The Bodo & Ulfa Problem

Bhutan Bodo & Ulfa Conflict Resolving the militant problem (December 2003)

Monday, December 15, 2003

With the recent round of talks in Thimphu between the royal government and the ULFA and NDFB militant groups having failed to produce any positive results and the KLO not even responding to the royal governmentís invitation for dialogue, Bhutan may now have to implement the decision of the 81st session of the National Assembly. According to the Assembly resolution, the government must resort to military action if one final round of negotiations with the militants did not result in their agreement to close the main camps that serve as their central headquarters.

	According to the home ministry the ULFA delegation, which had come for talks in October, had expressed their inability to decide on closing down their main camp saying that it would mean the closure of all their other camps inside Bhutan. They reasoned that without their central headquarters the rest of the camps would be completely untenable and that leaving Bhutan would be as good as giving up their cause for the independence of Assam. "The ULFA delegation insisted that their executive council would have to discuss this matter and assured us that their top leadership would come back within the first week of December to convey their decision," said a member of the Bhutanese delegation that held negotiations with the ULFA.
	The NDFB delegation, which came for talks with the royal government in the last week of November in Thimphu, had also conveyed that it would not be possible for them to leave Bhutan. "The NDFB delegation told us that even if they left now because we told them to do so, they would have to come back and establish their camps in other parts of Bhutan," said a member of the Bhutanese delegation. "They said that it is up to Bhutan to weigh its relations with India, a relationship which has been in existence for a little more than 50 years, against the 2,000-year old fraternal relations with the Bodo people. Given such an attitude there is no scope for resolving the problem through dialogue with them."
	Meanwhile, as pointed out by officials of the home ministry, several invitations for talks had been sent over the last three years but the KLO had not even taken the trouble to respond.

The prime minister and home minister, Lyonpo Jigmi Y. Thinley, said that, over the past six years, His Majesty the King and the royal government had made every effort to resolve the problem of the illegal presence of the militants from Assam and West Bengal through peaceful means.

"Since 1998, we have held five rounds of talks with the ULFA and three rounds with the NDFB," said Lyonpo Jigmi Thinley. "As the KLO had refused to respond to our invitation for talks, we sent a delegation led by the chairman of the royal advisory council to meet their middle level leaders in Lhamoizingkha in April this year and asked them to inform their top leaders to come for talks with the royal government.

During the third round of talks in June, 2001, the ULFA had agreed to close down four of their camps inside Bhutan by the end of the year. While four camps were closed down by December 31, 2001, as agreed by them, it had now been confirmed on the ground that these camps had all been relocated. Today, the ULFA had 13 armed military camps inside Bhutan while the NDFB had 12 camps, and the KLO five camps.

"We have always valued the warm and friendly age-old relations between the people of Bhutan and the peoples of Assam and West Bengal who are our immediate neighbours in India," said Lyonpo Jigmi Thinley. "That is why His Majesty the King and the royal government have shown extreme tolerance and patience since the time the militants entered Bhutan clandestinely, 12 years ago, and established their camps, initially without our knowledge. It is common knowledge among the people of Assam and West Bengal that the royal government of Bhutan has spared no effort to persuade the ULFA, NDFB, and KLO militants to leave our country peacefully."

Lyonpo Jigmi Thinley expressed his deep regret that the recent talks with the ULFA and the NDFB had failed to produce any results. Furthermore the top leadership of these two militant groups had refused to come for talks.

"It is with a very heavy heart, but without any choice, that I must admit that the long and arduous process of peaceful dialogue is coming to a close," said the prime minister. "This will leave the royal government no option but to entrust the Royal Bhutan Army with the sacred duty of removing the militants from our sovereign soil in accordance with the decision of the 81st session of the National Assembly."

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