Advani signals wider Naga truce

KOHIMA, February 25: In an attempt to broaden the scope for peace in Nagaland, Union home minister L.K. Advani today said the Centre was considering proposals to extend the current ceasefire to other areas of the Northeast. He said the Centre was considering the S.C. Jamir government's proposal to declare ceasefire with three other Naga outfits. The current three-and-a-half-year-old truce is between the National Socialist Council of Nagalim (Isak-Muivah) and the government. Advani said a three-pronged strategy has been chalked out to expedite the peace process and weed out insurgency from the region. Stating that the problems in Jammu and Kashmir and the Northeast are different, he said there could not be a uniform strategy to tackle the two situations. "In Jammu and Kashmir, it is a state-sponsored terrorism perpetrated by our western neighbours against which we made considerable success in building world opinion," he added. Advani said necessary assistance and co-operation were being sought from Bangladesh, Bhutan and Myanmar to flush out northeastern militants from these countries. Deliberating on the three-pronged approach, Advani said economic development in the region gets top priority in the Centre's scheme of things. All Central projects - which are part of an economic package announced by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in Shillong last year - are being monitored by the home ministry and the PMO, he added. The Union minister, who was on a two-day maiden visit here, said militancy will be dealt with a firm hand, but doors will be kept open for militant groups willing to come to the negotiation table. Advani told newspersons before leaving for New Delhi that he reviewed the law and order in the state with Governor O.P. Sharma, the state council of ministers, government officials and representatives of several non-government organisations. Though Advani failed to give specific information about the progress of the dialogue with the NSCN(IM), he admitted that the process was slow. However, the Centre is in favour of speeding up the process as its priority is to restore peace in the region, he added. He said a new battalion of Indian Reserve Battalion will be raised in the state in the next financial year. On corruption in high places in Nagaland, he said if the Supreme Court orders a CBI probe in connection with a PIL filed in the apex court, the home ministry will definitely act on it. The CBI has been reportedly conducting a probe into alleged misappropriation of funds in five government departments. Expressing happiness over people's enthusiasm towards peace he said, "The kind of exuberance I noticed here for the past two days makes me confident that peace is really a dynamic force." Speaking to newspersons at Patna on his way back to Delhi, Advani said peace was returning to the Northeastern states, especially Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh, adds our special correspondent from Patna. The Chief Minister of Arunachal Pradesh has favoured extension of the term for Disturbed Area Act in two districts - Tirap and Changlang, Advani added. Though the term of the Act was supposed to expire in March, "it will be extended for another six months," he added. The Centre, he said, would consider announcing a package of development if the peace process continued. Advani expressed concern over the spurt of ISI activities along the Indo-Nepal border and said the Centre was in touch with the countries like Myanmar, Bhutan, Nepal and Bangladesh to curb ISI activities, he added.