Amsterdam, Dec 6 (AGENCIES): Despite differences on key issues, the government and the NSCN-IM are understood to have agreed to carry forward the peace process in Nagaland to find a lasting solution to the six-decade-old insurgency in the northeastern state.
The Centre’s negotiators, led by Labour Minister Oscar Fernandes, held parleys with an NSCN-IM team headed by Chairman Isaac Chisi Swu and General Secretary Thuingaleng Muivah for two days here and broke the deadlock that set in during the last round of talks in October, sources said.
Both sides are understood to have discussed the limits of flexibility within the constitution and whether a “sub- national constitution” could be accommodated within it.
This has become a thorny issue as the NSCN-IM has proposed a federal relationship with the Indian union, they said.
“Both sides have decided to continue their discussions despite differences on several key issues,” a source privy to the talks said.
Reports of major clashes between cadres of the NSCN-IM and its rival NSCN-Khaplang, which resulted in the death of several people in the recent past, also figured in the talks.
The meeting also reviewed progress made since the NSCN-IM submitted a 20-point charter of demands to the Centre.
In this charter, the NSCN-IM had sought the unification of all Naga-inhabited areas of the northeast, separate representation at the UN and greater rights over natural resources, finance, defence and policing.
