Headlines       Vol. 1 Issue 38-39

Mar 7 - Mar 21 , 1999

ULFA starts propaganda on the Net The international publicity department of the outlawed United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) has launched a home page on the Internet. The home page of the militant outfit is available in the website —— www.geocities.com/Capitol Hill/Congress/7434.As usual in its home page, the ULFA has launched a propaganda against New Delhi. The banned organisation has alleged that the Government of India had all along been encouraging the influx of Indian and non-Indian foreigners into Assam to reduce the Assamese people into a minority. It claimed that influx was encouraged because a population base having 'ethnic affinity with the mainland of India' is always favourable to the rulers. The ULFA's propaganda goes to the extreme when the organisation claimed that Assam was never a part of India. It said that the people of Assam defended their freedom as many as 17 times against the Moghul. The home page further said that Assam became a colony of the British rulers after the signing of the Yandabu treaty in 1826. The people of Assam launched a struggle against the British rulers and the struggle was later united with the Indian national liberation struggle, the home page claimed. The organisation expressed the opinion that after the departure of the British, Assam should have become an independent State and alleged that that the Indian rulers turned the State into their colony. Supporting the violence that the organisation is encouraging since its inception, the home page alleged that the unarmed struggle of the Assamese people was suppressed by the Indian Government and in the process the people of Assam have lost their faith in non-violent struggle. It further alleged that the Indian rulers suppressed the language and culture of Assam with the education system and other publicity media and ensured that the people of Assam remained backward. Regarding aims and objectives of the organisation, the home page claimed that its main aim is to liberate Assam from the clutches of the Indian rulers and to form a sovereign independent Assam. It said that the organisation not only represent the Assamese nation, but also the independent minded struggling people, irrespective of race and tribe, caste and religion. The ULFA has claimed that its movement was not a separatist movement as Assam was never a part of India. The organisation feels that the influx of people from the Indian sub-continent posed a threat to the demographic composition of Assam. The organisation said that the 25 million strong population of Assam can be divided into three categories —— the Assamese society developed through historical assimilation, the indigenous tribal society who have preserved their identity and the foreigners who migrated from the Indian subcontinet.

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