Reproduced herewith is a message of Neeta Agarwal sent to assam@pikespeak.uccs.edu
Message segment 1 of 2 - Get Next
Segment - Get
All 2 Segments
Message on Assamnet from "Neeta Agarwal" on Wed, 17 Jan 2001 18:01:33 -0000
Return-Path: owner-assam@pikespeak.uccs.edu
Delivery-Date: Wed, 17 Jan 2001 05:27:11 -0700
Received: from hotmail.com (f30.law11.hotmail.com [64.4.17.30])
by pikespeak.uccs.edu (8.9.3/8.9.3) with ESMTP id FAA12188
for ; Wed, 17 Jan 2001 05:13:59 -0700
Received: from mail pickup service by hotmail.com with Microsoft SMTPSVC; Wed, 17 Jan 2001
10:01:33 -0800
Received: from 206.210.30.226 by lw11fd.law11.hotmail.msn.com with HTTP; Wed, 17 Jan 2001
18:01:33 GMT X-Originating-IP: [206.210.30.226]
From: "Neeta Agarwal"
To: assam@pikespeak.uccs.edu
Subject: Rediff on ULFA
Date: Wed, 17 Jan 2001 18:01:33 -0000
Mime-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain; format=flowed
Message-ID:
X-OriginalArrivalTime: 17 Jan 2001 18:01:33.0479 (UTC) FILETIME=[86C0D370:01C080AF]
http://www.rediff.com/news/2001/jan/17spec.htm
The Rediff Special link
The United Liberation Front of Asom has given a bloody name to Assam. In the last
few weeks, over a hundred people have been shot dead in this northeastern state. Many of
them were innocent migrant labourers from Bihar. Others who lost their lives included
Marwari businessmen, relatives of ULFA insurgents and security personnel.
There was a time when ULFA enjoyed widespread sympathy all over Assam. How did ULFA
grow into such a big force? What was it that endeared the organisation to the people? Why
do Assamese now protest against ULFA and demand that it be dealt with strongly? Where does
ULFA's demand for Assam's sovereignty stand? Do the Assamese want their state to be
independent?
Roving Editor Ramesh Menon travelled to Assam to find some answers.
How times change!
ULFA militants at the surrender ceremony in Assam
In April 1979, a group of young college students got together and decided armed revolution
was the only way to cleanse the Assamese political system. They called themselves the
United Liberation Front of Asom. In the early eighties, ULFA sent its first ripples though
the state by dispensing self-styled justice to bootleggers, corrupt government officials
and anti-social elements.
They raised issues like how outsiders were swamping the state, ruining the economy,
denying jobs to sons of the soil. They wanted to know why Assam, a state rich in
natural resources like oil, continued to be poor and undeveloped? ULFA's main plank was
illegal Bangladeshi infiltration that, it said, was changing the state's demography.
ULFA echoed the real concerns of the Assamese.
College students saw them as revolutionaries. The elderly saw them as youngsters who
wanted to challenge the decaying, corrupt system. Everyone was happy. Even Chief Minister
Prafulla Kumar Mahanta's Asom Gana Parishad government looked the other way.
In 1987, ULFA sent around 200 boys to Kachin, Myanmar, for armed training. The Assamese
boys were not able to adjust to living in the tropical forest, to the long marches and the
malaria; 27 of them died. Nationalist Socialist Council Of Nagaland leaders wondered how
ULFA would ever become an insurgent force if its members collapsed under the pressure of
military training.
Down the years, however, they learnt. To wield the gun. To use it to spread terror. For
extortion. So much so that, today, almost 15 years later, ULFA is not a clean word.
ULFA no longer talks about the Bangladeshi immigrant problem, though it is the most
serious issue in Assam today. Instead, its camps are in Bangladesh and Bhutan. Its
commander-in-chief, Paresh Barua, a former goalkeeper for the Assam junior football
team, reportedly has financial interests in Bangladesh.
Over the years, ULFA leaders have allegedly made a lot of money. They use it to run their
outfit, buy arms and build their personal wealth. Alleges a senior police officer:
"Joining ULFA has become a shortcut to quick and easy money for many unemployed
youngsters."
