Jamir asked to stay away from US meet

NEW DELHI, July 16: The Government is said to have ``advised'' Nagaland Chief Minister S C Jamir to stay away from the proposed conference ...

NEW DELHI, July 16: The Government is said to have “advised” Nagaland Chief Minister S C Jamir to stay away from the proposed conference of Nagaland insurgent groups in the United States. The Centre is of the view that Jamir’s involvement in the talks will be improper at this stage.

Jamir, who had earlier said that the conference was a major “peace initiative”, now blames it “all on a misunderstanding”. The conference, organised by the Baptist church, will be held in Atlanta on July 28.

The Church has invited senior leaders of both factions of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland, NSCN (K) and NSCN (Isak-Muivah), to attend the conference. However, NSCN (I-M) had on Tuesday declined to accept the invitation stating the reason that Jamir would be present there. It is not yet known if NSCN (I-M) will change its decision now that Jamir will no longer be going.

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The conference was organised following negotiations by Satish Chandran, former principal secretary to the Prime Minister, and some senior Intelligence Bureau officials with leaders of the NSCN (I-M) group in Switzerland last month.

The Centre has been insisting that the Church — one of the most influential institutions in the North-East except in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh — exercise its clout in winning back the rebel groups. The government will hold another round of negotiations with NSCN (I-M) next month, it is learnt. The agenda for the meeting will include discussions on “limited autonomy” for the region. It is likely that the next round of negotiations will have N N Vohra, principal secretary to the Prime Minister, leading the delegation which will comprise four senior IB officials.