NEW DELHI, JANUARY 31: T Muivah, general secretary of the main Naga rebel group National Socialist Council of Nagalim (Isak-Muivah) was arrested again by the Thailand authorities last night when he was trying to leave for Singapore on fake travel documents. Confirming Muivah's second arrest in a month, government sources in New Delhi said the peace talks scheduled with the NSCN(IM) leaders in Germany were cancelled. K Padmanabhaiah the Prime Minister's emissary, was supposed to leave for Germany this week. Muivah was earlier arrested at Bangkok airport on January 10. (Express News Service; The Indian Express; New Delhi; February 1, 2000)

NEW DELHI, February 1: National Socialist Council of Nagalim (Isak-Muivah) general secretary T Muivah was convicted for travelling on forged passport and jumping bail by the Songkhla Immigration Court in Thailand today. He was awarded one-year imprisonment and his bail bond of 2,00,000 Bhakt was also forfeited by the court. Muivah’s conviction was pronounced by the Thai court in connection with his arrest at Hatyai airport in South Thailand three days back. This was the second arrest of the NSCN(IM) leader in Thailand within a period of ten days. Earlier, he was arrested on January 19 by the Thai authorities while on his way from Karachi and was detained at Bangkok airport for travelling on a forged South Korean passport issued in the name of Huan Soo Chun. Soon after his arrest that day, he was put under protective custody at Hotel Basily. Later, he pleaded illness and was shifted to a hospital on January 28 from where he escaped until he surfaced at Hatyai three days back. He was re-arrested at Hatyai while he was trying to flee the country using a fake Singapore passport in the name of Sol Siang Hui. Sources here said that Muivah is being taken to Bangkok tomorrow to face further legal proceedings. Highly-placed government of India officials here suspect that Muivah might have been on his way to Europe where he was scheduled to attend a third round of talks with the government of India on February 3 next. Sources in the Union ministry of home affairs here said that so far they have not received any request from NSCN(IM) seeking assistance. The only communication the Union government has received so far from NSCN(IM) is a request for postponement of the talks scheduled to start by January 29 last by three days. Sources also said that the government of India has no option but to wait and watch the developments taking place in Thailand. Though Muivah is technically an Indian citizen, he had never applied for an Indian passport, said the sources, adding, so far he has been using Myanmarese, Bangladeshi and South Korean passports. Government of India interlocutor K Padmanabhaiah told newsmen here today that Muivah’s arrest was a setback for the peace process in Nagaland. Meanwhile, ministry sources said that there could be two reasons for Thai Government’s action. His arrest either could have been a part of the Thai Government’s crack down on the underground outfits having links with Myanmarese underground outfits. Muivah had close links with the underground elements in Myanmar. The other reason for his arrest may have something to do with the UN conference on trade and development, the Thai government is hosting in March next. US president Bill Clinton is expected to attend it. Going by the importance of the meeting, the tip-off for Muivah’s arrest might have come from the CIA, the sources said. But, whatever may be the reason, Muivah’s arrest is expected to deal a serious blow to all those insurgent outfits’ leaders using the Bangkok–Myanmar axis to carry out their activities. (Kalyan Barooah; The Assam Tribune; Guwahati; February 2, 2000)

