[Assam] Assam's terror victims demand justice

Tue Jun 29 09:38:22 PDT 2010

>But, I suppose (and in fact know), he does not seek retribution.

Just because some people may want that the law take it's own course, or that
there be due process does in no way mean 'retribution'.

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

Human question as coming from the victim's families or from these leaders
being charged and jailed?

>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.

Sure, there are many examples of such people. But does due process, charges,
& prosecution listen to emotional feelings, and tailor these according to
what some may want?

On Tue, Jun 29, 2010 at 9:29 AM, UTTAM BORTHAKUR <uttamborthakur at yahoo.co.in
> wrote:

> 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
> <assam%
> 40assamnet.org?Subject=Re%3A%20%5BAssam%5D%20Assam%27s%20terror%20victims%20demand%20justice&In-Reply-To=%3C7A230391-E972-41B3-98CB-7EA0B24BBE28%40gmail.com%3E<http://40assamnet.org/?Subject=Re%3A%20%5BAssam%5D%20Assam%27s%20terror%20victims%20demand%20justice&In-Reply-To=%3C7A230391-E972-41B3-98CB-7EA0B24BBE28%40gmail.com%3E>
> >
> *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.
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