| Wednesday, January 17, 2007 |
| Ready for talks with ULFA, says PM |
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh declared on Tuesday that the doors for dialogue with the militant United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) was open, but this should not be mistaken for `weakness.'
"The doors for dialogue are open for everybody, including the ULFA, but I would like to reiterate that no one should mistake our openness for talks and dialogue as a sign of weakness," Manmohan Singh told a news conference in Dibrugarh, Assam, after visiting the violence-hit areas in Dibrugarh and Tinsukia districts.
The ULFA has gunned down 70 Hindi-speaking migrant labourers in four days since January 5, 2007.
"The Indian state," Manmohan Singh asserted, "has an obligation to protect the lives and properties of its citizens. This we will discharge -- let there be no doubt on that score. Incidentally, Manmohan Singh is a Rajya Sabha member from Assam.
He said the Indian state could accommodate the "diversity of opinion and provide scope for meeting wide-ranging needs and aspirations and allowing many cultures and identities to exist. I am sure if we persist with the process of dialogue, a solution can certainly be found in Assam just as it has been found for many other groups and entities."
Asked why he had not visited Assam two years ago when over 100 people were killed in ethnic violence in the state's Karbi Anglong district, Manmohan Singh said: "My various responsibilities as Prime Minister and statecraft do not permit visits to every place. But my sympathies are always with the innocent, law-abiding citizens who are massacred."
To a question on the operations against the ULFA camps in neighbouring Myanmar, the Prime Minister said: "I talked with General Soe Win, Prime Minister of Myanmar, in the Philippine city of Cebu on Monday, and he assured me of intensifying the operations for dealing with the insurgent outfits."
Manmohan Singh said Myanmar's cooperation was essential for dealing with the insurgency in Assam.
On a question of the involvement of Pakistan's Inter-services Intelligence (ISI) in the ULFA carnage, Manmohan Singh said he would not like to comment on that "at this stage."Labels: Politics |
| posted by a correspondent @ 10:24 AM |
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