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12/26/2007: "Naga neighbours heap bodies on Karbi Anglong A STAFF REPORTER The Telegraph"

Naga neighbours heap bodies on Karbi Anglong A STAFF REPORTER The Telegraph

Guwahati, Dec. 25: Police stations and outposts along Karbi Anglong’s border with Nagaland are routinely saddled with unclaimed bodies of people killed by criminal gangs or militant groups in that state.
“We have complained about this to Nagaland police several times, but there has been no response from them,” the subdivisional police officer of Bokajan, Satyen Gogoi, said today.
Karbi Anglong shares nearly 10km of Assam’s border with Nagaland.
Gogoi said Bokajan police station had earned a bad name because of unclaimed bodies being frequently found in the areas under its jurisdiction. “The police station has to register a case whenever a body is found, though the crime may have been committed across the border.”
Bokajan is around 15km from Dimapur, the commercial hub of Nagaland.
Last week, a team from Bokajan police rescued three persons from the clutches of two Nagaland policemen who allegedly intended to kill them on this side of the border. The team arrested the uniformed duo and impounded the official Maruti Gypsy they were using. Apprising the home department of the incident, Karbi Anglong police said the involvement of police personnel from Nagaland in “crime in Assam territory” necessitated immediate intervention. It requested the government to take up the issue with Nagaland.
“Until recently, we thought only miscreants and militants outfits dumped bodies and committed crimes in our area. But it seems even police personnel from that state are using Assam territory for crime,” the police said.
Apart from bodies being dumped, Karbi Anglong is having to contend with a network of criminals originating in Nagaland but more active on this side of the boundary. Lahorijan, another Assam township bordering Dimapur, is known to be a haven for drug addicts and arms dealers. Most of the drug peddlers and arms dealers active in the area are from Nagaland.
Mukul Saikia, a former subdivisional police officer in Bokajan, said drug peddlers and addicts had long been converging on Lahorijan to strike deals away from the prying eyes of vigilante groups in Nagaland. “Most of the addicts and traffickers are from Nagaland. They use Lahorijan as a buying and selling point.”
Another police officer in the border affairs department said one of the proposals was to seal the state’s border with Nagaland. The former deputy inspector-general of police (eastern range), Bhaskar Jyoti Mahanta, had asked residents of the districts bordering Nagaland — especially Karbi Anglong and Golaghat — to be cautious since they were near a “criminal den” like Dimapur.
Army foils Rajdhani blast The Telegraph OUR CORRESPONDENT


