Centre-NSCN talks on Friday

NEW DELHI, July 26: The Centre and the National Socialist Council of Nagalim will hold talks on extending the ceasefire on 28 and 29 July. The ceasefire ends on 31 July and there are indications that it will be extended by a year, notwithstanding both sides trading charges of violation. Official sources said talks would focus only on the extension of ceasefire and chances of acceding to the NSCN's demand to modify ground rules for ceasefire are remote. The talks are unlikely to focus on the broader details of a political settlement to the Naga problem. In the first positive move in nearly six months, the NSCN has agreed to depute a team of top leaders, including its chairman Isak Swu, to negotiate with the Centre. The talks will be held somewhere in South-east Asia, possibly in the Philippines, top official sources said here today. Talks remained deadlocked after the arrest of the outfit's secretary-general in Thailand in January. T Muivah was arrested on the eve of the last round of talks, subsequently postponed, on charges of travelling on a fake passport and then attempting to jump bail. Home ministry sources said NSCN's insistence on Muivah being the sole representative for talks had stymied several attempts at a dialogue. Only now has Muivah has agreed to let Swu lead the NSCN team, where other leaders will be present. The government will be represented by former Union home secretary K Padmanabhaiah. There has been no headway on entering into a ceasefire agreement with NSCN's Khaplang faction. The Nagaland government wants this faction to be part of talks but the Centre is hesitant. It does not want to act in haste because of its past experience with the NSCN. The Centre has often accused NSCN of violating accepted ground rules for ceasefire and charged its cadres with killing, extorting and kidnapping. It even closed an NSCN ceasefire monitoring cell in Dimapur earlier this year though it has now allowed the cell to be re-opened on the condition that it will not be misused. NSCN claims the government has not kept its word on enforcing a ceasefire in the Northeast. It has limited it to Nagaland.