Church Bells, Christmas Spirit Herald Homecoming of NSCN Leaders

Kohima – Hundreds of tribal separatists in Nagaland ushered in Christmas Saturday, December 25, by praying for peace and hoping for an end to nearly six decades of insurgency.

Dozens of rebels in battle fatigues sang Christmas carols in a bamboo church in India's restive northeast region as two of their leaders returned for Christmas after 20 years of self–exile.

Armed guerrillas stood guard outside the thatched church in a sprawling dusty field in the forests of Dhanfhipara in Nagaland where some 20,000 people have died in a separatist campaign led by the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (NSCN) in 40 years.

More than 300 rebels and their families, many wearing traditional tribal red and white sarongs, cheered NSCN chairman Isak Chishi Swu and general secretary Thuingaleng Muivah as they arrived for Christmas celebrations at the guerrilla headquarters in a convoy escorted by machine–gun mounted jeeps.

"It's party time and I am really overjoyed to be celebrating Christmas in the presence of our leaders after a very, very long time," said Joy tearfully, who belongs to the rebel cadres.

"Christ is the king of kings and he will definitely resolve our conflict," he told.

"The presence of the collective leadership during Christmas has added to the enthusiasm among the cadres," Phunthing Shimrang, a NSCN leader, said. A special peace prayer was held after the midnight mass at the rebel base with Muivah leading the congregation.

The NSCN has been fighting for an independent homeland for India's three million Naga people, spread across the remote northeast, for more than four decades. But a ceasefire, agreed between the rebels and the government has been holding since 1997 in predominantly–Christian Nagaland, one of India's seven states in the mountainous northeast.

NSCN (IM) has held a ceasefire with New Delhi for the last seven years. Swu and Muivah visited New Delhi for the first time in January 2003 but there was no agreement on the rebels' demand to unify all Naga–dominated areas in the northeast into a "Greater Nagaland".

That proposal has been rejected by New Delhi and is also opposed by rival tribes in neighbouring states where Nagas also live.

"We have been discussing it in the previous ceasefire also and there were some mistakes from our side that we do not have anything with India. But that perception has changed already and we want to have understanding with India and we want to discuss it and settle," Swu said, speaking from his rebel camp, deep inside a forest about 50 km (30 miles) from Dimapur, the commercial hub of Nagaland state.