FOR PERSONAL, NON-COMMERCIAL USE ONLY
Press Release
July 30, 2002

South Asia's Fractured Frontier:
Armed Conflict, Narcotics & Small Arms
Proliferation in India's North East

Launch of Ms Binalakshmi Nepram's book: South Asia's Fractured Frontier: Armed Conflict, Narcotics & Small Arms Proliferation in India's North East (Mittal Publications) Date of Launch : Saturday, August 10, 2002 Venue: Gulmohar Hall Convention Centre Habitat World India Habitat Centre New Delhi Time : 6.30 p.m Chief Guest : Shri I.K Gujral, Former Indian Prime Minister

Former Prime Minister of India I.K. Gujral will release this, the first book to directly address the interlinked issues of Armed Conflict, Narcotics and Small Arms proliferation in India's North East.

The release will be followed by a panel discussion of the issues raised in it, including Shri Yambem Laba, Manipur State Human Rights Commission, Sanjay Hazarika, Centre for Policy Research, Lt General V.K Nayar, Former Governor of Manipur, Shri N.N Vohra, Former Defence Secretary, , Professor Mahendra P. Lama, JNU, and Mr Marcus Thompson, MBE, South Asia Programme Adviser, OXFAM (GB)

'South Asia's Fractured Frontier' shows the types, makes and sources of the small arms flooding the trouble-torn North East region for the last five decades. Besides the routes of smuggled small arms, Ms Nepram has identified the various drug routes into the region. The whole complex of unending armed conflict has been carefully researched by the author, with reference to the twin dynamics of small arms and narcotics.

The global crisis of small arms proliferation was highlighted by last year's United Nations Conference on Small Arms. A staggering 500,000 people are killed in the world each year by small arms, 90 percent of them women and children. South Asia has been slow to recognise the seriousness of the small arms/light weapons issue. Ms Nepram's book brings it into urgent focus.

'South Asia's Fractured Frontier' explains the ways in which guns have slowly penetrated the land where once the only weapons were daos, machetes, spears, khukris and poison bows and arrows. It also traces the growth of narcotic drug use in the region and reviews the damage it is doing to society there. The author points out the role of China, Pakistan, and Burmese rebels have played in the armed struggles of many of the North East groups. The book also illustrates the robe that women in the North East are donning to survive in a war zone, and the roles they are now playing to help bring about peace.

'South Asia's Fractured Frontier' contains many photos, images and sketches painstakingly collected over five years by the author . The photos themselves speak a thousand words.

This book is not only a book. It epitomizes the conviction of a young woman from the North East region that a day of peace, prosperity and understanding will dawn to heal this "Fractured Frontier". She is writing, and working, to hasten that day.

Ms Nepram writes in the Epilogue of the book :

"Our leaders have failed us. Most of our revolutionary armed leaders too have failed us. All that we young people have inherited is a culture of war and drugs; a legacy to hate our tribesmen and women.
All that has been achieved out of war in the last five decades is a "Fractured Frontier". How long will we let this go on? "

Comments on the Book

"Binalakshmi Nepram has undertaken a great deal of useful research for this publication on an area of considerable insecurity and underdevelopment in India. In particular, good research on conflict and the availability of illegal small arms and light weapons is at premium in the aftermath of the UN conference on small arms. It is to be hoped that publications such as this raise levels of awareness on the gravity of the problem and, eventually, encourage constructive programmes for change"

- Dr Chris Smith, International Policy Institute, King's College, London

"A pioneering work by a young researcher that confronts three very sensitive, illegal, and in many contexts unmentionable topics of armed conflict, narcotics and small arms. Binalakshmi's book is a major contribution in the field of Small Arms and Conflict Studies."

- Marcus Thompson, MBE, South Asia Programme Adviser, Oxfam GB