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Fernandes ready to walk into ULFA's den to end insurgency

Defence Minister George Fernandes proposed discussions with North-East militants and said he was ready to go to 'any extent' to end the insurgency there.

''I am ready to go anywhere, even to the places of their choice,'' he said, indirectly accepting the United Liberation Front of Asom's demand that talks be held in a foreign country.

But the talks, he insisted, should be without any precondition.

''There is an ongoing process with one faction of the National Students Council of Nagaland, and I sincerely hope that it will meet its logical end. But my prime objective is to reach out to other insurgent groups also and make an earnest appeal to them to come forward for talks. Before starting this trip, I already had preliminary discussions with the prime minister and the home minister,'' he said.

The defence minister said his government was working on an integrated policy for developing the Seven Sisters, as the North-Eastern states are known.

''I shall brief the prime minister and home minister about the ground situation immediately on my return to Delhi to reach our objectives of the integrated policy,'' Fernandes told mediamen in Guwahati on Monday, the concluding day of his five-day tour to the region.

He admitted that counter-insurgency operations were eating up most of the defence allocation.

''A lot of money is being wasted in counter insurgency operations, which is not supposed to be the army's work. Thus, resources are stretched,'' he said.

However, there was no immediate proposal to withdraw the army from the region, Fernandes added.

He assured the proposed policy would change the face of the region, and said that various governments at different stages had allowed a sense of despondency to grow in there.

''The packages announced in the past had further angered the people since all the packages were found empty. All the chief ministers I met in the last five days said that,'' Fernandes said.

''This is not the time to promise, but to work sincerely. The most immediate task is to get more investment in the region and generate jobs. Our integrated policy should cover that,'' he added.

Asked whether he got any positive feedback from militants during these five days, he said, ''I have not got anything negative either.''

Dwelling on the Armed Forces Special Power Act, the defence minister said his government was likely to amend it to stop its misuse. He said he would issue orders to the troops not to violate human rights.

Regarding the ongoing cease fire in Nagaland, Fernandes said the people wanted the cease fire to be extended. But it was a temporary measure and a political settlement was the only way to solve the problem.

UNI

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