Information on the current difficulties faced by United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) members in Assam is scarce among the sources consulted by the DIRB.

According to the attached 25 August 1997 Time article, the late July 1997 death of NGO worker and activist Sanjoy Ghose (see below) while in ULFA hands has

damaged ULFA's base of support in Assam itself. Local intellectuals who once backed the insurgency have turned against it, as have villagers in places like Majuli. ULFA has responded to this potential opposition with a systematic campaign of terror. On Aug. 15, India's Independence Day, ULFA squads burned down at least 10 railway stations and administrative offices and blew up several bridges.

ULFA is an outlawed organization (The Indian Express 26 Sept. 1997; AFP 26 June 1997). According to the attached 8 September 1997 Indian Express article, the Assamese director general of police charged Tata Tea with "criminal offences" for funding ULFA militants in various ways, including paying medical and hotel bills and paying for airplane tickets. On 26 September 1997 a senior Tata Tea executive was remanded to a week's police custody for "having direct links with the outlawed" ULFA (The Indian Express 26 Sept. 1997).

Country Reports 1996 and Human Rights Watch World Report 1997 both report that the central government uses surrendered ULFA members known as SULFAs in its counterinsurgency efforts in Assam (1997, 1438; HRW 1996, 161). SULFAs have allegedly been "implicated in extrajudicial killings" (ibid.).

According to Human Rights Watch (HRW), the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act is still in effect in the northeast (1996, 161). This legislation "grants the military broad powers to arrest and detain suspects, destroy property, and shoot to kill" (ibid.).

The following information may be of general interest.

Police and soldiers from the Indian army undertook a manhunt following the 16 March 1997 killing, allegedly by ULFA, of an army colonel and two soldiers in the town of Tezpur, Assam (AFP 16 Mar. 1997).

According to Agence France Presse (AFP), in June 1997 Indian defence minister Mulayam Singh Yadev stated that New Delhi will hold talks with, and the army will halt its offensive against, ULFA, once ULFA lays down its arms and stops its violent campaign for succession (26 June 1997).

A joint police and army operation was launched against ULFA in July 1997 in an attempt to locate Sanjoy Ghose who, along with another NGO worker, had been kidnapped by ULFA on 4 July 1997 (The Indian Express 9 July 1997; AI 10 July 1997; Time 25 Aug. 1997). ULFA claimed to have seized Ghose, an NGO worker and founder of the Association of Voluntary Agencies and Rural Development–North-East (AVARD-NE), because he was an intelligence agent of the central government and was involved in spreading disinformation about ULFA (ibid.; The Indian Express 9 July 1997; AI 10 July 1997). It is not clear whether Ghose died in an escape attempt, as ULFA claims, or whether ULFA executed him (Time 25 Aug. 1997).

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the DIRB within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum. Please find below the list of additional sources consulted in researching this Information Request.

References

Agence France Presse (AFP). 26 June 1997. "New Delhi Rules Out Talks with Separatist Group." (NEXIS)

_____. 16 March 1997. "Tribal Guerrillas Kill Six in Eastern India." (NEXIS)

Amnesty International. 10 July 1997. India: Amnesty International Appeals to ULFA to Release Prisoner of Conscience. (AI Index: ASA 20/37/97). London: Amnesty International.

Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1996. 1997. United States Department of State. Washington, DC: United States Government Printing Office.

Human Rights Watch. 1996. Human Rights Watch World Report 1997. New York: Human Rights Watch.

The Indian Express [Bombay]. 26 September 1997. "Brojen Remanded." [Internet] [Accessed 26 Sept. 1997]

_____. 8 September 1997. "Tata Tea Accused of Funding ULFA." [Internet] [Accessed 26 Sept. 1997]

_____. 9 July 1997. "Jorhat NGO Worker Still Untraced." [Internet] [Accessed 26 Sept. 1997]

Time [New York]. 25 August 1997. Vol. 50, No. 8. "Fighting for the People: The Death of a Popular Grassroots Activist by Separatist Rebels in Assam Has Damaged their Cause." [Internet] [Accessed 26 Sept. 1997]

Attachments

Agence France Presse (AFP). 26 June 1997. "New Delhi Rules Out Talks with Separatist Group." (NEXIS)

_____. 16 March 1997. "Tribal Guerrillas Kill Six in Eastern India." (NEXIS)

Amnesty International. 10 July 1997. India: Amnesty International Appeals to ULFA to Release Prisoner of Conscience. (AI Index: ASA 20/37/97). London: Amnesty International.

The Indian Express [Bombay]. 26 September 1997. "Brojen Remanded." [Internet] [Accessed 26 Sept. 1997]

_____. 8 September 1997. "Tata Tea Accused of Funding ULFA." [Internet] [Accessed 26 Sept. 1997]

_____. 9 July 1997. "Jorhat NGO Worker Still Untraced." [Internet] [Accessed 26 Sept. 1997]

Time [New York]. 25 August 1997. Vol. 50, No. 8. "Fighting for the People: The Death of a Popular Grassroots Activist by Separatist Rebels in Assam Has Damaged their Cause." [Internet] [Accessed 26 Sept. 1997]

Additional Sources Consulted

Amnesty International Report 1997. 1997.

Asian Profile [Hong Kong]. Bimonthly. December 1996-August 1997.

Asian Survey [Berkeley, Calif.]. Monthly. January-June 1997.

DIRB Indexed Media Review [Ottawa]. Weekly. January 1997-present.

_____. "India" country file. January 1997-present.

_____. "India: Amnesty International" country file. August 1996-present.

India Today [Delhi]. Weekly. January 1997-present.

Keesing's Record of World Events [Cambridge]. Monthly. September 1996-June 1997.

Electronic sources: DIRB Databases, Internet, NEXIS/LEXIS, REFWORLD (UNHCR database).