KOHIMA, Dec 2 ? Top leaders of NSCN-IM have decided to visit New Delhi soon to further the Naga peace parleys after the Centre issued a clarification to them on ?misunderstandings between the two sides over certain issues?. ?All hurdles have been cleared by the Government of India before their visit and the collective leadership are arriving any time in the next few days,? said NSCN-IM Information and Publicity in-charge Kraibo Chawang.
Chawang told PTI that the Centre despatched its official clarification to the collective leadership recently in view of ?misunderstanding between the two sides over certain issues? before the proposed visit of the NSCN-IM top leaders.
Following a request from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, NSCN-IM chairman Issac Chishi Swu and general secretary Thuingaleng Muivah were scheduled to visit New Delhi by November-end, but the leaders accused the Centre of patronising its rival groups NSCN-K and the Naga National Council (NNC) and sought clarifications.
NSCN-IM had alleged that the Centre was holding separate peace talks with NSCN-K leaders and facilitated media meets in New Delhi to defame the outfit besides supplying arms and ammunition to its rivals NNC and NSCN-K. Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio last week met Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil and urged him to remove all hurdles by issuing a clarification to facilitate the visit of the NSCN-IM leaders.
The Centre?s interculator K Padmanabhaiah also last week said the Government of India was neither holding peace talks with NSCN-K nor supplying arms to other groups, adding that it only recognised the NSCN-IM. NSCN-IM sources said their leaders were expected to arrive in Nagaland by next week to hold ?consultative meetings? with tribal councils and the members of the civil society.
Meanwhile, gun-battles between two rival factions of NSCN have been reported from Tuensang and Mon district adjoining Tirap district of Arunachal Pradesh during the past week. Although official reports said only three NSCN-IM cadres died in factional fighting near Tizit in Mon district last week, the NSCN-K claimed it had gunned down about a dozen NSCN-IM activists in border districts in the past couple of days.
But NSCN-IM rubished the claim saying it was nothing but ?propaganda? by the rival group. NSCN-K also claimed that its operations against NSCN-IM was the outcome of the alleged joint onslaught against it by the Indian Army, Myanmarese Junta and NSCN-IM.
District administrations of Mon and Tuensang said the activities of armed cadres of all the three underground groups were increasing in the past fortnight to expand their base. The police and security forces had intensifed patrols to check rival groups coming close to civilian areas.
NGOs and churches have called upon the rival underground groups to exercise restraint and confine themselves to designated camps as per ground rules of cease-fire and give peace a chance in the state