The arrest, re-arrest and subsequent conviction of NSCN(IM) leader Thuingaleng Muivah at Bangkok for entering Thailand with forged passports and also for jumping bail have created a complicated situation as a big question mark now hangs over the peace process because of the element of uncertainty that has arisen following Muivah’s unlawful sojourn in search of arms and ammunition. At a time when the peace talks between the government of India and the NSCN(IM) were to be resumed in the first week of February, the first news of arrest of the NSCN(IM) general secretary at Bangkok on January 19 following his arrival there with a forged Korean passport came. His companion and the organisation’s chief arms procurer, I Shimray was also arrested as he also carried a fake passport. The prestigious Hong Kong journal, Far Eastern Economic Review was the first to break the story of Muivah and Shimray’s visit to Bangkok and their detention pending trial for illegal entry also made world news. Later he secured bail on a bond of two lakh Thai currency but as he jumped bail and was trying to leave Thailand for Singapore on another fake passport, the Thai immigration court sentenced him to a jail term for one year and forfeited his bail bond of 2 lakh Thai currency. Muivah had come to Bangkok this time from Pakistan and as such the question that arises is about his mission first to Pakistan and then to South East Asia even though it was known for quite some time that both Isak Chisi Swu, president and Thuingaleng Muivah, general secretary of the NSCN(IM) like several other leaders of militant outfits of India and the rest of South Asia had been using the Bangkok route to smuggle in arms and ammunition. The imprisonment of Muivah in Thailand is undoubtedly a big setback for NSCN(IM)’s Janus-faced participation in peace negotiations as the banned militant outfit has not yet named any other representative in place of the jailed general secretary.
Although the ceasefire and suspension of operations between the government of India and the NSCN(IM) had taken place following then Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda’s meeting with Isak Chishi Swu and T Muivah in Switzerland in February, 1997 when the Prime Minister had gone to the WEF summit at Davos, the initial groundwork for bringing the NSCN(IM) to the path of negotiations was done by Congress leader and Union minister of state Rajesh Pilot in November, 1996 during his secret trip to Bangkok for the purpose. The ceasefire with the NSCN(IM) came into force in July, 1997 and has been in force since then with several rounds of talks held first with Swaraj Kaushal as the interlocutor and then with former home secretary K Padmanabhaiah. Following the suspension of operations, the government of India has provided help to the NSCN(IM) for their internal communication and transportation. Besides, they have established heavily reinforced headquarters on Assam territory encroached by Nagaland and have been indulging in insurgent activities in Assam and Manipur areas with impunity as the government of India has not been able to persuade them to desist from such activities. Despite these difficulties the continuing peace efforts in consonance with the overwhelming aspiration of the Naga people for restoration of peace and harmony are a positive factor even though the Government’s peace scheme has not yet covered all the other militant groups including the NSCN (K). When asked about the need of covering all the other insurgent groups also, Union Home minister Lal Krishna Advani told media persons recently at Shillong that they had "inherited" this position [meaning talks only with the NSCN(IM)]. It is a different matter that the present government at the Centre does not treat the Northeast package announced by HD Deve Gowda as a similar inheritance.
Muivah’s arrest and imprisonment in Thailand have clearly brought to the fore the NSCN(IM)’s search for more arms and ammunition with continuing collusion with Pakistan’s ISI. The shadow cast by this development on the peace seeking process will have to be weighed cautiously by the Government. But there is neither the justification nor the likelihood of calling off the peace efforts unilaterally. And this is not the first occasion that an insurgent leader from Northeast India has been arrested for travelling with fake travel documents. About two years back ULFA general secretary Anup Chetia was arrested in Bangladesh for entering that country without valid travel documents. Now the ball is in the NSCN(IM)’s court and the holding of further rounds of talks would depend on the naming of any other representative in place of Muivah to take part in further negotiations. Nagaland chief minister SC Jamir has accused T Muivah of "treachery" and questioned the propriety of continuing talks with such unreliable elements. The predicament of the NSCN(IM) is no less serious as it is now compelled to grapple with a situation in which Muivah’s participation in leadership decisions and talks would not be available for a year or so. The government of India also would be required to formulate a proper tactical line to tackle the new situation. (Editorial; The Assam Tribune; Guwahati; February 4, 2000)

KOHIMA, February 2: The NSCN(IM) has reaffirmed its commitment to seek a solution to the long-drawn Naga problem through dialogue and maintained that the ‘hard earned’ peace process would see daylight very soon. The convenor of the steering committee of the NSCN(IM) Rev A Puni in his ‘NSCN Day’ speech on Monday said that to expedite the peace process, the continuation of the ongoing ceasefire was necessary so as to create a conducive atmosphere. However, the NSCN(IM) would be forced to change its soft course if pushed beyond endurance by Indian security forces, he said. (UNI; The Assam Tribune; Guwahati; February 4, 2000)

