New Delhi:
Nagaland rebel leaders Isak Chisi Swu and Thuingaleng Muivah of the NSCN-IM arrived in Delhi late Saturday night to hold talks with the Centre's new pointsman, R S Pandey to carry forward the dialogue process on the Naga issue.
Muivah set the tone for the talks saying they will not withdraw their demand for sovereignty for Nagaland and blamed the Centre for the deadlock.
Swu and Muivah, who had last visited India in December 2006 and held talks with government leaders, have come to carry forward the dialogue process on the vexed Naga issue a fortnight after the government appointed R S Pandey, a former Petroleum Secretary, as the new interlocutor on Naga talks.
Union Home Secretary G K Pillai told newsmen in Dimapur on Saturday, "Muivah accepted the invitation from the Government of India communicated through the new Interlocutor R S Pandey to resume the peace dialogue."
The two top Naga rebel leaders, who are based in the Dutch capital Amsterdam, are likely to call on the Prime Minister and Home Minister P Chidambaram, official sources said.
Ahead of meetings with political leadership, the Naga leaders will hold talks with Pandey on March two and three, they said.
The two leaders were also expected to visit Nagaland besides addressing to the issue of clashes between the cadres of NSCN-IM and its rival NSCN (Khaplang), which resulted in unrest in the recent past.
Sources in the government said they would try and iron out the differences with the Centre on key issues, including the sovereignty demand under which the NSCN-IM has proposed a federal relationship with the Indian Union.