Bhutan prepares people for clash with NE

New Delhi, April 16:

The tiny Himalayan kingdom of Bhutan has again warned its people
to be prepared for a devastating conflict with Indian rebel groups which have set up camps along its thickly forested southern border. The latest edition of the state-run weekly 'Kuensel,' seen by Reuters on Monday, quoted the country's interior minister as saying that a clash with
the militants would "mean the loss of many Bhutanese lives" and would hammer the economy.

Kuensel has carried such reports several times in the past six months. In February it said the landlocked country of some 600,000 people was on the brink of an armed conflict with United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) and National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB) militants.
"This is the way Bhutanese society has communicated in the past," said an analyst of Bhutanese affairs, who asked not to be named. "People in different districts are being prepared for this to happen, they are being told and then retold."

He said a decision on whether the impoverished country's armed force of around 4,000 would take offensive action was likely to be taken at the next session of parliament in July. ULFA and NDFB, which are both fighting for separate states in North East India, set up camps in Bhutan after Indian forces unleashed offensives against them in the early 1990s.

The militants took advantage of a treaty signed between the two countries half a century ago allowing their citizens to travel across the border without documents. (Reuters)