The Rediff Special

ULFA has accumulated around Rs 15 billion so far

This partly explains ULFA's huge reserves of funds stashed away in banks abroad. ULFA is believed to collect, through extortions, between Rs 300 million to Rs 400 million each year from the 1,500 big and small tea gardens and business houses in Assam. The money is put away in banks in Bangladesh, Bhutan, France, Switzerland and Thailand. Home Ministry officials estimate that ULFA has accumulated around Rs 15 billion so far. After the Awami League government led by Sheikh Hasina came to power, Bangladesh alone is reported to have frozen Rs 2 billion kept by ULFA in the country's Sonali Bank.

The Bodo militants, too, have been raising large sums of money, though the amount isn't anywhere near what ULFA collects. On September 22, The Economic Times scooped details from the account books of the National Democratic Front of Bodoland showing a progressive increase in the amount of 'tax' collected by the militants. The amount, according to the report, was Rs 1,35,61,500 in 1994-95, Rs 1,82,30,450 in 1995-96 and Rs 4,43,21,995 in 1996-97.

Clearly, insurgency these days is a mega-budget affair, and monetarily ULFA is worth more than many large corporations. And much of the funds, as is now evident, have been provided by the country's Rs 20 billion tea industry.

The tea industry, however, accounts for only a part -- a large one though -- of the insurgents's finances. Outfits such as ULFA, NDFB and rebel groups in Manipur and Nagaland thrive on money provided by every other industry and individual businessmen operating in the region. ''Why is everybody accusing the tea industry only? Why isn't anybody talking of the plywood industry?'' asks the tea executive. The plywood business, apparently, is equally guilty of funding the militants.

According to Lt-Gen R K Sawhney, GOC 4 Corps, which has been entrusted with counter-insurgency operations in Assam, ULFA collected Rs 3 billion from various development agencies, irrigation departments, contractors, and even villagers and shop-owners.

Chief Minister Mahanta, too, told the Guwahati press earlier this year that development funds from block offices in North Lakhimpur and Nalbari districts were being diverted to the militants's coffers.

And while ULFA and the Bodos are taxing the team companies, other business establishments and even government departments, the National Socialist Council of Nagaland (I&M) are imposing levies on government employees, contractors and businessmen in the remote areas of the North Cachar Hill district, which remain beyond the administration's gaze.

Moreover, reports of late have appeared in the Guwahati press which say that NRIs, too, are actively funding militant groups. According to intelligence agencies, they work as ULFA's ambassadors abroad, raise funds, and also mediate between the outfit and international arms dealers.

And where does all the money go? To buy arms, pay for training of the cadres and foreign travels of leaders, towards allowances for whole-time activists, and on propaganda campaigns.

The army has been repeatedly saying for the last couple of years that large quantities of arms, explosives and communication equipment have been flowing into Assam and the other troubled states of the North-East.

The arms, according to the army, are being sourced from several places. The former Soviet republics are said to be selling their hardware at competitive prices. Afghanistan and Peshawar in Pakistan provide attractive shopping malls for clandestine buyers. And, of late, arms into the North-East are also said to be coming from Cambodia, where the shattered forces of the Khmer Rouge are believed to be dumping their AK-s to raise money for survival.

The army believes the material is entering India through various points along the porous international border with Myanmar, Bangladesh and Bhutan, but overland routes through India are also not being discounted. Every rupee given to the militants turns into bullets, Lt Gen Sawhney is reported to have said.

Tea industry sources, however, say they are helpless in the face of threats and demands made by gun-toting militants. Anyone familiar with the Assam countryside would readily concede that tea personnel, marooned in isolated pockets surrounded by an undulating sea of tea bushes, are forever vulnerable.

The gardens which extend for miles with no police station in the vicinity and the workers's quarters located only on the periphery, can hardly be insulated against incursions by militants. ''Who will protect us and our families out here?'' demanded the manager of a garden situated close to the oil town of Digboi.

It is impossible to protect garden personnel by deploying armed guards, says a tea executive based in Calcutta. ''That's an unrealistic propositions," he says, and feels that problem cannot be tackled at the law and order level. ''What is needed is a permanent, political solution.''

Clearly, the planters, just as anybody else stationed in the region, are in no mood to be martyred to solve a problem that is not of their own making. They are there to do a job, to run a business, or manage industrial establishments, not cross swords with the militants. Surely, it is the government's duty to provide a trouble-free environment in the first place, they argue. So, when politicians and the administration abdicate their responsibilities, peace and security may have to be brought, if necessary at exorbitant prices.

The argument is not without substance considering the fact that neither the police nor the army have succeeded in snuffing out the insurgents despite continual operations for close to a decade now. In fact, the political leadership has often blown hot and cold, wavering without any consistent policy.

It is common knowledge that the AGP was hand in glove with ULFA through the eighties, with then home minister Bhrigu Phukan being particularly sympathetic towards the militants. Later, Congress chief minister Hiteswar Saikia decided to put ongoing army operations on hold and release arrested ULFA cadres in the hope that they could be successfully rehabilitated. This created another set of recalcitrant people who came to be known as SULFA (surrendered ULFA). They were flush with rehabilitation funds and earned notoriety for their corruption and vices. And last year, Prafulla Mahanta had promised to withdraw the Armed Forces Special Powers Act in his elections campaign, thus ensuring a measure of ULFA support.

Kind courtesy: Sunday magazine

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