Bhutan threatens to use force to ex

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Bhutan threatens to use force to expel all militants

By Pradip K. Chakraborty
The Asian Age (New Delhi)
May 18, 2000

Dhaka, May 17: Bhutan on Wednesday threatened to expel United Liberation
Front of Asom militants by force from the comps that they have set up in
impregnable forest areas in the country's east, if they failed to
withdraw peacefully.

The Bhutan government has had two meetings with the militants at the
senior level and has asked them to fix a date for another meeting,
probably the last, to finalise the timeframe for withdrawal, visiting
Bhutanese foreign minister Lyonpo Jigme Thinley said here.

However, the outfit has not responded to the ultimatum, he said adding:
"We cannot wait indefinitely, we are getting ready to expel them by
force, if we have to as the last option."

The Bhutan foreign minister, who returned to Thimpu on Wednesday after a
five-day official visit to Bangladesh, told reporters that Bhutan was
determined not to allow its soil to be used by Ulfa or Bodo extremists
or for that matter any insurgent groups as a launching pad for attacks
on India.

Besides, "their (Ulfa's) presence is a direct threat to our own security
and sovereignty," the minister said.

Asked about the specific time-limit to carry out the ultimatum against
the Ulfa, Mr Thinley said, "I do not want to specify the date."

The Ulfa has set up camps in the dense forests in Bhutanese territory
bordering Assam's Kokrajhar district. In the past, the Himalayan kingdom
put pressure on the outfit to leave by cutting their line of food
supply, but did not succeed in expelling them.

Mr Thinley said the Ulfa leaders had been told in unequivocal term that
unless they quit peacefully through the process of negotiation for which
one last chance was still available, the Royal government would have no
alternative but to order its troops to move in to throw them out.

He said his government was aware that India's patience was running out
and causing growing irritation in Indo-Bhutan relations. But Bhutan
wanted to exhaust all peaceful avenues before using military force to
expel these unwanted people.

Bhutan is reluctant to use force on the militants as they can then turn
on its citizens. Incidences of the Ulfa men kidnapping both Indian and
Bhutanese civilians have increased over the last few months. (PTI)