ULFA says sovereignty not a pre-condition for talks

“We have not laid down any pre-condition that we will not sit for talks (with the government) if our demand for sovereignty was not accepted or that the issue of sovereignty was a must on the agenda. It is only some colonial media houses that have projected it (‘sovereignty’) as a pre-condition,” said the latest issue of Swadhinata, the ULFA’s monthly Assamese mouthpiece e-mailed to media offices here last evening.

The ULFA mouthpiece however said that it definitely considered ‘sovereignty’ as an issue on which the two sides could hold discussions on. “We had definitely informed the Government through the People’s Consultative Group too that sovereignty should be the core issue of discussions,” it said.

The ULFA mouthpiece however also reiterated that ‘sovereingty’ of Assam was a ‘basic human right’ of the people of Assam and said that it was the ‘colonial rule’ of India that had usurped this basic right, leading to endless woes of the people. “The ULFA has been fighting for restoration of this right,” it added.