Shillong, Nov 9: Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma on Wednesday said the official peace talks with the proscribed Hynñiewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC) will start very soon.
“So process is on and we are committed. There are talks happening. We expect more talks to happen in the future at an official level and I hope that official talks will also be starting very soon,” Sangma told reporters.
He added, “In fact the MHA and Union home minister himself has been continuously monitoring this issue and they are also very keen that we are able to take the peace talks to a logical conclusion.”
When asked, Sangma said discussions are on and ground works in many ways are being done.
“It is very difficult for me to really talk of it because it would not be correct but let me just say this that numbers of meetings at an unofficial level has taken place (as) some time has been sought to get some things in place and certain procedures to be followed and so on and so forth.
So the process is on but as I said it is not like a government programme or a programme meeting or normal discussion that take place where we just say let us meet tomorrow – a lot of preparation goes into this, a lot of background work that needs to be done and lots of discussions, pre-discussions.
Therefore, it has to be done in a way that we are able to take everybody into confidence and hence it is important to ensure that that aspect is also looked into So one needs to be firmed and keep pushing but one also need to give the space to ensure that the confidence and the overall trust and comfort level is build up,” he added.