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                     Vol.2, No.37 [*] August 12, 1997
                     --------------------------------

     There is nothing like returning to a place that remains unchanged
           to find the ways in which you yourself have altered.
                            - Nelson Mandela
   ---------------------------------------------------------------------

1  HOME MINISTER ASSURES AASU ON ASSAM ACCORD	          [S:12-AUG-97]
   ------------------------------------------
   
   The Union Home Ministry, the nodal ministry for implementation of the
   Assam  Accord,  has  committed  to  the people of Assam that it would
   implement all the clauses of the Assam Accord within  a  time  frame,
   which would be determined in a tripartite meeting of officials of the
   Centre  and  the  State  Government  on the one side, and the AASU, a
   signatory of the 1985 Assam Accord, on the other, in September in New
   Delhi.  The Home Ministry would also strive to thrash out a consensus
   on the need for scrapping the discriminatory and anti-national  piece
   of  legislation  called  the  IM(DT)  Act,  among  all  the political
   parties.  These decisions were arrived at the tripartite  meeting  at
   New  Delhi  on August 11 between the Centre, the Assam Government and
   the AASU.

2  BID TO BLOW UP RAJDHANI EXPRESS			   [S:12-AUG-97]
   -------------------------------
   
   Over 400 passengers of the Rajdhani Express on way to New Delhi had a
   providential escape  when  a  hurriedly-planted  bomb  exploded  just
   before  the  train  was  about  to  pass over it between Guagacha and
   Sorupeta Road Station under Barpeta district at 7:32 am on August 11.
   Miraculously, although both the engines and seven coaches jumped  the
   rails, no one was either hurt or killed in the mishap.
   
   The  bomb  which  was  a  battery-operated  device  triggered  by   a
   remote-control  unit,  is  believed  to have been planted by the Bodo
   Liberation Tigers (BLT) within 30 minutes of the pilot engine  and  a
   motorized trolley  passing over the track at 6:33 am.  The North East
   Express too had passed the area at 7:10 am.   The  explosion  left  a
   crater over a metre deep in the central part of the track and damaged
   over 200  metre  of  the  track.   As many as 15 lengths of rail were
   twisted out of shape by the blast that ripped through the ballast  on
   the track.    Security  forces have recovered a detonator, a battery,
   and a length of connecting wire from the site.

3  INTERNATIONAL ARREST WARRANT AGAINST ULFA CHIEF  [AT+S:11+12-AUG-97]
   -----------------------------------------------
   
   The Home  Ministry  has  held  ULFA  leaded  Paresh  Baruah  and  his
   accomplices  responsible  of  killing AVARD-NE secretary Sanjoy Ghose
   and directed the Assam Government to arrest the outfit  leader  under
   section 302  IPC.    An  international  warrant  against him has been
   issued and INTERPOL had already alerted the police all over the world
   to arrest him.  The Home Ministry had said that Sanjoy  was  abducted
   by  the  ULFA  as  per  admission  of  Paresh Baruah on July 4, 1997.
   Amnesty International had declared Sanjoy a 'prisoner of conscience'.
   Being a 'prisoner of  conscience',  the  safety  of  Sanjoy  was  the
   responsibility of Paresh Baruah himself, the statement emphasized.
   
   The Home Ministry has said that this act of ULFA is a naked attack on
   democracy,  civil  society and people's rights to organise themselves
   for their own betterment.  The way Sanjoy was  killed  clearly  shows
   Paresh  Baruah's  intentions  and exposes the nexus which he an other
   ULFA leaders have with unscrupulous contractors  and  businessmen  of
   Majuli, the release added.
   
   In a late night report  to  newsmen  on  August  11,  the  Jorhat  SP
   informed  that the arrested ULFA cadre Amrit Dutta has confessed that
   Mr Ghose was killed within 12 hours  of  his  abduction  on  July  4.
   Amrit  expressed  ignorance about the whereabouts of Mr Ghose's body.
   He  also  named  five  others  to  be  involved  with  the   killing.
   Meanwhile,  it  is  learnt that the Jorhat police in a secret message
   had already informed the State Government on July 6 itself about  the
   'suspected death' of Mr Ghose.
   

4  ARMY REDEPLOYED IN GUWAHATI AND JORHAT		 [AT:10-AUG-97]
   --------------------------------------
   
   Following  the  killing of two Army officers in broad daylight in the
   heart of Guwahati city on  August  8  and  the  killing  of  AVARD-NE
   secretary  Sanjoy  Ghose in Majuli, by the ULFA, the Assam Government
   brought in the Unified Command to take control of the law  and  order
   situation in  Guwahati  city and Jorhat district on August 9.  It may
   be mentioned that Guwahati and Jorhat were excluded from the  purview
   of  the  Unified Command when the Government had extended the term to
   another six months on July 20 on an experimental basis.
   

5  CITIZENS TO DEFY MILITANTS			    [S+AT:12+10-AUG-97]
   --------------------------
   
   A number of prominent citizens have  decided  to  defy  the  call  of
   'janata  curfew'  by  the  ULFA  and  boycott  the  Independence  Day
   celebrations on August 15 by various militant outfits, by taking  out
   a  procession  from  the Congress(S) office at Guwahati at 8:30 am on
   that day.    The   organizers   have   requested   all   peace-loving
   individuals,  organizations etc., irrespective of their affiliations,
   to assemble at the venue of  the  meeting  and  raise  their  protest
   against terrorist violence in the State.
   
   Meanwhile, in a significant development thousands  of  volunteers  of
   AASU  took out protest rallies all over Majuli subdivision to condemn
   the killing of Sanjoy Ghose.    The  processionists  shouted  slogans
   against the militant outfit which included 'ULFA go back'; 'Long live
   Sanjoy'; 'Down with violence'.

6  ESCAP PANEL FOR NORTHEAST			          [S:10-AUG-97]
   -------------------------
   
   The  Economic  and  Social  Commission  for Asia (ESCAP) has set up a
   committee of experts at the request of the Union Minister of Commerce
   Dr Ramaiah, to study the feasibility of integrating the north-eastern
   region with the markets of the southeast Asia and the Pacific region.
   The Union Minister had made the  request  at  the  ESCAP  meeting  at
   Bangkok  in  April,  while  forcefully pleading before the Commission
   that the member-countries should explore possibilities of integrating
   their markets with the seven north-eastern States of  India,  sources
   said.

______________________________[Mozz-BG]_________________________________
Compiled from newspaper and agency reports for private circulation only.
      [S=Sentinel, AT=Assam Tribune, Agencies = UNI, PTI, PIB]
              http://www.cyberspace.org/~mozz/aol.html  
  http://piglet.uccs.edu/~kalita/assam/news/news-from-assam-index.html
________________________________________________________________________