Politics / Northeast

GUWAHATI, Aug 1- A worldwide campaign, at the behest of Amnesty International, will be launched on November 27 to protest against the November 27, 1997, verdict of the Supreme Court granting validity to the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act. Human rights activists the world over will wear black badges and present memoranda to the Supreme Court urging it to review its order. The call to this effect was given by human rights activists in a workshop on human rights under the aegis of Amnesty International held at Bhubaneswar in Orissa recently. The workshop, however, opposed a resolution put...

IMPHAL, July 31: The future of the four Indian nationals undergoing rigorous imprisonment in Myanmar on charges of violating the narcotics act of that country is still uncertain. There is also no record or any first information report (FIR) on the arrest of the four people with Moreh Police station or the district administration so far, according to sources. A social worker of Manipur, M Indrasen, recently visited Myanmar in connection with the arrests. The four Indians were convicted by a divisional court of Myanmar on June 6 in 1996 to 70 years rigorous imprisonment for reportedly violating...

DHAKA, July 31: India today said allowing its goods to pass through Bangladesh would benefit both countries and dispelled apprehension that it would jeopardise that country's national security. The proposal of allowing transhipment facilities to Indian goods approved by the Bangladesh Cabinet on July 28 does not mean a "corridor" to India or even "transit rights", the Indian deputy high commissioner to Bangladesh, Pinak R Chakravarty, told newspersons. "It is just transhipment of Indian goods to northeastern states of India by Bangladeshi companies," he said, responding to strong opposition...

UNDATED, July 24: Zoramthanga, the chief minister of Mizoram, has said that the Mizoram government is not pushing back any Burmese pro-democracy activist to Burma. "We welcome them ... . We are not pushing those Burmese democracy activists at all. The people we pushed (back) are smugglers", Zoramthanga said on July 23 when asked to comment on a reported statement of the Mizoram home minister on the deportation of Burmese nationals from the state. According to a PTI report, Tawnluia, the state home minister had told the state Assembly on July 20 that the Mizoram government had deported 448...

PHUENTSHOLING, July 23: The Bhutan government has served an ultimatum on the ULFA and Bodo terrorists to leave the country or face eviction. Meanwhile, the government has decided to enforce a cut-off in supplies to the terrorists in camps. The terrorists sneaked into the dense forests in Bhutan on the Bhutan-India border in 1992 and established as many as 21 camps between Kalikhola and Daifam. The spurt in their activities in Bhutan was noticed following the pressure on the ULFA terrorists in Bangladesh by the Bangladesh government a few years ago. The home minister of Bhutan Thinley Gyamtsho...

SHILLONG, July 21: The North Eastern Council (NEC) secretary, Takap Ringu, the seniormost IAS officer from the region, has been placed under suspension for alleged financial irregularities, highly placed official sources here disclosed on Wednesday. The sources, speaking on conditions of anonymity, said Ringu had been under investigation by the Union home ministry for quite some time for alleged involvement in financial irregularities in the now scrapped "Intensive cultivation/plantation scheme" launched in the NE region during the Ninth Plan with an outlay of Rs 7 crore. Outright grants were...

GUWAHATI, July 20: Security agencies in the Northeast are on the alert for large numbers of fake currency notes being circulated - strongly believed to be the handiwork of the ISI of Pakistan. In the past few months, police in the region have seized a large number of fake notes from different towns, the biggest haul being reported from Aizawl, the capital of Mizoram. Last month, Aizawl police seized fake Rs 500 denomination currency notes totally Rs 86,500 from two persons arrested from a village on the Mizoram-Manipur border.

KOHIMA, July 17: He's too told to walk five miles, up and down the mountain, so he stays at home. And the villagers come down, 85-year-old Pfulhousa can't believe it. They tell him stories of the funeral of his grandson Lt Neikezhakuo Kengrurusie, how thousands were there, including 29 Assam Rifles officers, all the way from Dimapur airport to Kohima and then to the family burial place at Pheza. His grandson dies hero in faraway Kargil. Nagaland hasn't seen anything like this since the death of its legendary leader Phizo in 1989....

.....The sense of pride also pervades villagers at Ancholi in...

New Delhi, July 16: The Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) has set a deadline of August 9 to complete the process of forming State units in all the North Eastern States. The NCP's agenda for the NE is all set and a draft manifesto for the region is under preparation which will be discussed at a crucial meeting of the Core Committee on July 24 at Guwahati, the NCP's observer and in-charge for NE, BB Dutta told The Assam Tribune here today, on his return from the region. The Core Committee, which is the supreme decision-making body of the party in the region, has been formed with former Assam...

Imphal, July 12: The North-East Students Coordinating Committee on the Manipuri identity has decided to boycott the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections in protest against the decision taken by the Assam and Tripura governments to recognise the Bishnupriya language as 'Bishnupriya Manipuri'. Talking to The Assam Tribune, here the convenor of the co-ordinating committee, Chidananda said that the final decision on the poll boycott will be taken after a joint meeting of the constituents of the committee, All Assam Manipuri Students' Union (AAMSU), All Manipur Students' Union (AMSU) and All Tripura...