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Comrades In Arms

Rebels work hand in hand at common camps

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Comrades In Arms
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FOR proof that birds of a feather flock together, look no further than the North-east. Army and intelligence sources say insurgents from Assam, Manipur, Nagaland and Tripura are training at common camps in Bangladesh, Bhutan and Myanmar—although their interests are contradictory—to share costs, weapons, infrastructure and the hosts’ hospitality.

The ULFA, which wants an independent Assam nation, is working in tandem with the BdSF, which wants an independent Bodo nation, on one side; and the NSCN (Khaplang) group, which wants a Naga nation, on the other. The NSCN (Issac-Muivah) is in cahoots with the PLA of Manipur on one side, and the ATTF of Tripura on the other. And so on.

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Not surprisingly, the usual suspect—the Pakistani ISI—is doing its bit to stir up the cauldron, following its successes in Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir. Its agents based in Dhaka and Kathmandu are assisting the NSCN, ULFA, PLA, PREPAK and UNLF in securing contacts in and access to arms bazaars, and in some cases, in providing training too.

Says Prof. Gangumei Kamei, president of the Federal Party of Manipur: "Internationalisation has made the North-east insurgency issue very complex." Unlike Jammu and Kashmir where the Army had to contend with only one international border, the North-east’s contiguous and porous borders with three countries, have been a big asset for insurgent groups. And a big problem for the forces. "If we win over these countries to stub out the camps, half the battle will have been won. You won’t need the Army to tidy up," says Lt Gen. S.S. Grewal of the Nagaland-based 3 Corps.

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To that extent, Bangladesh’s volte face to the insurgents’ cause following the Ganga water treaty has paid off. It has forced the ULFA and the BdSF to set up seven new camps, large enough to hold 1,500 people, in southern Bhutan. Upto 400 ULFA cadres are said to be holed up there waiting for the heat generated by the Unified Command in Assam to cool down.

But senior officials admit that no amount of hardwork by the Army to usher in normalcy will succeed unless the camps are busted and supply lines are strangled. But acting inside Bhutan is a tricky affair. As Lt Gen. R.K. Sawhney, head of the Unified Command in Assam, puts it: "Operations inside Bhutan is a delicate matter which will have to be decided at the highest decision-making levels." Those decision-makers, namely the External Affairs and Home Ministry mandarins, are extra-sensitive about Thimphu’s feelings. The King of Bhutan, who has his own domestic problems, is apparently wary of acting against the militants since all of them have collectively threatened to destabilise his regime.

The BdSF has issued a warning to the King that all access which southern Bhutan has to Assam will be cut off if he lets the Indian Army in his country. Currently, Indian troops can go only 20 km into Bhutan in ‘hot pursuit’ of the militants. But as ironies go, Bhutan which has virtually no army of its own, depends on a brigade-strong Indian Military Training Team to safeguard its borders.

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