http://www.irna.ir/en/news/view/line-20/0601288479132938.htm
Indian negotiators are holding fresh peace talks in Bangkok with a tribal separatist group from the northeastern state of Nagaland to save a nine-year-old ceasefire from breaking down, officials said.
An Indian Home Ministry official said Federal Minister for Overseas Indian Affairs Oscar Fernandes and New Delhi's chief peace negotiator K. Padmanabhaiah started talks today with a five-member team of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN-IM) in the Thai capital.
The NSCN-IM, led by guerilla leaders Isak Chishi Swu and Thuingaleng Muivah, had entered into a ceasefire with the Indian government in 1997.
The two sides have since held at least 50 rounds of peace talks aimed at ending one of South Asia's longest running insurgencies that has claimed an estimated 25,000 lives since India attained independence in 1947.
"The talks are very delicately poised as the term of the present ceasefire between the government and the NSCN-IM expires on Tuesday," a senior home ministry official said by telephone from New Delhi requesting anonymity.
"The focus of the talks is now is to ensure that NSCN-IM first agrees to extend the ceasefire."
The NSCN-IM had threatened to pull out of the ceasefire if government negotiators failed to come up with a solution.
"We are not going to extend the ceasefire just for the sake of extending it. We would like the Indian government to come up with a concrete solution or else we are prepared for any eventuality," senior NSCN-IM leader Kraibo Chawang told IRNA by telephone from Nagaland's commercial hub Dimapur.
The NSCN-IM is one of the oldest and most powerful of about 30 rebel groups in India's northeast and wants to create a "Greater Nagaland" by slicing off parts of neighboring states that have Naga tribal populations.
The three regional governments of Assam, Manipur, and Arunachal Pradesh have already rejected the NSCN-IMs' demand for unification of Naga-dominated areas.
"This would be a very crucial round of talks and could determine which way the peace process moves from here on," Chawang said.
NSCN leader Muivah had recently said New Delhi's delay in finding a solution was "taxing their patience" and that this could be the last ceasefire unless there was a settlement.
"We are keeping our fingers crossed and would not like to hazard a guess about India's response. But our leaders have already talked about our decision," Chawang said.
Community leaders and tribal chiefs are worried that Nagaland might again witness a cycle of violence if the NSCN-IM decides to pull out of the peace talks.
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