The five ANLA militants arrested from Tinsukia on Tuesday. Picture by Eastern Projections
Dibrugarh, Dec. 25: A group of Adivasi militants that arrived in Tinsukia this morning to carry out another blast on the Rajdhani Express was arrested by the army from a tea garden.
Akash Tirkey alias Daniel Ekka, an area commander, Dhoni Oraon, Chandan Bhumij, Thomas Kerketta and Samanan Tanti alias Raju Tanti — all members of the Adivasi National Liberation Army — reached Dimapur by train last night. They got off at Naharkatia station, walked the whole night and reached the tea estate near Tinsukia town this morning. Three .38 revolvers, 30 rounds of ammunition, an improvised explosive device and some letterheads of the outfit were found on them.
Troops of 2 Bihar Regiment, who arrested the five, later handed them over to the police.
“The group was instructed by a senior leader of the outfit, Prem Kawar, who is the district commander in Karbi Anglong, to carry out another blast on the Rajdhani Express, for which they were carrying the IED. The bomb has been assembled in such a manner that it can easily be put into a briefcase,” a police officer involved in preliminary investigations said.
The outfit had claimed responsibility for the blast on the Dibrugarh Rajdhani Express on December 13 that killed five and injured four. During interrogation, the militants today said they had travelled to Tinsukia to carry out a recruitment drive and collect funds, the source said.
“The rebels also revealed that they had established alliances with the National Socialist Council of Nagalim (Isak-Muivah) and Karbi Revolutionary Army and have received arms training from the two outfits,” he said.
Yuletide spirit casts a warm glow OUR CORRESPONDENT The telegraph
Shillong, Dec. 25: The night was chilly and stars twinkled in the sky as Christmas celebrations began here with midnight mass in churches. People singing carols with lamps in hand, a spatter of frost on the lawns during the early morning hours and majestic pine trees metamorphosed into ubiquitous Christmas trees set the perfect ambience for Christmas. The celebrations continued this morning with mass, prayers, special service, carols, feasting and exchange of greetings and gifts. Christmas and the cold, however, kept most Shillongites indoors during the day. Christmas being a religious festival, most people celebrated it indoors, either in church or at home.
Those who attended church service were clad in warm clothes with the temperature dipping to 6.4 degrees Celsius. The temperature has been hovering around 4 degrees Celsius for the past week. The Upper Shillong metereological department today said the weather would continue to be chilly and foggy till the end of January. The fog, however, added to the Christmas charm in villages and people came out to exchange greetings despite the cold.
The Yuletide spirit was just as evident in the Garo Hills with churches, houses. government buildings and trees decorated with illuminations and stars. The government establishments will remain closed for at least one week for Christmas.
However, the world’s tallest Christmas trees in Tura, headquarters of West Garo Hills district, went without decoration for the second consecutive year this time while the world’s oldest one stands illuminated in a church compound in Shillong, adds PTI.
The towering pine tree on the premises of the All Saint’s Cathedral here is kept decorated for almost a month before Christmas. “The tree is older than the church. You can imagine the age of the tree if the church was built in 1876,” church leader Rev. P.B. Lyngdoh said.
About 350km away from Shillong, there lies another tree in the Dobasipara locality of Tura which was featured in the international news of BBC in 2003 as being one of the tallest living Christmas trees in the world. The nearly 150-foot tree is not being decorated for the second consecutive year. Christmas celebration committee members said the terminalia (arjuna) tree was not decorated because the tree was ageing and a young fig tree has engulfed it. They said it would be redecorated in the coming years when the tree regains its lost strength.
People of Tura, however, have illuminated almost all the trees of the town like they had done in the past. In Nagaland, people attended midnight mass in large number to celebrate Christian. The weather was clear so the revellers could pour onto the streets in their best attire and exchange greetings. The peaceful atmosphere, which has prevailed in the state since three underground factions of the NSCN signed a peace deal last month, set the backdrop for a perfect Yuletide.
In Dimapur and Mokokchung, people attended the morning service in churches and visited their near and dear ones. Nagaland Governor K. Shankaranarayanan and chief minister Neiphiu Rio greeted the people on the occasion.
Arunachal Govt to hand over Wangcha murder case to CBI
Assam Tribune
ITANAGAR, Dec 25 – The Arunachal Pradesh Government has decided to hand over the investigation into the murder of former Congress Lok Sabha member Wangcha Rajkumar at Deomali in Tirap district last night to the CBI.

The Arunachal Pradesh Cabinet reviewed the law and order situation in the State and decided to urge the Union Home Ministry to order a CBI inquiry into the murder of Wangcha, government spokesman Tako Dabi and Home Minister Jarbom Gamlin told a press conference after an urgent Cabinet meeting called by Chief Minister Dorjee Khandu.

As “neither the political angle nor the hands of underground elements active in the district could be ruled out” behind the killing of Rajkumar, so it was decided to hand over the case to CBI, they said. Gamlin said Wangcha as well as some other political leaders in the State, including the Chief Minister, have been receiving threats. Wangcha was given five police escorts and he had posted two each at Itanagar and Delhi.

Sunday night, when Wangcha was playing badminton in a hall at Deomali, two assailants armed with AK 47 rifles arrived and fired from close range. Another person was also injured. Wangcha was twice MP from Arunachal East seat.

