India News Online » News Analysis » Indian Politics » 

Assam peace talks : Governor faces flak for remark

	January 30, 2006

Assam Governor Lt Gen. (retd) Ajai Singh’s remark on June 27 expressing “no-confidence in the ULFA-Delhi peace process,” has caused public outrage leading to strong state-wide protests. Several influential organisations even went to the extent of burning his effigies and demanded his ouster from Raj Bhavan.



In his address to the state on the eve of the Republic Day, the Governor had observed that there was nothing to negotiate with ULFA and that the outfit should just lay down arms and rejoin the mainstream.



The Manab Adhikar Sangram Samiti (MASS), the Asom Jatiyatabadi Yuva Chatra Parishad and a couple of other organisations said the Governor’s remark on the peace process was detrimental to the cause of peace.



“At a time when even the Centre has come forward for negotiations with ULFA, the Governor, instead of helping the process in his capacity as constitutional head of the state, is trying to take it backward,” MASS said in a statement.





ULFA’s nexus with NSCN factions



Serious differences have cropped up between the NSCN (Khaplang) and ULFA, a development that could change the insurgency scenario in the region as the outfits had been strong allies, having logistic and military links.



Accusing ULFA of “harbouring” its rival NSCN (Isak-Muivah) in Assam, the NSCN (K) on Jan. 25 warned of a “befitting” reply to the extent of even stopping all logistic support it has been providing to the Assam-based outfit at its headquarters in Myanmar.



NSCN (K) spokesman Kughalu Mulatonu said ULFA has been giving shelter to the NSCN (I-M) in areas along Assam’s border with Nagaland and Arunachal Pradesh. He said the two outfits are even engaged in joint armed operations.



“If ULFA does not immediately desist from such activities of betrayal, we will be forced to take action against them. We will evict them from our Myanmar camps,” Mulatonu said.



ULFA runs its training camps at the general headquarters of NSCN (K) and also has a liaison camp at the Naga outfit’s council headquarters in Myanmar. ULFA has been a strong ally of the Khaplang faction since a split in the NSCN in 1988.



However, of late ULFA has been drifting towards the NSCN (I-M) because of strategic reasons as the NSCN (I-M) has a strong presence in Tirap and Changlang “ the twin districts in Arunachal Pradesh from where ULFA operates.



The Khaplang faction said the NSCN (I-M) has been waging a turf war against it in Mon district of Nagaland from Sivasagar district of Assam. The Khaplang faction was waging another turf war against the NSCN (I-M) in Tirap and Changlang from Tinsukia district of Assam with the help of ULFA.





Security jitters over rebel tie-up



A fledgling militant group active in parts of Manipur and Cachar district of Assam has tied up with the NSCN (I-M), setting off alarm bells in the security establishment.



Set up in 1998, the People’s United Liberation Front (PULF) had announced its arrival with a series of kidnappings for ransom in Cachar district’s Lakhipur subdivision. But it went into hibernation two years ago after the death of its Cachar area commander, Abdul Ghani.



Sources said the PULF forged an alliance with the NSCN (I-M), which is known to have helped several armed groups of the region, in December last year and has since been preparing to launch a fresh campaign. The NSCN (I-M)’s role is ostensibly to train PULF activists and arrange for supply of weapons.



The police came to know of the PULF’s plans after the arrest of two militants in Cachar on January 16. The duo “identified as Sahinuddin Talukdar, 22, and Abdul Malik, 20 “ revealed that the PULF’s strength had increased to about 75 and they were being led by Farooq, a Meitei Muslim from Manipur.





Talks with DHD deferred again



The dialogue between Delhi and the militant Dima Halam Daogah (DHD), one of the two groups at the epicentre of the recent ethnic clashes in Karbi Anglong district of Assam, has been deferred again. The talks were slated to begin on Jan. 31. No new date has been announced.



The talks have been deferred as the state government is reportedly busy preparing the budget and cannot participate. This round of talks also assumes importance as it comes against the backdrop of the recent large scale violence in Karbi Anglong region.



Reports say the militant outfit is upset over the repeated postponement of the fourth round of talks with New Delhi that was supposed to have discussed its demands.



“Two dates were given in less than a month only to be deferred again. This reveals the government’s attitude towards our demands,” DHD chairman Dilip Nunisa said over phone from Haflong. Now the talks may be held next month.



The talks were expected to focus on the militant group’s demand for Dimaraji, a homeland for the Dimasa tribe that inhabits North Cachar Hills and pockets of Karbi Anglong.



The DHD’s vision of Dimaraji envisages the integration of the Dimasa-inhabited areas of Nagaon, Cachar and Karbi Anglong in Assam and Dhansiri in Nagaland’s Dimapur district with the North Cachar Hills. The other demands of the decade-old outfit are the establishment of a university and a separate high court for the proposed state at the hilltop town of Haflong.





Tripura rebels set preconditions for talks



The Tripura Peoples’ Democratic Front (TPDF), a frontal organisation of the All Tripura Tiger Force militants, has raised a four-point charter of demands as a precondition for peace in Tripura.



The demands raised in the statement signed by TPDF’s supreme leader Ranjit Debbarma include (i) Withdrawal of the Disturbed Areas Act unilaterally enforced in tribal-dominated areas of Tripura; (ii) Removal of paramilitary forces from 65 schools used as camps in the state’s interiors; (iii) Resumption of normal school functioning, implementation of the bipartite peace accord signed by the Tiger Force and the Left Front government; and (iv) Withdrawal of all “false” police cases slapped on “innocent tribal youths.”



“Implementation of the four-point demand is the essential precondition for creating peaceful conditions in Tripura,” the statement said.



The statement also called on the people to observe a bandh on January 26 in protest against Tripura’s merger with the Indian Union on October 15, 1949.



Debbarma claimed that the condition of the state’s indigenous people has gone from bad to worse because of the “cruel oppression and unsympathetic attitude” of successive state governments dominated by an “alien people”.



A source in the state government said the tone and tenor of the statement reflected the Tiger Force’s lessening clout over the tribal people. “Their earlier bluster has vanished and the rhetoric has now mellowed. We are prepared for peace talks provided they come with an open mind, with reasonable demands within the framework of the Constitution,” the official said.