Separatist rebels threaten more bloodshed in Assam

INDIA: A separatist group in India's insurgency-hit northeast, blamed for killing scores of Hindi-speaking people, warned migrant workers Thursday to quit the region and threatened to step up violence.

The powerful rebel outfit, the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), also rejected Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's renewed offer of talks.

"We have appealed to the Hindi-speaking people that the conflict running in Assam is with colonial India, so go away as soon as possible ...(and) stay away," ULFA said in its newsletter, Freedom.

Authorities blamed the outlawed ULFA for a four-day wave of attacks in oil- and tea-rich Assam state that ended Monday, in which 73 people were killed - 61 of them Hindi-speaking migrant workers.

The group denied responsibility for the massacre and blamed federal security forces, accusing New Delhi of seeking to "tarnish the image" of the rebels.

ULFA, which is fighting for a separate Assamese homeland, would never seek its goal "by gambling with the lives of innocent people", the group said.

But Indian authorities have insisted the killings were the work of ULFA.

This month's massacre was preceded by an ULFA warning to Hindi-speakers to leave Assam, claiming the migrant workers were taking away jobs.

In the most recent violence in the far-flung state late Wednesday, at least 12 people were injured when blasts, blamed by police on ULFA, rocked Assam.

ULFA spurned Singh's fresh offer of talks on Tuesday "to all disaffected groups, including ULFA, who are willing to abjure violence".

"They (New Delhi) talk of dialogue on one hand and announce a full-fledged military operation on the other," the group said.

"There is no way left other than an intensified resistance struggle if India does not tackle the Assam-Indo political conflict politically and opts for displaying military might," it said.

ULFA's threat to step up its armed campaign came in the wake of a major counter-insurgency drive by security forces launched in Assam and neighbouring Arunachal Pradesh.

Singh said that "terrorism will not be tolerated" and would be dealt with firmly.

"No one should mistake our openness for talks and dialogue as a sign of weakness," he said.

Singh said he had been assured by neighbouring Myanmar that it would take action against militants fighting Indian rule from its soil. The rebels use the porous border to escape into Myanmar after attacking Indian troops.

Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee will fly to Myanmar on Friday for talks with the military junta on a range of issues, including India's crackdown against ULFA, Indian foreign ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna said Thursday.

"There is no reason to doubt Myanmar's complete commitment to regional security," Sarna said of Mukhrejee's three-day trip.

Some 20,000 Indian combat soldiers and paramilitary personnel are engaged in operations against ULFA. In 2000, the ULFA killed 100 Hindi-speaking people after vowing to free the state of all non-Assamese migrants.

ULFA is one of several separatist rebel outfits operating in Assam where at least 20,000 people have died in insurgency-related violence since 1979.

NEW DELHI, Friday, AFP