Tura, Feb. 2: Breaking its silence over the Centre and the Meghalaya government?s peace overtures, the banned Achik National Volunteers Council (ANVC) today said it was finally ready for talks.
In an e-mail to The Telegraph, its chairman Dilash Marak, alias Susime Marak, said a five-member delegation was constituted at the executive committee?s meeting on January 10 to finalise the modalities for peace talks.
This is the first clear statement by the ANVC chief, believed to be in Bangladesh, on the Centre and the Meghalaya government?s offer to hold a dialogue with the militant group.
Meghalaya has tried everything to bring the militant organisations active in the state, mainly the ANVC and the Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council, to the negotiation table. The D.D. Lapang government has asked the Church to set the peace process in motion, while Delhi has made attempts to reach out to the ANVC leaders on its own.
Former Union home secretary P. Padmanabhaiah, who is Delhi?s chief interlocutor in the Naga peace talks, has reportedly been asked to meet leaders of the ANVC in Bangkok later this month to kick-start the peace process.
An intelligence source said the talks might finally begin this time because the ANVC leadership is as keen as Delhi to begin the dialogue.
Marak indicated as much in his e-mailed message. ?We will restart our peace talks this year with the Centre and the state government. We have not decided the time, date and place for the talks, but all the members have accepted that we will have to negotiate with the Centre and the state government this year.?
He said the ANVC activists had discussed at length the importance of restoring peace and development in the Garo Hills. The outfit has reportedly sent feelers to the Garo Baptist Convention to negotiate with the state government on a venue outside Meghalaya.
However, the Church denied it.
Lapang said home minister Robert G. Lyngdoh had not informed him about any such development.
The ANVC recently demanded that former Lok Sabha Speaker Purno A. Sangma be allowed to play the lead role in the peace talks. The outfit?s chairman and its general secretary Wanding Marak justified the demand by saying the best way to restore peace in the Garo hills was to involve Sangma, who represents the area in Parliament, in the process.
The chief minister and the home minister had both complained of interference in the peace process by Sangma.
?There has been lot of criticism about the role of leaders like Mizoram chief minister Zoramthanga from different political parties during negotiations with underground outfits. But the Mizo people did not reject him as a leader and he was re-elected,? Marak said.
Zoramthanga will visit Bangkok next month to prepare the ground for a second visit to New Delhi by Naga insurgent leaders Isak Chisi Swu and Thuingaleng Muivah and ostensibly open a channel for talks with the ANVC.
Zoramthanga, who was himself an insurgent leader in his youth, said recently that as many as six militant groups operating in Manipur, Tripura and Meghalaya were eager to start peace talks with Delhi. He spoke to the ANVC leadership twice last year, first in Bangkok and then in Aizawl.