-Mr. Rajib Bora |
COLLECTIVE STATEMENT-Ninth Session of the UNO’s Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, 2010
Mr. Chairperson,
We bring cordial greetings to all of you from Assam, India.
Assam has a history of its own and even now remains distinct from the socio-cultural characteristics of the present Indian states. Assam is an ancient land. A land of the yore. Many Indigenous races and the tribes had in the historic past traversed the areas for seeking and settling its place of habitation. Its ethnic character is totally different from the metropolitan Indian and as such the nation building process doesn’t bear any similarity. Assam was politically independent for thousands of years in its ancient period ruled by several Indigenous dynasties. It was about 600 years under the mighty Ahom kings. In 1826 the British had inserted Assam into the framework of British colonialism. The people of Assam strongly resented the British occupation led by the erstwhile Prince, revolted thrice. The people of Assam regrouped in 1903 under the banner of Assam Association. The People of Assam joined the Indian National Congress in 1921, although Congress never considered north-east within the nation scene. The people of Assam joined the Indian National Congress voluntarily and Congress entered Assam on invitation only. The people of Assam participated in India’s freedom movement with renewed vigor and determination. The nationalist movement and the participation in it by the people of Assam wholly succeeded in regenerating socio-political life and helped further to partake the national polity. They maintained a gallant record of participation in the national movement all through the quarter century ending with transfer of power. During the crucial period of transfer of power, the Indian National Congress agreed to the ‘Cabinet Mission’ proposal to include Assam in the group ‘c’ i.e., East Pakistan now called Bangladesh. It is due to the bold leadership of late Gopinath Bordoloi and the support rendered by the people of Assam that is what is today, a part of India. The Indian National Congress on 22nd January1947 in its plenary session, every two years adopted resolutions to variously assume the people inhabitating different provinces (the state they are called under the 1955 Act) regional autonomy and residuary powers etc. The mover of the resolution in the person of no less than a personality, Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru. Once the country was partitioned the objective resolution was quickly forgotten. After the illegal annexation of Assam, the subsequent rulers- the British and the Government of India did try their best to destroy the ethnic character of people of Assam by state-sponsored illegal immigration, the dangerous implications of which all along being objected by the indigenous population of Assam. The government of India in the name of governance has created a situation where law and facts are in conflict between practice and profession. Various laws and constitutional bindings of the state in regard to migration of foreign national are made inapplicable in Assam so as to encourage illegal influx of migrants in millions from neighboring Bangladesh and thus destroy the distinct ethnic character of Assam. Similarly various constitutional bindings for protection of universally recognized human rights are being openly violated by the Government of India in Assam and even the judiciary has remained a silent spectator to all these. Any sovereign country in the world does always protect its border and the citizens. The government of India has failed to honor these two fundamental guarantees to Assam. The influx has become a regular feature, a silent invasion of foreign national from the neighboring countries, particularly from Bangladesh, has become a threat to the territorial integrity of India. The problem has been deliberately neglected by the leaders leaving the destiny at the mercy of foreign nationals. The government has come out with the most brutal force and let loose reign of terror on its citizens when a demand has been raised on the protection of these two fundamental rights.
