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Dialogue between the central government and the pro-talk United Liberation Front of Assam is finally going to end in May after over a decade since it began. The top leadership of ULFA recently received the draft of a proposed agreement from the Centre, which is awaiting a reply from the group.
On Thursday, Assam chief minister Himanta Biswa Sarma said, “The Centre is waiting for a reply from the ULFA (United Liberation Front of Assam). If they are ready to sign the agreement on the central government’s draft, it will be signed within May. If not, it will be delayed.”
After the declaration of the draft of an agreement by the chief minister, ULFA general secretary Anup Chetia said, “We will discuss within our organisation about the central government’s draft. We think, if the Centre is ready to sign the agreement with the ULFA, we are ready to do it at any moment.”
“We believe our demands will be met by the government if the peace agreement is signed next month. It will be a momentous event,” Chetia said.
The group’s demands include remedies for the ravages of illegal migration, reforms to preserve the identity of the people of Assam, and agricultural as well as rural development. The ULFA’s middle-rung leadership committee, Karma Parishad, made a demand to the central committee for a discussion on the central government’s draft.
Karma Parishad member Pranjit Saikia said, “We don’t know anything about the draft. If any draft came from the central government, the central committee should arrange a meeting with the Karma Parishad. After knowing about the draft, we wrote a letter to the central committee to arrange a meeting with us. The central committee assured us of a meeting about the central government’s draft.”
He added: “We should discuss with our cadres, who are staying in nine different designated camps. We should discuss the draft with other civil society, student organisations. We should share it with the public. If we do not, it will be a blunder.”
The ULFA was formed on April 7, 1979, to seek the “restoration of Assam’s sovereignty”, a topic that now remains only on the agenda of the Paresh Baruah-led ULFA(I).
The original ULFA split after the top leadership, led by Arabinda Rajkhowa, was arrested in Bangladesh and handed over to India in 2008. Three years later, Rajkhowa and his group decided to join the peace talks. The faction submitted a 12-point charter of demands, excluding “sovereignty” made by ‘Sanmilita Jatiya Abhibartan’ in 2010.
Talking about the possibility of signing the agreement with the government in May, Saikia said, “I think it is not possible to sign the agreement within May. It takes time to have discussions within our organisation, and then with civil and student organisations. Lastly, our central committee should send a proposal about the draft to the ULFA(I) chief Paresh Baruah. We need to know about his opinion. Because once we were one organisation.”
Peace and surrender
Beginning in 1990, the Government of India attempted to wean away members of the ULFA. This happened after the death of ULFA’s deputy commander-in-chief Heerak Jyoti Mahanta on December 31, 1991. He had opposed surrenders, but they began after his death.
In 1992, a large section of second-rung leaders and members surrendered to the government. These former members were allowed to retain their weapons to defend against former colleagues; they were offered bank loans without any liabilities to help them reintegrate into society.
The total number of ULFA militants to have laid down arms has gone up to 8,718. At least 4,993 cadres surrendered between 1991 and 1998, and 3,435 surrendered between 1998 and 2005, when a new policy to deal with the ULFA was unveiled.
On January 24, 2012, one of Northeast India’s biggest surrender ceremonies took place in Assam’s Guwahati, when 676 militants laid down arms. In 2020, 1,675 cadres of ULFA(I) and allied militant groups surrendered.
In 2003, the ULFA had put forward a set of three preconditions for talks and negotiations with the government but they were rejected. The preconditions were: talks should be held in a third country; talks should be held under UN supervision; and the agenda of the talks should include the independence of Assam.
In 2004, the ULFA dropped the first two preconditions and offered to talk with the government. The Government of India was not ready to negotiate on the issue of independence. Still, there was some progress when the ULFA formed a ‘people’s consultative group’ (PCG) in September 2005 to prepare the grounds for an eventual negotiation with the government.
In a sustained operation launched by the Indian Army inside a national park in Dibru Saikhowa, the ULFA lost its hides and camps, important leaders and cadres. The group came to the negotiating table in 2005. The talks were first held in December 2005 at the residence of then prime minister Manmohan Singh.
There were three rounds of peace talks with the 11-member PCG, headed by noted Assamese writer Indira Goswami, leading to a temporary truce in August 2006. The truce, however, broke by September 23 of the same year as the ULFA continued with its violent activities against civilians, mainly tea estates and oil pipelines. It also violated the ceasefire as it lobbed grenades on army columns.
On June 24, 2008, some leaders and cadres of the ‘A’ and ‘C’ companies of the ULFA declared unilateral ceasefire at a press meet held at Amarpur in Tinsukia district. They declared the ceasefire to pressure the top brass of the ULFA to sit on the negotiation table. But the central committee expelled the leaders of 28 Battalion led by Mrinal Hazarika and Jiten Dutta, who had managed to escape from the army cordon in Dibru Saikhowa National Park. The group was later renamed as ULFA(Pro-talk).
The ULFA’s 12-point charter of demands was formally handed over to New Delhi on August 5, 2011. The demands were broad in nature and scraped out by the Rajkhowa faction of ULFA from a 37-page charter that was presented to the Pro-talk group by Sanmilita Jatiya Abhibartan, the civil society body that took the initiative to bring about an interface between the faction of the ULFA and the government.
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