Muivah's release crucial for talks

BANGKOK, July 25: If India tries to extend the ceasefire in Nagaland unilaterally, it will be only "to deceive the world," Thuingaleng Muivah, general secretary of the National Socialist Council of Nagalim (Isak-Muivah) -- NSCN(IM), tells me. "This is treacherous hypocrisy. India first violates the ceasefire agreement, kills our cadre and then there is talk of unilateral extension of the ceasefire. This is ridiculous," he says. We are talking to each other across two iron grills, separated by a one-foot corridor, in Visitors' Room Number Two of the Bangkok Remand Prison. There are nine such rooms in the Remand Prison where undertrials are kept and visitors can talk over an intercom to the prisoners they are visiting. The prison for undertrials is situated next to the forbidding-looking Ongprem Central Prison for convicts but is not necessarily a nicer place. Muivah has already had his clothes and shoes stolen by fellow prisoners once. Not having been able to talk to the Naga leader when he was being escorted from the courtroom yesterday, I had sought an appointment to interview him in prison. One of Muivah's relations escorts me to the prison. He is carrying food, bottled water, a few cans of Pepsi and fruit for the Naga leader. The food in the prison is apparently very bad and the restaurant inside the prison, where the undertrials can pay and eat better food than the regulation supply, is far too expensive. The 66-year-old Naga leader is lucky to have home-cooked food delivered to him every day, except on Saturdays and Sundays when visitors are not allowed. He is forced to eat in the prison restaurant on weekends. Muivah, who looks calmer than he did outside the Bangkok Criminal Court yesterday, is dressed today in a yellow T-shirt. "What does the T-shirt say?" I ask his relative, unable to make out the words printed on the fading T-shirt. "Manchester United," he jokes. It actually just says "Polo." There are five prisoners talking to their visitors at the same time and Muivah is forced to shout into the intercom, "No unilateral extension of ceasefire can be accepted by us. That was not in the agreement. We reject any extra interpretation of the agreement. We have never said that the ceasefire was only in the so-called Nagaland state, which is what India is claiming now. It applied to all the areas where our Naga people have been residing traditionally. How can we go back on what weagreed on in the first place? This is ridiculous." The ceasefire agreement between the Government of India and NSCN(IM), that was put in place in August 1997, is coming to an end on July 31. With Muivah in jail, there are grave doubts whether the Naga peace talks, which the ceasefire agreement was meant to facilitate, would be resumed in the near future. It is likely that the representatives of the Nagas and the Government of India would meet on July 28 and 29 to discuss the extension of the ceasefire agreement. But a ceasefire agreement that has been in place for three years and has not led to any political movement forward is unlikely to go down well with the NSCN(IM) cadre and the Naga people. Since he was the chief negotiator in the peace talks with India, had the Government of India done anything, even informally, to appeal to the Thai authorities to release him so that the ongoing Indo-Naga peace talks are not jeopardised? What would he like India to do to end his present predicament? "Well, it is up to India. I have nothing to say on this," he replied curtly. Now that he is in prison, why does he not nominate someone else to negotiate with India on his behalf so that the peace talks can continue? Is there no second-rung leadership in his organisation, I ask him. "That is not the point at all. It had been decided with several Prime Ministers of India that the talks would be at the highest level -- at the level of the Prime Ministers. This can not be changed now," Muivah replies, pointing to his own designation as the "Prime Minister" of what the NSCN(IM) calls the National Socialist Republic of Nagaland. However, the Naga leader also seemed to hold out an olive branch by saying, "If the Government of India honours the ceasefire agreement and its area of coverage, then we will keep talking." What had he done to make the Naga peace process more transparent and accountable -- not only to his own organisation but to the Naga people? "When Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee told us in Paris in September 1998 that violence is ruled out and that the use of arms is ruled out in solving the Naga problem, we were very happy. We are committed to the peace process. The Naga people have been informed of this. But, to our surprise, we find that there is more violence now. Our people are being killed. So the Naga people are becoming sceptical of Indian promises," he replies. The Naga leader was arrested in Bangkok while coming from Karachi. What was he doing in Pakistan? Is he not aware of Indian sensitivities on this issue, I ask him? "Don't make a big thing out of it. We have not received even a penny's worth of help from Pakistan. I can go anywhere I like but India should look at our sincerity about the peace process. When there was fighting in Kargil with Pakistan, did we take any advantage of the situation? We did not. India should understand this. We are sorry that India does understand our sincerity," the Naga leader laments. Tell the people of India, he says, "We do not hate them. We have great respect for Mahatma Gandhi who had assured the Nagas that they had every right to be independent. We still admire his integrity and commitment. We honour PV Narasimha Rao who initiated the peace process. I would urge the Indian people to understand the true nature of the Naga issue. If they do so, then a solution can be found. Please remember that no innocent Indian has been killed by us." When I ask him whether he thought that the Naga problem would be solved in his lifetime, Muivah pauses a bit and then says, "Well, we are prepared to solve it. However, if there is no sincerity then the problem cannot be solved even in the next one hundred years. Today the Indian Prime Minister is in the grip of Hindu fundamentalists and is not prepared to solve the Naga problem. The aim seems to be to divide the Nagas and then crush them." A loud bell announces that our time is up. I bid good-bye to the ageing Naga leader. "Come back again and meet me," he shouts. "I will but I hope you will be free by then and participating in the peace talks. It is no good meeting in prison," I tell him.