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| Saturday, 2 October 2004 |
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India's insurgency-torn Assam state offers truce to rebels GUWAHATI, India, Friday (AFP) The leader of the northeastern Indian state of Assam offered to enter a ceasefire with rebels to end two decades of bloodshed that has claimed 10,000 lives. Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi gave the rebels, who are fighting for separate ethnic homelands, until October 15 to respond to his invitation for a truce. "We want the militants to respond positively to our offer, keeping in view the popular demands of the people for peace. The ball is now in the militants' court," he told reporters in the capital Guwahati. Gogoi said the state government was ready to hold talks with the rebels at a venue of their choice but would not accept conditions on what can be negotiated. Rebels have been calling for talks but want them to be with the national government and focused on sovereignty or independence. Gogoi said he would not declare a unilateral ceasefire. "If we offer a truce and the militants take advantage of a security relaxation and strike at vulnerable targets, then the government would be blamed," he said. The kingdom of Bhutan, at the urging of New Delhi, in December launched its first military operation in modern times to expel Assamese rebels who had illegally set up bases across the border. But violence has continued. Rebels set off a bomb during a parade for India's Independence Day on August 15 that killed 15 people, many of them children. |
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