Guwahati, June 2: Rabha National Security Force (RNSF), a militant outfit has intensified its activities in several districts of lower Assam.

According to official sources, the militant group which was constituted a few years back on the lines of United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) has started mobilising the people particularly in Goalpara to launch an armed struggle against the 'systematic exploitation of the Rabha community.'

"Although the extremist group is still in nascent stage, leadership is trying to establish links with the frontal militant groups of the North East," sources said. They however said RNSF is maintaining good relations with the ULFA and about 40 odd youths are being imparted armed training along the bordering areas of Meghalaya by ULFA.

Jabrang Rabha is the self-styled commander of the outfit and he has reportedly instructed the cadres to collect funds to expand the activities of the RNSF, the sources said, adding that after the instruction, lower level cadres have started collecting funds from the people in Goalpara, Bongaigaon and Dhubri districts ranging from Rs 100 to Rs 1000 depending on their financial position.

Commenting on its strength, sources revealed that according to the reports, RNSF has 120 members, of which 40 are undergoing armed training. "But, the leaders have created three wings and they are engaged in different places either for funds collection or recruiting new youths," sources stated.

They also informed that the militant group does not have enough weaponry as compared to NDFB and the BLT.

They have two AK-47 rifles, six pistols, five sten machine guns. But the leadership is trying to get more weapons with the help of banned ULFA," sources added.

When asked whether the militant group had any camp in Bhutan, sources expressed the view that its activities are mainly confined to the lower Assam areas however, of late RNSF is trying to set up camps in the forest areas of Cooch Behar.

"In view of Unified Command operations, most of the militant groups are trying to consolidate their base along the Cooch Behar border to avoid conflict with the security forces," sources maintained.

Nalbari, June 2: Malaria has assumed epidemic proportion in a few villages of Nikachi, Subanshri, Doomni and its surrounding areas under Baska belt in Nalbari district. People suffering from malaria have not yet received proper treatment because of poor facilities in the hospitals. The 30 bed hospital at Musalpur has to run with a single MBBS doctor and an Ayurvedic doctor along with three nurses. Not a single pharmacist has been working in the hospital for the last few years, it is alleged. Informed sources said that no essential drugs have been supplied to the hospital since a few months back. It is also reported that the District Health Department has not paid attention in this matter. The indoor of the 30 bed hospital has remained closed since the month of May, 1997. People affected by malaria under Musalpur 30 bedded hospital have been deprived of getting proper treatment, it is alleged.

Similarly, a large number of people are also suffering from malaria and viral fever in the northern part of Barama revenue circle. Every year, the inhabitants of this foothill area near Bhutan border, suffer from malaria and lose their lives because of non-availability of proper health service, it is alleged.

According to the report available here said, malaria has spread to a large extent of the greater area of Baska belt. The affected villages could be mentioned as Amguri, Roumari, Debachara, Batabari, Pakhamara, Nabasti, Adla, Angardhowa. Authorities concerned have not sprayed DDT in those villages, as a result of which more people are affected by malaria. The local hospitals in these areas -- Baganpara, Barimakha, Angurdhowa and Debachara PHCS cannot provide treatment to those ailing patients, the report also added. On the other hand, the rural roads became muddy because of continuous rainfall as a result of which patients cannot go to the hospitals now. Serious patients were sent to the other hospitals in thelas for treatment and face hardship because of horrible road communications.

Jorhat, June 2: Despite the court ban on felling of trees and its supply thereof, the people in Bekajan and Panikheti areas in the Assam-Nagaland border in the Jorhat district are silent witness to large-scale log smuggling which is rampant in the area.

The roads to Nagaland through Bekajan and Panikheti are used by the timber smugglers who carry four to five truck-loads of logs every night, for onward supply to the mills in the district. The smugglers carry the truck loads without any challan. The people in the area suspect of a well-knit nexus where both the smugglers and the mill owners must have managed police and the forest authorities equally. Without a such secret understanding, such a regular business cannot go on smoothly. They alleged that, there is no instance of the forest department's seizing these truck loads. Only sometimes the local people witness police detecting such trucks and handing over to the forest department. The prime concern for the people in the areas is that such rampant smuggling of wood has damaged the roads in the area so badly, that it has posed to be a great problem for the villagers, with the onset of the rainy season as the roads in these areas are mainly kutcha roads with thin layer of gravelling every Here and there.

