Freed Indian rebel leader invites peace dialogue

Vikramaditya

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GAUHATI, India -- A separatist leader released on bail Saturday said he was committed to peace talks with the Indian government to end his group's 30-year insurgency in the northeastern state of Assam.

Arabinda Rajkhowa was greeted by hundreds of supporters as he left the prison in the state capital of Gauhati, where he had been held since December 2009 on sedition charges.

The state said it approved Rajkhowa's bail of 600,000 rupees ($13,000) in hopes that the 54-year-old rebel leader would call his group's leaders, many of whom are in hiding, to begin peace talks with the government.

Rajkhowa thanked the Indian government for taking the initiative in launching a peace process and called for the release of other rebel leaders in detention, including the group's general secretary, Anup Chetia, being held in Bangladesh.

"It is the mood for peace among the people of Assam that has brought us to this situation today, where we are set to begin a peace dialogue with the Indian government," Rajkhowa told his supporters before leaving in a 30-car motorcade for his home village of Lakwa, 825 miles (350 kilometers) east of Gauhati.



More than 10,000 people have died since Rajkhowa's United Liberation Front of Asom began fighting in 1979 for an independent homeland to be carved out of India's remote northeast.

The separatists accuse the Indian government of exploiting Assam's natural resources while doing little for the indigenous people, most of whom are ethnically closer to the people of Myanmar and China than to other Indians.

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Vikramaditya

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ULFA ready for peace talks without preconditions: Rajkhowa

SIBSAGAR: ULFA chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa said his outfit was ready to sit for peace talks without any preconditions for an "honourable" solution to relieve the people of Assam of their suffering.

"A new chapter begins in our long struggle. As per the wishes of the National Convention, we will sit for peace talks with the government without preconditions," the 54-year-old ULFA leader, who was released from jail yesterday, told a massive gathering in front of the historic Ranghar where the ULFA was formed by him and five others on April 7, 1979.

He did not mention the outfit's core demand of sovereignty.

"We will definitely try for an honourable solution to the conflict. If not, then we will again come to the people of the state and proceed on our next step as per their advice as to whether take up arms again, join politics (rajpath) or what else. Whatever direction they give us we will follow", Rajkhowa said. The ULFA leader was released from Guwahati Central jail yesterday after he was granted bail by the designated TADA court.

Rajkhowa assured the people that this time "bari sukot lukai ami kaam nakoru (we will not hide in our backyard and operate subversively). We will openly discuss with the people and on their opinion our decision will be taken."
Addressing another public rally at Boarding Filed here, he appreciated the role of the National Convention of the state's intellectuals in initiating the peace dialogue.

"We also want to sit for the discussions without preconditions.... but the final decision will be taken only after the arrival of our general secretary Anup Chetia".

Chetia is now imprisoned in Bangladesh. Rajkhowa said the Indian government should take an initiative for his return to Assam.

Rajkhowa said "since the inception of ULFA, the people of Assam have suffered for long and lead a miserable life either due to our arms struggle or the retaliatory anti-insurgency operations by the government and security forces".

"Considering the consensus among the people in the state and their miserable condition, we want to relieve them of their suffering. So we have decided to come forward for the peace parleys," the ULFA chief, who was flanked by vice chairman Pradip Gogoi by his side, said in the meeting.

After the meeting, he proceeded to his native place Lakhwa in the district that he had left 32 years ago to go underground.

In an emotionally charged atmosphere, Rakhowa met his bed-ridden 98-year-old mother Damayanti Rajkumari in his ancestral home and then paid homage at the samadhi of his freedom fighter father Uma Kanta Rajkonwar.

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Tshering22

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Nothing is wrong or different in Assam other than what's there in all Indian states. This swine Rajkhowa is no different that other terrorists. The name of the state of "Asom" is that of lord Shiva from mainstream Hinduism. This "ethnicity" bullshit is a result imperialist aim of divide and rule. Everyone in India is of same race and same ethnicity and this separation is simply bullshit introduced by foreign invaders to make India look like a "melting pot" that it never was. Assamese are either mainstream Hindus or fellow Buddhists historically and share EVERYTHING to Indians from almost every other state. In fact people from Arunachal also have historically been Indians compared to the nonsense that foreigners introduced.

Heard about the ancient pilgrimage site Parasurama Kund? It is in AP. If this was not India then from where the heck did this name come?


doing little for the indigenous people, most of whom are ethnically closer to the people of Myanmar and China than to other Indians.
Such lines written by some of our reporters reflect that they are paid agents of outside forces that want to break away the northeast into their own influence. When all fool well know that Assam or "Asom" as it is really pronounced is culturally, ancestrally and "ethnically" (as Imperialists and foreign cult leaders put it) are same as any other Indian. This "ethnicity" has never been considered in the history of ancient India and till date so because those of us who have semi-mongoloid appearance are simply classified as "pahadi log" rather than a divide and rule conceptualized "different ethnicity".

Such reporters have to be caught and apprehended who ABUSE the "freedom of press" and use it to convey separatism is subtle words.
 

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