Naga peace talks: Centre’s interlocutor meets NSCN-IM’s Th Muivah at Camp Hebron

For the first time in the history of Naga Peace Talks, a government of India representative visited the camp, Hebron. Peace Talks interlocutor AK Mishra, visited the NSCN-IM headquarters at Camp Hebron to call on its general secretary, Th Muivah on Tuesday.

“We had an informal meeting with A K Mishra,” an NSCN-IM leader confirmed to The Indian Express. He added that it was the first time that peace talks were being held with a Government of India representative inside Camp Hebron, describing it as “significant.”

Since the NSCN-ceasefire IM's deal with the Centre in 1997, Camp Hebron in the Jalukie-kam area of Nagaland's Peren district has held the rebel group's headquarters, which is 35 kilometres from Dimapur. It is around 100 kilometres from the state capital, Kohima.

The discussion on Tuesday, according to the NSCN-IM commander, lasted a little more than two hours. "It was only two of them (Muivah and Mishra) in a closed-door meeting," he claimed.

Mishra, a former special director of the Intelligence Bureau who took over as mediator from R N Ravi last year, came in Nagaland on Monday to tackle the thorny Naga political issue. During his visit, he would meet with the state government's core committee as well as the Naga National Political Groups (NNPG).

The meeting comes a week after Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio, Deputy Chief Minister Y Patton, and previous Chief Minister T R Zeliang met in Delhi with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah to review the state of peace talks, which have been stuck since 2019.

Patton told The Indian Express that while the conclusion of the meeting on Tuesday had not been revealed, it was likely to be "fruitful." "Within a day or two, we will also be meeting with A K Mishra," he said, adding that the recent meeting between the Nagaland administration, Shah, and Prime Minister Modi was "good."

“The topic of the Naga flag is an issue, but we are hopeful that it will be hammered out soon during talks,” he said.

The Naga insurgency is India's most long-running insurgency. The NSCN-IM and the Centre reached a ceasefire deal in 1997. The NSCN-IM and the Modi government began resuming negotiations in 2015. Since then, seven more Naga armed groups have joined the discussions under the name of Naga National Political Groups.

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