The Hindu : Front Page : Government, naxals agree on truce terms

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Saturday, Oct 16, 2004

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Government, naxals agree on truce terms

By M. Malleswara Rao

HYDERABAD, OCT. 15 . The first round of the path-breaking talks between the Andhra Pradesh Government and CPI (Maoists) and Janashakti, which began here on Friday, resulted in a ceasefire agreement.

The ceasefire will be in force "as long as the talks continue" and not merely for three months as announced earlier by the Government.

The agreement was reached without a written document signed by both the sides.

No document

The five-member naxalite team, led by Ramakrishna, insisted on the Home Minister, K. Jana Reddy's signature after preparation of a document. But the latter held that such an arrangement was needless. He pointed out that the existing ceasefire was being implemented on the basis of the correspondence between them during the last four months.

Despite failing to wrest a written document on the ceasefire, Ramakrishna and others were cheerful when they spoke to reporters later.

In his letters inviting the naxalite leaders for talks, Mr. Jana Reddy had proposed eight "conditions." While accepting the invitation, the naxalites had sought deletion of the seventh condition which prohibited their cadres from carrying weapons during the period of negotiations. Both sides had agreed to keep the clause in abeyance and to take it up at the direct talks. The seventh condition remained a contentious issue today and would be taken up tomorrow. The issue could not be resolved though much of the 10 hour-long meeting was devoted to it. Ramakrishna insisted that the Maoist cadres would carry arms during the ceasefire period because they considered weapons as an extension of their bodies. With the weapons issue taking most of the time, the first day's talks did not make much headway on the 10-point agenda.

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