India and Bodo rebels extend truce by 6 months
 

by Biswajyoti Das,GUWAHATI, India, May 27 (Reuters) -

The Indian government and a powerful tribal separatist group in the restive northeastern state of Assam extended their year-old truce by six months on Saturday.

The National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB), which has been fighting for a separate homeland for ethnic Bodos since 1985, signed their first-ever truce with New Delhi in May 2005.

"We have decided to extend the ceasefire for six months," B. Swmkhwr, NDFB general secretary, who led a five-member team to meet authorities in the capital, told Reuters after talks ended.

Both sides refused to comment on why the truce had been extended only for six months and not a year, as the NDFB had wanted. The ceasefire had been due to expire on May 31.

"We are keen to proceed with the peace process," Swmkhwr said. "We have not yet discussed any of the main issues in the past and today we were focused on extending the truce."

A senior police official in Assam said the truce might give a fillip to the peace process.

"We want the peace process to continue and are hopeful of finding a solution in the near future," said the officer, who did not wish to be identified.

Government officials have accused the NDFB of violating the truce by indulging in extortion and kidnapping for ransom. The group denies the charges.

The government also wants the group to present a list of demands -- a step the NDFB says it will take only if the status of the talks is upgraded to a political rather than merely "bureaucratic" level.

The NDFB, besides fighting for freedom for the Bodos, who make up 13 percent of Assam's 26 million people, has been demanding eviction of non-tribal people occupying vast areas of farmland and the reservation of forest land for tribals.

About two dozen insurgent groups, seeking independence, autonomy or greater tribal rights over resources, operate in India's northeast and accuse New Delhi of plundering the region's mineral resources and flooding the area with outsiders.

Some 10,000 people have been killed in Assam in the past 20 years in violence between security forces and armed separatists, including the NDFB, and in bomb and gun attacks by rebels.