Achik National Volunteer Council cheated govt: Meghalaya CM

Meghalaya Chief Minister Mukul Sangma today said militant outfit Achik National Volunteer Council (ANVC) "cheated" the government as it did not bring all its members on board after it signed the peace pact in 2004.
Sagma told the Assembly that the government will henceforth study and find out the actual intent of the militant outfits who express their willingness to join the mainstream to ensure that there is no space for them to "misuse" the offer for peace by the government.
"We want to ensure that the militant outfits do not resort to the same tactic adopted by ANVC where they cheated the government," Mukul said replying to a call attention motion moved by United Democratic Party legislator Jemino Mawthoh on the reported peace offer made by the Garo National Liberation Army (GNLA).

He said, ANVC at the time of signing the agreement (in 2004) hid the fact that there were still quite a number of cadres under leadership of a militant named Mukos, who continued to remain in the jungles.
"The total numbers of cadres available with the ANVC then were never revealed to the government," he said while referring to recent arrest of a top ranked ANVC member for selling of arms to the GNLA.
Stressing on the need to learn from past mistakes, he said, "Utmost due diligence is required to be engaged upon by the government while embarking on peace dialogues."

He said the government would wait for the militant outfits, including GNLA to "demonstrate" their commitment and sincerity to the offer for peace dialogues.

The government's stand on the issue would be consistent and all militant outfits opting for peace talks are expected to show sincerity and commitment to it by abjuring violence and withdraw from all their anti-national and criminal activities, he said.
He claimed that militant outfits have no choice but to surrender in the face of persistent arms operations by the state police. "All intelligence inputs available with the state government today indicate that they (militant outfits) are under pressure and they will accept this offer of the state government (for peace talks) not by choice but on compulsion," he said.

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Sangma said Meghalaya has been able to ensure
implementation of several key projects despite attempts to dislodge and delay them by militants.
In this context he cited the example of a bridge over Simsang River at Williamnagar under East Garo Hills District, which was delayed by the militants for decades because it leads to the main area used by them as their hideout.
The chief minister also lauded the people of North Garo Hills district for deploying about 50 local youths to ensure that no members of any armed outfits attempt to dislocate developmental programmes including NREGS.