The Bodo community comprises the majority in Kokrajhar district. It also has a sizeable Rajbongshi and Santhal population in addition to Muslims, whose fast increasing population is generally attributed to the infiltration from Bangladesh. Kokrajhar is now the headquarters of the Bodoland Autonomous Council (BAC) created in 1993.
The ethnic cleansing started with large-scale attack on Muslims of Bengali descent in October 1993. These migrants, mostly of peasant stock, had taken over land throughout Assam, initially causing displacement of ethnic Assamese and the tribal peasantry. In the 1980s the Assamese agitators targeted them and a decade later became the targets of the Bodo militants. This continued in 1994 and resulted in massacre of around 100 Muslims, mostly women and children, and some 20,000 were displaced in Kokrajhar and Bongaigaon districts.
In 1995-96 Bodo militants started attacking the Bengali Hindus and finally in May-June 1996 launched massive attacks on the Adivasis throughout western Assam. However, unlike Muslims, the Adivasis and Bengali Hindus formed their own militant groups and started attacking Bodo villages. The Adivasi Cobra Militants of Assam (ACMA) and Bengali Liberation Tigers, a group formed by Bengali Hindus teamed up and attacked several Bodo villages after the massive Bodo sponsored violence of May-June 1996. After this initial outbreak conflict between the two ethnic groups became a regular feature in western Assam.
In 1998, the violence intensified just when some of the displaced people were returning home. Thousands fled their villages again, exacerbating the displacement. Hundreds were reportedly killed, thousands of homes destroyed, and many people of both communities displaced. The Assam State government brought in military forces to quell the rioting, and over 250,000 people took refuge in 68 relief camps.
After 1993, the Bodos have systematically targeted the non-Bodo communities in the four districts they see as forming the core of their separate homeland. Having got the structure for a future homeland, but one which is still heavily populated by non-Bodos, the Bodo militants have resorted to systematic attacks on non-Bodo communities to further their strategy of ethnic cleansing. The Bengalis, Hindus and Muslims who control prime agricultural land (that they cleared and worked in) and the retail businesses, are also the prime targets of ethnic cleansing in the Bodo-areas of Assam.
The latter half of the 1990s saw the mushrooming of militant organisations along tribal, religious and cultural fissures. The culture of violence propagated by the ULFA and the Bodo outfits seems to have set a pattern for a number of copycat insurgent groups. Till a few years ago, there were as many as 34 insurgent groups listed in the State, though the ULFA is the main player. And very recently in areas of upper and central Assam Hindi speaking emigrants from Bihar, UP and Rajasthan are the prime target of ULFA which with the latest attack on May 6, 2007 on a busy marketplace in Guwahati through motorcycle bomb already consumed hundreds of lives and displaced thousands. Among other terrorist outfits, the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB), Bodo Liberation Tigers (BLT), United People’s Democratic Solidarity (UPDS), Muslim United Liberation Tigers of Assam (MULTA) and Dima Halim Daoga (DHD) are prominent. The NDFB operates in the Bodo-areas of the State and the UPDS dominates the Karbi-Anglong and North Cachar districts.
Most of these organisations are dormant after Delhi government signed an autonomy agreement with the Bodoland Liberation Tigers (BLT) in 2004 and opened dialogue with the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) in 2005. The election has later been held for the BTC areas and BLT occupied the power; and the then terrorist BLT chairman Hangrama Mohilary is now the most wanted ‘key’ for Congress led Torun Gogoi government in Assam.
In 1997, the majority of the refugees returned to their original villages and homesteads, with government provided rehabilitation grants. However, 23,000 families, almost all are Muslims, allegedly “encroachers” (illegally occupying homestead lands), are unable to return. In addition, there were about 3,000 other families, again mostly Muslims, who – despite having received rehabilitation grants – are still unable to return to their original homes, living in small huts made of bamboo and plastic sheeting, close to their original villages or on relief camp sites. This altogether nearly 25,000 families, Muslim, Santhals and Adivasis are still paining with the burns of 1993-96 ethnic riots in Assam and their pathetic condition sees no end for last 14 years.
The field research and interaction with the IDPs completely demystified the claim of the state government that the victims of the riots have been rehabilitated. It was observed by this author that in most of the cases the second generation of IDPs was in camps and who had no access to basic amenities. They had no access to education and health facilities. Though the ground realities are improving with peace prevailing after the accord but the fear is still there in the minds of Muslims and Santhals who are yet to take charge of their lands. Many of them are still staying away from their villages and visit there only during day and return to safer villages in the evening. In fact the violence has made all the parties involved more conscious and aware of their ethnic identities and caused further polarisation and political exploitation.
