David L. Chaplin II
Impunity Watch; Asia

GUWAHATI, India – Local police reports show that four people have been killed and more than 10,000 are left homeless after ethnic clashes between two rival tribes in India’s northeast in the past 24 hours.

The victims were travelling in a bus from Tura, the district headquarters of West Garo Hills in western Meghalaya, towards Assam, police said.

Police say the violence was sparked on New Year’s Eve after Garos were accused of failing to adhere to a Rabha strike. Clashes escalated and eight villages were burnt down.

On Wednesday, three Garos were stopped by Rabhas and clubbed to death. Eight others were critically wounded, police said. While another was shot by police allegedly trying to control mob tensions between rival villages.

In retaliation, the Rabhas went on a rampage torching several houses belonging to the Garo dominated areas in Torikas, Berubaris, Darakonas, Nebaris and Rongketchis.

Around 40 people from the Rabha community are still missing, according to local villagers.

Government officials said up to 10,000 people, mostly Rabhas, have fled their villages after the attacks, and have taken refuge in nearly a dozen makeshift shelters along both sides of the state border.

“Rabhas living in Meghalaya suffered the most as 200 of their houses were set on fire, forcing  them to our side,” said P.C. Goswami, a senior civil servant in Assam.

On Thursday, thousands of Garos armed with machetes, locally-made guns and spears descended from the East Garo Hills district of Meghalaya into Assam’s Goalpara district and set fire to hundreds of houses in seven Rabha villages around the Krishnai area.

There is a history of tension between the two groups. India’s far-off northeast has for decades been hit by insurgencies and tribal conflicts. The Garo tribe has been protesting about strikes orchestrated by its rival, saying they disrupt movement and day-to-day activities.

Last year, a road blockade by ethnic communities crippled Manipur, another state in the region, for months. The crisis badly hit supplies of food, fuel and life-saving drugs to the state.

The latest round of trouble in Meghalaya and Assam erupted from retaliation to a longstanding demand for an autonomous council by one of the groups.

“India’s remote northeastern states have been withered by 50 years of bloody clashes, and the region is a turbulent mix of languages, races, religions and civilizations, including 400 tribal and sub-tribal groups, many of whom fear loss of identity.

Authorities have imposed an indefinite curfew in Assam’s Goalpara district and Meghalaya’s East Garo Hills district where the fighting took place, but tension remained high, police said.

Meghalaya Chief Minister Mukul Sangma and Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi have both appealed for peace and hundreds of armed policemen and border guards have been sent to the area

The state leader of opposition Conrad K. Sangma, accused the ruling Congress-led Meghalaya United Alliance government of ‘taking the ethnic clash lightly’.

‘I strongly feel that there is no seriousness on the part of the (Meghalaya) government to sort out the issue in the initial stages to diffuse the simmering tension,’ Conrad said.

For more information, please see:

CNN – Officials: Thousands flee tribal violence in northeast India – 7 January 2011

BCC – Four die in tribal clashes in India’s north-east – 6 January 2011

Reuters – Tribal clashes uproot thousands in NE India – 6 January 2011