Asked if the State Government will still press the Centre to withdraw the Armed Forces Special Powers Act from Tirap and Changlang districts, adjoining Nagaland, for which the State legislature had adopted a resolution earlier, Gamlin said the proposal for withdrawal of the provision of the Act was sent to the Centre by the earlier regime.
“We have extended it for a period of six months in October last,” he said. – PTI
Bodo, Bengali populace urged not to fall prey to ‘political conspiracy’ By A Staff Reporter Assam tribune
GUWAHATI, Dec 25 – Taking exception to the directive of the Guwahati Development Department (GDD) to the Guwahati Municipal Corporation (GMC) for use of Bengali and Bodo languages together with Assamese in signboards of shops and business establishments in select areas within the GMC area, public activist Prof Deven Dutta today said that the move was aimed at frustrating the Assam Official Language Implementation Act besides being an insult to the indigenous communities with the potential to create communal tension. “According to the Act, Assamese, Bengali and Bodo are the official languages of Brahmaputra Valley, Barak Valley and Bodoland Autonomous Council area respectively. However, since Assamese is also the State language which is understood by all the people, it would be wrong to interpret that Assamese cannot be used in Barak Valley or Bodoland areas, especially in the signboards,” Prof Dutta said.

“Under the circumstances, the directive for use of Bangla and Bodo languages in select areas of Guwahati is, on the one hand, communal appeasement, and on the other hand, a planned and deep-rooted sinister political conspiracy for creating confusion and communal flare-up,” he added. Questioning the role of the officials and ministers concerned in the matter, Prof Dutta said that their act had exposed that they had little knowledge or understanding of the State Official Language Implementation Act.

Prof Dutta said that the typical mentality of the bureaucracy bereft of any loyalty to the State as also the so-called nationalistic leaders of the State was at the root of such undesirable developments. He also called upon the Bodo and Bengali populace not to fall prey to the “political conspiracy” and to extend a helping hand in the implementation of the Official Language Implementation Act. Meanwhile, Samannita Yuva Tirtha, the youth wing of the Asom Sattra Mahasabha, has warned the State Government not to dilute the status of Assamese as the State’s official language. The organisation has also warned a ‘democraticic action’ to compel the Government to withdraw the instruction.
Resenting the latest instruction of the GDD Department to use any of Bengali, English and Bodo, besides Assamese on the signboards of the business establishments of the city, the youth wing of the Mahasabha said that this would affect the unity of the State’s society.

