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Ceasefire in Nagaland comes under strain

Nitin Gogoi in Guwahati

The ceasefire between the Centre and a powerful insurgent group in the northeast appeared heading towards an imminent breakdown on Wednesday.

Nearly twenty-seven months after the Union home ministry and the National Socialist Council of Nagaland-Issak-Muivah decided to observe a truce, at least 1,000 cadres of the rebel group have gone underground between Tuesday night and Wednesday morning.

Although the army has launched a massive search and cordon operation, analysts fear that the rebels have fled the camp that they were living in for the past two-and a half years.

This development comes in the wake of the Union home ministry's decision to mount a hardline response following Monday's attack on Nagaland Chief Minister S C Jamir.

The attack on Jamir by armed militants was a fallout of the fierce rivalry between the two factions of the banned National Socialist Council of Nagaland.

There has been a sharp increase in factional clashes ever since the Issac-Muivah faction reached a ceasefire agreement with the Union government in August 1997. Political opponents of Jamir have often accused him of being sympathetic towards NSCN faction headed by S S Khaplang, a Hemi Naga from Burma.

Meanwhile, the NSCN-I-M claimed the Assam Rifles had asked it to vacate the ceasefire monitoring cell office at Dimapur by 1600 hours on Tuesday.

NSCN-I-M press and publicity secretary Ng. Hungshi said, "To our surprise, the Assam Rifles has given an ultimatum to vacate the NSCN ceasefire monitoring cell office at Dimapur by Wednesday. Immediately after the incident on Monday, the Assam Rifles personnel cordoned off the office building and later we were asked to vacate the place by Tuesday afternoon."

He warned the Centre to take immediate steps to prevent the Assam Rifles from taking any step that might force the outfit to go in for a rethink on the two-and-half year old ceasefire agreement.

He, however, made it clear that the NSCN-I-M was "sincere" in its intention to hold a political dialogue with the government.

Expressing anguish at the behaviour of the Assam Rifles, Hungshi said: "We are maintaining restraint even after repeated provocation from the state government." Making it clear that the outfit would not vacate the office despite the ultimatum, he said: "We have decided not to vacate the office as it was established in agreement with the Centre. It is high time the Centre took measures to avoid any further complications."

He said the NSCN-I-M was probing the whole episode to identify the people involved in Monday's attack. "Obviously it is the part of a planned conspiracy to sabotage the ongoing peace process," he said. He said Jamir should produce evidence to back his charge that the NSCN-I-M was involved in the attack.

"It has become common practice for the state government to blame us for everything," he said.

A high-level meeting held in the home ministry on Tuesday decided to enhance deployment of security forces in areas of Nagaland which were affected by militant activity. The meeting was attended by representatives of the defence ministry.

Government sources said the home ministry had taken a serious view of the attack on Jamir's life and decided to implement ground rules for the ceasefire "in letter and spirit with greater vigour."

The sources admitted the latest developments could seriously jeopardise the peace talks, even though the Union government was committed to dialogue as a means of settling the long-standing Naga problem.

Security forces have been instructed to come down heavily on all ceasefire violations as violence by any group in Nagaland would not be tolerated, the sources said.

The Centre's decision to initiate hardline measures came less than a week after K Padmanabhaiah, its principal negotiator for peace talks with the NSCN-I-M, resumed political dialogue with the top leadership of the militant group.

The former home secretary met Isak Chisi Swu and Thuingaleng Muivah in Bangkok last week for the first round of talks after the installation of a new government in New Delhi.

UNI

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