SHILLONG, JULY 20: Home Minister Lahkmen Rymbui on Wednesday assured that the state government will ensure the peace talks with the banned Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC) reach its logical conclusion.
“We did not set any timeline but as I said the convergence of mind is needed to solve the issue and I hope it will be as early as possible. I will not reply on whether they are here or they are there, my issue is that talks should start and it should reach its logical conclusion,” Rymbui told reporters.
This came a day after the HNLC representative and president of the Hynniewtrep National Youth Front (HNYF) Sadon K Blah informed about the Centre and state government’s decision to grant a safe passage for the leaders of the outfit to come to the negotiating table.
Stating that it is not a question of safe passage or anything, Rymbui however said, “We (government) will do everything to see that the talks could happen in a conducive atmosphere or in an atmosphere where mutual trust and confidence is there so that peace in the state of Meghalaya could be achieved.”
He said the peace process has started as the state government believes that issues can be resolved through dialogue across the table.
“As you know, the HNLC has agreed to talk with the government unconditionally and they have nominated Sadon K Blah as their representative and the government has nominated PS Dkhar retired IAS as our representative so that the talk could happen and reach its logical conclusion,” Rymbui said.
On Tuesday, the HNYF president had said at least three rounds of meetings have been held with the executive members of the HNLC at the level of the foreign secretary and political secretary in the presence of the state government appointed interlocutor Peter S Dkhar, who is a retired IAS officer.
“(Subsequent to this), the central and state governments have agreed to grant a safe passage to the leaders of the HNLC, who are to be engaged in the talks for the peace process, where they can come and go and may be stationed themselves within the territory of India,” he had said.
He had added, “The safe passage will enable the HNLC leaders to come and have a direct discussion with the authorities, be it of the state or central government. This will speed up the peace process if the leaders of the HNLC are able to join the discussion and negotiate across the table,” he added.
According to him, discussion across the table between the centre and state government and HNLC is likely to take place in the next few days or weeks.
On February 9, the Meghalaya Democratic Alliance government had welcomed the banned Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC)’s offer for unconditional peace talks.
This was followed by the appointment of retired IAS officer Peter S Dkhar as the state government interlocutor on March 10. Dkhar is being assisted by Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) Adviser, North East and retired Indian Police Service (IPS) officer AK Mishra.
Happy with the government’s positive response, the HNLC also appointed the HNYF president as its representative to pursue the peace talks with the government. Blah accordingly welcomed the outfit’s decision on March 29.