RELIEF AND REHABILITATION
The issue of population displacement in Northeast India, which was between 170,000 and 230,000 people in 1998, has failed to raise any serious international response, except for a visit by the U.S. Committee for Refugees to the region in 1998. It is true that India, like many other countries, lacks any mechanism or formal structure to deal with internal displacement and thereby take ad-hoc measures. In Manipur, for instance, the state and central government limits its responsibilities to distribution of relief-blankets, essential commodities, ex-gratia payment and setting up of camps, and has not taken any steps to either assess the ground realities or rehabilitate the displaced. But the Kukis managed to air their grievances to the government and have even filed a public interest litigation (PIL) in the Supreme Court of India, which drew some attention to the case of the Kukis although no real action has been taken. In Tripura the government provided relief to the displaced Reangs from Mizoram by setting up relief camps and some effort came from the government in providing them with housing and jobs. In Mizoram also the state government set up a camp for the Reangs in Kanchan district and provided some relief. In Assam relief camps had been set up in Kokrajhar, New Bogaigaon, Goalpara, and Gossaigaon districts to house the Bodos, Santhals and the Bengalis– both Hindu and Muslims displaced from Bodo-dominated areas. Government looks after them normally one year after they have been set up and then leaves them at the mercy of Heaven. Except some NGOs like Markazul Ma’arif they find none to listen to them and NGOs on the other hand in this case prove ineffective in minimising their suffering. Markazul Ma’arif has set up orphanages for both girls and boys and some schools – part-time and full-time just to keep the light of education burning among children of these victims.
SOME HOPE FOR THE VICTIMS
The Assam Tribune, the only prominent English daily from the state reports:
The Assam Assembly on 26 March witnessed noisy scenes followed by walk out by the members of the Assam United democratic Front (AUDF) and Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) after the Speaker, Tanka Bahadur Rai, disallowed an adjournment motion moved by the AUDF members on the issue of rehabilitation of the victims of ethnic riots in Kokrajhar and Bongaigaon districts. The AUDF members moved the motion immediately after the question hour seeking to discuss the problems faced by the people affected by the ethnic riots because of the failure of the Government to rehabilitate them. But the Speaker disallowed the motion saying that the rules of the House did not permit him to allow the AUDF members to move the motion.
Not satisfied with the Speaker’s ruling the members of the AUDF’ rushed to the well of the House demanding that their motion be allowed. Several members of the AGP also joined in, while, a few ruling party members also rushed to the well of the House and a heated exchange of words took place between the ruling and Opposition members. The members of the AGP and AUDF later staged a walkout.
Later on April 1 the Assam Government has constituted a committee of ministers to look into the problems faced by the persons displaced by the ethnic riots in the districts of Kokrajhar and Bongaigaon and to suggest measures to rehabilitate them. State Government spokesman and Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma told newspersons that the committee is headed by the Revenue Minister, Dr Bhumidhar Barman. The other members of the committee are—Planning and Development Minister Prithibi Majhi, Transport Minister Chandan Brahma, Irrigation Minister Nurzamal Sarkar, Food and Civil Supplies Minister Dr Nazrul Islam, Health Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma and Forest Minister Rockybul Hussain. The committee has been asked to examine all aspects of the problems faced by the inmates of the relief camps and suggest measures needed to be taken for their rehabilitation.
The AUDF resorted to that agitation following a Government move to come to a one-time settlement of the issue of rehabilitation concerning the riot victims of Bongaigaon and Kokrajhar districts.
The AUDF also said that according to a 1993 account, there were 5,300 riot-affected Muslim families in Bongaigaon and Kokrajhar districts. Of them, 4,500 belong to Bongaigaon district, while the rest belong to Kokrajhar district.
Each of these victim families was paid twice Rs 10,000 and they returned from their original places saying that it was not possible for them to settle there. But the camps now they are living in are not set up by the Government.
Now, the Government will send its representatives to each of the camps and try to find out the solution once for all. It has earmarked an amount of Rs 10 crore for their rehabilitation. However, the problem lies in the camp inmates not having a single organisation to represent them, said the Ministers, adding similar solutions would also be evolved for the Bodo and Adivasi riot-affected families.
The AUDF also charged that the Government apart from failing in its responsibilities to rehabilitate these camp inmates also failed to provide their children with basic educational facilities. They also criticised the Asom Gana Parishad for its failure to arrange for the rehabilitation of these families during the regional party’s term in the Government.
But, AUDF president Maulana Badruddin Ajmal Al-Qasmi and its general secretary-cum-spokesman Hafiz Basir Ahmad Qasmi said that they would not let the government undo any of the presently declared plans and they were bound to fulfil the promises they had made through their election manifesto in 2006 for permanent settlement of the genuine victims of 1993 riots. They said it is not mere politicking but an issue of life and basic human rights of genuine citizens of this state and being fellow humans we have to respond to the naked apathy of the Assam government towards these victims being witnessed for the last one decade.
Let’s hope something good may appear!
(Concluded)