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Assam talks with ULFA : Track II diplomacy underway

	December 25, 2006

With both the banned ULFA and the Centre refusing to budge from their respective stands, a fresh move is under way to bring the two sides to hold preliminary talks outside the country.



The peace moves were deadlocked after both ULFA and Delhi placed their respective conditions for holding direct talks. Sources associated with the failed effort said an attempt is now being made to arrange a meeting of the two parties abroad. For this purpose, ULFA would have to send one of its leaders to another country while Delhi, too, would despatch a senior official.



The meeting would be “unofficial” and try to pave the way for official parleys in India, as was done in the case of the NSCN (I-M).



“The positive experience of the Naga talks needs to be emulated for conflict resolution in other parts of the region. Breaking the ice in another country through Track II diplomacy was one of the positive experiences which need to be put to test again,” said a source privy to the latest move.





Govt ready to offer safe passage to ULFA



The Centre on Dec. 22 said it was ready to offer safe passage to top ULFA leaders if they come forward for direct talks with the government. Disclosing this, a spokesman for Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi said that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh conveyed this to Gogoi when the latter called on him last week.



During his meeting with the Prime Minister, the Chief Minister apprised Singh of the need to hold negotiations with top leaders of the banned outfit to bring peace to his state.





Rebel nexus worries Army



Even as efforts are on to resume the dialogue process with ULFA, the security agencies in the state have warned of a possible nexus between the Jewel Gorlosa breakaway faction of Dima Halam Daogah (DHD) and the People’s United Liberation Front (PULF), an Islamic extremist outfit operating in Manipur and adjoining districts of south Assam.



Sources in the intelligence department said in Silchar on Dec. 19 said the suspicion has increased after they have come to know, for the first time, that the DHD-J has recruited a Muslim youth.



Commandos of the Army’s fourth Raj Rifles on Dec. 18 nabbed a DHD-Jewel activist from Pailagang village under Jaipur police station area of Lakhipur subdivision in Cachar district. The activist, identified as 30-year-old Matibur Rahman Barbhuyan, was arrested after the commandos raided his hideout following a tip-off. They recovered a 9mm Chinese-made pistol and some incriminating documents from his hideout.



The DHD-Jewel, also known as the Black Widow outfit, is opposed to the current peace talks between the Centre and the pro-talk parent body of DHD, led by Dilip Nunisa. It also has a tie-up with the NSCN’s Isak-Muivah faction for training of its cadre and procuring arms.





ULFA taps Arunachal mercenaries, plans to float new groups



Reports say that with the arrest of a youth from Arunachal Pradesh, alleged to be a hardcore ULFA militant, security forces have blown the lid off the outfit’s plans to raise a force of mercenaries from neighbouring states for carrying out attacks in Assam.



Biro Tayeng was arrested from Hilaguri Chapori under Kakopathar police station in Tinsukia district bordering Arunachal Pradesh last week.



Following his interrogation, it was learnt that he had undergone training in the outfit’s camps in Myanmar. He also confessed that some other youths from Arunachal Pradesh were undergoing training.



“There can be no ideological reason for Arunachalis to join ULFA. That is why we think ULFA might be hiring mercenaries,” an Army official said, adding that inducting youths from the neighbouring state would also help militants of the outfit to take shelter there.



The security establishment in the state has received reports of ULFA hiring mercenaries in the past, but this is the first time that it has got a whiff of the outfit’s latest design of hiring gullible youths from a neighbouring state. ULFA will also gain because Arunachalis would not ordinarily be suspected in Assam.





Foreigners’ issue : Panel shield for minorities



In a near repeat of history, a minority body has been set up to oppose the apex court’s recent striking down of Foreigners (Tribunals) Amendment Order 2006.



However, unlike its predecessor, the Assam United Democratic Front (AUDF) formed in the wake of Supreme Court’s decision to scrap the controversial IMDT Act, the Assam Minorities Legal Rights Protection Committee vows to remain apolitical.



President of the committee, Abdul Jabbar, said in Guwahati on Dec. 17 that the committee would provide legal assistance to the minorities in case they were subjected to harassment in the aftermath of the verdict which had “robbed them of the legal shield” they earlier used to enjoy. The former minister, who is also an eminent lawyer, said the committee would “counter” the AUDF for its alleged failure to protect the interest of the minorities. “Their leaders are only interested in safeguarding their political interests,” he said.





Assam set for Games tryst in February



The National Games will be held on schedule and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will, in all likelihood, attend the function. This was officially announced in New Delhi and Guwahati.



It took a fortnight of round-the-clock preparations and a power point presentation by Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi to convince the Centre to put on the back-burner ULFA’s threat to disrupt the Games and give the final go-ahead.



February 9 has been fixed as the definite date and Manmohan Singh will be present either at the inauguration or the closing ceremony, sources said.



Sports associations of many states had felt it was not safe for their participants in the wake of an “appeal” by ULFA dissuading them from taking part.



Earlier this month, Delhi had expressed apprehensions on whether the Games could be held in February. The Centre argued that since neither the state government nor any NGO had come clean reassuring sportspersons across the country and the Games have already been postponed once, it could be deferred again. As it pointed out, it was not as though it was “constitutionally binding” to hold the event in February.