Shillong, June 30: Notwithstanding Meghalaya government's stand of taking legal action against 'self-styled' negotiators with militants, NCP leader Purno A Sangma, has reiterated that he was a 'facilitator' in bringing a banned insurgent outfit of the state for dialogue and helping Mizoram chief minister Zoramthang in the process. "I have always maintained that i am not a negotiator. I have never been appointed as one. I am only a facilitator. I was given to understand that Zoramthanga will be and is the negotiator and former minister Adolf Hitler Marak had been helping him," Sangma told reporters here last night.

Sangma, an MP from Tura constituency in Meghalaya's Garo Hills district, said since Achik National Volunteers Council was from his own community, he was not appointed a negotiator.
"Where will be my credibility, if I'm appointed so," the former Lok Sabha speaker asked.

Sangma said his efforts to reach out to ANVC and convince them to come forward for dialogue with the Centre had yielded positive results.

The Centre's policy has all along been to bring all insurgent groups on negotiating table and "it is with this background I tried," Sangma said.
He said that the ANVC on September 14, 2002 had written a letter to Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani expressing their willingness to hold discussions with the Centre.

Sangma, who released the letter to the media, claimed that he carried it and handed over to Advani.
Bureau Report