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09/30/2005: "Vatican ambassador to visit Nagaland"

Vatican ambassador to visit Nagaland New Kerala Kohima | September 30, 2005
Vatican Ambassador to India, Apostolic Nuncio, will pay an official visit to Nagaland from October 24.
According to official sources here today the ambassador will meet governor Shyamal Datta and Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio during his two-day stay in this state capital.
The catholic churches of Kohima are gearing up to receive the ambassador, who will arrive here from Imphal by road, where he is scheduled to touch down first and interact with government officials and church representatives. UNI AS KK AKP1203
One hurt in inter-factional clash Kohima | September 30, 2005nWebindia
One NSCN-IM cadre was injured in an inter- factional fued near Yakur village under Tuensang district. According to reports received today the cadre was injured yesterday in a gun battle between the combined forces of NSCN(K) and Federal Government of Nagaland and the NSCN-IM group. Fire was exchanged for about half-an hour. The situation is tense. The villagers have accused the law enforcing agencies of aiding a particular faction while neglecting other groups, the reports added.
UNI AS KK SY DS1254

Assam follows strike regimen - Airport staff agitation affects air services throughout region, but most states ignore bandh A STAFF REPORTER New Telegraph Guwahati, Sept. 29:
Another bandh, another day lost. Much as people rave and rant about the crippling culture of strikes, life in Assam came to a grinding halt — well, almost — with residents preferring to shut themselves up in their homes rather than face overbearing bandh enforcers. The state actually had to ensure not one, but two bandhs — a 24-hour general strike enforced by an assortment of Left-backed trade unions and a 12-hour bandh called by the People’s Committee for Peace Initiative. The statewide bandh — the third this month — partially affected rail and air services and totally paralysed road transport, business and education. Sonitpur district remained closed for the third consecutive day because of bandhs called by different organisations. A strike by Airports Authority of India (AAI) employees against privatisation of airports heaped more agony on travellers. V. K. Choudhury, regional executive director of the AAI, said Lokapriyo Gopinath Bordoloi international airport operated at “50 to 60 per cent capacity” during the day.
“There was no problem with operations at the airport, but some airlines did cancel their flights,” he said. Guwahati airport handles 30 flights on an average each day. Today, there were only 14 flights to and from the city. “Delhi was connected, barring Jet Airways flights. All flights from Calcutta were, however, cancelled,” Choudhury said. ATR services within the region were normal. Northeast Frontier Railway spokesperson T. Rabha said most long-distance trains, including Rajdhani Express, were “regulated” at various places because of the bandh. Some short-distance train services, however, operated normally. “It will take us between two and three days to restore all services,” Rabha said. In Guwahati, police arrested 60 people for enforcing the bandh. Very few residents ventured out in any case and the city wore a deserted look throughout the day. One of the new flyovers witnessed a television shoot instead of the usual hurly-burly of traffic (picture on left).
All business establishments and educational institutions were closed. The Left-sponsored general strike evoked a mixed response elsewhere in the region. In Tripura, all government offices except the state secretariat remained closed despite chief secretary R.K. Mathur officially warning employees of penal steps if they did not report for duty. Only one ATR flight arrived in Agartala from Guwahati. The airport at Singarbil normally handles four-five flights on the Agartala-Calcutta-Guwahati sector. In Nagaland, banks and post offices were closed for the day. Manipur remained unaffected except for cancellation of flights to and from Imphal. Left activists staged a sit-in demonstration in the capital town. Senior CPI leader A.B. Bardhan led the protest. Business establishments, schools, colleges and government offices functioned normally. Mizoram, too, was unaffected by the strike.
Nagalim: National Socialist Council of Nagalim Rolls Pitch for Dialogue Source: The Telegraph India UNPO
Eager to make a positive impression before the next round of talks with Delhi, the National Socialist Council of Nagalim (Isak-Muivah) today claimed to be implementing the ceasefire “in letter and spirit wherever we are”. Rh. Raising, kilo kilonser (home minister) in the NSCN (I-M) hierarchy, said over phone that his organisation had always endeavoured to maintain the ceasefire between the Centre and the Nagas, “wherever they are, in the Northeast or in Delhi”. He said the 2001 uprising in Manipur against a “ceasefire without territorial limits” had been rendered redundant by developments since then.
“If the Meiteis have a problem, let them approach the government of India. But as far as the Indo-Naga issue is concerned, that is the Nagas’ lookout, not theirs.”
