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Assam : ULFA ridicules Sabha plea on ceasefire |
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In yet another broadside at Assam Sahitya Sabha president Kanaksen Deka, the ULFA has ridiculed the veteran litterateur for his insistence on a ceasefire, making a reference to the Naga peace process and saying that it has made little progress after seven years of truce.
“The National Socialist Council of Nagalim (Isak-Muivah) has been discussing only ground rules for seven years after agreeing to a ceasefire. What did the Naga National Council (NNC) achieve by agreeing to a truce and sitting for talks ?” ULFA chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa questioned in a hard-hitting statement against the sabha chief.
The outfit has till now reacted twice to the sabha’s appeal to it as well as Dispur to call a ceasefire in keeping with the Bihu spirit and to create an atmosphere conducive for talks.
The militant leader said the ULFA was ready for talks even in Dispur within 48 hours of Delhi agreeing to discuss the main demand for Assam’s sovereignty and said the issue of giving up arms could not be a spanner in the talks.
On Wednesday last, Deka reiterated his ceasefire call to the outfit, but also requested Dispur to prove the government’s sincerity in solving the long-drawn impasse by announcing a unilateral truce “even if for a few days”.
Chief minister Tarun Gogoi, who has welcomed the Sabha’s initiative, had discussed the issue with his Cabinet colleagues and was said to be keen on starting a peace process at the earliest. Dispur has already announced a “general amnesty” to rebels who surrender before April 30.
Talks with Dima outfit, Creation of Black Widow faction
The militant Dima Halam Daoga (DHD) has queered the pitch ahead of a crucial round of talks with the Centre, accusing both Delhi and Dispur of propping up its rival faction, Black Widow, to weaken the Dimasa tribe’s struggle for a separate state.
DHD chairman Dilip Nunisa said in Haflong that the Centre and the state government were playing a sinister game to weaken the outfit’s main demand for a Dimaraji state.
The next round of tripartite talks between the DHD, the Centre and the state government will be held either in the last week of this month or the first week of next month. The first round of talks between the two sides was held in January this year.
Referring to the DHD allegation, a senior police official said, “Such loose talk by the outfit’s leadership will do no good when the peace process has reached a crucial stage. The idea that the government is involved in the formation of the militant Black Widow is a figment of imagination.”
The Black Widow, a splinter group, is led by a former DHD leader Jewel Gorlosa, who was stripped of his position as commander-in-chief of the outfit last year.
The DHD was particularly peeved over the Gorlosa faction’s statement that the Dimasas have no right over Dimapur, the commercial hub of Nagaland. The DHD has been claiming that Dimapur historically belonged to the tribe, as it was once the capital of the Dimasa kingdom.
Nunisa said his group had turned down a proposal by the rival faction for a “united struggle” to achieve the goal of an autonomous state. “We refused because we have already upgraded our demand for a full-fledged state in a memorandum to the Union Home Minister,” Nunisa added.
“NSCN (I-M) leader Th. Muivah has said the Nagas respect the rights of others. By that token, the Nagas must rightfully return Dimapur to the Dimasas,” Nunisa said in a recent statement.
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