The Bodo & Ulfa Problem

Bhutan Bodo & Ulfa Conflict Bhutanese nationals start leaving Assam 23.12.2003 Seconde phase of the offensice more difficult 12.23.12.2003 Bhutan King leads operations against anti-India insurgents 19.12.2003 Bhutan arrests 3 top anti-India militants 17.12.2003

December 19, 2003

Scores of Bhutanese nationals start leaving Assam in the face of ULFA's retaliatory strike on them for the ongoing crackdown that captured several top guns with the north east militant outfits. The Bhutanse people who use to sell woolen clothes and oranges in Paltanbazar, Ganeshguri, Fancy Bazar and Chandmari areas are remaining absent from the streets and gatecrashing the bus counters to rush to the areas along the Indo-Bhutan border. The ULFA, NDFB and KLO have asked the Bhutanese nationals to quit the north eastern states. The banned insurgent outfits also urged the people not to continue any deal with these people until the Bhutan stops its Army offensive against the militant outfits from the north eastern region.

Bhutan has said it was going slow in its military offensive to expel anti-India rebels from the country to keep down casualties on both sides. RNA says it has destroyed all the 30 camps belonging to three Indian separatist groups. Bhutan's national carrier Drukair has stopped direct flights from Thimphu to Bangladesh to prevent the rebels from escaping to hideouts there. Bhutan said earlier this week that 500 rebels had surrendered to its forces.

Security sources said that the RBA crackdown smashed a headquarter of a ULFA battalion located at the Kalikhola area. The fleeing militants are not trying to sneak into India through North Bengal after the crackdown. A number of militants went deeper into Bhutan territory and are scattered into the dense forest areas after the crackdown. They would like to come down to India and move to the safer bases in Bangladesh through North Bengal.

International humanitarian and rights groups urged Bhutan to allow independent teams to verify claims that women and children were trapped in the continuing military offensives against Indian separatists. Bhutan on Tuesday refused permission to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to send a team to kingdom. Ten days after Bhutan launched its military operation, there has been no official confirmation from Bhutanese authorities about casualty figures or the number of women and children in their custody.

December 23, 2003

The Royal Bhutan Army personnel is intensely engaged in the fight against the Northeast rebels. Bhutanese military spokesman said the fighting was fierce in the second phase of the offensive and the troops had managed to clear some "strategic heights". "The second phase of fighting is going to be more difficult than smashing the rebel bases," he added. The Anti-indian rebels have threatened to disrupt cross-border trade with India. The cross-border trading activities have come to a standstill since the Northeast militants asked the Bhutanese nationals to leave Assam, and not to use Assam for any sort of trading. This will pose a threat to Bhutan's economy since the local Bhutanese have had to use Assam for trading.

Bhutanese troops are reported to be engaged in heavy fighting as they press on with an offensive against Indian rebels.
The rebels fled to a forest reserve in west Bhutan after the Bhutanese troops demolished their bases in the eastern part of the country. In Thimphu security arrangements have been tightened.

Bangladesh officials rejected New Delhi's charges that Indian rebels are operate from its soil.

December 19, 2003

Bhutanese armed forces continued to pound the Indian insurgents in the Himalayan Kingdom for the fifth day demolishing 19 of their 30 camps. There were reports of United Liberation Front of Asom ideologue Bhimkanta Buragohain succumbing to injuries. The Royal Bhutan Army had smashed 19 of the 30 well fortified insurgent camps located in the dense jungles of the land-locked kingdom. The army action spread from Dhangtar in Samdrup Jongkhar district, where offensives were concentrated to Nganglam area in southen Bhutan, Sarpang district in west Bhutan and beyond Samtse, he said.

Bhutan King Jigme Singye Wangchuk is leading his troops from the front in the operations launched to flush out anti-Indian outfits from the Himalayan Kingdom. The king 'is risking his life' to protect the sovereignty and security of the Himalayan kingdom by 'leading the troops into the hostile jungles' to flush out the anti-India insurgents holed up here, a Bhutan government statement said. His majesty the king is in good health and is very well.

GOC-in-C of the Indian Army's Eastern Command in Kolkata had said 90 to 120 militants were killed in the anti-insurgent operations, while reports from Assam said over 35 Royal Bhutan Army personnel were killed in the counter-insurgency operations.

"The morale of the ultras has been on the lower side for the last few days and they are low on ration and poorly fed. The militants can't survive and will have to give up sooner or later", an Indian Army spokesman said in a press briefing. The military assault by the RBA personnel was concentrated mainly north of Samdrup Jongkhar where most of the militants' camps were located. "Most of the ultras flushed out of their camps and now hiding in the jungles, were waiting for "a direction from their leadership. The rebels will see the writing on the wall. With their resources depleting and no escape route, they should surrender and join the mainstream," the spokesman said. He ruled out the possibility of rebels escaping to north Bhutan saying the conditions there are cold, difficult and the area is sparsely populated. Referring to the ULFA's appeal to Bhutan's monarch for a ceasefire, he said the Bhutan government "will take the offensive to its logical conclusion. The Indian Army is not providing artillery to the RBA. There is no truth in reports that the Indian Army has crossed over into Bhutan's territory to engage the rebels in encounters. RBA personnel are not using artillery, but only 81mm mortars for the assaults," he said but confirmed the Indian Air Force had been evacuating casualties on the side of the RBA.

December 17, 2003

RBA forces arrested at least three top insurgents even as its army overran several important bases of anti-India militants in Bhutan. Soldiers overcame stiff resistance and captured the United Liberation Front of Asom's headquarters in the forests at Guabari in the southern part of the country bordering India. The camp housed the ULFA's central training unit and a top insurgency unit. The biggest break has been the arrest of ULFA's former central publicity chief and think tank member Mithinga Daimari. Indian Army sources reported earlier that ULFA chairman Arobindo Rajkhawa and commander Baruah are in Bangladesh.

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