Escalated State Terrorism cannot solve the problem of the Assamese people!

With great anger, Peoples Voice condemns the gruesome terrorist massacre of 73 migrant workers in the the Tinsukhia and Dibrugarh districts of Assam on January 5 and 6, 2007. The majority of those killed were brick kiln workers from Bihar and Bengal.

The Indian state has utilised this massacre in the most cynical fashion to advance its own political and military aims in the region. Defence Minister AK Anthony, representing the interests of the occupation armed forces in Assam, Manipur and other states of the North East as well as in Kashmir, has promptly declared that the Armed Forces Special Powers Act will not be repealed. He has no answer to why hundreds of innocent people get masacred in Assam under the very nose of the Army, with the Armed Forces Special Powers Act in full operation! Meanwhile, the terrorist attack has been used to spread panic among migrant workers, forcing thousands to flee the state in packed buses and trains.

It is not coincidental that the terrorist killings in Assam, comes at a time when the entire state of Manipur, has risen up demanding the repeal of the fascist Armed Forces Special Powers Act and this demand enjoys the support of people all over the country. Anthony's statement is proof, if proof is needed of the desperate need for the center and the Indian Army to justify the continuation of this Act, over the dead bodies of hundreds of innocent people!

Following the massacre, from January 10, 2007 the Army has begun a major operation in Assam. Thousands of combat troops are scouring the mountains and jungles of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya, allegedly to eliminate the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) and destroy its training camps. Early operations included helicopters dropping troops on forested mountains, the army said. “We are using all resources at our disposal in this operation ... we are going all out against the militants,” said Major-General N.C. Marwah, a senior military commander at Dinjan, 570 km east of Guwahati. A number of people have been reported killed in these Army Operations.

Army officers on the ground say that the gloves are off. “If they are on the killing spree, we cannot sit idle. We also have to go on a killing spree,” said a local military commander directing the troops. The army has declared that the supsension of military operation during talks of the government with ULFA was a mistake. “Suspension of operations was a big mistake. They took advantage of the situation and regrouped,” Marwah said.

The ULFA has denied any role in the massacre, and blamed the Assam government and the Indian state for organising this massacre. Given the track record of the Indian state in organising terrorist violence to besmirch the resistance forces, and to justify state terrorism, this possibility cannot be ruled out.

It is clear that the Indian Armed Forces, which have occupied Assam and the North East for so many decades, are in no mood to give up their privileges. The Indian bourgeoisie is not interested in a solution to the Assam problem which will address the concerns of the Assamese people. More than 20,000 people have been killed in covert and overt state repression in Assam since 1979. Assam has been under Army rule since 1990. There is a national question in Assam, as in other states of the North East, which the Indian state has refused to address. The Indian state has followed a colonial imperialist policy with respect to Assam. It has raised the colonial plunder of Assam's natural resources, including oil and teak, which began under colonial rule, to new heights. It has tried through its intelligence agencies to set the different ethnic groups of the state against each other, with terrorism as one of its main weapons, along with cooption into the state apparatus. It has incited communal divisions along religious lines. It has tried to change the demographic character of Assam. In sum, far from ever addressing the concerns of the Assamese people, it has pursued a scorched earth policy.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is playing a double game, when he sheds “tears” for the victims of terrororism in Assam, and talks of being ready for talks with ULFA. The issue is not talks with this or that organisation. The issue is the Indian states’ policy of crushing the aspirations of the Assamese and other peoples through state terrorism, and its use of covert and over state terrorism to depoliticise the people and deprive them of all rights. All those aspiring for justice, for an end to the killing spree in Assam and other states, must resolutely unite against state terrorism and demand the immediate repeal of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act. They must demand that political problems like the Assam problem be resolved with political solutions to the benefit of the peoples of Assam and the people of the rest of India.