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North East : Assam : Peace talks with ULFA

	September 26, 2005

Govt., militants accuse each other of lacking sincerity



It is no easy going for the Government to seek peace with militants in Assam. The negotiation process initiated by the well-known writer and mediator, Indira Goswami, with the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), is virtually deadlocked with both sides accusing each other of lacking sincerity.



While the Government says that the banned militant outfit has not put a halt to its insurgent activities such as killings, extortions and abductions, the latter has accused the former of continuing its Army operations against them in spite of their demand that authorities stop the operation as a goodwill gesture.



Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee who visited the troubled region last week, welcomed ULFA’s willingness to enter into a dialogue with the Government and described the constitution of a team of mediators by the outfit a “good gesture, but one that needed to be backed by substance for Delhi to consider a complete halt to Army operations.”



The Defence Minister said a mere suggestion that operations should be suspended because a committee (the People’s Consultative Group) had been formed to negotiate with the Centre was not enough.



Referring to the possibility of a ceasefire with ULFA, Mukherjee said a ceasefire could be implemented only after the security establishment in New Delhi agreed to the proposal and laid down the ground rules.



The Defence Minister reacted angrily to a question on whether Delhi’s policy smacked of doublespeak because it was carrying out a military operation and talking peace at the same time. There is no question of double standards. There cannot be a ceasefire merely because somebody has proposed it. He said the People’s Consultative Group formed by the militant group cannot dictate terms to the government. The Minister categorically ruled out scaling down Army operations.



On complaints about harassment of civilians in Dibru-Saikhowa, Mukherjee said the Army operation might have inconvenienced villagers, but that was bound to happen.



The Defence Minister, accompanied by Army Chief J.J. Singh, was at Rangiya, headquarters of the Army’s 21 Mountain Division in Assam, where he addressed troops.



Referring to the Naga problem, the Defence Minister conceded that it was a complex one but said there was no reason to think that the ceasefire with the militant outfits from Nagaland would not be extended further.



There is no readymade solution though the peace process between the NSCN (I-M) and the Centre is progressing well. On the apparent fragility of the ceasefire, Mukherjee argued that a six-month extension of the truce instead of a year did not mean that the ceasefire would not be extended further.



He said the two sides were exchanging suggestions so as to reach some sort of acceptable settlement and that the ground situation should be appreciated.



Mukherjee added that the ceasefire with the NSCN (I-M) and the NSCN (K) was holding. There is a groundswell for peace and development in Nagaland, he said.



Replying to questions on the situation in Manipur, the Defence Minister justified Army operations in the state. Had the situation been good, it could have been resolved by the police. The very fact that the Army has been deployed is an indication that the situation is not normal, he added.



Crediting Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil with handling the situation, Mukherjee said he was buttressing Patil’s efforts.



Mukherjee said the purpose of his visit to the region, the first as Minister, was to meet soldiers on the international borders in the Northeast.



Meanwhile, according to reports, the Army continued its operation against ULFA militants in the Dibru-Saikhowa forest reserve in Upper Assam even as Mukherjee went about his engagements in the state, including extensive briefings by senior Army officials.



Buttressing the Defence Minister’s views on ULFA, the Army’s Tezpur-based 4 Corps headquarters issued a statement on the militant group’s activities. “ULFA continues to carry out extortion, recruitment, killing and kidnappings of innocent people and has shown no signs of giving up its terrorist activities or eschewing the path of violence”, the statement said.



In a separate statement, the Army contradicted reports of 12 ULFA militants being killed in Dibru-Saikhowa. It said there were encounters on August 25 and 26 at Paglang, during which a militant identified as Ritu Borah and a police constable were killed. Two militants were taken into custody.



Between September 4 and 9, the Army found warlike stores from two abandoned camps inside the forest reserve. On September 10, another militant, Himanshu Bora alias Subhash Serang, was killed. Ten days later, two militants, Achinta Saikia and a woman comrade identified as Jahnabi, were killed.



The statement said reports that 12 militants had been shot dead were motivated to bring Army operations to a halt. However, an ULFA statement claimed that 12 of its members had been killed in the operation. The statement also said that residents of the areas in the vicinity of the forest reserve were starving because the Army had prevented them from venturing out.



