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Bhutan offers to withdraw military offensive against separatists

IRNA

Guwahati, Dec 23, IRNA -- Bhutan offered to withdraw military 
offensives against Indian separatists if the rebels volunteer to 
vacate the kingdom immediately. 
"There is absolutely no reason for us to continue the operations 
if the militants leave our soil even at this stage of time," Thinley 
Penjor, a spokesman for the Bhutanese embassy in New Delhi, told IRNA 
by telephone on Tuesday. 
"The whole purpose of the offensive was to flush the rebels out of
Bhutan. We would halt the operations if the rebels go out of our 
territory on their own." 
The Bhutanese official, however, said the offensive was continuing
in many parts in the south of the kingdom where three Indian 
separatist groups have well-entrenched bases. 
"The operations would continue until we manage to clear all the 
militants from Bhutan," Penjor said. 
Some 6,000 government soldiers were deployed as part of `Operation
All Clear` to evict about 3,000 Indian separatists from the kingdom 
on December 15. The outlawed United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA), 
the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) and the Kamatapur 
Liberation Organization (KLO) have set up bases in Bhutan to carry 
out hit-and-run guerrilla strikes on Indian soldiers. 
The ULFA and the NDFB are rebel groups from the border state of 
Assam, while the KLO is from West Bengal - all the three groups 
fighting for independent homelands. Bhutan claimed it had smashed all 
the 30 rebel camps, but admitted the militants were still holed up 
inside the kingdom. 
The Indian army, which supports the drive against the militants, 
has reported the deaths of 123 rebels and eight Bhutanese troops or 
logistical personnel since the kingdom launched the offensive. 
"As such Bhutan is a peace loving nation and killings and 
bloodshed shed is not part of the Buddhist traditions here," a 
Bhutanese Foreign Ministry spokesman said by telephone from capital 
Thimphu. 
Indian separatists have repeatedly appealed Bhutan to stop the 
offensives saying hundreds of non-combatant women and children were 
trapped in the fighting. 
/211 
End