The United States
has at last declared the United Liberation
Front of Asom (ULFA) a terrorist organization,
twenty six years after this Northeast Indian
separatist group's formation and nearly five
years after Washington has taken the lead in
the global war on terror.
In its 2004 Country Reports on Terrorism, the
US has put the ULFA on its list of 'other
selected terrorist organizations', a category
that includes those terror groups that do not
target the national interests of the US or its
citizens. The US State Department report
described the ULFA as the 'most prominent
insurgent group in India's Northeast'.
The report, talking of the only Northeast
Indian militant outfit under scan, said, "ULFA
procures and trades in arms with other
Northeast Indian groups and receives aid from
unknown external sources." It also noted the
ULFA's use of extortion to finance military
training, weapons purchase and trade in arms
with other ethnic insurgent groups active in
the area.
Two questions crop up immediately: why has the
US turned the heat on the ULFA at this
juncture, and why is it shifting its
anti-terror focus on South Asia. First, the
ULFA, fighting for a 'sovereign, Socialist
Assam,' may have been targeted by the US
because its top brass, including the group's
strategic think-tank, is based in Bangladesh,
a country that is under close scrutiny by
Washington over the past year or two for the
sudden rise of jehadi terror groups. Reports
of ULFA representatives attending conclaves in
Bangladesh held by Islamist groups under the
leadership of the Harkat-ul-Jehadi Islami (HUJI)
may also have put the Northeast Indian outfit
under closer scrutiny.
Secondly, the US may have been under pressure
from powerful multi-national companies (MNCs)
with interests in Assam who have been at the
receiving end of the ULFA's extortion campaign
towards its 'war chest'. Many MNCs dealing in
tea, oil exploration, telecommunications and
mining are really wary of the ULFA that has a
history of successfully targeting these
cash-rich concerns.
Besides, the US has been frequently charged of
pursuing a policy of double standards in so
far as dealing with terror. Until now, there
was no specific American concern over militant
strikes in India's Northeast, in which
hundreds of civilians have also been killed,
although most of these groups, including the
ULFA, have been receiving sanctuary and vital
logistic support from influential sections in
the neighboring nations of Bangladesh and
Myanmar.
Top militant leaders, including ULFA
Commander-in-Chief, Paresh Barua, and the
group's Chairman, Arabinda Rajkhowa, have
Interpol Red Corner Notices up against them
for a long time now. Yet, there has been no
effort by Washington to help New Delhi track
them, and neither was pressure mounted
directly on Dhaka or Yangon to stop these
rebels from carrying on with their anti-India
offensives. By including the ULFA in its list
of terror groups, Washington hopes to put
indirect pressure on the governments in
India's neighborhood to crack down on its
leaders and cadres.
The US action at this point could also be
influenced by the increased flow of credible
reports of the ULFA's trans-national linkages.
For example, Indian security circles say that
the ULFA has been arranging arms supplies to
the Maoist rebels in Nepal. Also, there have
been unconfirmed reports that rebels from
Assam have once again made forays into Bhutan,
and may have opened shop for the second time
in the Himalayan kingdom. If that is true, the
possibility of Thimphu, too, seeking US help
cannot be ruled out.
In the home front, however, the US action is
unlikely to have any impact on the ULFA's
activities. The group might still carry out
bomb attacks and other subversive acts and
continue with their cat-and-mouse game with
the security forces. But, Washington's action
in listing the ULFA as a terror group is
expected to impact on the movement of its top
leaders between South Asian capitals and other
major international destinations. Indian
intelligence officials say that most ULFA
leaders travel on Bangladeshi passports and
this may not be easy any more after the US
action.
Moreover, US agencies might now be
specifically looking for possible assets of
ULFA leaders in American financial
institutions, deny visas to people even
remotely linked or sympathetic to the group,
and penalize any US citizen or others within
US jurisdiction found supporting the outfit or
providing it with resources. The maximum
impact of the US move is expected to be
experienced by the Bangladesh Nationalist
Party (BNP) Government in Dhaka that has been
known to be sympathetic to anti-India groups
like the ULFA. And, Washington's indirect
attempt to link the ULFA with jehadi forces in
Bangladesh may force the Khaleda Zia regime to
stop turning a blind eye to the Northeast
Indian militant outfit.*** The
article was originally published May 10, 2005 at
http://www.ipcs.org
*** The
writer is the Consulting Editor,
The Sentinel, Guwahati
*** The article has been published with due
permission from the Institute of Peace &
Conflict Studies (IPCS).
*** You
may visit IPCS's website at
http://www.ipcs.org for further
readings. |