Message segment 2 of 2 - Get Previous Segment - Get All 2 Segments
Home ministry sources put ULFA's wealth at between Rs 150 crores to Rs 200 crores (Rs
1.5 billion to Rs 2 billion). Notices demanding extortion payments are dispatched
regularly. Sometimes, youngsters land up at a business establishment and demand money,
saying they have been sent by ULFA.
One incident that cemented ULFA's change in this direction occurred on June 28, 1990. ULFA
leaders summoned 20 tea barons to Dibrugarh and asked them to pay a tax of Re 1 per kilo
of tea. For the tea barons, it was a huge amount; the 350 million kilos generated by Assam's
gardens totals 55 per cent of India's tea production. Yet, there was no escaping ULFA's
demand -- earlier, they had murdered Surendra Paul, British Labour peer Swaraj Paul's
younger brother, a planter in Dibrugarh.
ULFA had sent a clear message to the tea industry: Pay up or die.
Extortion is now a way of life for ULFA cadres; thousands of rupees are paid to any
youngster who claims to be attached to the insurgent group.
Public sympathy for them has waned. Earlier, if the police picked up people on the
suspicion that they were involved with ULFA, the villagers would gherao them and free the
youngsters. If security forces killed an ULFA insurgent, there would be long funeral
processions. Not anymore.
Today, there are numerous instances of how the public has gathered courage to apprehend
ULFA activists and hand them over to the police. In recent times, villagers handed over 35
ULFA insurgents to security forces; 17 rebels were lynched in Jorhat, Nowgaon and
Morigaon.
In the last few weeks, there have been numerous public meetings and processions protesting
the culture of violence in Assam. Assamese writers and intellectuals flood
newspapers and magazines with articles protesting the bloodshed in the state. Police
sources claim ULFA leaders have asked their cadres to stop reading Assamese newspapers.
The Assamese are appalled at the senseless killings. Take, for instance, the incident when
ULFA insurgents sprayed bullets on the streets where Marwari businessmen lived. "Why
did ULFA kill my husband? We were a small business family that had roots only in Assam,"
says Premlata Sharma, 38, whose husband Savarmal was riddled with bullets while the family
was celebrating Diwali.
In another incident, vegetable sellers, quilt makers and semi-skilled workers of Bihari
origin were returning from a weekly market when the truck they were travelling in was
stopped. They were dragged out and made to stand in a line. In a couple of minutes, 28
people were dead. Over a dozen were seriously injured.
ULFA's aim was to make the Centre sit up and take notice. Killing the non-Assamese, ULFA
leaders thought, would get the Centre's attention. It did, but not in the way they wanted.
"The tide is turning. The people of Assam do not want violence and senseless
killings. This sentiment will help us tackle what little is left of ULFA," says state
Director General of Police Hari Krishna Deka.
What probably turned public opinion against ULFA was the 1997 murder of social activist
Sanjoy Ghose. Before his death, Ghose was working towards empowering the people of Majuli,
a riverine island on the Brahmaputra river. He showed the locals how to cut costs. This
cut into the commissions that ULFA earned from the contractors. They got rid of Ghose
after kidnapping him.
The anger against ULFA continued to build as thousands of teachers, government employees,
businessmen, tea garden owners and petty hawkers fell victim to ULFA's extortion. Umesh
Rabha, a former Border Security Force jawan who had settled in Tamulpur on the Assam-Bhutan
border, then decided to stand up to ULFA.
Rabha began to rally the villagers against exploitation by ULFA insurgents who came to the
area from camps in southern Bhutan. He went on bicycle trips to mobilise the people. ULFA
retaliated by shooting at him. He was seriously injured, but continued his campaign as
soon as he recovered. He was shot at again, but survived.
Tamalpur is part of Nalbari district, an ULFA stronghold. The insurgents did not want a
counter-revolution in their own backyard. Rabha was clearly a threat since he had, by now,
garnered public support. This time, their attempt was successful. Rabha was posthumously
awarded the Shaurya Chakra last year; the only civilian to be so honoured.
Businessmen in Assam are not prepared to go on record about the continuing
exploitation that has marked their bank balances for the last 20 years. In fact, ULFA is
now seen as a group of bloodthirsty killers whose only ideology is to make quick money.
A perception that Luhit Deuri -- the organisation's number 3 leader who recently
surrendered to the police -- admits is true. "The only ideology within ULFA is now to
make money," he said.
-------------------------------------------------------------------