By Syed Zarir Hussain, IANS
Guwahati : A prominent peace facilitator in northeastern India has lent fresh hopes Sunday to the start of negotiations in the new year with one of the region’s dreaded separatist groups to bring about a possible end to a 28-year-old violent uprising that has killed thousands of people.
Indira Goswami, a well-known Assamese writer and facilitator for talks between the outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) and the government, has said New Delhi might fulfil one of the major preconditions of the rebel group that may set the stage for possible peace talks soon.
“Senior Congress leader and party general secretary for Assam Veerappa Moily has informed me that the government may take a decision by Jan 3 on the ULFA’s demand for release of five of its detained leaders from prison,” Goswami told IANS.
“If things move on track, Assam may see the peace process once again gaining momentum in the New Year,” Goswami said.
In September 2005, celebrated novelist Goswami was chosen by the ULFA to head an 11-member peace panel called the People’s Consultative Group (PCG) to prepare the ground for possible direct talks between the rebel group and the government.
The PCG held three rounds of exploratory talks with central government leaders, one meeting being attended by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh himself, but the effort collapsed over conditions and counter-conditions put up by both sides.
While the ULFA insisted on the release of five senior leaders from jail to enable them to meet and decide on the course of the peace talks, New Delhi stuck to its demand that the rebel group give it a written assurance that it was indeed interested in entering into peace negotiations with the government.
The PCG has since become defunct but Goswami, in her individual capacity, continued exploring possibilities of bringing the peace process back on rails and has been keeping in touch with Moily, the All India Congress Committee’s pointsman for Assam.
“Moily is a veteran leader and understands and appreciates Assam’s problems. He has been taking a personal interest in re-starting the peace process with the ULFA,” Goswami said.
She said the New Year should bring about a change in Assam’s situation.
“If the peace process with the ULFA resumes and the two sides are able to sit for direct talks, other rebel groups too would come to the negotiating table. The peace effort must be taken to its logical end by trying to arrive at acceptable solutions,” Goswami said.
The ULFA has been fighting for a “sovereign, socialist Assam” ever since the group was formed by six radical Assamese youth in 1979.