• What kind of peace efforts have been made so far?

In April 1964 the government of India constituted a peace mission with Rev Michel Scott, a Baptist Church leader and British national, then Assam Chief Minister Bimala Prasad Chaliha and Jai Prakash Narayan. This group brought about a ceasefire agreement between the underground leaders and the government of India on August 15 1964. The ceasefire, however, failed and the peace mission was subsequently dissolved.

In September 1964, the government and FGN held the first peace talks. The 1975 Shillong Accord too fizzled out. In June 1995 then Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao met Swu and Muivah in Paris, and held preliminary talks on a prospective peace process. Rao met them again in September 1995 in New York. After two years of behind-the-scene preparations, the two sides announced on July 25, 1997 their decision to enter into a “cease-fire agreement” effective from August 1, 1997. Since then the two sides have met nearly 50 times, in different places including Amsterdam, Bangkok, New Delhi and finally on July 31, 2007 at Dimapur in Nagaland.

• What is the main hurdle in the process?

The NSCN(IM) wants “unification” of all Naga-inhabited areas of the Northeast (including those in Assam, Manipur and Arunachal Pradesh) as well as those in Myanmar to constitute a sovereign Nagalim. The other states obviously do not want to part with their territories. The NSCN does not appear agreeable to a solution that falls short of anything short of a sovereign state.