Assam police have zeroed in on suspected ULFA hideouts in cities outside the state. A senior police official told newspersons that ULFA hideouts had been identified in four cities outside the state and police were keeping a close watch on these areas. Not divulging the names of the cities, the official said that these were scattered across the country in the north, south and east. The police are hoping to net some top ULFA leaders at the suspected hideouts.





People’s outburst against Army operation



The banned ULFA’s campaign for a halt to the military offensive in the Dibru-Saikhowa National Park received an unexpected boost last week on Sept. 22 with several thousand people laying siege to the Tinsukia deputy commissioner’s office for over an hour in protest against alleged harassment by the Army during the ongoing counter-insurgency operation.



Police caned the mob and lobbed tear gas shells after about 20 people, including deputy superintendent of police Gayatri Konwar, sustained minor injuries in the skirmish.



The trigger for the mass protest, which the ULFA leadership is sure to hold up as a vindication of its stand, was the Army decision to disallow a fact-finding team from carrying out its mission. Comprising members of the ULFA-constituted People’s Consultative Group and a few more individuals, the team was turned away from Guijan Ghat, one of the entrances to the national park, where an Army operation has been on since August 31. The team was trying to get into Laika village, located in the core area of the park and the launchpad of the Army operation.



Tinsukia superintendent of police Debojit Hazarika said the police were compelled to cane the mob because they were destroying official property. The Moran Students Union and the All Assam Muttock Yuba Chatra Sammelan, however, accused the police of unprovoked assault.



Asom Gana Parishad parliamentarian Arun Sarma moved the Assam Human Rights Commission, alleging violation of human rights in Dibru-Saikhowa. He said over 10,000 civilians could not be held to ransom in the name of military action against ULFA militants holed up in the forest.



The People’s Consultative Group, too, took up cudgels on behalf of residents of the villages in the vicinity of the national park. It expressed anguish over alleged blatant infringement of human rights and forced confinement of the civilian population in the name of operations.





The protests, however, failed to deter the Army from continuing the operation against ULFA militants.



“We are continuing the operation and some re-adjustmentregarding deployment of troops is being done”, said Brig. Sanjiv Laumas, commander of the 181 Mountain Brigade based at Laipuli in Tinsukia district. The 181 Mountain Brigade, which comes under the 2 Mountain Division, is coordinating the entire operation.



“We have information that 10 to 15 ULFA cadre are still holed up in the forest. There is no question of lowering our guard”, another officer said.



A senior Army officer attached to the 4 Corps said the operation was launched on August 30, much before ULFA picked a team of people from diverse fields to do the spadework for its proposed dialogue with Delhi. How can they, therefore, say it is an attempt to derail the efforts, he asked.



Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi hedged on the demand for a halt to the Army operation in Tinsukia district, but said a ceasefire was surely possible if both sides ceased hostilities. He said truce agreements between Delhi and other militant groups, including the NSCN (I-M), the NDFB and the erstwhile BLT, would not have been possible without cessation of violence on both sides.



Dwelling on the question of whether the peace process would suffer because of the operations, Gogoi pointed out that though the peace initiative was taken by writer Mamoni Raisom Goswami a year ago, there has been no indication from the outfit to cease hostilities during this period.





Rights glare on Army



The Assam Human Rights Commission has asked the state authorities to ensure uninterrupted supply of essential commodities to residents caught in the cut and thrust of the Army action against ULFA militants holed up in the Dibru-Saikia National Park in Upper Assam.



The directive was in response to a petition moved by AGP Lok Sabha member Arun Sarma, capping nearly three weeks of debate over the wisdom of launching military operations against the militant group at a crucial stage of the peace process.



The AHRC sought reports from the Tinsukia deputy commissioner and the superintendent of police on the ongoing operations. The deputy commissioner shall depute an officer not below the rank of additional deputy commissioner to ensure that essential commodities, including water, are made available to the residents of the area as they have fundamental rights to a decent living, AHRC chairperson S.N. Phukan wrote.