By IANS
Guwahati : A frontline tribal separatist group in Assam Wednesday flayed the central government for not starting formal peace talks, three years after reaching a ceasefire, and said only an independent ‘Boroland’ for their people could bring peace to the area.
“We agreed to a ceasefire (with the Indian authorities) three years ago to resolve our conflict peacefully. But not even a single round of political dialogue has taken place since between us and the government which is only insisting on our charter of demands to be placed,” D.R. Nabla, president of the National Democratic Front of Boroland (NDFB), said on the occasion of the group’s 21st foundation day.
The NDFB, an insurgent outfit seeking to push the interests of Assam’s Bodo ethnic group, was formed on Oct 3, 1986 and has since been engaged in a campaign to achieve an independent ‘Boroland’ comprising Bodo-inhabited areas in western and northern Assam.
The group entered into a ceasefire with the government in May 2005 following an initial appeal for cessation of violence by Assam’s Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi in September 2004.
“Ceasefire is not an end in itself. It can’t bring peace by itself. Only an independent Boroland can bring permanent peace,” NDFB chief Nabla, who is believed to be based outside India, said in an email statement to journalists.
After the truce, scores of NDFB cadres have been lodged by the authorities in more than one ‘designated camp’ in western Assam.
The rebel leader said movements and struggles of the Bodo people, Assam’s largest plains tribal group, had failed in the past because of the leadership, not because of lack of support or enthusiasm among the masses.
“If the NDFB were to fail, then it will fail only for the leaders, not (due to) shortage of members and cadres, (or) support from the people,” Nabla introspected.