The situation of Assam is very fluid. The policy of colonial administration, complete change of demographic pattern due the presence of large number of illegal immigration growing sense of ethnic identity, fear of losing identity- all these factors combined together contributed to the growth of ethno-political movement in Assam. With Yandaboo treaty Assam has lost everything except one great cultural heritage of Assam, the Bihu festival of Assam. This ancient festival is celebrated all over Assam since 3000 B.C
Peace is our major concern of the day. Peace cannot be restored by force. On 13th September 2007 Government of India signed and ratified the UNDRIP (United Nation Declaration on the Rights of the Indigenous People) and the demand of rights to self determination of Assam and its indigenous people has its legitimacy not in terms of justice and equality but also from the point of view that Full Regional Autonomy along with Regional Federation. Assam can ensure much better utilization of its vast economic potentials for larger global interest. The Government of India with its narrow colonial interest criminally misultilised the valuable natural resources of Assam, which is a great loss to mankind as a whole. Every day, 25 million cubic tons natural gas worth Rs.5 million in the international market is being criminally flared up in the oil fields of Assam. The potent oil wells and coal mines are being destroyed because of colonial ill intention of Government of India to extract maximum resources within shortest possible time frame. There has been criminal destruction of the rich green environment and human resource potential is being systematically desolated so that the indigenous people of Assam cannot pose threat to the process of colonial exploitation. We would further like to assert that the experiments of a superficially United Indian State has grossly failed, as is evident from the economic and political mess created but New Delhi in the name of constitutional democracy. In the case of Assam, the Government of India with the sole intention of retaining its narrow colonial interest has played dirty politics of divide and rule, thus making the ethnic issues quite complicated, which could have been settled amicably. In order to achieve lasting solutions it is imperative to confer Full Regional Autonomy along with Regional Federation to Assam. The government of Indian should respect the human rights and the freedom of indigenous people, ethnic communities and minorities and to acknowledge and respect our legitimate concerns and aspirations, needs and rights to bring lasting peace to the region.
In order to address the above mentioned serious issues, we, therefore urge UNPFII to impress upon the government of India:
- To fully implement the UNDRIP for the protection and promotion of the Rights of the Indigenous Peoples of India for their appropriate and sustainable development;
- To ratify the ILO Convention 169 to recognize the presence of Indigenous Peoples in India;
- To initiate the peace process and political dialogue with all the Ceasefire & Pro- Talk militants groups of Assam without further delay and to reach lasting solutions within the framework of the Indian Constitution by granting Full Regional Autonomy to Assam with Regional Federation by creating a small states of Boroland, Dimaraji etc. inside the state of Assam;
- To accord granting 6th schedule status to Rabha Hasong Autonomous Council within the Constitution of India in order to protect and promote the Rabha Indigenous Peoples’ rights to land and territories and their language, culture and identity, for which UNESCO has already made a study along with conduct election as early as possible to restore democracy in the council ;
- To create Satellite Autonomous Councils for various Indigenous and ethnic communities of Assam to protect their culture, literature, tradition, faiths, human rights and environment and to maintain their identity with equal status, equal rights and equal opportunity for socio-economic development, health, education. agriculture and communication etc under the 6thschedule of Indian Constitution;
- To immediately develop an effective mechanism for detection and deportation of foreign nationals from the country as per 1946 Foreigner Act and de-registration of the names of such persons from the voters list by setting up of a special branch for the identification of such foreign nationals;
- To update the National Register of Citizens (NRC) of 1951 comparing with the appropriate materials through which the successive electorolls of 1952 and onwards were prepared;
- To repeal the amendment of Indian Citizenship Act that grants citizenship to the children of foreign nationals up to 2004;
- To seal the Indo-Bangla boarder within a stipulated time to check further infiltration from Bangladesh;
- To stop construction of mega dams in the region without the prior informed consent of the Indigenous people of the region;
- To repeal the Armed Forces Special Power Act, (AFSPA) of 1958;
- To ensure and implement the Article 21 of the Indian Constitution which guarantees the “Right to Life” in the North East Region;
- To ratify UNCAT (United Nation Convention Against Torture, inhuman and degrading treatment);
- To encourage the Participation of Women and Indigenous Peoples representatives as members in the State and National Human Rights Commission, and setup Women’s Wing at the local level for filing petitions for any such violations.
We thank you for your kind attention Mr. Chairperson.
Sd/- (Rajib Bora)
Chief Advisor, United Peoples’ Federation of Assam;
Sd/- (Jebra Ram Muchahary)
President, Indian Confederation of Indigenous and Tribal Peoples North East Zone;
Sd/- (Tankeswar Rabha)
President, All Rabha Students’ Union (ARSU).
Intervention made by Mr. Rajib Bora on behalf of the United Peoples’ Federation of Assam (UPFA), Indian Confederation of Indigenous and Tribal Peoples North East Zone (ICITP-NEZ) and All Rabha Students’ Union (ARSU) Agenda Item No.4 (a): Human Rights