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Indian separatist accuses Bhutanese troops of rape and torture

IRNA

Guwahati, Dec 22, IRNA -- Indian separatists have accused Bhutanese 
troops of raping women and torturing surrendered and injured rebels as
the military offensive to oust militants from the kingdom entered its 
eighth day Monday. 
"The torture is inhumane...women in camps were raped and the 
injured and those arrested or surrendered were mercilessly assaulted 
by Bhutanese soldiers," Mithinga Daimari, publicity chief of the 
outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), told journalists. 
"I too was physically tortured by Bhutanese troops." 
Daimari was produced before a court in the border state of Assam 
Sunday night after Bhutanese troops handed him over to the Indian 
army. 
He was arrested by Bhutanese soldiers from near a rebel base in 
the southern Samdrup Jhonkhar district on December 15 -- the day 
Bhutan launched `Operation All Clear` to evict three Indian separatist
groups from the kingdom. 
It was a nippy wintry night inside the rugged jungles in Bhutan --
the surrounding enveloped by a thick blanket of fog with the 
occasional crackle of bugs breaking the pre-dawn calm. 
A group of about 30 men, and women, and children were fast asleep 
in one of the mud-and-thatch camps in the south of the kingdom -- 
little knowing that Bhutanese soldiers with light machine guns, 
mortars, and carbines were on their trail. 
"We were absolutely taken by surprise by the raids on us by 
Bhutan," Daimari, now remanded to five days in police custody, said. 
Another ULFA rebel, who is also in Assam police custody following 
his arrest last week in Bhutan, said dozens of decomposed corpses were
lying all over the jungles. "The Bhutanese troops were allowing the 
dead bodies to rot in the jungles," the rebel said requesting 
anonymity. 
"Women and children on the run from Bhutanese soldiers were 
starving with no food and medicines available. Anybody caught while 
fleeing were either killed or tortured." 
Bhutan, however, maintains they were giving priority` to ensuring 
the safety of women and children. "The treatment of the women and 
children by our troops would be different from that of the militants,"
a Bhutanese Foreign Ministry official said by telephone from capital 
Thimphu. 
IND/AH/210 
End