BHUTAN: Bhutan has successfully completed its first military offensive since 1865, against over 3,000 Indian separatist rebels operating from bases inside the tiny, secluded Himalayan kingdom, writes Rahul Bedi in New Delhi
Within a fortnight of operations being launched on December 15th, 2003 with logistic and unspecified military help from neighbouring India, the 6,000-strong Royal Bhutan Army (RBA) and the Royal Bhutan Guards (RBG) had reportedly "smashed all 32 bases and 35 observation points" of the militant groups.
Over 650 rebels, including senior leaders from these outfits had been killed or captured, with many fleeing to nearby Burma and Bangladesh.
India's chief of army staff Gen Nirmal C Vij told newsmen in Assam's largest city Guwahati last week that his force had sealed the borders with Burma and was training Burmese troops for a possible joint operation against the runaway insurgents.
The outlawed groups fighting for varying degrees of independence in north-eastern India's contiguous states of Assam and Bengal for many years had been operating since 1990.
Two days before Bhutan's military offensive began, it served a 48-hour quit notice to the rebel groups through Kuensel, the state-run newspaper in the capital Thimpu. It declared that if the deadline expired the National Assembly had mandated the RBA and RBG, who protect King Jigme Singye Wangchuk's large family, to forcibly drive them out.
Protracted negotiations over several years asking the rebels to leave had failed. "The rebels' continued presence was becoming a direct threat to Bhutan's security and sovereignty," Yashey Dorji, of Bhutan's foreign ministry said.
Besides affecting commerce and trade, they disrupted life, with schools and offices being frequently closed down. But above all the rebels severely "corrupted" life in the kingdom whose 750,000 people remain fiercely chauvinistic about preserving their culture and modus vivendi from being "sullied" by outside influences.
Wedged between India and China in the eastern Himalayas, Bhutan is one of the world's last surviving absolute monarchies that dates back to the 8th century.
Its monarchy presides over a closed society where television and Internet were allowed in only five years ago. Foreigners, especially westerners, are widely discouraged from visiting.
The swiftness with which the RBA and RBG were able to dispatch hardened rebel groups, raises unanswered questions that indicates a large role for the Indian forces in the anti-insurgency operation.