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| India-Pakistan |
| NSCN threatens to pull out of ceasefire with Indian gov't |
| 2003-04-04 |
| A powerful tribal separatist group Friday threatened to pull out of a ceasefire if the federal government insists on rebels surrendering their arms and giving up their demand for sovereignty. "Nagas will never lay down three things from their hands—their arms, their freedom and their territories. There should be no illusion whatsoever," a statement by the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN), led by guerilla leaders Isak Chishi Swu and Thuingaleng Muivah, said. That's what Nagaland needs, by golly — National Socialism! The NSCN leadership and the government are currently holding peace talks after the two sides agreed on a ceasefire in 1997. NSCN leaders Swu and Muivah held talks with Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in January to bring an end to the more than five decades of violent insurgency in the region. Despite the ceasefire, NSCN cadres move around with arms, although the truce ground rules agreed upon prohibits a display of weapons and confines the rebels to some designated camps. 'Nother words, they're ignoring it... New Delhi had lifted a ban on the NSCN in November, 12 years after the organization was declared "unlawful" as it led a separatist insurgency in Nagaland. Talks between the NSCN and the government emissary, K. Padmanabhaiah, have been held for years now in several South Asian cities, with Vajpayee meeting the rebel leadership in 2001 in the Japanese city of Osaka. The peace talks in January was the first time the two NSCN leaders arrived on Indian soil in the last 37 years for holding negotiations with the federal authorities. The NSCN's threat to call off the ceasefire comes amid reports that New Delhi was contemplating moves to disarm the rebels and start negotiations with the rival NSCN faction headed by S.S. Khaplang. |
| Posted by:Fred Pruitt |