Dimapur, April 13 (MExN): The NSCN-K led by Yung Aung had said that it would “struggle to keep up peace talks with the Myanmar military if it does not release all members of the armed rebel group it has detained, including those on its negotiating team.”
According to a report in Myanmar-based news portal, The Irrawaddy, in early March, more than a month after taking control of the NSCN-K’s headquarters in Sagaing Region, the military arrested 10 of the group’s political leaders and six fighters, including captains.
Five of the detainees were released on April 5, leaving the fighters and the five leaders charged under the Unlawful Associations Act in custody, the report said quoting an NSCN-K liaison officer Jüvlengthong (Cue Hlaing Thong).
He said the six fighters were being held by the military and the leaders by the Khamti district police, it added.
The five released were Eno Ngaitum, Eno Manglwan, Eno Athrom and Eno Longsa — the NSCN-K’s ministers for health, education and legal affair and deputy minister for agriculture, respectively — and Eno Tomthong, a member of the group’s central committee.
“Jüvlengthong said ‘further peace negotiations would be difficult as both Chairman U An Kam and Vice Chairman U Kyaw Wan Sein, who lead the NSCN-K peace committee, as well as our home affair minister are among the detainees,” the report added.
The spokesman for the military’s Northwestern Command Colonel Than Naing, as per the report, also confirmed the release saying that, “According to our initial investigation, they were not directly involved in the matter even though they are with the NSCN-K.”
In late March, President’s Office spokesman U Zaw Htay said the office was reviewing whether the charges against the five NSCN-K leaders still in custody were appropriate, it said.
The military accused the NSCN-K of supporting ethnic Assam and Manipur, though the NSCN-K denies the claim and the former took control of the group’s training schools and arrested 36 people in ethnic Naga areas between January and March, the report further informed.
Jüvlengthong said the group has written to the government’s National Reconciliation and Peace Center, led by the State Counselor Daw Aung San Suu Kyi, and the Office of the Commander-in-Chief asking them to intervene but have yet to hear back, it said.
According to The Irrawaddy, the Naga were granted a self-administered region under the military-drafted 2008 Constitution and run it out of Lahe Township. And while the NSCN-K signed a bilateral ceasefire deal in 2012, it has no interest in joining the Nationwide Ceasefire Agreement.
The group wants to bring the Naga on either side of the Myanmar-India border under one rule and has asked for tri-partite negotiations between it and both governments, it added.
