Communal violence flares in northeast India

Updated October 10, 2008 20:35:52

Ethnic clashes have killed dozens of people, and displaced 100-thousand more in the northeast Indian state of Assam. The violence between an indigenous tribe and Muslim settlers started several days ago and quickly spread to at least 30 villages. Hundreds of houses have been burned down.


Presenter:Liam Cochrane

Speakers: Anjai Sahni, the executive director of the Institute for Conflict Management; Sanjay Hazarikah is a managing trustee of the Centre for North East Studies and Policy Research.

COCHRANE: The violence reportedly started when a young Bobo man entered an area dominated by Muslims and was beaten up.

Rumours of the incident tapped into long-running ethnic distrust and the violence spread, says Anjai Sahni, the executive director of the Institute for Conflict Management.

SAHNI:"The Bobo groups thought the boy had been killed, he'd actually been taken away to hospital by the police. And that started a retaliatory violence by the Bobo groups. Subsequently a Muslim boy was stabbed and killed and it just started escalating."

COCHRANE: The ensuing clashes spread out over two districts and left dozens dead, with more than 100-thousand people fleeing their homes and seeking shelter in temporary camps.

Sanjay Hazarikah is a managing trustee of the Centre for North East Studies and Policy Research.

He says that within the districts of Udalguri and Darrang, community patrols have sprung up, utilising a mix of both modern and primitive weapons.

HAZIRIKAH: "They have bows and arrows, they have machetes, they have spears, they have some old country-made guns and a few have automatic weapons."

COCHRANE: Tensions between the indigenous Bobo population and communities of Muslims have simmered for years and have regularly caused bloodshed.

In August, in the same two districts, seven people were killed in clashes similar to the recent violence.

Part of the problem is a struggle to manipulate populations in order to control local politics.

A deal with indigenous militants in 2003 means that communities with more than 50-percent Bobo populations are controlled by the Bobo Territorial Council, and a similar arrangement exists informally with Muslim communities.

The Bobos say that illegal immigrants from Bangladesh are being allowed to settle in the area, plus there have been accusations of violence calculated to shift the balance of local populations for political gain.

Mr Hazirikah says each outbreak of bloodshed compounds this volatile situation.

HAZIRIKAH: "It's really a combination of suspicions, aggression, demand for greater land on the part of one, concerns and fears of being overwhelmed by another. There are charges and counter charges of extremists on one side using automatic weapons to drive out non-tribals, so it's really been a very mixed an explosive bag."

COCHRANE: Mr Sahni from the Institute for Conflict Management says that both sides have been responsible for the ongoing violence.

SAHNI: "The groups that are trying to to secure power through the Bobo Territorial Council. They were various insurgent groups which have in the past several years have supposedly surrendered and come overground to join the mainstream... they however retain a proclivity to violent politics.... but the violent politics is not merely concentrated on the Bobo side. You know you have a pattern of violence, of majorities attacking minorities in each of the areas. And where you have a Muslim majority you have violence against the Bobos as well."

COCHRANE: Police and army reinforcements appear to be getting the situation under control.

But Mr Hazirikah says longer-lasting solutions will only come about if the facts of immigration are dealt with and the disputing communities start talking to each other.

HAZIRIKAH: "There is this accusation that illegal migrants from Bangladesh are behind a lot of the trouble. This must be investigated and found out and resolved, in terms of people must know who is causing what [trouble] otherwise the damage escalates and larger number of people suffer. But there is nothing to replace community dialogue, village-to-village dialogue, inter-ethnic discussions. These are issues that are broader, not just in Assam, they're true for other parts of the country."