New Delhi, December 06: Top leaders of the NSCN(I-M), who arrived here late last night, would begin their peace talks by holding a dialogue with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh tomorrow.

Though as per the earlier schedule, NSCN (I-M) Chairman Isak Chisi Swu and General Secretary Thuingaleng Muivah were slated to meet Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil today, but the meeting was postponed after the Naga leaders expressed desire to meet the Prime Minister first.

Upon their arrival here, Muivah had asserted that a solution to the Naga issue has to be based on the "uniqueness" of Naga culture and ethnicity.

The two leaders were received by hundreds of Naga students and leaders at the Indira Gandhi International Airport here last night after they arrived from Amsterdam.

NSCN (IM) has been pressing for creation of Greater Nagaland which encompasses parts of neighboring states, including Manipur, which has strongly opposed any such move.

The Manipuri sentiment was reflected in weeks-long violent agitations in the State in 2001.The two Naga leaders maintained that they were here for talks with the Centre and wanted to resolve the Naga issue through peaceful means.

The Naga leaders, who would be in the capital for a week, would be meeting Congress President Sonia Gandhi and leader of Opposition LK Advani before going to Nagaland where they would be spending their Christmas.

After their visit to Nagaland, where they will meet NSCN cadres, the duo will come back to Delhi to carry on the dialogue with Centre's interlocutor on the Naga peace process K Padmanabhaiah.

Its rival faction NSCN (Khaplang) has been accusing it of "undermining" the issue of sovereignty and talking to New Delhi.

Swu and Muivah had visited India in January last year after a gap of over three decades and met then Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and his deputy LK Advani.

The Naga leaders visit to India followed an assurance from the Government to hold "intensive and undisturbed" peace negotiations.

NNN adds from Delhi: Emotional scenes were witnessed at the Indira Gandhi International Airport where thousands of Nagas including social leaders, students and well wishers sang the popular song "We Shall Overcome" as the aircraft from Amsterdam carrying Th Muivah and Isak Chisi Swu touched down at the airport.

Some were seen weeping while singing the song.

Waving the blue Naga flags the Nagas at the airport braved the cold till midnight as the flight was delayed for about an hour.

As Th Muivah and Isak Chisi Swu walk past the visitors' airport corridor, the people in waiting continued to sing in chorus "We Shall Overcome Someday".

A Naga Social leader who was part of the delegation to recieve the IM leaders told Newmai News Network at the Indira Gandhi International Airport that they had entrusted the Naga volunteers to give extra security cover to the home-coming NSCN-IM leaders in addition to the Indian security personnel and the boys from the NSCN-IM itself.

"This time we will strictly frisk and screen everything from furniture to window curtains for the safety of the two leaders," said the Naaa leader.

Former Chief of the Army Staff of the NSCN-IM VS Atem was among the few leaders who came along with Th Muivah and Isak Chisi Swu from Amsterdam late last night.

Comment