CALCUTTA, 1 August 2004 — Secessionist guerrillas fighting for independence from New Delhi in India’s revolt-wracked northeastern region are not terrorists, according to an American diplomat.
George Sibley, US Consul General in Calcutta, said after touring the restive region for four days, including Assam and Manipur, that the US government did not consider the rebels operating there as terrorists “because insurgency in the northeast is complicated”.
Sibley admitted that although the US government closely monitors India’s northeast, the various rebel outfits there did not endanger US interests in any way whatsoever.
Significantly, the rebel groups which got a clean chit from Sibley, are organizations banned by the central government and various state governments.
Interestingly, northeastern separatists like United Liberation Front of Assam and Manipur’s People’s Liberation Army are increasingly using US-made M-series assault rifles to take on Indian security forces.
Sibley feigned surprise when questioned how US-made weapons were finding their way to India’s far-flung northeast. “I thought the arms and ammunition came from China”, he said.
Sibley admitted that insurgency was a big hurdle in the path of the northeast’s economic development. “But it is up to Indian authorities to sort out the problem amicably in the region’s larger interests”, he said.
India’s northeast, ringed by China, Bhutan, Bangladesh and Myanmar, is home to more than 200 ethnic and tribal groups, and has been racked by insurgencies for decades.
Tribesmen accuse the government of neglecting the local economy, plundering the region’s mineral resources and flooding the area with outsiders.
More than 20,000 people have died in violence since 1947 when India won freedom from British colonial rule.
Sibley also contradicted New Delhi’s accusations that separatist groups were aided and abetted by Bangladesh at Pakistan’s behest. Even more significantly, he absolved Begum Khaleda Zia government of harboring any pro-Al-Qaeda or pro-Taleban forces in the overwhelmingly Muslim nation.
Meanwhile, a top Indian tribal rebel leader was arrested in Thailand on Saturday and brought home for questioning, a government official said in what is seen as a big blow to insurgents in the northeast.
Bijoy Boro, the No.2 of the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB), was brought this week to Guwahati, said state Home Commissioner Biren Kumar Gohain.
“We have a prized catch with us. Bijoy Boro is now being interrogated by security officers. He was picked up by Interpol and handed over to Indian authorities,” he said, adding Boro was arrested in Thailand.
Gohain did not say when Boro was arrested but the news came at the end of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s three-day visit to Bangkok for a regional conference.