NEW DELHI, February 3: Imprisonment of Thuingaleng Muivah, the all-powerful general secretary of the NSCN(IM), has thrown the entire Naga peace process into jeopardy, with the Centre apprehending renewed clashes for supremacy between the two factions of the outfit. Notwithstanding the brave front put up by the central government officials, here, who maintain that they are engaged in negotiations with an organisation as a whole and not with any individual, detention of the Naga leader has left the government clueless. Officials here concede that it was Muivah who was the main man and all negotiations held so far involved him. The fate of the third round of negotiations which was to have been held in Europe from February 3, now hangs in balance, with the government team headed by chief interlocutor, K Padmanabhaiah anxiously awaiting a word from the NSCN(IM). Sources said that according to information pouring in from Thailand, Muivah is being moved from Hatyai to Bangkok for trial involving other charges including travelling on forged passport and travel documents. The general secretary was on Tuesday last sentenced to one year’s imprisonment by Songkhla Immigration Court for jumping bail and travelling on forged passport. The ministry is, however, equally clueless on the sudden crackdown on the underground leader, despite the fact that Muivah has been operating from Bangkok for over past 20 years. In fact, till about talks with the NSCN(IM) faction started some one-and-a-half-year back, the government of India had been urging the government of Thailand to mount a crackdown on all the Northeast based underground outfits operating out of the country, but to no avail. Sources say that according to intelligence reports, even now, over 50 NSCN(IM) office bearers are present in the country. Apart from being one of the main transhipment point for arms and ammunition to the Northeast, Thailand is a country where several outfits including NSCN(IM) and ULFA have substantial investment interest worth hundreds of crore of rupees. On the flip side, the government of India feels that the crackdown will serve as a warning to all the leaders operating out of the country. (Staff Correspondent; The Assam Tribune; Guwahati; February 4, 2000)

BANGKOK, February 3: Thuingaleng Muivah, general secretary of the outlawed National Socialist Council of Nagalim (NSCN-IM), has led Thai police on a wild chase around the country, further embarrassing security agencies already being criticised for allowing two major hostage sieges to occur in the past four months. Muivah was arrested on January 19 at Bangkok's international airport and charged with illegal entry for travelling on a false South Korean passport. The Nation newspaper reported yesterday that Muivah was put in the custody of Special Branch police, but somehow managed to obtain bail. The Hong Kong-based Far Eastern Economic Review reported in its current edition that Muivah had arrived in Thailand from Pakistan, where he is believed to have concluded an arms purchase. (Associated Press; The Assam Tribune; Guwahati; February 4, 2000)

NEW DELHI, February 4: The Centre on Thursday said the National Socialist Council of Nagalim (Isak-Muivah) (NSCN-IM) leader T Muivah, who was recently arrested in Bangkok and sentenced to one year’s imprisonment, had links with Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI). This was proved by Muivah’s visit to Karachi, an official spokesman said, adding that "the visit of Muivah to Karachi proves beyond the shadow of any doubt his links with Pakistan’s ISI." This linkage would naturally resist any pragmatic solution to the Naga problem. "How can an indisciplined leader, lacking moral courage and concern for civility, be relied upon to deal with the Naga issue in a fair and impartial manner. It is obvious that Muivah has always placed his narrow parochial interests over and above the Naga aspirations," the spokesman said. He said the re-arrest of Muivah on January 29 while trying to leave for Kuala Lumpur from Hatyai airport in southern Thailand is an attempt to jump the bail had "exposed" the Naga leader and brought to the fore his dubious personality traits, besides his total disregard for the laws of the country where he has been presiding for a number of years. Muivah was arrested earlier on January 19 while trying to enter Thailand from Karachi on false travel documents and had been released on bail bond of 200,000 bahts (local currency). (UNI; The Assam Tribune; Guwahati; February 5, 2000)

