[Assam] Assam's terror victims demand justice

[UTTAM BORTHAKUR]

XXXX Mandela and his group and for that matter their adversaries, when it
dawned upon them that it did not serve to try to solve the racial
question through mindless suppression, had exhibited tremendous foresight in
arriving at a conciliation. Justice, in the context of history, may not
always mean retribution, which is used as a deterrent in the usual course.

It is very hard for an individual to come to terms with the fact that you
have to live amiably with the killers of your near or dear ones. In my life
time, I have met some persons, who were led away by mob frenzy or an idea/
concept to hurt or even to try to kill me, coming back to me and repenting
on the realisation that what they had believed in was not correct. What do I
do with these persons than to forgive them, because, they acted on a false
belief but acted with conviction and in good faith. But can I condone those,
who acted on vested interest, while they killed or tried to kill my brothers
for personal gains while they mouthed love for a cause to shield their
culpable acts?

I have lost quite a few of my closest friends like Amitabh Rabha, Sourabh
Bora, Nripen Dutta, Kamala Gogoi...... to the bullets of ULFA. Some of them
were simply butchered surpassing all kinds of cruelty. Dr. Debabrata Sarma,
a brilliant person and great organiser, who was pumped with
bullets, has been contributing to the growth and consolidation of  Assamese
Language and Vernacular Schools whole-time. He's no less a fighter for the
cause of Assam than any ULFA cadre weilding a gun in the jungles. In fact
the ones who pumped bullets into him had within no time meekly surrendered
to the love of the lucre. But, I suppose (and in fact know), he does not
seek retribution. May be he is a learned man; he can look at life with a
broader perspective that we cannot expect from the person, who was widowed
by an ULFA bullet at the discretion of a local unit leader, may be for such
petty reason as not paying up a sum of money. Who can console her? But I
have seen people coming up strongly out of the morass of personal tragedies
and therefore, I have reasons to believe in the fortitude of my fellow human
beings.

I thought it was a tricky question, because it is a human question, which is
not a linear equation.








*Chan Mahanta* cmahanta at gmail.com
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*Tue Jun 29 19:14:50 IST 2010*


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------------------------------

I can understand the demands of the victims of the war and their kin,
for justice. It is not unreasonable or unnatural.

What is unnatural and one-sided is the pretension of a segment of the
population and
of the media that the only victims of the violence in the conflict are
those that are  perpetrated  by ULFA
or attributed to them, rightly or falsely. They conveniently overlook
the fact that the conflict  was born of
acts of commission and omission by the AUTHORITIES, the STATE, who,
incidentally are not aliens from
outer space.

Therefore, IF there is even a modicum of sincerity or integrity among
these partisans  seeking
JUSTICE today on behalf  of the victims , they would seek EQUAL
JUSTICE on behalf of those other victims
as well, whom they have conveniently shut out of their field of
vision, like some members of our own forum.

That would open up a whole new slew of perpetrators, not just ULFA
rank and file and leadership, but also
Indian and Assam government officials, military and police rank and
file and officials and even members
of the public, who in cahoots with these officials, directly or
indirectly have been instrumental to the killing, maiming,
incarceration and anguish to thousands upon thousands of the people of
Assam.

Had there been even a semblance of JUSTICE or a functioning system of
justice that could have been trusted
to deliver it , expected of a free and democratic state as some
laughably claim operates in India, then the whole conflict
would never have evolved into the armed conflict it did. And only the
seriously vision impaired or the blatant propaganda
artists would claim that it exists even today.

Having said that, I would argue that, if anyone is serious about truly
extinguishing the embers of this conflict,
the people of Assam must demand and receive a full accounting of the
crimes committed, not just by ULFA,
but by Indians and the people of Assam and their leaders who conducted
the conflict.

The only way of accomplishing that in a conflict like this that is
known to man and that holds the promise of some
success would be in the lines of what South Africa did in the
aftermath of their struggles for freedom: A Truth and
Conciliation Commission, under the auspices of and conducted by a
mutually acceptable international
tribunal.