Govt ceasefire with NSCN (IM) extended for a year

New Delhi, Jul 31 (UNI) The cease-fire agreement between the government and the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Isak Muivah) has been extended for one year till July 31, 2007.

An agreement to this respect was signed by a government delegation led by Minister of State Oscar Fernandes and the NSCN (IM) leaders at Bangkok today, official sources said here.

The cease-fire, which is in existence for the past nine years with the frontline Naga separatist group, was to expire today.

New Delhi's main peace interlocutor K Padmanabhaiah also participated in the two-day talks with top leaders of NSCN (IM), the main rebel group in the northeastern state of Nagaland. The talks were earlier due to begin on Friday but were deferred by a day. The talks focused primarily on the question of extending the ceasefire and also discussing other major demands of the NSCN (IM) which include a 'Greater Nagaland' that would unite 1.2 million Nagas, a demand strongly opposed by the neighbouring states of Assam, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh.

A joint communique issued by the two sides said the NSCN proposals with respect to implementation and monitoring of the ceasefire would be considered promptly by the Indian government.

Earlier NSCN-IM, led by guerrilla leaders Isak Chishi Swu and Thuingaleng Muivah, had threatened last week not to extend their ceasefire accusing the Indian Army of supplying weapons to a rival rebel outfit led by S S Khaplang to provoke a 'fratricidal war'.

It had accused security forces of seizing weapons from its cadres and then supplying such arms to the rival group. The army denies the allegations.

NSCN (IM) was also reportedly seeking several modifications of the ceasefire ground rules but refused to divulge the details.

The original Nagaland rebel group split in 1988 into two factions.

The NSCN (Khaplang) struck a ceasefire with the government in 2001 although no formal peace talks have yet been held. This group is demanding an independent tribal homeland.

The two Naga factions regularly clash for territorial supremacy.

At least 200 members of both outfits have been killed in turf battles in the past five years.

The government and the NSCN-IM have held at least 50 rounds of peace talks in the past nine years to end one of the longest-running insurgencies that have claimed around 25,000 lives since the country's independence in 1947.

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