The NSCN (I-M) will resume its dialogue with Delhi’s team of interlocutors early next month, most probably in Bangkok. The militant leader said contrary to what many might be thinking, the NSCN (I-M) had forged a relationship of mutual trust with the government. He claimed to have addressed a meeting of thousands of NSCN (I-M) members on August 14 in the presence of senior officials, including a deputy commissioner. “The flag was hoisted and nobody raised any objection. That says everything.” Raising indicated that the NSCN (I-M) was working towards a reconciliation with rival groups. He said the outcome of these efforts, however, depended on the progress of the dialogue with Delhi. On the recent meeting in Bangkok between the NSCN (I-M) leadership and a delegation of Church and NGO representatives from Nagaland, Raising said they spoke the “same language of unification”. He said the peace process was at a very crucial juncture and the challenge was to remove differences in opinion on key issues. The NSCN (Khaplang) has been consistently critical of its rival’s approach to the dialogue with Delhi. Raising said both his organisation and the UPA government at the Centre were committed to a negotiated settlement through peaceful means. “I only hope they (Delhi) will abide by what they say,” he said.
GoI urged to involve Kukis in negotiation T. Siamchinthang Morung Express
LAMKA (MExN): The Kuki Students Organisation (KSO), Churachandpur has urged the Government of India to involve all the Kuki revolutionary outfits in any negotiation for a permanent political solution to the problems of the Kukis.
In a representation submitted to the Union Home Ministry which was available to The Morung Express, the student body pointed out the need on the part of the Indian Government to come to terms with all the different Kuki revolutionary organizations and to involve them in any negotiation on the Kuki issue.
While appreciating the cease-fire agreement signed between the Government of India and some Kuki outfits, the representation signed by president of the student body Tonghen Kipgen observed that the facts about the Kukis and their political problems are to be viewed in the right perspective. The release pointed out that the Kukis had fought side by side with the mainland Indians for the independence of the country. The Kuki Rebellion of 1917 and 1919 against the mighty British Empire during the Second World War is also well-known. However, despite all these contributions, the Government of India has done nothing to redress the problems of the Kuki people, the student body rued.
The divisive policy played by the Government meted out to the Kukis has retarded the economic-political growth of the Kukis, it stated, while adding that the full-fledged State of Manipur in 1973 has not benefited the Kukis in any way and it is because of these circumstantial pains and sufferings of the people that have given birth to some revolutionary organisations.
Whither Armed Forces (Special) Powers Act? Morung Express
Nothing has yet been made public about the Armed Forces (Special) Powers Act 1958 Review Committee recommendations. Staying in Delhi and with gossips going round, one cannot, however, fail to speculate the nature of the recommendations of the Review Committee. A lot of the gossip has revolved around certain official statements emanating from political bigwigs. Much also has to do with India’s escalation in the fight against ‘terrorists’. One thing that India certainly cannot do is: escalate its counter-terrorist/insurgency policies, and at the same time, say or give the impression that it is cutting down on its legal and other institutional mechanisms against terrorists/insurgents.
Going a little back into time, it must be understood that the Armed Forces (Special) Powers Act 1958 was brought about as a ‘military’ response to internal violence of all types in an evolving anti-terror/insurgency doctrine that overwhelmingly was influenced by the need for India to be continually prepared for war from its hostile neighbours. When I say all types of violence, this also included the Left-wing mass movement in Telengana and other areas, which Jawaharlal Nehru, in a speech, termed as an "anti-national campaign, worse than an open rebellion and aiming at total disruption, which would result in widespread chaos". Although the Left-wing militant mass movement was a sore area, as far as the government was concerned, the real threat emerged from ‘rebellion’ in the peripheral East and the West. The escalating violence in these two geo-political and strategically significant regions, for whatever reasons, came to be perceived as a direct challenge to the notion of a hard won independence and the territorial integrity of the new India. The need to face these challenges by all means available was made a matter of national policy. Fighting terrorism/insurgency, thus, was made an important element in the overall national military grand strategy of India and not as policy of engagement with a specific type of violence practitioners.
