|
North East : Assam : Ceasefire with ULFA extended |
 |
While suspending military action for 15 more days against United Liberation Front of Assam cadres, the Centre on August 23 asked the ULFA to hold direct talks with the Government.
The Centre told ULFA interlocutors to communicate to the group’s leaders that they must hold direct talks with the Centre if they are “really serious” about the “peace process” and want them to `positively’ consider the release of five ULFA detainees.
“We suggested that the top leadership of ULFA should be represented at the direct talks so that they will be more meaningful,” said Union Home Secretary V K Duggal indicating that the Centre wants “no more interlocutors” in the dialogue.
The condition for initiating the peace process and for the release of ULFA detainees is to specify a fixed timeframe for talks and the composition of an ULFA team which will attend the talks, said a senior Home Ministry official.
The Centre extended its 10-day cease-fire by another 15 days so that ULFA could reconsider its decision to end the 27-year-old insurgency in the north-eastern state. On August 13, the Centre had asked security agencies to suspend military operations against ULFA cadres for ten days. With the new announcement, the operation will remain suspended for another 15 days.
At an hour-long meeting with National Security AdvisorM K Narayanan and Duggal, the ULFA interlocutors sought an extension of the cease-fire so that they could persuade ULFA leaders to initiate a dialogue.
The two interlocutors, writer Indira Goswami and Rebati Phukan, agreed to convey ULFA’s response before the end of this month. The time sought for a response was necessary as the banned outfit’s leaders were spread in different places, they said.
New Delhi wakes up only to booming guns
The road to peace in Assam has come one step closer, although the oft-repeated statement that New Delhi wakes up only when the guns boom in the northeast has once again proved right.
The outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) late Friday announced a truce in response to the central Government’s decision Aug 14 to suspend military operations against it for 10 days.
This is the first time the ULFA has offered to halt its guerrilla campaign since the outfit was formed by five radical youth 27 years ago in 1979 at the Rangghar, an 18th century amphitheatre of the Ahom royalty in eastern Assam’s Sivasagar district.
With both New Delhi and the rebels making the right moves to scale back offensives and jump-start the peace process, there is an air of fresh hope in Assam for a breakthrough in the dragging insurgency.
Former tribal guerrilla leader and present Mizoram Chief Minister Zoramthanga has gone on record saying that the rise in insurgency in the northeast is not without reason.
“The only language New Delhi listens to is the language of rebellion, and so there is this language of revolt in the region. The Government wakes up when the guns boom,” Zoramthanga said in an interview earlier this year.
His words have turned prophetic. New Delhi made a snap decision to offer a unilateral truce to the ULFA on Aug 14.
|
