In ULFA deal, a long and complicated quest for closure

Last Friday, 16 senior leaders of the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) stood beaming in a gleaming wood panelled government room, the traditional red-and-white scarf draped around their necks. They formed a single file behind Union Home Minister Amit Shah and Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.

The day was significant; it marked the symbolic turning of the page for large chunks of Assam with the signing of a memorandum of settlement between the state and the protalks faction of the militant group which was the driver of the state's violent history for the past 43 years.

The 21-page memorandum holds within it a host of promises from both sides. ULFA has promised to vacate its designated camps, give up arms and disband in a month; the government has promised a special 5,000 crore special development package for the state. Yet, buried under the weighty provisions is a paragraph that captures the complexity of insurgent violence in the NorthEast and hints at how despite the efforts from both sides, closure might be still be some way off.

The paragraph says that the government will give 210 lakh as compensation to the families of 31 ULFA cadre who went missing during an operation by the Royal Bhutanese Army in December 2003.

This Operation "All Clear" the first in Bhutanese history was aimed at destroying militant camps on its southern borders, urged on by the Indian government. Scores of camps were destroyed, hundreds were killed, and many more people poured back into India. But the 31 who went missing have long been a sticking point in negotiations, with even the pro-talks faction of ULFA, which first began discussions with the Union government in 2011, consistent in the demand that they be traced.

Last week, the government attempted to draw a line under this controversy with the announcement of the compensation. Even as the smaller, more extremist Paresh Baruah faction of ULFA stayed away from the talks, the pact was publicly meant to assuage hurt emotions in a state where illegal immigration continues to be a lightning rod.