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NSCN calls for referendum if talks fail
NSCN-IM has expressed doubts over New Delhi's intentions to integrate tribal Naga inhabited areas in the northeast.
The National Socialist Council of Nagaland-Isak-Muivah (NSCN-IM) has expressed doubts over New Delhi's intentions to integrate tribal Naga inhabited areas in the northeast and called for a referendum if peace talks fail.
"In case the Government of India cannot take concrete steps, the matter (integration) cannot be stopped there. It should be referred back to the Naga people for a referendum," chairman of the rebel outfit Isak Chishi Swu said in a statement.
Both Swu and Thuingaleng Muivah, general secretary of the NSCN-IM, have lived in self-imposed exile in Southeast Asian cities for the past 38 years.
NSCN-IM is engaged in peace talks after entering into a ceasefire with New Delhi in August 1997.
It wants the creation of a Greater Nagaland by slicing off parts of neighbouring states of Assam, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh that have sizeable Naga tribal populations.
The three regional governments of Assam, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh have already rejected the NSCN demand for unification of Naga dominated areas.
"The suppression of rights of the Nagas is similar to planting a time bomb and the prolonged and forced disintegration is dangerous," Swu warned in the statement.
NSCN-IM leaders said the patience of Nagas was being tested with New Delhi unable to take bold steps.
A rival NSCN faction headed by guerrilla leader SS Khaplang is meeting senior Union Home Ministry officials in New Delhi next week to redraft ceasefire ground rules.
The NSCN-Khaplang has been operating a ceasefire with the Government since 2001 although the two sides are yet to begin peace talks.
"We shall not start formal talks until and unless the ongoing negotiations with the NSCN-IM come to an end," NSCN-Khaplang leader K Mulatonu said over the phone from the Nagaland capital Kohima.
The two NSCN groups have been waging a bitter turf war for territorial supremacy since their split in 1988.
Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphio Rio, meanwhile, has called for patience and urged the Naga civil societies and militant groups not to take any hasty steps. "The gun is not a solution to the Naga political problem," Rio said.
