Tourists warned against NE visits

GUWAHATI, March 1: In a major setback to the state government's efforts to promote Assam as a major tourist destination for footloose Europeans, three countries have warned their citizens not to tour the militancy-ravaged state. Though the state government insists that the law and order situation has returned to normal, not everyone is convinced. Governments of United Kingdom, France and Switzerland have advised tourists against visiting Assam, Manipur, Tripura and Nagaland. The "warning" has been posted in the official websites of the departments handling foreign affairs of the three European Union countries. The website of the foreign and commonwealth office of United Kingdom says: "...we advise against all holiday and other non-essential travel to Manipur and Tripura as well as Assam (particularly in the run-up to elections in early 2001). While foreigners are not the targets of violence, attacks can be indiscriminate." The official Swiss and French sites have also put up similar warnings. Arunachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Mizoram, however, have been listed as "generally safe." Marie Baran, Press attach? at the Swiss embassy in New Delhi, told The Telegraph over telephone that Geneva's views were only "recommendations" to travellers intending to visit the Northeast "in view of the political unrest in the region. It has no legal basis, but then tourists visiting these areas do so at their own risk," she added. Fabienne Couty, Press counsellor at the French embassy in New Delhi, said the recommendations are based on "various sources like experience, contacts, newspaper reports, Indian administration and consultation among various European countries." The "negative projection" of Assam has come as a big blow to the state government's "special drive to promote exotic natural tourism ... to the outside world" as mentioned in the AGP-led government's performance budget on tourism for the year 2000-2001. In the three-decade-long insurgency in Assam, only one foreigner has been killed by militants though he was not a tourist. In 1991, Russian engineer Sergei Gritchenko was abducted and killed by the ULFA. Amar Bora, president of the All-Assam Tour Operators' Association, said the association, in a letter dated January 12, 2001, had informed Union tourism minister Ananth Kumar about a Japanese embassy security warning to all Assam-bound Japanese tourists. The association requested the minister to take necessary steps so stave off such "alerts." Expressing displeasure over the lackadaisical attitude of both the state and the Centre on the issue, general secretary of the association Arup Barua alleged that Indian embassies in foreign countries were also responsible for this kind of "misinformation. "An Italian couple was told by the Indian embassy in Rome that since Assam was a disturbed area, they should not go there," he said. The couple later contacted their country's embassy in Milan which cleared their visit. The "cyber warnings" have unnerved many first-timers. Pierre Jaccard, a Swiss travel agent in a recent communication to a Guwahati-based tour operator, said a group of Swiss tourists due to visit Kaziranga "finally decided to cancel the tour of Assam because of insecurity. All official sites of the Swiss, French, British and American governments advise against going to Assam." Arijit Purkayastha, general manager (tours) of Network Travels, rued that "efforts to promote tourism in the region" have been futile. Assam minister for tourism Jagdish Bhuyan said he came to know of the "misinformation" campaign which was pointed out to him by European tour operators during his visit to the World Tourism Mart in London in November last year. He claimed that he had conveyed the same to director of the country's tourist office in London Alka Kohli, requesting her to take steps to ensure that these "adverse comments" were deleted. He, however, expressed surprise that the "misinformation" has not been deleted yet. "The state government has written to the Centre," he added. However, Fabienne Couty of the French embassy said the Union government did not contact the embassy for updating the website's information. "No one has contacted us yet. But we are always open to new information," she added.