|
Indian rebels ban women
Separatist rebels in India's north-eastern state of Tripura have said they will not recruit any more women into their ranks. The National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) says it has executed three of its guerrillas in the last two months after they had been found trying to elope with female rebels they had been courting. Tripura police spokesman Jaidev Das told the BBC: "Many of these young guerrillas are totally frustrated with the life in the jungles. "When they meet females, some of them want to marry and return to normal life." Gives meaning to "Make love, not war." But despite the executions, one NLFT "sergeant" Makai Debbarma married his colleague Sharmila and surrendered to police recently. Mr Debbarma said: "I was fed up with killing people. I was fed up with running around in the jungles. When I fell in love with Sharmila, I was determined to marry her and flee." In late 2000, the NLFT was accused of gang-raping seven Bengali Muslims at Raiabari in southern Tripura. The youngest of the victims, who was just 12-years-old, said she was gang-raped by three NLFT guerrillas. So when the NLFT was faced with such large scale allegations of rape, its leaders decided to increase the recruitment of women. But then instead of living with them or having occasional sex, the NLFT guerrillas started getting married in their bases. After marriage, many of the guerrilla couples started fleeing from the bases and some of them surrendered. Dhananjoy Reang, the NLFT's founder-chairman said: "It is fine for leaders to get married because they stay with their families and plan strategies. "But if large numbers of guerrillas who are involved in combat get married, it will surely dampen their morale." Getting married sure dampened my morale. Oops, if my wife saw that, I'd have to head back to the jungle. Posted by: Steve 2002-12-02 |
| http://www.rantburg.com/poparticle.php?ID=8185 |