Friday, July 23, 2010

Naga peace talks today

NEW DELHI: A day before resuming formal talks with the Centre, general secretary of the Naga insurgent group NSCN(IM), T Muivah, on Friday met home minister P Chidambaram and discussed with him issues related to the Naga peace process.

Muivah, who met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Wednesday, is also understood to have apprised Chidambaram about his nearly one-and-a-half-month long peace mission across Nagaland and its outcome.

The issue of his failed trip to his ancestral village in Manipur is also said to have figured in the nearly hour-long meeting.

"A crucial round of talks between NSCN(IM) and Centre's interlocutor R S Pandey will begin here on Saturday to carry forward the peace process. A few rounds of informal talks had taken place last week," said an official.

Undertaking the peace mission that began in the first week of June, Muivah visited all the districts of Nagaland except Mon and called for reconciliation and understanding among the Nagas based on the principle of "forget and forgive" to present a unified voice before the central government.

So far, over 60 rounds of peace talks have been held between the two sides during the course of the 13-year-long peace process initiated in August 1997.

TOI

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