Myanmar picks rebel thorn with NSCN

New Delhi, July 6 : Myanmar has agreed to ask the NSCN (Khaplang) to reduce strength of the Meitei militants to one-third of their current strength.

This could be seen as a move to moderate Myanmar’s failure to push out Manipur-based insurgents out of the country.

The agreement was reached at a meeting of Union ministry of home affairs officials with a nine-member Myanmar delegation in Calcutta on June 26 and 27, sources told The Telegraph.

Another commitment of this decision was made to Indian officials in Myanmar on Wednesday, the source added.

There are at least 3,500 Meitei militants in different camps across Kachin, Sagaing and Chin areas of Myanmar.

India is trying to help the newly democratised Myanmar regime to co-operate on the ground with its forces.

“The cadre strength of Meitei groups will be reduced to one-third by Myanmar,” a government source said.

This would be effected through the NSCN, led by S.S. Khaplang, who mentored several Meitei groups from Manipur for many years without much opposition from the state.

However, a day before Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Yangon and Naypyidaw on May 28, the Myanmar government directed Khaplang to ask Manipur-based groups to get out of the country by June 10.

As the Myanmar government geared to flush out insurgents, the Centre has beefed up security in Manipur along the border areas.

The NSCN entered in a peace pact with the Myanmar government in early May. But the pact did not have any impact on the Manipur-based militant groups and they continued to remain entrenched in the camps.

Meitei militant groups are believed to be friends with senior Myanmar army officials and have been able to ward off any plans of offensive action against them.

Indian officials said “two things cannot co-exist” — the privilege of a ceasefire offered to NSCN by Myanmar and the militant group’s continued support to Meitei groups.

Intelligence sources said there was evidence that information about planning offensives were “leaked to militants” in the nick of time. “We have shared a list of 54 camps of the Meitei groups with Myanmar,” said a source.

The Myanmar delegation was led by its director-general (general administration).

“Many of them are believed to have shifted base to other places,” said the official. Besides 54 major camps, the militants have also set up temporary camps that are mobile.

In May, Myanmar President Thein Sein’s message was conveyed to rebel groups like PLA, UNLF and Prepak through Khaplang but the militants simply shifted bases to other areas, including the Chin hills. This time round, the pressure is mounted by New Delhi.

Sein’s directives were in line with what both leaders buttressed later in the joint statement.

“Both leaders reiterated the assurance that territories of either country would not be allowed to be used for activities inimical to the other, including for training, sanctuary and other operations by terrorist and insurgent organisations and their operatives,” the joint statement of May 28 said.

A liaison office will be operationalised by Myanmar in the border town of Panhsaun in Myanmar by October, a source said.