DARJEELING, India, July 3, Reuter: Militant Gurkha leader Subhas Ghising promised a halt to violence in the lush tea growing Darjeeling Hills of northeast India to facilitate talks on demands for an autonomous Gurkha state.

Both Ghising and officials of the Communist West Bengal government which rules the region expressed pessimism whether agreement could be reached to halt a two year campaign that has cost over 350 lives and damaged the economy.

Police reported militant attacks on government and police offices and a failed attempt to robia bank.

Ghising returned to Darjeeling on Saturday from peace talks in New Delhi with West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu, still refusing to compromise on the demand of his Gurkha National Liberation Front (GNLF) for a Gurkha State.

“We will ensure that there is no violence, but this does not mean we have given up our demand for Gurkhaland”, he said on Sunday.

West Bengal has refused to consider a separate Gurkha State but previously offered a semiautonomous hill council. Officials said that in New Delhi Ghising accepted in principle Basu’s offer of an autonomous council policed by West Bengal:

Ghising said: “We Hill Council will be the first step towards a state. We will never give up asking for Gurkhaland because that is where our future lies.”

He said Basu, unlike in previous talks which came close to a peace agreement, had agreed to include the word Gurkhaland in the Hill Council’s title.

“But we are not terribly optimistic. Last time the talks broke down within a step of agreement,” Ghising said.

The West Bengal officials, who asked not to be identified, said they doubted whether Ghising could convince his followers to accept the New Delhi deal.

“After harping on a state for two years, destroying the fragile hill economy and killing 350 people, it will be very difficult to convince the common man who expects a state,” one said. A GNLF source said Ghising; fearing public humiliation if he campaigned for the New Delhi agreement, would distribute leaflets explaining his position.

World Sikh News Greets its Readers on this Historic Day

Article extracted from this publication >> July 8, 1988