Thread: Nagaland freedom fighters extend ceasefire

Guwahati, April 22 (IANS) Indian authorities and a separatist group in Nagaland have agreed to extend a five-year-old ceasefire in the northeastern state, rebel leaders said Saturday.

Indian home ministry officials and leaders of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland's S.S. Khaplang faction (NSCN-K) met in New Delhi Friday and agreed to extend by another year the ceasefire that was due to expire April 28.


'The two sides have agreed in principle to extend the ceasefire by one more year in the greater interest of peace,' Kughalo Mulatonu, one of the rebel leaders, told IANS by telephone from New Delhi.


The NSCN-K, an influential Christian Naga tribal group fighting for an independent homeland in Nagaland, entered into a ceasefire with New Delhi in 2001, although formal peace talks are yet to begin.


The ceasefire was in doubt after the NSCN-K accused Indian soldiers of backing its rival faction headed by guerrilla leaders Isak Chishi Swu and Thuingaleng Muivah.


At least 100 guerrillas have been killed in clashes between the two rival groups in Nagaland in the past two years.


'We have told the government negotiators that we are not going to tolerate any such ceasefire violation by the security forces in collaboration with the NSCN (Isak-Muivah) group,' Mulatonu said.


The central government is currently holding peace talks with the NSCN-IM - the dominant faction of the NSCN - after the two sides entered into a ceasefire in 1997.


The two rival NSCN factions are engaged in a fratricidal war for territorial supremacy in Nagaland.


'We shall not hold peace talks with New Delhi so long as the government continues talking to the NSCN-IM. Either the government should call off the talks with them or try and seal an accord with the group,' the rebel leader said.


'We have asked the government to break the ceasefire with us if they think they would be able to bring permanent peace in Nagaland by simply signing an accord with the NSCN-IM.'


There were no immediate comments from the government.


At least 40 rounds of talks have taken place with the NSCN-IM although the negotiations are deadlocked, with the group demanding the unification of all Naga tribal areas in the northeast.


The NSCN split in 1988 and the fight for territorial supremacy between the two rival factions has claimed more than 25,000 lives in Nagaland since 1947.

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