Dhubri, June 3: Large-scale displacement has taken place in the Dhubri district due to ethnic voilence. The Bodo-Santhal clashes in Dhubri district had claimed lives of at least 76 children in the last year alone, the sources said.

In the year 1998, three relief camps were set up for these people in Dhubri, Golokganj Bagsibori. More than 7000 people had taken shelter in these camps. Nearly one fourth of these people are children below the age of 10 years. And most of them are either orphan or abandoned.

The health of most of the children living in these relief camps is in a deplorable state. Many of them are suffering from diseases like diarrhoea, malaria, typhoid and malnutrition. They are not getting proper treatment or medicines during crisis time, as most of the public health centres has been abondoned. The doctors of public health centre are not ready to work in the trouble-torn areas fearing for their lives.

No educational facilities has been provided to the people in the relief camps. As most of the school-buildings itself have been used as the relief camps.

Imphal, June 3: The Manipur police has shot dead 16 extremists during the month of May this year and arrested 91 others. The underground activists killed by the State police force include eight belonging to United National Liberation Front (UNLF) and the other eight to the Peoplefs Revolutionary Party of Kangleipak (PREPAK).

According to the Inspector General of Police (Law and Order) Shanthem Romekumar Singh, altogether 91 underground activists belonging to different outfits operating in Manipur have been arrested in the month of May this year.

The arrested ultras include 27 PLA/RPF cadres, 34 UNLF/MPA, 6 PREPAK, 8 KCP, 6 NSCN(K), 8 KYKL(T), 1 KYKL(O), 1 PULF and 1 ZRA.

During May, the police also seized a huge cache of arms and ammunition. They are one self-loading rifle with 8 magazines and 60 rounds of ammunition, six AK-47 rifles with 8 magazines and 44 rounds, one M-21 rifle, one UMG with 78 rounds, 30 rounds of .22 bore ammunition, seven rocket launchers, one .303 rifle with six rounds, one country-made pistol with one round, two 9 mm pistols with one magazine and 24 rounds, two wireless sets, one M-20 pistol, two springs, one unfinished stalk, one pistol magazine string, one carbine breach block, one pistol hammer, three colour paper diagram for pistol and design of pistol and 22 other iron parts of the pistol.

In the meantime commandos of the Bishnupur district police on Friday arrested six activists of the banned PLA along with a lifted Maruti van (MNB-C/0377) from Bishnupur bazar. It is also reported that the Maruti van was lifted from Kodompokpi area in Bishnupur district on Thursday.

The arrested activists were identified as Ch Yaima (21) Namoijam Manimohan (22), Thoidingjam Nanao, Naorem Sanajaoba (18), Oinam Premjit (18) and Thokchom Inaocha Singh (20). All of them are from Nambol area except Nanao who is from Singjamei in Imphal West district.

Kaziranga, June 8 (IANS): The internationally renowned Kaziranga National Park in Assam may prove to be the last Eden for the nearly extinct one-horned rhinoceros as an acute fund crunch is impeding anti-poaching operations. The fund crunch is also affecting the sanctuary's upkeep, official sources said.

The 430 square kilometre park has been reeling under severe financial hardship and authorities have been forced to retrench 160 casual forest guards engaged in patrols to ward off organised gangs of poachers that roam the wet Savannah grasslands to hunt rhinos for their horn, believed to have aphrodisiac properties.

More than 1,500 rhinos of the total world population of a little over 2,000 -- can be found in Kaziranga, with the others living in pockets of neighbouring Bhutan and Nepal. The rhino is an endangered species listed in the Red Data book of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

"Despite all the odds, there has been no let up in our efforts to protect the rhinos from poachers," Parthasarathi Das, the park warden, told IANS. "Maybe, with additional financial and infrastructural support, anti-poaching operations would have been more effective." During the past decade, more than 200 rhinos were killed by poachers in Kaziranga, while at least 60 hunters were shot dead by forest guards during the same period in encounters. Only 14 rhinos were killed during the last three years, with two of them falling prey to poachers so far this year.

"The 100 per cent dedication and love for the animals is one of the reasons for the staff to keep going despite all the financial problems and other hardship," said Aniruddha Dey, the assistant conservator of forest of Kaziranga. The annual expenditure in maintaining the park, besides monthly wages, comes to about Rs. 50 million. But the cash-strapped Assam government was able to release less than 50 per cent of the annual budget during the past few years.

