CM Assam appeals ethnic groups end to riots

The riots have killed at least 45 people and left nearly 400,000 homeless in the past week.Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi said Friday that clashes between ethnic Bodos and Muslim settlers in Assam state had spread fear and terror among both groups, and he urged both groups to stop fighting.This is a time for everybody to appeal for peace so that people see sense and normalcy is resumed, Gogoi told reporters in state capital Gauhati.The killing of four Bodo men last week sparked off the violence. Soldiers have orders to shoot rioters on sight, a curfew is in place in most areas and army soldiers have marched through the worst hit areas in a show of strength to staunch the violence.Despite thousands of troops patrolling the violence-hit areas, covering all of the 10,000 square kilometers (3,860 square miles) has proved difficult, Assam police chief J.N.Choudhury said.There were continuing reports of arson in the worst-hit districts of Kokrajhar, Dibrugarh and Chirang on Friday, he said.The relief camps, overrun with fleeing survivors who have escaped with only a few of their possessions, are ill-equipped and most have no food, drinking water or medicines. In many cases local villagers in the safe areas have helped provide some food and water to the camps.Gogoi said that with the worst of the violence under control the government would now turn its attention to ensuring that the camps get adequate relief material.The riots are the worst bloodletting between the Bodos and the Muslim settlers since the mid-1990s. At their heart is a fight over land as well as lack of representation of non-Bodos in local governments, according to Monirul Hussain, a political scientist at Gauhati University.Bodos are a majority in the Bodoland Territorial Council, an autonomous administrative body that oversees the districts with the worst violence.This is an unequal arrangement leaving the non-Bodos totally alienated, Hussain said.