[Assam] Stalemate in Talks - AT Editorial

[umesh sharma]

Ram-da,

Tell us more about the Anup Chetia story. What
happened after he was released. 

Regards.

Umesh


--- Ram Sarangapani <assamrs at gmail.com> wrote:

> While trying to be really unbiased, I was trying to
> figure out what, if any,
> the GOI can do.
> 
> If they release the prisoners, would they take off,
> like Anup Chetia? This
> could well happen, specially if the talks don't move
> forward at any stage.
> 
> The GOI wants the ULFA to forward the names (in
> writing) about who is going
> to participate in the talks. Obviously, the GOI does
> not want to release
> those who are not going participate, plus the GOI
> would like the ULFA to
> take full responsibility for those it releases. Why
> can't the ULFA give that
> assurance to the GOI?
> 
> It is difficult to understand why the ULFA would
> want to put this up as a
> major hurdle?
> 
> Highlights are mine.
> 
> ____________________
> ULFA talks stalemate
> Though a congenial atmosphere for direct talks
> between the Government of
> India and the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA)
> was created with the
> suspension of hostilities by both the sides and
> peaceful celebration of the
> Independence Day, the recent developments on the
> issue of release of the
> five jailed central committee members have
> threatened to pose serious
> hurdles in the way of the much-awaited talks. If the
> peace process fails
> after making so much headway because of some minor
> disagreement, it will be
> one of the most unfortunate incidents for Asom as
> the people of the State
> suffered a lot due to insurgency in the past 27
> years and majority of the
> state's population want a peaceful and amicable end
> to the problem. *The
> ULFA is demanding that its jailed central committee
> members including the
> vice chairman of the outfit Pradeep Gogoi should be
> released to enable it to
> take vital decisions regarding talks with the
> Government of India, but the
> Government is not willing to do so without receiving
> a formal communication
> from the outfit with the assurance of coming for
> direct talks.* *The
> Government is also demanding that the ULFA should
> announce its team of
> negotiators and a specific time frame saying as to
> when the outfit would
> come for talks should be announced.* On the other
> hand, the ULFA is
> insisting that the jailed central committee members
> of the outfit should be
> released before it takes future steps regarding
> talks with the Government.
> Such minor issues should not pose hurdles in the way
> of talks and both the
> Government and the ULFA should adopt a lenient
> approach to pave the way for
> direct talks to find an acceptable political
> solution to the problem.
> 
> *Of course, without any formal communication from
> the ULFA, it may be
> difficult for the Government to release the jailed
> members of the militant
> outfit as if the peace process fails, the Government
> will have to answer the
> people of the country.* In the past also the
> Government of India faced
> criticism on release of militant leaders and* once
> the Government released
> the general secretary of the ULFA, Anup Chetia to
> enable him to hold
> discussions with his colleagues to take decisions on
> the issue of talks with
> the Government. But Chetia did not return after his
> release and that
> incident must have played on the minds of the
> Government officials when they
> faced the demand for the release of the central
> committee members of the
> ULFA.* However, the Government can relax the other
> pre-conditions including
> the demand for naming of the members of the team of
> negotiators. On its
> part, there should *not be any problem on the part
> of the ULFA to give a
> written assurance to the Government to come for
> talks if the outfit is
> really serious in carrying forward* the peace
> process as the process should
> no be allowed to fail on such minor issues. The ULFA
> is now insisting that
> the decisions taken in the June 22 meeting between
> the Government of India
> and the people's consultative group (PCG), formed by
> the ULFA to hold
> initial parleys with the Government to pave the way
> for direct talks, where
> the Centre assured to consider the demand for the
> release of the prisoners
> sympathetically in consultation with the Asom
> Government, should be
> implemented. Such issues should not be allowed to
> derail the peace process
> and one hopes that the Government and the ULFA will
> adopt a policy of give
> and take to carry forward the process.
> 
> The Government of India showed a positive gesture by
> suspending the Army
> operations from August 13 for a period of ten days
> to create a congenial
> atmosphere for talks. On its part, the ULFA
> announced on August 17 its
> decisions to direct its cadres to maintain
> restraint, following which, the
> Government decided to extend the period of
> suspension of operations for 15
> more days and the police was asked to act only in
> self defence. The
> suspension of operations is definitely a positive
> gesture from the
> Government and the ULFA leaders should issue strict
> instructions to its
> cadres to ensure that the peaceful atmosphere is not
> disturbed in any way
> and the cadres of the ULFA should desist from
> indulging in any unlawful
> activity including extortion as any such act may
> seriously affect the peace
> process.
> > _______________________________________________
> assam mailing list
> assam at assamnet.org
>
http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
> 


Umesh Sharma
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 1-202-215-4328 [Cell Phone]

Ed.M. - International Education Policy
Harvard Graduate School of Education,
Harvard University,
Class of 2005

weblog: http://jaipurschool.bihu.in/


	
	
		
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