"More than 90 per cent of the total of Rs. 25 million that the Assam Government released was spent on paying salaries, while the remaining 10 per cent was spent on purchasing feed for the 48 draught elephants owned by the park", a sanctuary official said requesting anonymity. "We are left with no money for maintenance of the park and improving basic infrastructure".

The park, which received 35,000 tourists between October last year and May this year, today looks dilapidated. Most of the roads inside the sanctuary are almost inaccessible and a number of boats used for patrols are damaged beyond repair, while the elephants at times go half-fed with private contractors refusing to supply feed as outstanding bills are increasing every month.

"We have 22 patrol vehicles of which only four are in running condition. We do not have money to repair the damaged vehicles thereby affecting anti-poaching operations, while at times the elephants are half-fed," a park official said. "We are really not sure for how long we can carry on like this". The 350-odd forest guards are ill-equipped and have no sophisticated weapons.

"We have .315 rifles, while poachers are armed with sophisticated carbines fitted with silencers and rifles, besides night vision devices," an angry forest guard said. "When a forest guard on duty dies in an accident inside the park, his family gets a paltry Rs. 5,000 as ex-gratia. First of all you are not paid even for laying down your life, and secondly, you are expected to fight the poachers with obsolete weapons. Despite that we are putting our lives at risk because we love Kaziranga and the animals."

Silchar, June 9: Vultures have completely disappeared from the skyline of Barak Valley. So are vanishing spotted dove, black drango, blue-legged bustard, quill, king fisher, green-breasted pitta, green pigeon, hornbill and the list continues. Sighting of migratory birds in the wetlands of this valley are becoming rare. Trapping and killing of birds are being carried out by man to satiate his lust for the soft-meat.

The tragic killing of a Moscow Pelican and its discovery by a naturalist and bird watcher Th. Pawlen Singh of this town has brought to the fore the indiscriminate poaching of migratory birds in this valley.

It was in course of his recent hunt on ringing of birds that Pawlen Singh stumbled on a track that took him to Katigorah block on Cachar-Bangladesh border. It was way back in January, 1997 that a boy of the area saw three large white birds, paddling in the tranquil Chhatadari wetland.

The boy in his 20s was tempted to hunt. He collected his gun and fired, killing one of them. On bringing the bird on a dry patch, he spotted a metal ring with inscription around its right leg. Though the bird became a part of a sumptuous dish for him and others, he preserved the ring and the beak.

After much persuasion, he parted with the ring and the beak for the inquisitive Pawlen Singh who could identify the bird as rosy or white pelican (Pelecanus onocrotalus). The ring bore the inscription "Moscow KK 3482." Singh immediately wrote to Asad Rahmani, Director, Bombay Natural History Society, on the discovery of the ringed bird for relevant information.

Asad Rahmani faxed the message to his friend working in the Wetland International in Malaysia for proper identification. The Malaysian friend on his part contacted a Russian scientist who said that the ring "Moscow KK 3482" was placed on Pelecanus onocrotalus juv on July 9, 1992. It was a female pelican and weighed 14 kg.

Pawlen Singh said the migratory white pelican was ringed in the Oka Nature Reserve in Russia.

The discovery of the ringed leg long three years after the killing of the bird, according to him, has given a definite indication that pelicans from Russia and neighbouring areas migrate to this valley in south Assam also in winter at an aerial distance of 6,000 km.

Migratory birds which visit marshes and wetlands of this valley no more venture to descend down to tread gently with their nimble legs. If this is sad, still sadder is the scare among birds, meandering around rivulets, rivers and lakes caused by the ever-swelling human population.

Silchar, June 15: Yet another official-level talks between the representatives of the Mizoram and Tripura governments with Mr Ajay Srivastava, the Deputy Secretary in the Union Home Ministry, acting as a mediator last week failed to make any breakthrough over the issue of Reangs' "home-coming". Thousands of Reang or Bru refugees sheltered in the seven makeshift camps of Naising, Ashapara, Khasithai, Kaingskau, Hamsa, Khakchang and Longkai Valley in Kanchanpur subdivision of North Tripura following the ethnic violence of October, 1997 in Mizoram grope in darkness.

"Camp inmates are dejected, some even demented", Bruno Msha, president of Bru Students" Association told The Sentinel here. Bru Students' Association and Mizoram Bru Refugee Committee, though not involved in the talks, did not agree to the contention of the Mizoram officials to limit the number of refugees to 16,000 only for repatriation. According to these bodies, the actual number of Reangs crossing over to Tripura is 40,220.

