ULFA GOES ON A KILLING SPREE AGAINST HINDU "OUTSIDERS"

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 CALCUTTA 000010

SIPDIS

SENSITIVE
SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: PTER ASEC PGOV IN BG PREL PBTS PHUM PINR
SUBJECT: ULFA GOES ON A KILLING SPREE AGAINST HINDU "OUTSIDERS"

REF: A) 06 CALCUTTA 0362, B) 06 CALCUTTA 0481, C) 06 CALCUTTA 0509


1. (SBU) Summary: Over the January 5-7 weekend, ethnic
insurgent separatists from the United Liberation Front of Asom
(ULFA) carried out a string of attacks in remote areas of Assam,
killing more than 65 people. The majority of attacks targeted
migrant Bihari workers from India's Hindi- speaking heartland,
and comes in the run up to India's Republic Day on January 26
and the 33rd Indian National Games slated to take place in
Assam, February 9-18. ULFA's apparent return to its ideological
roots by targeting non-Assamese in the state is aimed at
altering public perception of ULFA as simply another violent
criminal organization. However, ULFA's use of camps in
neighboring Bangladesh and acceptance of Bangladeshi migrants
living in Assam undermines the pretense of its claimed agenda
for ethnic purity in the state. The violence is continuing, and
prospects for a resumption of peace talks are slim, as GOI
officials have called emergency meetings and are responding with
increased troop levels to maintain security. End Summary.


2. (SBU) January 5-8, in the Northeast Indian of Assam, members
of the ethnic insurgent group ULFA killed more than 65 primarily
Hindi-speaking migrants from India's Eastern state of Bihar.
The killings took place in remote, Eastern areas of Assam in the
Dibrugarh, Tinsukia, Dhemaji, Sibsagar and Kokrajhar districts.
Media reported Friday and Saturday's attacks as follows:

-- In the Bandarkhati village in Tinsukia, an ULFA attack killed
two people.

-- At Longsowal, insurgents fired indiscriminately into a crowd,
killing three.

-- In Daisajan Holoukhowa Govindapur Basti, four armed youths on
motorcycles fired upon a village defense party.

-- At Dighalitarang Tiniali one person died in a grenade attack.


-- At Tingrai Chariali, a group of about 10 insurgents armed
with sophisticated weapons fired on 11 brick kiln workers, four
of whom died on the spot.

-- At Borhat Govindapur in Sibsagar, ULFA killed three more
brick kiln workers.

-- ULFA killed 13 persons - all dairy farmers -- at Ghoramora
Chapori.

-- ULFA killed two persons at Bijlibon in the Tinsukia district.

-- A 12 member gang of masked ULFA members gunned down six dairy
farmers at Sakia chaperon located on the border of the Dibrugarh
and Dhemaji districts.

-- Other attacks by ULFA throughout the districts killed 16.


3. (SBU) The attacks continued on Sunday, as ULFA militants
killed 15 Hindi-speaking people and injured 10 others in four
separate attacks hours after Union Minister of State for Home
Sriprakash Jaiswal visited Assam in response to the stepped up
violence:

-- In Sibsagar, seven migrants from the state of Bihari died and
three were injured when ULFA insurgents called them out of their
homes at Borali Bari near Mahmara and opened fire.

-- In Dibrugarh district, six Hindi-speaking persons were killed
and one injured in an attack by militants at Chokolia.

-- Three ULFA members on motorcycles fired indiscriminately with
sophisticated weapons at workers at a brick kiln at Sepon
Chagolia in Moran area of the same district. A worker died on
the spot while six others were injured. One of the wounded later
succumbed to his injuries.


CALCUTTA 00000010 002 OF 002


-- In Kokrajhar district in lower Assam, ULFA terrorists shot
and injured a teenaged Hindi-speaking boy in Kochugaon.


4. (SBU) The violence continued on Monday, January 8 with an
addition two Hindi speakers being killed in Golaghat. Initial
media reports indicate the beginnings of an exodus of Bihari and
Hindi-speaking migrants from Assam back to mainland India.
Calcutta Chief of Police told ConGen he was concerned about
potential violence by Biharis against ethnic Assamese. (Note:
In 2003, ULFA killed more than 60 migrants from Bihar following
a highly publicized dispute in Assam over Bihari recruitment
into the railways system. Afterwards, Biharis responded by
pulling passengers with ethnic Assamese features off of trains,
killing the men and raping the women. End note.)


5. (SBU) Speculation about the motives behind the attacks is
wide-ranging. The killings started a day after Union Home
Secretary V. N. Duggal visited Assam to review security and

SIPDIS
declared Assam safe for the National Games -- India's biggest
sporting event -- that are scheduled for February 9-18. Over
the past few months, ULFA has urged spectators and competitors
to boycott the games, but the GOI has insisted it will not let
the event be disrupted. ULFA has been battered by stepped up
military operations after peace talks failed last September and
blames Duggal for the failure of efforts to restart talks.
However, the increased military activity has not stopped the
level of violence from rising (reftels). The weekend's attacks
come after Indian security forces killed five senior ULFA
members last week. According to security analyst Ajai Sahni,
the weekend's violence is an attempt to cash in on
"anti-outsider" feeling among the ethnic Assamese who are
agitated over the fact that up to two million people in Assam
are unemployed. An intelligence official in Assam told post
that the killings are in retaliation against the Army's
increased security operations. An Inspector General of the
Assam Police said that the attacks are a "political message" to
the GOI owing to the breakdown of talks. He added that ULFA was
able to take advantage of the porous border with Bangladesh to
receive logistical support from militant camps located across
the border and, he claimed, from Muslim fundamentalists.


6. (SBU) Comment: ULFA appears to be re-asserting its
ideological, anti-outsider position to "reconnect" with its
traditional ethnic Assamese base and to show its strength.
Tellingly, though, all the attacks occurred in remote areas far
removed from urban centers, in locales with limited security
presence -- some incidents took place on Assam's border with
Arunachal Pradesh state, where ULFA's 28th battalion is camped.
In addition, ULFA did not target Bangladeshis, whose numbers
have grown significantly in Assam over the last 30 years and
potentially represent a greater threat to Assamese identity than
the Bihari and Hindi-speaking migrants. Key ULFA leaders live
in Bangladesh and the targeting of Indian interlopers as opposed
to Bangladeshis seems a strong indication that ULFA has links
with Bangladesh that it does not want to jeopardize even at the
risk of ideological inconsistency.


7. (SBU) Comment Continued: Many Ethnic Assamese have long
resented the presence of "outsiders" in their state, and this
sentiment has increased as the unemployment rate and the
population pressure on the land grows. At its formation, ULFA
capitalized on this sentiment but in recent years has lost much
of its popular support by turning more toward extortion, theft,
and kidnapping. With the annual Republic Day celebrations
coming on January 26, and the National Games very soon in
February, ULFA is likely timing its attacks to reassert itself
during a sensitive period. The Assam government has requested
additional forces from Delhi to control the security situation
and more violence is expected. End comment.
JARDINE