Ratnadip Choudhury
Guwahati
NSCN-IM general secretary Thuinglang Muivah
Riding close on the heels of the first ever formal peace talks between United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA)’s pro talk faction and the Centre, the Commander-in-chief of the banned outfit Paresh Barua, who leads the anti-talk camp, has hit out at his one-time ‘close friend’, General Secretary of National Socialist Council of Nagaland (Issac Muivah) (NSCN-IM), Thuinglang Muivah accusing him of disintegrating the Northeast insurgent movements by siding with the Indian Government and, thereby, failing to keep his promise made to the people of Nagaland.
The NSCN(IM) has been involved in a peace parley with New Delhi since 1997. Union Home Ministry insiders have confirmed to TEHELKA that a new settlement of the long-continuing Naga conflict will be achieved before Christmas. In such a scenario a snub from Paresh Barua will leave Muivah and his team in utter discomfort.
“Muivah is responsible for the disintegration of Northeast insurgent struggle for sovereignty. The Government for long has been taking advantage of the discord among various outfits of the region. Way back in 1985, ULFA has proposed to NSCN (IM) general secretary Th.Muivah to initiate a unity move among Northeast rebel groups since ULFA feared that Government will try to divide and encourage fratricidal killings. But Muivah sided with the Government of India. Thus Muivah has failed to keep his promise to the people of Nagaland,” reads the statement issued by Arunoday Dohutia, press secretary of Paresh Barua led anti-talk faction of ULFA.
The statement further referred to the 10 October incident where there was a huge gun battle between the NSCN (IM) and Zeliangrong United Front (ZUF) in Manipur. The Barua faction feels Muivah’s decision to go alone and not unite the various rebel outfits of Northeast had dealt a blow to the survival of the underground insurgent movements in the region and, in the process, he has betrayed other rebel outfits and people of Northeast.
Independent watchers feel that by issuing such statements the anti-talk faction of ULFA is making a mistake. “The problem of division among various rebel groups in the Northeast is nothing new. It has been there because of high assertions of ethnicity that reduced the ground for the outfits to come closer. The Indian State has always been able to take advantage of this situation, thus by making such statement Paresh Barua is falling into the same trap which he accuses Muivah of falling into,” explained Subir Bhaumik, Editor, Seven Sisters Post.
Between 1985 and 1990 ULFA’s cadres were baptised in terror by the NSCN. They used to share camps in the head quarters of undivided NSCN in Kesan Chanlam on the other side of the Indo-Myanmar border across from Nagaland. After NSCN got divided, the military wing of ULFA under Barua’s leadership has maintained close ties with both the factions. “We have come to know from surrendered ULFA cadres that once Paresh was fond of Muivah but friction developed between the two outfits after Paresh became close to the rival faction of Khaplang-led NSCN-IM. ULFA and NSCN once got engaged in a gun fight over control of a corridor in NC hills,” a senior military intelligence officer said. NSCN(IM) top leader Anthony Shimray, who was in charge of the outfits arms procurement, was hand-in-gloves with Barua before his arrest in Nepal.
Ratnadip Choudhury is a Principal Correspondent with Tehelka.
ratnadip@tehelka.com
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