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Sunday, November 24, 2024  
22 Jumada Al-Awwal 1446  

India, rebels set for talks on troubled Assam

India, rebels set for talks on troubled AssamIndian officials would meet next week with representatives of a separatist group blamed for twin blasts that killed 15 people in the restive north-eastern state of Assam, a mediator said on Thursday.
Representatives from the banned United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) withdrew from talks with the government after New Delhi called off a six-week cease-fire at the end of September, citing a surge in rebel attacks.
But spiralling separatist violence that came to a head Sunday with simultaneous bombings in Assam's main city, Guwahati, that left more than 40 injured saw rebel negotiators request a meeting.
"At our insistence, the national security adviser (M.K. Narayanan) agreed to hold a meeting in New Delhi on Monday," Indira Goswami, a noted Assamese writer chosen by the ULFA to head talks, told AFP.
Goswami said her team of key figures from Assam's civil society would again try to pave the way for direct peace talks between the government and the ULFA, which has been fighting for an independent homeland since 1979.
The writer will be accompanied by Rebati Phukan, a childhood friend of ULFA commander-in-chief Paresh Baruah.
"I cannot reveal the modalities that we are going to place before the government, and the only thing I can say is that doors for peace talks are still wide open," said Goswami.
"We are trying our best to bring the two sides to the negotiating table."
The mediators requested the meeting after the Indian government Tuesday announced a major counter-insurgency offensive against the ULFA, two days after the twin attacks on a shopping arcade and oil installation.
Official sources told AFP security officials had decided to "either capture or neutralise key ULFA commanders".
"Anybody who picks up weapons and explosives will be dealt with firmly and effectively," Federal Home Secretary V.K. Duggal said.
The separatist group has not claimed responsibility for the attacks.
There have been three rounds of talks between ULFA representatives and Indian government negotiators in the past year.
The dialogue stalled as neither side could bridge their differences.
The ULFA had demanded the release of five of their jailed leaders as a precondition to holding peace talks. New Delhi, in return, wanted the rebel leadership to commit in writing that they would come for direct negotiations if the jailed militants were freed.
In the past month, 10 people have died in a dozen bomb attacks in oil, timber and tea-rich Assam, which borders Bangladesh and Bhutan.
The ULFA is one of at least 30 rebel armies operating in India's north-east, where insurgencies have claimed more than 50,000 lives since 1947.

Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2006