1 TRANSLATION OF THE PROCEEDINGS AND ... - APFA News

epresent a government since they are a militant organization. As with the
ULFA, it was also necessary to negotiate and reach an agreement with the
NDFB.
Although the Royal Government has held repeated negotiations with the ULFA,
there had been no fruitful outcome until now because they do not represent a
government but are a militant organization. The Councillor also said that it was
important to know the army’s state of preparedness if it became necessary to
take military action to remove the militants. It was also necessary to know the
difficulties that the people in the affected areas would face if such an eventuality
were to arise.
The Mongar Chimi said that on behalf of the people of Mongar Dzongkhag, he
expressed their appreciation and gratitude to the Home Minister and the Royal
Advisory Councillors for the agreement reached during the talks held with the
ULFA leaders. However, going by the way the militant leaders had refused to
come for talks earlier, despite repeated invitations, he expressed concern that
they might be deceiving the Royal Government with the agreement they had
given.
Since the militants had only agreed to remove four of their camps from Bhutan
and had not specified the number of men they would reduce, there was not
enough reason to trust them. The Chimi also informed the house that in keeping
with decision of the previous Assembly session, Mongar Dzongkhag had sent
300 young men as recruits for the armed forces to strengthen the security of the
country and he hoped that the armed forces may have something to share with
them on the issue. He expressed the view that if the militants refused to leave
despite all the efforts to make then go peacefully, then it would be necessary to
resort to military action to remove them. Similarly, many other members
expressed doubts about the effectiveness of peaceful measures in making the
militants leave Bhutan.
79