This also can be evidenced from the fact that the Armed Forces (Special) Powers Act 1958, when enacted, was to lapse in six months but it has been continually extended for the last 48 years with its variants formulated in various other circumstances which also means that the counter-terror/insurgency doctrine/policy of the government has seen no innovation since its inception. This overt military disposition right from the 1950s has created a military/bureaucracy enclave who make the final ‘rules’ in counter-terror/insurgency with the political leadership in Delhi having little or no knowledge or say of/in the operational aspects carried out in the field. This acute polarization of India’s anti-terror/insurgency policy will not be an easy structure to demolish in the near future. As far as I am concerned, repealing the Armed Forces Act would require a complete overhauling of the national/internal security institutional, legal and other mechanisms, which I am afraid the government is not in a position to carry out. Not because it cannot be done, but because the policy is so deeply entrenched in the system. Further, with subsequent governments managing to hold on to power in what seems to be ‘coalition politics is here to stay’, the pulls and pressures of political partners will make it extremely difficult for governments to commit political suicide by taking ‘risks’ pertaining to India’s ‘national security’. What inferences do I draw from the above regarding the impending recommendations of the Armed Forces (Special) Powers Act 1958 Review Committee? Crudely put, the government will not repeal the Act. At most what the government will do is strike out some portions to say that it is benevolently presenting a more ‘humane’ Act. It might even change the nomenclature, but the fundamentals of a ‘military’ oriented response to terrorism/insurgency will not be compromised. This also falls in line with both the enhanced rhetoric and commitments to the ‘war on terror’ in the aftermath of the 11 September attacks in the United States. A number of recent literature coming from research by the Army top brass are emphasizing on ‘joint doctrines’, short, swift and precise military operations to fight different types of conflicts and in varying terrain patterns, smaller, more agile, more responsive and rapidly deployable Special Forces Units, patterned on Units such as the 31 Rashtriya Rifles – an elite counter insurgency force – and such other renewed counter terror/insurgency strategies. Bad news indeed for the states in the North Eastern region.
For us living the North Eastern states all the rhetoric of ‘political dialogues’ are not ‘chill out’ signs. Where will the BSF pulled out from Jammu and Kashmir go? They are definitely not going to be deployed for maritime security duties. One other concern that needs to be noted: there has been a gradual but consistent isolation of the political leadership in the North Eastern states in any move by the Centre to carry out its military policies in the region. There is a general perception in Delhi that politicians in the region are highly susceptible to influence from the protagonists of conflict and hence the Centre derives no dividends in collaborating with them. The recent Bhutan operation reported caught the Assam government off guard making one Assamese security analyst comment that the success of Operation Rhino II was completely reversed by Operation All Clear. Political interventions have always been a ‘far cry’ for the people in the North Eastern states. Not because these have not been carried out but because these have always been on terms set by the Centre in a fundamentally ‘carrot or stick’ approach. Unfortunately for Delhi, both the ‘carrot’ and ‘stick’ do not seem to have worked in the region. And of course, wishing away the problem is only a recipe for disaster.
Police kill six student protesters in Meghalaya GUWAHATI, India (Reuters) - Police shot dead six student protesters on Friday when a demonstration over college facilities turned violent in Meghalaya, officials and police said.
Police said they opened fire after students tried to break through bamboo barricades during their illegal protest and attacked policemen in Tura, nearly 400 km west of the state capital Shillong.
"Six people have been killed in police firing this morning," Meghalaya state official L.R. Sangma told Reuters. Police said that all the six killed were college students. About 50 people, including students and policemen, were hurt. "The police had to open fire when the students started throwing stones and broke the barricades," a senior police officer, who asked not to be identified, told Reuters by telephone. A curfew has been imposed in the area. Kohima, September 30 : One NSCN-IM cadre was injured in an inter- factional fued near Yakur village under Tuensang district. According to reports received today the cadre was injured yesterday in a gun battle between the combined forces of NSCN(K) and Federal Government of Nagaland and the NSCN-IM group. Fire was exchanged for about half-an hour. The situation is tense. The villagers have accused the law enforcing agencies of aiding a particular faction while neglecting other groups, the reports added. [UNI]