KOHIMA, February 7: The third round of peace talks between India and members of National Socialist Council of Nagalim (Isak-Muivah) (NSCN-IM) is likely to begin at The Hague. The Prime Minister’s special emissary K Padmanabhaiah told a local daily that the talks was scheduled to be held at the beginning of February but had to be postponed at the request of the NSCN(IM) following the arrest of its chairman Muivah at Bangkok and his subsequent imprisonment. The government was committed to continuing parleys with the NSCN(IM) but there was no word from the militant outfit as to who would head the negotiating team in the absence of Muivah. We have no problem in resuming dialogue, after all our talk is with NSCN(IM) and not with a particular individual, he said. Meanwhile, official sources here said that Athing Shimray, who was also arrested in Bangkok along with Muivah for entering the country with fake documents and was on bail, has reportedly escaped from Thailand. Both Muivah and Shimray were on bail and lodged in a hotel under protective custody. While Shimray was able to escape, Muivah was caught at Hai Yai airport. Another report said chairman of NSCN(IM) Isak Chishi Swu, who was also in Thailand has left that country for an undisclosed destination following the arrest of Muivah. (UNI; The Assam Tribune; Guwahati; February 8, 2000)

NEW DELHI, February 9 — The forthcoming round of peace talks between National Socialist Council of Nagalim (Isak-Muivah) group and the government have been deferred as the underground group has refused to nominate anyone to replace their jailed leader Thuingaleng Muivah at the parleys. The talks were scheduled to resume last week in the Netherland capital of The Hague, but now a big question mark has appeared with the NSCN faction refusing to nominate any other leader to hold talks after the general secretary Muivah was sentenced to one-year jail term by a Thai Court for jumping bail on charges of travelling on a fake passport. (PTI; The Assam Tribune; Guwahati; February 10, 2000)

