The peace talk between the Government of India and the NSCN (IM) seems to have run into a road block and patience on the side of the Naga rebel group seems to be running out and not without reason.

The peace talk has been in progress since 1997 with the cease fire coming into effect from August 1 of the said year.

It is now more than nine years since the talks started but nothing seems to have move forward other than much touted, India recognising "the unique history of the Nagas."

Here again we find nothing unique as the history of all people are unique in its own way.

Apparently nothing concrete was achieved at the latest round of talks held at Amsterdam recently and while only the top notch leadership of the IM group and the top political leaders of India will be privy to the progress or rather non-progress of the talk, common sense tells us that there are some issues which will be hard to work out.

One of course is the demand of the NSCN (IM) to integrate all Naga inhabited areas under one administrative unit and the other is the question of the status of the proposed new entity, vis-a-vis the Government of India.

There can be no easy answer to the two issues which we have just referred to for both are extremely sensitive, particularly the demand to integrate all Naga inhabited areas to pave the way for a new entity.

The question that is lying before the Naga people is what now and which direction will the peace process proceed ?

If the peace talk breaks down, will it again mean the rebels going back to the jungles to resume the bush against the security personnel ?

What will the Naga civil society organisations say in the event of the peace talk breaking down ?

These are questions which must have started to haunt a good number of prominent Naga public leaders as well as the common men, the villagers in the hills who eke out a living by tilling their soil.

The Naga issue is complex.

It is not only a question of the demands raised by the NSCN (IM) but also coming to terms with the internal contradictions and strife among the Naga people.

Whatever the IM group may say, reality says that the Khaplang group of the NSCN too has a stake and it cannot be ignored if any agreement is to be reached with the Government of India.

Delhi thus has to address not only the issues raised by the NSCN (IM) but also by the NSCN (K) as well as the NNC.

However the more important point is how the Naga civil society organisations hope to bring the warring factions to sit down together and talk things over so that their differences may be settled.

It is an internal matter and only the Naga people can clean the internal mess, if we may say so.

We would even like to go to the extent of stating that the biggest challenge before the Naga people is not about the peace process that is on between Delhi and the two factions of the NSCN but about the internecine killings.

Without settling the internal blood baths, no solution with Delhi will have any meaning.

Let the peace process continue to its logical conclusion, but at the same time let there be some efforts to stop the internecine clashes, that have already claimed many lives.