Passports ready, NSCN leaders to arrive for talks

Indian passports have been issued to leaders of the Naga insurgent group NSCN(I-M), who are expected to arrive here on December 27 and meet Prime Minister A.B. Vajpayee the next day, official sources said here today.

While NSCN(I-M) general secretary Thuingaleng Muivah, who already possesses an Indian passport, will arrive from the Hague, the outfit’s chairman, Isak Chishi Swe, and three others have been issued passports by the Indian Mission in Oslo. They will arrive here from the Norwegian capital, sources said. The Naga delegation will be lodged by the Government in a ‘‘safe’’ hotel or guesthouse for security reasons, the sources added.

The crucial meeting between the Naga delegation and Vajpayee will also be attended by Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani and is likely to be held on December 28.

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‘‘Even though no accord is likely to be reached at the parleys, the talks with the highest Indian leadership are expected to provide a major boost to bring peace in Nagaland, which has been affected by decades of insurgency,’’ sources said.

The Government has acceded to the demand of the 3000-strong insurgent outfit by allowing the ban on it to lapse beyond November 26 and withdrawing cases against Muivah for an alleged plot to assasinate Nagaland CM S.C. Jamir.