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North East : Naga talks this week

	September 15, 2003

The next round of talks between the Centre and the National Socialist Council of Nagalim (Isak-Muivah) will be held in Amsterdam on September 17 and 18, two months after the ceasefire was extended for another year.

Former Union Home Secretary K. Padmanabhaiah will lead the Centre’s delegation, comprising Home Ministry officials. “The talks in Amsterdam will be as important as the previous ones, since you move forward with every round,” Padmanabhaiah said.

The integration of Naga-inhabited areas and the “assurances” given by New Delhi to the NSCN (I-M) during the Bangkok talks in July before the ceasefire was extended are likely to come up for discussions in the Dutch capital.

In Bangkok, the NSCN (IM) reportedly impressed upon the Centre’s negotiators the need for recognition of the Naga desire to live under one roof.

Rajya Sabha Member Swaraj Kaushal, former interlocutor to the Mizo and Naga talks, said the process could be expedited and negotiations should be held more often and, if possible, in India.

“However, for a permanent solution, it is indispensable to look beyond the Mizoram, Darjeeling and Punjab models,” Kaushal said. The country’s integrity is paramount and it cannot be compromised, he added.



Operation Hurricane put on hold

In another significant development, the Gegong Apang-led BJP government in Arunachal Pradesh has called off Operation Hurricane in an apparent bid to keep the NSCN (I-M) in good humour.

Dubbed as the first counter-insurgency operation in Arunachal Pradesh, the Hurricane was launched by the previous Mukut Mithi-led Congress government in the NSCN (I-M)-dominated Tirap district.

Soon after taking over the reins of the state on August 3 as head of the United Democratic Front, Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Gegong Apang had promised to scrap the operation, but it was shelved only recently after consulting legal experts.

“The operation is officially off since September 6 and the additional forces engaged in it have been sent back,” Tirap deputy superintendent of police (headquarters) T. Amo said over telephone from Khonsa, district headquarters of Tirap.

Now that the operation has been put off, it is suspected that turf war may erupt between the two factions of the NSCN. Tirap, along with neighbouring Changlang district, was still recently a stronghold of the NSCN (K). “With nobody to watch over them, both groups will do as they please,” Congress spokesperson Habung Payeng said over phone from Itanagar.

Sources also claimed that the withdrawal of the operation would give a “free run” to the NSCN (I-M) to consolidate its position in the district and expand its base to NSCN (K)-dominated Changlang.

Though the operation launched by drawing forces from the state police, CRPF and the India Reserve Battalion was never a full-scale one, sources said the large presence of security forces for almost two and a half months succeeded in bringing relative calm in the district. No major insurgency-related incident had been reported from the district during this period. “We have been able to give the people some sense of security during the past few months,” Amo said.

In fact, the operation was dogged by controversy ever since its inception with the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government at the Centre backtracking at the last moment from its promise to provide additional security personnel for the operation.

Union Minister of State for Home Swami Chinmayanand had told a public meeting in Tirap that there was no need for such an operation.

But Mithi government went ahead and launched the operation in the district strategically located at the tri-junction of Assam, Nagaland and Arun-achal Pradesh, saying it was necessary to contain the NSCN (I-M) whose cadre were indulging in rampant killing, kidnapping and extortion. He had put the strength of the outfit in the district at 500 armed activists.

Mithi had said the outfit’s anti-national activity had forced his government to put off panchayat elections in the district.



Joint patrolling of Indo-Bangladesh border

The Border Security Force (BSF) of India has finally agreed to the Assam police’s proposal to jointly patrol the porous Indo-Bangladesh border in Karimganj and Cachar districts. An official source said on September 12 that the police forwarded the proposal to the BSF last month, but the BSF’s response was lukewarm at best.

However, the BSF authorities veered round to the idea of joint patrolling after the abduction of two persons by the National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) from Nilambazar in Karimganj district. The two hostages, schoolteacher Chittaranjan Nath and trader Manindra Nath, are believed to have been whisked away to Moulvi Bazar district of Bangladesh.

Sources said the police discovered that there was no sentry in at least two watchtowers under the BSF outpost at Balia on the day of the abductions.