The refugee committee submitted camp-wise lists of the inmates to the Union Home Ministry Deputy Secretary. But the Mizoram officials argued that more than half their number had come to camps for ration and cash. On the intervention of the Deputy Secretary, the officials of Mizoram and Tripura agreed to have a panel or committee to verify and determine the exact number of refugees housed in camps.

Bruno Msha said, "this wrangling over number will further drag on the issue of repatriation and add to the woes and sufferings of the camp inmates." He called for a humanistic approach to the problem since, at stake, as he pointed out, "is the very survival of a tribal community."

Ajay Srivastava went round three camps to have an on-the-spot study of the situation. He was given representation by the refugee committee which drew his attention to "irregular supply of cash dole, lack of basic medical and health care, educational facilities and joblessness before youths". Srivastava held talks in the Kanchanpur Circuit House.

In the meantime, the Chief Minister of Mizoram, Mr Zoramthanga turned down the demand of BSA and MBRC for another round of tripartite talks. Two rounds of tripartite talks held earlier at Aizawl proved abortive. He has also taken a very rigid stand on the Brus' demand for an autonomous district council comprising the western district of Aizawl.

Mizoram has three autonomous district councils run independently by the State minority ethnic tribes of the Maras, the Lais and the Chakmas in their respective strongholds of south Mizoram. These councils have demanded Union Territories. The State Government sees in this move a devisive trend and does not want to add to its problems further by agreeing to the demand of the autonomous council by the Brus.

Silchar, June 15: The abduction and detention of a Meitei youth K. Rajesh Singh, son of a retired policeman, from his native village under Lakhimpur subdivision of Cachar on Assam-Manipur border recently is hotting up the situation in the trouble-torn Jiribam-Lakhipur zone. Rajen Singh was taken hostage by PULF and later on freed by a joint team of Assam police and CRPF from the militant outfit's jungle hideout after a 30-minute gunbattle.

According to the statement of Rajen Singh, he was abducted by a 12-member armed group of PULF. Though the motive behind the abduction remains a mystery, it has not been taken kindly by the Meitei ultras. For the last one year, PULF and MULTA have become active in the zone, so long considered strong base of Manipur Valley insurgent groups.

Tactically, PULF (People's United Liberation Force) and MULTA (Muslim United Liberation Tigers of Assam) have tied up with NSCN(IM) and ZRA (Zomi Revolutionary Army) in order to downsize the dominance of the Meitei ultras. The Chief Minister of Manipur, Mr Nipamacha Singh, during his last visit to Lakhipur, expressed his serious concern at Jiribam turning into the cockpit of extremist groups of other States.

This situation is the result of factional feud and fratricidal conflict among the Manipur ultras, feel observers. According to a source from the troubled hotspot, United National Liberation Front (UNLF) and People's Revolutionary Party of Kangleipak (PREPAK), which maintain tacit and strategic understanding, have decided to take on PULF and MULTA.

The source adds to say that after in-house discussion somewhere in the valley, the supremos of PREPAK and UNLF, Ayamba and R.K. Sanayaima, in a joint declaration, "expressed serious concern at the design of anti-social elements who are out to extort money and exploit people masquerading as revolutionaries." Without naming PULF and MULTA, the leaders have called upon the masses to extend their cooperation in its attempt to eliminate the anti-social elements from the Manipur society.

On the diktat of ULFA, Zakir Hussain, a MULTA leader, and Azmal Khan, a PULF functionary, had to leave Jiribam. Hussain camouflaged himself as a haberdasher while Khan worked behind the facade of an inn-keeper.

Significantly, none of the Meitei insurgent groups has been involved in kidnappings for ransom and extortions in their areas of influence in this eastern part of Assam-Manipur border.

It is also significant to note that among all the Meitei outfits, Kanglei Yawol Kanna Lup (KYKL) led by Namoijam Oken was known as an ally of NSCN (IM). After Ken was apprehended by Assam Rifles at Dimapur more than a year back, KYKL's nexus with NSCN(IM) suffered a setback.

In the meantime, Cachar police teamed up with CRPF, has launched major offensive against PULF. Besides busting its one hideout in Jirighat jungles, some hard-core militants of the outfit identified as Ekram Uddin, Sirai Mia and Jahan Uddin Mazumdar fell into the police dragnet.