GUWAHATI, May 22: Senior officials of the Intelligence Bureau have begun preliminary discussions with the top leaders of the outlawed National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN) faction headed by Issak Chisi Swu and Thuiengleng Muivah in Geneva this week.

Revealing this, highly-placed sources in the Union Home Ministry said the discussions were a sequel to former prime minister H D Deve Gowda's informal meeting with the two leaders at Zurich in February this year, when the latter had gone to Davos to attend an international conference.

The discussions have raised hopes in the government, with the United Front regime conceding to the first condition set by the NSCN to begin negotiations in a ``third'' country.

Meanwhile, Prime Minister I K Gujral, who is currently on a five-day tour of the Northeastern region, stated here on Tuesday that his government had not given up hopes of achieving a breakthrough with the NSCN (I-M), the biggest and the strongest rebel group in the region.

Gujral has laid stress on what he termed as patience in dealing with the militants, and said that the government was not ``at war'' with the armed rebel groups. ``Patience is most important in dealing with them. After all they are our own children, our own boys, and we are not challenging them but motivating them to come back,'' Gujral said.

The coming forward of the NSCN(I-M) faction to hold talks with the government, however, has evoked strong resentment in the other NSCN faction headed by S S Khaplang.

Khaplang, whose faction is at war with the other group, has recently termed Swu and Muivah as traitors, while Swu too has retorted back with the same words.

Swu, who is camping in Europe, in a recent interview had in fact expressed optimism over the prospects of ushering in an era of peace in the region, adding that he was sent feelers immediately after Gujral took over as Prime Minister.

The NSCN(I-M) leader had been describing the Khaplang faction as reactionary forces and ``virtual stooges of the Indian government,'' which in turn has prompted Khaplang to dismiss Swu and muivah as ``old and tired'' people who were running out of steam.

Khaplang's argument has been that the Issak-Muivah group had played into the hands of the government and were trying to neutralise his faction, and in the process all other ``revolutionary forces'' in the Indo-Burma region.Meanwhile, certain reports claiming a ``unilateral ceasefire'' declared by the NSCN(I-M) has created confusion in the region.

While the army has seen it as a possible attempt by the rebel group to buy time and regroup, the intelligence agencies on their part has termed it as part of the on-going parleys between the NSCN(I-M) leaders and the government agencies abroad.

The acceptance of the offer for talks by the NSCN(I-M) itself is a major turning point in the history of insurgency in the northeast. The government has always described NSCN(I-M), the 17-year old group as the ``mother of insurgencies'' in the region, and any settlement with the leaders of this group is bound to have its impact on other groups like the the United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA).

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.