North East

Naga talks this week

he next round of talks between the Centre and the National Socialist Council of Nagalim (Isak-Muivah) will be held in Amsterdam on September 17 and 18, two months after the ceasefire was extended for another year.

Former Union Home Secretary K. Padmanabhaiah will lead the Centre’s delegation, comprising Home Ministry officials. “The talks in Amsterdam will be as important as the previous ones, since you move forward with every round,” Padmanabhaiah said.

The integration of Naga-inhabited areas and the “assurances” given by New Delhi to the NSCN (I-M) during the Bangkok talks in July before the ceasefire was extended are likely to come up for discussions in the Dutch capital.

In Bangkok, the NSCN (IM) reportedly impressed upon the Centre’s negotiators the need for recognition of the Naga desire to live under one roof.

Rajya Sabha Member Swaraj Kaushal, former interlocutor to the Mizo and Naga talks, said the process could be expedited and negotiations should be held more often and, if possible, in India.

“However, for a permanent solution, it is indispensable to look beyond the Mizoram, Darjeeling and Punjab models,” Kaushal said. The country’s integrity is paramount and it cannot be compromised, he added.



Operation Hurricane put on hold

In another significant development, the Gegong Apang-led BJP government in Arunachal Pradesh has called off Operation Hurricane in an apparent bid to keep the NSCN (I-M) in good humour.

Dubbed as the first counter-insurgency operation in Arunachal Pradesh, the Hurricane was launched by the previous Mukut Mithi-led Congress government in the NSCN (I-M)-dominated Tirap district.

Soon after taking over the reins of the state on August 3 as head of the United Democratic Front, Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Gegong Apang had promised to scrap the operation, but it was shelved only recently after consulting legal experts.

“The operation is officially off since September 6 and the additional forces engaged in it have been sent back,” Tirap deputy superintendent of police (headquarters) T. Amo said over telephone from Khonsa, district headquarters of Tirap.

Now that the operation has been put off, it is suspected that turf war may erupt between the two factions of the NSCN. Tirap, along with neighbouring Changlang district, was still recently a stronghold of the NSCN (K). “With nobody to watch over them, both groups will do as they please,” Congress spokesperson Habung Payeng said over phone from Itanagar.

Sources also claimed that the withdrawal of the operation would give a “free run” to the NSCN (I-M) to consolidate its position in the district and expand its base to NSCN (K)-dominated Changlang.

Though the operation launched by drawing forces from the state police, CRPF and the India Reserve Battalion was never a full-scale one, sources said the large presence of security forces for almost two and a half months succeeded in bringing relative calm in the district. No major insurgency-related incident had been reported from the district during this period. “We have been able to give the people some sense of security during the past few months,” Amo said.

In fact, the operation was dogged by controversy ever since its inception with the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance government at the Centre backtracking at the last moment from its promise to provide additional security personnel for the operation.

Union Minister of State for Home Swami Chinmayanand had told a public meeting in Tirap that there was no need for such an operation.

But Mithi government went ahead and launched the operation in the district strategically located at the tri-junction of Assam, Nagaland and Arun-achal Pradesh, saying it was necessary to contain the NSCN (I-M) whose cadre were indulging in rampant killing, kidnapping and extortion. He had put the strength of the outfit in the district at 500 armed activists.

Mithi had said the outfit’s anti-national activity had forced his government to put off panchayat elections in the district.



Joint patrolling of Indo-Bangladesh border

The Border Security Force (BSF) of India has finally agreed to the Assam police’s proposal to jointly patrol the porous Indo-Bangladesh border in Karimganj and Cachar districts. An official source said on September 12 that the police forwarded the proposal to the BSF last month, but the BSF’s response was lukewarm at best.

However, the BSF authorities veered round to the idea of joint patrolling after the abduction of two persons by the National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) from Nilambazar in Karimganj district. The two hostages, schoolteacher Chittaranjan Nath and trader Manindra Nath, are believed to have been whisked away to Moulvi Bazar district of Bangladesh.

Sources said the police discovered that there was no sentry in at least two watchtowers under the BSF outpost at Balia on the day of the abductions.