UNDERGROUND FACTOR
From a hide-out in Bangladesh, Paresh Barua, the chief of the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), issued a whip on July 29, 1997: Henceforth no NGO can work in Assam without the permission of ULFA. The first casualty was the AVARD-NE, which closed its Majuli office the same day, as a pre-condition for release of its leading activist Sanjoy Ghose, who had been abducted by ULFA on July 4.
After Sanjoy's ghastly murder, fear still lingers in the north-eastern mist. According to Intelligence Bureau (IB) officials investigating the case, at least 25 new NGOs were waiting for ULFA clearance by 1997 end. Those waiting since August include a former IAS officer, with a rehabilitation package for the victims of ethnic violence in Assam. Many existing NGOs have stopped active work.
"Militants' writ reigns supreme," notes a project officer of a Delhi-based NGO working in the area. If you want to rehabilitate victims of the Naga-Kuki conflict in Manipur, you have to take care of the conflicting opinions of Naga and Kuki militants.
In June 1997, when the cabinet secretary was monitoring the Ghose case, the IB officials made a blanket statement: "NGOs in the north-east are the overground platforms of militants." In August the Union home ministry ordered the audit of foreign fundings of NGOs in the north-east. Foreign fundings of five NGOs (AVARD-NE not included) were put under scrutiny Intelligence sources say that a few NGOs were being used by the militants as a conduit for getting foreign donation, especially from non-resident Indians (NRIs) of Assamese origin. The IB however, could not make fine distinctions."
In fact, there was a lot of pressure on the NGOs to support militants. Like some in the tea industry, some NGOs complied, willingly or otherwise. "Immediately after the list was given to the state government, representatives of the concerned NGOs rushed to Delhi and pleaded that the list be not made public as their lives were threatened by the underground organisation says a senior bureaucrat in the home ministry.
NGO-militant nexus came into sharper focus when the editor of a local Assamese newspaper, Ajit Bhuiyan, was arrested for "abetting the activities of a banned organisation, ULFA" in October. Bhuiyan is also the president of Manav Adhikar Sangram Sangathan (MASS), the fast spreading NGO, and the overground wing of the ULFA. Bhuiyan attended the Working Group on Indigeneous People meeting in Gene Switzerland, also attended by the ULFA leaders and other militant leaders of the US north-east. Interpol could not arrest Bhur in Switzerland as he was representing an NGO. Several und ground leaders were also representing NGOs. Another editor of the same newspaper, Parag Das, considered to be a sympathiser of ULFA was killed three years ago. He was also an active member of MASS.
Sadly, the controversies overshadow the peacemaking role To1 voluntary groups in this fissured land. In the Mizoram, the Church pokered peace between a leading militant faction and the government in 1986. In Nagaland, the continuing peace dialogues between the Naga militants and the government of India are being mediated by NGOs aided by certain church leaders. The government itself sponsors the travel expenses of NGO workers to foreign countries like Switzerland, Burma and England for making contacts with militant leaders based there.
To keep things under control, intelligence agencies put their own people in the NGOs as informers. Says the home ministry bureaucrat: "During all major operations against militants, NGO ' members are our informers as they work in remote places and have ficess to local people. Similarly, the underground organisations have also their people in NGOs, cross-checking our own people".
North-eastern NGOs are caught in this cross-fire. Sanjoy Ghose was the wrong casualty. Aware of the dirty games being played out by "militants, corrupt officials and contractors, he had started asserting the credibility of genuine NGOs. In an E-mail message to one of his friends in Delhi he wrote three weeks before his abduction: "I think that this nexus needs to be exposed - too many people are involved, and this has caused and is causing unnecessary suffering...."
Related Content
- Ivory markets in Central Africa
- The Little Sustainable Landscapes Book: Achieving sustainable development through integrated landscape management
- Long-term land subsidence monitoring of Beijing (China) using the Small Baseline Subset (SBAS) Technique
- Urban transport initiatives in India: best practices in PPP
- First of its kind irrigation structure in State
- Killing the land