SHILLONG, Jan 19: The state government on Friday appealed to the proscribed HNLC to review its decision to withdraw from the tripartite peace talks.
Deputy Chief Minister, Prestone Tynsong told reporters that the government is ready to meet the HNLC top leaders at any place where they feel safe to continue with the peace process.
The NPP-led MDA 2.0 government is fully committed to taking the peace talks to its logical end, he asserted.
“But now it is for the HNLC top leaders to decide since this kind of golden opportunity will not happen now and then. We have accepted the HNLC’s letter of withdrawal from the peace talks but the door is still open to continue with the peace talks,” he said.
Tynsong said the state government is insisting that top leaders should be part of the peace talks since those who had been authorised by the top leadership to negotiate were not able to take any decision.
He said it was wrong on the part of the HNLC to accuse the Centre and the state government of not considering its demands.
“The letter from the HNLC was shocking for both the Centre and the state government since everything was going very smoothly,” Tynsong said.
“Regarding the outfit’s first demand for dropping all cases against its cadres, the interlocutor of the government and the authorised representatives of the Centre asked it to submit a list of such cadres,” Tynsong said.
“These names were never furnished. How will we be able to know how many cadres of the outfits have cases against them in different courts?” he asked.
He said the government provided safe passage to the leaders of the outfit who came to facilitate the peace talks and dropped them on September 16 last year.