Assam bandh total, peaceful By A Staff Reporter
GUWAHATI, Sept 29 – Normal life in the state was badly hit today due to the 12-hour bandh called by the People’s Committee for Peace Initiative (PCPI) and a nationwide general strike called by trade unions and employees’ associations. While the PCPI bandh was for demanding suspension of Army operations for creating a congenial atmosphere for talks with the militant outfits, including the ULFA, the national strike was to protest the UPA government’s economic policies. The effect of the twin calls was near total in Guwahati where business and functioning in offices came to a standstill. Business establishments kept their shutters down while private offices were close. Attendance in government offices was negligible. Educational institutions cancelled classes and school examinations were rescheduled. All major markets in the city, except the Beltola weekly market, remained close throughout the day. There were no bandh-related incidents in the city said City Police SSP Nitul Gogoi. However, police arrested 363 persons across the city while they were trying to force people to observe the bandh, he said. Most major public vehicles remained off the roads with only a handful of ASTC “Rhino Service” buses providing some relief to people waiting at bus stands. Most private vehicles were also off the roads. Long distance buses did not ply during the day.

Despite the fact that some airport employees here supported the general strike, airport officials said this evening that all flights of Indian Airlines and Sahara Airlines operated as usual. Only the Jet Airlines flights did not operate. Train services, however, were severely affected with many trains being cancelled and rescheduled today and tomorrow. Among the trains cancelled is the Kanchanjunga Express scheduled to leave Guwahati for Sealdah on Friday. The Saraighat Express that was to depart at 7 pm today will now depart at 6 am tomorrow. The Dibrugarh-New Delhi Rajdhani Express has also been rescheduled to leave Dibrugarh at 10 pm tomorrow instead of 6.15 pm today. The Guwahati-Delhi Rajdhani Express scheduled to depart from Guwahati at 6.15 am tomorrow, will leave at 12.30 pm. Tomorrow’s North East Express will depart at 3 pm instead of 9 am.
Our Correspondents add: Dibrugarh: Normal life in Dibrugarh city was partially hit today due to the nationwide general strike called by different trade unions. Although long route buses remained off the road, air and rail traffic operated normally. Many shops at the city’s main market area had their shutters open while scores of two and four wheelers were seen plying on the roads during the bandh period. Banks, post offices and the educational institutions however remained closed with the other state and Central government offices registering a thin attendance. There have been no reports of any untoward incident from any part of the city during the strike.

Tinsukia: The nationwide bandh called affected normal life in the upper Assam business hub of Tinsukia town. All government establishment including banks and post office remained closed barring the essential services. The educational institutions of the town also observed an unofficial holiday due to the bandh. Vehicular traffic was off the roads although trains ran as per schedule. There have been no reports of any untoward incident during the bandh period.
Teok: The bandh was total and peaceful in Teok. The national highway wore a deserted look, while educational institutions, offices and business establishments remained closed for the day. There has been no untoward incident during the 12 hour bandh period here.
Goalpara: The countrywide general strike was observed throughout Goalpara district peacefully. All financial institutions, Central government offices and business establishments remained close while public vehicles were off the roads. In Goalpara town State Government offices remained open but attendance was thin. Goalpara College teachers abstained from classes and observed sit-in strike.
Bongaigaon: The bandh evoked full response in Bongaigaon and Chirang districts. During the period, shops, markets, business establishments, educational institutions and offices were close. Vehicles were off the roads. Some BRPL employees supporting the CITU remained absent from their duties. The bandh was peaceful.
Bijni: The bandh had a mixed effect and passed off quite peacefully. Offices and schools and colleges were open but as there was no plying of buses no official work as such could be carried out. Few vehicles were seen plying on National Highway 31.
Nalbari: The bandh was total and peaceful in Nalbari district. Business establishments, educational and financial institutions and government offices remained close. Vehicles were off the roads.
Rangiya: Normal life in and around Rangiya was completely paralysed following the dawn to dusk bandh observed here successfully. All educational institutions, offices, banks, post offices and business establishments remained close. All modes of vehicles went off the roads.
Mirza: The bandh passed off peacefully and no untoward incident was reported from any part of south Kamrup. All kinds of vehicles remained off the roads. Though government offices remained open, there was no attendance. Business establishments and educational institutions remained close.

Jalah: Normal life in Baksa district and North Bajali was hit due to the bandh that coincided with another bandh called by the All Assam Sarania Kachari Students’ Union. The bandh was total in Jalah, Anchali, Simla, Doomuri, Charaimari, Lakshi Bazar, etc. Vehicles were off the roads and shops and offices remained close. The bandh was peaceful.
Udalguri: The bandh passed off peacefully in Udalguri district today. Even though business establishments were closed and vehicles were off the roads the affect of the bandh was somewhat offset by the BPPF rally here.
Jamugurihat: The bandh was total and peaceful here. Business establishments and educational institutions remained close. The police arrested over a hundred picketers.
Tezpur: The bandh was widely supported in Sonitpur district. Business establishments and offices remained close. Tezpur town wore a deserted look. The bandh passed off peacefully.
Koliabor: The bandh was total and peaceful in the entire Koliabor subdivision. No incident was reported and offices and educational institutions remained close.
Bokakhat: The bandh passed off peacefully in the subdivision with shops, educational institutions and offices being close.
Jorhat: The bandh was successful here without any major untoward incident. Police arrested 85 bandh supporters. Though a few government offices were open, attendance was sparse. No heavy vehicles were seen on the roads.
Sivasagar: The bandh was total and peaceful here.
Tinsukia- The bandh call evoked total response and paralysed normal life in the district. All shops and establishments, financial and educational institutions remained close. Vehicles were off the roads. Attendance in government offices was thin. No untoward incident was reported from anywhere. Police arrested 13 persons at Digboi and five more at Panitola.
Doomdooma: Normal life in and around the tea town remained paralysed due to the bandh and the general strike. All government offices, business establishments, financial and educational institutions were close. Vehicles remained off the roads. No untoward incident was reported.

Dongkamokam: The general strike evoked mixed response in Karbi Anglong district. The bandh was total in Diphu and Bokajan subdivisions putting normal life out of gear. In some parts of Hamren subdivision a few shops and business establishments remained open. No untoward incident has been reported from anywhere in the district.