It also doubts a ‘political conspiracy’ in the said instruction and demanded withdrawal of the instruction issued through memo number GDD-2/2007/Pt 62 by the GDD Secretary to the Commissioner, Guwahati Municipal Corporation and to issue a fresh instruction honouring the State’s Official Languages Act giving effect from January 1 next.
UNLF threatens to execute traders Newmai News Network Assam Tribune
IMPHAL, Dec 25 – The banned United National Liberation Front (UNLF) has warned two tobacco dealers to surrender to the outfit before December 30, failing which they will be awarded capital punishment. It may be recalled tobacco items worth Rs 12 lakhs were seized from a vehicle on National Highway 53 by the Central Special Forces (CSF) of the UNLF and the same was set ablaze few days back at Sagolband Thingam Leikai in Imphal West district. The owner of the confiscated items has been indentified as Jitendra Bihari of Thangal Bazar, Imphal and the goods were supposed to be delivered to one Khuma Kuki of Moreh in Chandel district, according to the outfit. An UNLF spokesman said that Jitendra had tried to bail out the seized items from the custody of the CSF by handing over Rs 2 lakhs through a third person. He said the amount sent by Jitendra Bihari has been seized by the outfit. Another underground outfit the Revolutionary People’s Front (RPF) has banned the using and selling of tobacco-related products like khaini, zarda, gutkha, etc, since some years back in the State. Recently, it added mithapatti (betel leaf) on the banned list. Individuals who defy the ban have been penalized by the outfit.
60 years of his life in jail without trial, man dies By Indian Express
Spending 60 years of his life in jail without trial, possibly one of the longest-ever prison terms for any undertrial, 80-year-old Machang Lalung died quietly at his residence at Nellei on Tuesday night. Lalung was sent to Guwahati Jail by the British colonialists in 1946 for involvement in a petty village squabble and spent the vital years of his life for six decades. He was enlarged on bail only last year. A hue and cry was raised when the National Human Rights Commission took up the issue with concerned judicial authorities after it was highlighted in a feature film and in the media. The jail authorities said he was behind bars since all relevant papers of Lalung's case were lost and no family member came forward to pursue his release. Lalung spent his one year of freedom with his brothers and their kins before he died of old age ailments.
Can the "Group of Friends" help Gambari? Dr. Sein Myint Mizzima News
December 23, 2007 - Last Wednesday, the UN Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon formed a "Group of Friends" of Burma to aide his special envoy to Burma, Ibrahim Gambari. Gambari is in close consultation with both the military generals and pro-democracy leaders in an effort to encourage democracy and human rights in Burma. The group is comprised of the five permanent members of the UN Security Council (the US, Britain, China, Russia and France); four ASEAN members (Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam); the EU representative (currently Portugal); plus three major regional players (India, Japan and Australia); and Norway.
To strengthen this noble cause it is worthwhile to analyze how this "Group of Friends" can help Mr. Gambari's mission to Burma. On the surface, there is no reason to doubt each country's friendship and sincerity towards Burma as Burma has maintained her long standing foreign policy of non-alignment since 1955, when the late Burmese Premier U Nu was one of founding signatories of the first Non-Aligned Movement Conference at Bandung, Indonesia.
However, if we dig deeper and carefully scrutinize the "Group of Friends," each member's "Friendliness" toward the current Burmese military government, the State Peace and Development Council (SPDC), falls into one of the two camps. The first camp, the "political and/or economic friends" of the SPDC camp, is led by two permanent members of the UN Security Council, China and Russia, and includes regional giants Japan and India as well as the four ASEAN countries. The second camp, the "political friends" of the Burmese democratic opposition camp, is led by the US, Britain, and France, all three of whom are permanent members of the UN Security Council, and includes the EU, Norway, and Australia.
The "Group of Friends" is an informal group hoping to assist Mr. Gambari's mediation work in Burma, specifically in helping to find ways and means to persuade the recalcitrant junta leader, Senior General Than Shwe, and his hard-line loyalists, to release detained opposition leader Daw Aung San Suu Kyi and commence a meaningful dialogue. Many countries in the first camp, led by China, have publicly stated their view on the matter of releasing Aung San Suu Kyi as an internal affair of Burma that only the Burmese can solve themselves. This camp wishes to leave the generals alone to decide Burma's fate without outside interference.
But the second camp, led by the US, believes that the international community cannot leave the SPDC's gross human rights abuses as an internal affair since the United Nations has a responsibility to protect the millions of people living under harsh military rule and arbitrary laws.
While the US and her group push for a tougher position in dealing with the junta, China and her group resist applying pressure, preferring instead to use gentle persuasion. So far, the junta has survived sanctions by the US and the EU as they have had little direct impact on the government, and the SPDC has also brushed aside the gentle "constructive engagement" initiated by ASEAN neighbors. With such diametrical views from the two camps, getting a consensus on how to persuade and pressure the junta to maintain direct talks with Aung San Suu Kyi will demand a high level of diplomatic skill by both the Secretary General and his special envoy.
A senior EU diplomat has said "at least these diplomats have a place to meet and a format to work together". The Japanese Ambassador has also given a somewhat positive note about the usefulness of the group, adding that the group is not against Burma, though perhaps he means it is not against the SPDC. With such diverse opinions and views amongst group members, one cannot help but wonder, how will the "Friends" of the junta find common ground with the "Friends" of the democratic opposition and provide a magic formula for Mr. Gambari?
In the end, if this magic formula fails to materialize, perhaps it is time for the "Friends" of the democratic opposition to start contemplating a more effective approach.
[Dr. Sein Myint serves as Director for Policy Development with Justice for Human Rights in Burma (JHB).]