[Assam] Jeremy advanced invitation to the Assam Sovereignty restoration celebrations. Some way to go yet; but, Brits coming forward like in the 80’s likely to erode India’s intransigence and return Assam her due Sovereignty.

[Bartta Bistar]

    The battle for independence that threatens your morning cuppa

>From Jeremy Page in Tinsukia, northeast India

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2452458,00.html



AS YOU sip your morning tea, spare a thought for Harendra Das. The chances
are he gave his life to get it in your cup.

For more than 30 years he managed tea plantations in India's northeastern
state of Assam, where Charles and Robert Bruce founded the modern tea
industry in the 1830s. Then, one humid evening in September, he was shot
dead near his home on the Hoolonghabi Tea Estate. He was 55.




 Looking around the estate, with its pretty steep-roofed bungalow and
manicured lawns, it is hard to imagine the sound of gunfire intruding on
such a tranquil setting.

But this is the front line of a bloody separatist conflict that has
reignited since September, claiming dozens of lives and threatening to
cripple Assam's world famous tea industry.

"I used not to have a lock on the gate," said Ranjit Baruah, the 59-year-old
owner of the Hoolonghabi estate founded by his grandfather. "Now nobody
dares go out, and my family doesn't want me to stay here."

Police say Das was killed by the United Liberation Front of Asom (Ulfa) —
one of 30 separatist movements in India's northeast — after he refused to
meet its extortion demands.

The front has been fighting for an independent Assam since 1979, accusing
the federal Government of plundering the region's tea, oil and coal
resources while neglecting basic infrastructure and services.

In August the Government announced a ceasefire, raising hopes for an end to
the conflict that has killed 10,000 people. But within six weeks fighting
flared again. Last week 15 people were killed when a bomb exploded in
Guwahati, the Assam capital. Ulfa was blamed. Three days later, soldiers
shot dead a five-year-old boy during a battle with Ulfa.

Such violence has long deterred investors and tourists from the region; the
fear now is that another prolonged upsurge could destroy a tea industry
mired in debt and struggling to cope with competition from China and East
Africa.

Even before the ceasefire collapsed, Ulfa was stepping up demands for money
from local businesses, especially tea plantations. "They're very vulnerable,
living in isolated areas and working outdoors," said Dhiraj Kakati,
secretary of the Assam branch of the Indian Tea Association. "They can't
afford to pay — they can barely meet their own costs."

Many of Assam's 800 tea gardens have massive debts and overheads because of
their welfare obligations, colonial-era infrastructure and geographical
isolation. Now they have to choose between employing private security guards
or paying protection money to Ulfa.

Das was killed for refusing to pay a million rupees (£10,500); larger
gardens have been asked for as much as 15 million. Ulfa denies being engaged
in extortion, but it admits to levying voluntary "extra-constitutional
taxes" and claims to have the support of most of Assam's 26 million people.

Assam was an independent kingdom for more than six centuries until its
conquest by the British in 1826. When India won independence, it was one of
the country's three wealthiest regions. Today it is one of the three poorest
states, even though it produces more than half of India's tea and 17 per
cent of its oil.

"The people of Assam feel bruised and betrayed," said Dilip Patziri, an
Assamese activist appointed by Ulfa to negotiate with the Government. "They
feel they have a distinct culture and a separate identity." He also accused
Indian troops and police of kidnappings and killings.

The Government denies such charges and accuses Ulfa of targeting civilians
in a campaign as much about making money as winning independence. "These
attacks are just to prove their existence," Ripun Bora, a minister and
spokesman for the Assam government, said. "Nobody here wants sovereignty —
how could Assam be independent?" Mr Bora insisted that the door was still
open for peace talks. But last week the Government launched a massive
counter-insurgency operation, sending 2,000 additional paramilitary soldiers
to the region.

Indian security officials say they will crush Ulfa, but others question
their heavy-handed tactics. "We've diagnosed the problem, but we're treating
the symptoms and not the cause," said Absar Hazarika, district magistrate of
Tinsukia, the worst-affected area. "Poverty is the root of the insurgency
and development is the remedy."

Four years ago he started an organic citrus farm in Guwahati employing
10,000 people. Since then their annual income has risen twelvefold. Now he
wants to grow organic fruit, aromatic plants and herbal medicines in
Tinsukia.

However, he is struggling to find support within an inefficient and corrupt
bureaucracy. "Nobody's interested," he said. "We can grow anything here. Why
only tea?"

*GATHERING STORM IN A TEAPOT*

·  India is the world's third-largest exporter of tea, selling £200m worth
annually

·  Assam produced 474,000 tonnes last year, just over half of India's total
output

·  Assam mostly has been an independent state, but in 1826 it was annexed by
the British East India Company, which was concerned about increased Burmese
influence in the area

·  Since independence in 1948 there have been tensions between ethnic
Assamese and a large non-indigenous population. In 1960 there were riots
after the Government announced plans to make the Assamese language
compulsory

·  In February this year, ministers adopted a proposal to change the state's
name to Asom, which they felt better reflected the pronounciation before the
British annexation

·  The United Liberation Front of Asom (Ulfa), classed by India as a
terrorist organisation, was founded in 1979. It seeks the independence of
Assam from Indian rule

*Industry statistics: ICRA*
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