Meghalaya CM appeals to HNLC to come back for peace talks

Syllad | The Rising MeghalayaJanuary 15, 2025

Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma on Wednesday appealed to the proscribed Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC) to come back to the negotiating table for resolving issues that will ensure lasting peace in the state.

Speaking to media persons, Sangma said that the government is absolutely open for peace talks with the outfit.

“We invite the organization for talks and we are happy to again facilitate the entire process like we did last time,” he said while referring to the first round of peace talks held in 2023.

He said things could not move forward after the outfit had decided to pull out of the peace talks in January last year.

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Asserting the need to overcome the challenges and hurdles, Sangma said, “…if we want to truly move forwards, we have to overcome those challenges and the only way we can overcome those challenges is to have dialogues and discuss and find out ways and means. So we urge look there could be challenges, there could be some areas and hurdles that will come up, which is natural in difficult discussion and negotiations like these but that should not let us down, that should ensure in fact make us more firm to say that we want long lasting peace and we want to ensure that all these issues are addressed and wherever concerns are there from their side, we need to sit down and discuss within the constitutional framework, within discussion with MHA and state government and with the organization, we should move forward.”

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“That is what our appeal is, we would want to once again give a message that we are ready to discuss and let us come to the table to talk and whatever concerns that are there, the best to resolve those concerns is through dialogues,” he added.

On the HNLC’s demand for general amnesty, the CM however said, “This aspect has been discussed many times. From the government of India point of view it has mentioned that we cannot announce that right now, because obviously there are certain cases, laws, rules that are there from the past so obviously we are giving way forward.”

“We are saying that look let us discuss this aspect. There are certain heinous crimes are there which certain laws are in place for us as a state government. We cannot just say everything is off, we cannot do it, it has to be from the government of India level to discuss this but if you want to discuss that, we have to sit down. Before we sit down you are asking us to give us general amnesty, how we start the discussion is what I am saying,” he stated.

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Stating that the government has assured a safe passage to the outfit, Sangma said, “So when we discuss then all this issues will come up and then case to case basis issues can be taken up but before discussion how do we put conditions and government of India to do this, so it is not possible.”

He assured that the government will try its best to discuss the matter with the government of India and said, “but it is something I cannot give commitment on government of India because obviously MHA is the government of India ministry and it has to be done at that level.”