On January 19, Thuingaleng Muivah and a close associate stepped off Thai Airways flight TG 508 from Karachi at Bangkok International Airport. The immigration officer, according to one account, asked Muivah, the general secretary of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (IM) and the main Naga negotiator at peace talks with India, a question in Korean. He was carrying a South Korean passport but could not reply. The suspicious officer took him in for questioning. The other Naga went to another immigration counter and slipped out.
Other accounts of the initial arrest and then of Muivah posting bail it has been reported that 200,000 baht bail was set and his subsequent release on January 26 are sketchy. But what happened after that is clear: Muivah left Bangkok apparently in a bid to leave the country and was again held at an airport in Songkhla Province as he was about to board a flight to Penang in Malaysia.
``He was carrying a Singaporean passport in the name of Sung Sieng Hui when he was rearrested,'' said a court official at Songkhla. For the second offence, Muivah was sentenced on February 1 to one year in jail. This is a stunning personal setback to Muivah for he has never been in prison before although he has been under combat fire and injured in clashes in his 36-year career as one of South Asia's most prominent insurgent leaders. His earlier offences are yet to come to trial entering Thailand on a false passport and then jumping bail.
Muivah is regarded as a very tough person both physically and mentally. But it is not known how he is bearing up to the ignominy of being held on what is a petty criminal offence. Efforts are being made by the NSCN leadership, scattered across Thailand and other parts of South East Asia as well as by their strong allies in the non-government sector in Europe, to secure his release.
Muivah is 66 years old. But his energy, determination and capacity to travel and lobby for his cause are apparently boundless. It is also not that the Thai authorities did not know of his earlier presence in Bangkok, a city that the NSCN has had offices and homes for their leaders and senior cadres for several years. But they have virtually turned a blind eye to all this and Muivah's arrest on a technical offence was almost accidental.
Thai security agencies have been on high alert after the recent incident in Bangkok when Myanmarese rebels captured their country's embassy and held diplomats and staff hostage before being overwhelmed by the local police. Bangkok has been gearing up for the United Nations Conference for Trade and Development and there have been security concerns about Afghan or Chechen militants slipping into the country. Thus, Muivah's arrest was a reflection of this rather than any effort to specifically ``get'' him.
The Thai press has pulled no punches in its criticism of the way Muivah's case was handled. In a blistering attack on internal security, The Nation reported that ``despite tough talk about sniffing out foreign terrorists just days before a major international conference, Thai authorities were humiliated once again when they lost track of a known insurgent and let him skip freely around the country.''
The arrest has put the NSCN(IM) in a quandary. For the past years, what is called as the ``collective leadership'' of the group has been holding talks with Indian negotiators in various parts of the world Bangkok, Geneva, Davos and now at The Hague in the Netherlands. The latter venue is the location of choice for both sides and a round of talks was scheduled for later this month. But the ``collective leadership'' has essentially meant the team of Isak Chisi Swu, the Chairman of the organisation, and Muivah. In real terms, it is Muivah who does most of the talking.
In his absence, who will accompany Swu to the talks? That is not clear yet although there have been unconfirmed reports the former Naga Army chief VS Atem could fill the gap. This is not clear for the NSCN is a tightly-run organisation and it is unlikely to break up unless Muivah is unable to reach his associates and cadres for a long period.
The NSCN(IM) is closely controlled by Muivah and Swu -- who are completely different to each other. The latter is deeply religious and soft-spoken while Muivah is blunt and leftist in his approach. Indeed, one account in the Far Eastern Economic Review has described the NSCN as ``a Maoist-inspired group of fundamentalist-Christian separatists.''
Muivah's detention in what can only be described as strange circumstances has placed a question mark over the future of the dialogue. It has been postponed not cancelled. Yet, the government of India is extremely disturbed by Muivah's visit to Pakistan just before the discussions were to be resumed at the Hague. It is believed that he was in Pakistan for at least one week before his ill-fated return to Bangkok. Who he met and why is not clear but government officials believe that there were interactions with the ISI and that Muivah has visited Pakistan a number of times in the past year.
Muivah's presence in Pakistan has stunned the government especially as he had been participating in peace talks with New Delhi. The visit assumes greater significance in the light of the collapse of relations between India and Pakistan following the Kargil conflict and the hijacking of the Indian Airlines flight from Kathmandu to Kandahar.
What has been also of concern was that Muivah was reportedly accompanied by a younger associate who is in charge of arms purchase from foreign countries. Of equal concern is the impact of the arrest on Nagaland and Manipur, where Muivah's presence and that of his cadres is most visibly felt. There is concern in the hills there and considerable confusion. While the NSCN(IM) has demanded a boycott of the Manipur elections (February 12 and 22), there are many Nagas who want to vote but are afraid of risking their lives if they defy the NSCN diktat. Yet, not less than 58 Naga candidates have filed their candidatures from the hill constituencies and are openly declaring their differences with the militants.
Muivah is a much-romanticised figure. A member of the entrepreneurial Tangkhul tribe of Manipur, which has few members in Nagaland, he undertook his own version of the Long March in 1966, leading a team of 300 Naga rebels to Yunnan in South West China. He opened up a completely new aspect of insurgency and militancy in the North East; other groups also went later to China for training in arms and ideology. He was a trailblazer and one of the major figures of insurgency in South and South East Asia. The Mizos also followed his path.
But in 1976, China stopped assistance to the rebels and the Nagas turned again to Pakistan, which had been helping them since the 1960s. The Pakistan connection is, thus, not new. Pakistani assistance has been low-level, it is believed that this is now likely to be stepped up in the Northeast and efforts to unite the main insurgent groups in Assam with the NSCN(IM).
Yet, Muivah, who has outwitted and outmanoeuvred the Indian Army, his political foes in Nagaland and his insurgent rivals for over 35 years, is also feared and disliked by Nagas and others who believe that his group has been responsible for the deaths of numerous opponents. He suffered a split in his own organisation in 1988 after one group led by SS Khaplang launched an armed attack on Muivah.
Recently, following the abortive assassination attempt on Nagaland chief minister SC Jamir, the state government announced a 10 lakh rupee award for the capture for a Muivah aide who is the commander of the ``Naga Army.''Clearly, the government of India would need to resolve these obvious internal contradictions. On the one hand, it is negotiating with the NSCN abroad. Yet, this very organisation is involved in incidents in Assam, Nagaland and Manipur and is accused of attacking the Nagaland chief minister. (Sanjoy Hazarika; The Indian Express; New Delhi; February 11, 2000)