|HT|
Leaders of the proscribed Khasi rebel outfit, Hynñiewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC), have been granted safe passage to allow them to hold negotiations with the state government’s interlocutor, a representative of the outfit Sadon K Blah said on Tuesday.
Blah, who is also president of Hynñiewtrep National Youth Front (HNYF), said at least three meetings have been held with the executive members of the HNLC with the government’s interlocutor Peter S Dkhar, a retired IAS officer.
“(Subsequent to this), the central and state governments have agreed to grant a safe passage to leaders of the HNLC, who are to be engaged in the talks for the peace process,” he said. The safe passage will enable the HNLC leaders to have direct discussions with the authorities and this will speed up the peace process.
Blah said the talks are likely to take place over the next few days or weeks.
The group, which has claimed to fight for the Khasi-Jaintia tribal community against outsiders, agreed to sit down for talks with the state government in February this year.
Asked if the group will sign a ceasefire pact with the government, Blah said: “If the ceasefire has to happen, it will happen only after the HNLC has put forward their point of view in front of the central and state governments.”
“It is only after the safe passage, having been agreed, then only things will move forward and the public will be in the know what is the second chapter or political agendas or issues that the HNLC would like to put forward to the state and central governments,” he said.
He said the HNLC was serious about the peace process and refrained from any “aggressive activities”.
Asked if HNLC’s decision to join the mainstream will mark the end of militancy in the Khasi-Jaiñtia Hills region, Blah said there was no certainty about this.
“In most cases, you will find militancy in the North East is because of the feeling of animosity against the system that disgruntled elements are there and people who are not happy with the system. I cannot say that once the HNLC joins the mainstream, it will be the end (to militancy), it might be an end to the existing level of militancy, but I don’t think it will be an end to militancy itself,” he said.
Blah said the ongoing peace process with the HNLC is totally different from the peace settlement with the disbanded A’chik National Volunteer Council (ANVC), once a powerful rebel group which operated in Meghalaya’s Garo Hills region, and ANVC-B. The difference will be on the agendas and the issues that the HNLC has which are totally different from what the ANVC had put forth before the government, he said.
(Except for the headline and the pictorial description, this story has not been edited by THE DEN staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)