Source: The Sangai Express
New Delhi, January 30:
Top NSCN (IM) leaders returned to Delhi after consultations with a cross-section of people in Nagaland for their next round of talks with the Centre's representatives for finding a solution to the vexed Naga political problem.
The NSCN (IM) delegation led by its chairman Issac Chisi Swu and general secretary Th.Muivah arrived here late last night.
The schedule for the talks, in which the Centre would be represented by a group of Ministers led by Union Minister Oscar Fernandes, is likely to be made known tomorrow, official sources said.
The Naga leaders are in Delhi after more than a month of consultation with a large cross-section of people in Nagaland.
The senior NSCN (IM) leaders, who have been in India for over a month at the invitation of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, were given what the leaders call a 'mandate' by a two-day Naga people's consultative meet on the on-going peace process at the organisation's headquarters 'Camp Hebron', off Dimapur recently.
The consultative meeting, attended by over 6,000 people representing Naga villages of Nagaland, Manipur, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh, in a declaration said the protracted conflict must be resolved by NSCN (I-M) and Government of India by peaceful means.
It also asserted that no solution can be found without bringing Naga-inhabited areas of the North-East under a single administrative set-up.
During their nearly seven-week stay in Nagaland, Swu and Muivah interacted with the cadres of the insurgent groups and spent Christmas with them.
The two Naga leaders, who had arrived here from Amsterdam in the last week of November, had met the Prime Minister, Home Minister Shivraj Patil and had held parleys with the Centre's representatives for the Naga peace process K Padmanabhaiah and top officials.
This is the second time that Swu and Muivah have come to India for taking the Naga peace process forward.
The duo had held peace parleys with the then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, his deputy L K Advani and top officials in January last year during their first visit to this country in over three decades.
The security forces and NSCN (IM) had reached a ceasefire accord in 1997 and this has been holding since then.