Political parleys with underground outfit Hmar People Convention (D) in Mizoram are on the cards. Mizoram home minister R Lalzirliana informed this while attending the political session at the Congress Bhawan on Friday.
He expressed optimism for peace between the Mizoram government and the underground outfit Hmar People Convention (D) saying official talks were conducive and political agreement would be made soon.
“Both the government and the HPCD wanted an amicable solution, and hence I believe that both the parties will be willing to open the smoother side of our faces,” R Lalzirliana said.
The Mizoram government led by Additional Home Secretary Lalbiakzama and representatives of HPCD held five rounds of talk last year. Official sources reported last year that a conclusive talk could have happened last year itself but delayed.
“Political level talks will be held on March 5, 2018, I hope the Hmar leaders and the government of Mizoram will set their difference aside for the sake of peace,” the Mizo home minister said.
Last week the chief minister of Mizoram Lal Thanhawla said political talks could have been held sooner but couldn’t due to time constraints.
The official parleys had already made a proposed bill on creation, power and functions of Sinlung Hills Council (SHC) which was accepted during the peace talks held on September 21 and 22 last year in Aizawl.
The members of the Council of Ministers are already briefed on the proposed Sinlung Hills Council Bill, by the officials who represented the state government in the talks.
HPCD led by H Zosangbera came to the negotiating table after agreeing to discard its demand for a separate autonomous district council under the Sixth Schedule of the Indian Constitution.
Hmar People’s Convention- Democracy (HPC-D) is an offshoot of the Hmar People’s Convention (HPC), which came into existence in 1986, as a political party spearheading a movement for self-government of the Hmars in the north and northeast of Mizoram.
The HPC was disappointed with the contents of the Mizo Peace Accord of 1986, which failed to address their demand of a ‘Greater Mizoram’ integrating all areas inhabited by Hmars in Mizoram, Assam and Manipur under a single administrative unit. Since April 1987, the HPC waged an armed struggle for autonomy, which touched extreme levels of violence towards 1991. Hmar cadres abducted tea executives and triggered off a spate of extortions in the Hmar inhabited areas of the states of Mizoram, Assam and Manipur.
In 1992, HPC representatives and Mizoram government mutually agreed to hold ministerial level talks. Consequent to nine rounds of such talks, a Memorandum of Settlement (MoS) was signed at the Mizoram capital Aizawl on July 27, 1994, for establishing the ‘Sinlung Development Council’ and subsequently, 308 HPC militants surrendered along with their arms.
However, dissatisfied with the implementation process, a section of the cadres parted ways with the over ground HPC and formed the HPC-D in 1995.
