is unacceptable, the organization said, “That a section of people gave their support to IM to push the sovereignty issue but instead, a 32-point charter of demands was made to GoI and not an iota of sovereignty issue is found mentioned.”
It further added on behalf of all Nagas who wish for solution of the Naga political problem once and for all, we declare that Nagas in the last 60 years have never once substituted Naga sovereignty with integration issue.
Meanwhile, Manipur-based insurgent group Revolutionary People’s Front (RPF) executive committee meeting in February this year had decided to support NSCN-IM’s movement for a sovereign Nagaland. But the RPF is ready to face any move against the interest of Manipur’s territorial integrity, publicity secretary T Leishemba of RPF said here in a press release. The front also resolved to encounter NSCN-IM’s move to destabilize the relationship among the revolutionary groups of the region.
But then the RPF will not change its brotherhood relationship with those ethnic groups living in Manipur, the release, narrating the recent killing of three of their cadres by NSCN-IM men at Vahoram Tangkhul village on October 19 last year, added. However, the Manipur-based outfit still keeps its doors open to hold discussion in connection with the changing trend, it said.
Three killed: Three bullet-ridden bodies of were recovered from Yairipok Nongbram Chanam Lok area in Manipur’s Imphal East district bordering Thoubal and Ukhrul districts today. Police have shifted the bodies to RIMS mortuary for identification and autopsy, sources said.
Nagas deserve more autonomy, says govt Raghvendra Rao Indian Express
New Delhi The government is willing to offer Nagaland greater autonomy in running its affairs and is learnt to be considering a move to transfer a few subjects from the Concurrent List to the State List exclusively in the case of this state to resolve the six-decade-old conflict and insurgency.
“They deserve greater autonomy in running their own affairs. Greater autonomy is something which ought to be considered as part of the honourable negotiated settlement,” the Government’s Interlocutor R.S Pandey told The Indian Express. He added that the modalities of autonomy need to be negotiated. “There is a will on both sides to solve the issue. We have to be a little patient. I am optimistic.”
Pandey, a 1972-batch Nagaland cadre IAS officer who also served as Chief Secretary in Nagaland, has already held a few rounds of formal and informal talks with the representatives of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Isak -Muivah) and is learnt to have succeeded in breaking some ice with NSCN-IM General Secretary Thuingaleng Muivah. In fact, in one of his recent parleys with with NSCN-IM leaders, Pandey started conversing in Nagamese, even cracking a few jokes in the language, and managed to strike a rapport with the Naga leaders.
Having already conveyed to the Naga leaders that it acknowledges their “uniqueness”, the Centre has brought to the table the idea of transferring some subjects from the Concurrent List (a list of 47 subjects on which both the Centre and the State can make laws) to the State List. If agreed to by both the side, the move will be made following a constitutional amendment.
The concept of ‘sovereignty’, too, is being discussed threadbare in the talks. While the Naga leaders, in the run-up to the talks, said that they were not ready to compromise on their demand for sovereignty, the Centre is now trying to explain and underline that the “states are also sovereign in certain matters” and that India has a concept of “shared sovereignty”. “Like certain issues which are in the exclusive domain of the Central government and Parliament, there are matters which are in the exclusive domain of the state governments and the state legislative assemblies and in those matters the states are sovereign. This is what is being explained and emphasised to them. Also, if you ask them whether they don’t want anything to do with India, their answer is: No,” a source said.
Government sources also point out that a look at the past utterances of the Naga leaders and the stance taken by the Centre (which is even recorded in Parliament speeches) makes the differences appear to be irreconcilable. “But the fact that both sides are still willing to talk and are now actually talking means that there is room for settlement,” a source close to the deliberations said.
“The Nagas are people who are entitled to respect and dignity. There has to be mutual respect. They are straight forward people and the approach has to be very right. Only then one can think of a solution,” he said.

Arunachal Pradesh opposes parting with territory to solve Naga issue PTI
Itanagar: With the Centre-NSCN(IM) talks underway in New Delhi, the Arunachal Pradesh government today expressed opposition to any move to include any part of its territory for creation of greater Nagaland to solve the vexed Naga issue.
Welcoming the talks and expressing hope of a permanent solution to the Naga problem, Home minister Tako Dabi told a press conference here, "But if it (the talks) touches the issue of our parting any territory, we will vehemently oppose it...it is our clear message to the central government."
"We have already lost Tuensang included in erstwhile NEFA (which later become Arunachal Pradesh) to Nagaland. Enough is enough and we don't want to part with any more territory or districts," Dabi said.
The Mukut Mithi (Congress) government had earlier communicated the same view to the Centre in 1999 and the state Assembly had reiterated it in 2006 during the tenure of Gegong Apang (Congress).
The NSCN(IM) has been demanding two districts of Arunachal Pradesh -- Tirap and Changlang adjoining Nagaland, along with some areas of other northeastern states including Manipur for creation of greater Nagaland.
Tirap and Changlang are under the Armed Forces Special Powers Act because of militants from Nagaland and Assam using the districts as corridor to go their their bases across the Indo-Myanmar border.