This is of a lengthy article, I have barely analysed this. and there
for as well as giving other member the opportunity to analyse this.
It gives me the ability to save this with out losing this very good
article!
in an blatant macro comment the CHT people are being abused!
http://www.achrweb.org/Review/2008/203-08.html
Bangladesh:
The Army attacks Buddhism to facilitate
illegal settlement in the Chittagong Hill Tracts
On 25 January 2008, indigenous Jumma peoples are scheduled to hold a
large religious gathering at Sarnath Arannyo Kuthir, a Buddhist
temple at Karallyachari in Khagrachari Hill district of the
Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHTs). The Bangladeshi authorities have
banned the meeting. It is unclear if the meeting will go ahead. As we
upload this Weekly Review, the Deputy Commissioner of Khagrachari
district is holding a meeting with the local Jumma elders of
Karallyachari to decide the fate of the religious gathering while the
Bangladesh army personnel have been seizing the bikes and other
vehicles. But if the meeting takes place it is likely that the
government will use violence to suppress it.
The government's actions at the temple are a microcosm of an ongoing
and long established State policy to establish a homogenous Bengali
Muslim society; a policy that implies the destruction of the identity
of the indigenous Jumma peoples through a process of illegal and
often violent settlement of the Bengali Muslim settlers.
With international community's attention focused on Bangladesh's
parliamentary elections the care-taker government is free to execute
the ethnic cleansing policy in the CHTs without external
interference.
Background to the Sarnath Arannyo Kuthir:
The banning of the religious gathering comes as part of a pattern of
wider attacks on the religion of the indigenous communities. On 14
January 2008, the Bangladesh Police arrested Reverend Arya Jyoti
Bhikkhu, Head Priest of Sarnath Arannyo Kuthir, after a settler,
Abdul Majid, son of late Akad Zaman from Karallyachari cluster
village, filed a First Information Report (No. 1 of dated 11/1/2008)
under sections 143, 447, 379, 427, 506 and 109 of the Bangladesh
Penal Code. The complainant accused about 500 indigenous peoples
including Rev Aryo Joti Bhikkhu and Late(!) Tumbo Chakma of
committing offences of illegal gathering, theft and destruction to
private properties. In reality, it appears that these indigenous
Jummas were making temporary houses to accommodate the Buddhist monks
and the devotees within the temple premise.
On 21 January 2008, the Additional District Magistrate of Khagrachari
Mr Manindra Kishor Majumder in a communication (je.pra.kha/je.em/tin-
75/2008-63) ordered the Officer-in-Charge of Mahalachari Police
Station area to issue show cause on the headmen and Karbaris
(traditional village chiefs) of Karallyachari area as to why they had
failed to notify the administration about the religious programme. He
also ordered that the court examine the land documents of the temple
and threatened legal action against the headmen and Karbaris if they
failed to provide satisfactory documentation.
On 21 January 2008, Bangladesh army personnel prevented local people
from constructing a makeshift bridge over the river Chengi at
Karallyachari - Paujjyachari area under Mahalchari Police Station.
The bridge was being prepared for the religious programme.
Targeting of the Buddhist temples:
The events at Sarnath Arannyo Kuthir are not isolated. Across the
CHTs, Buddhist temples have been targeted for destruction by the
authorities. Indigenous Buddhist Chakmas and Marmas usually live in
and around their temples. Once temples are destroyed the area can be
more easily cleared for illegal plain settlers.
In August 2007, illegal settlers and the Bangladesh army personnel
tried to take over the lands of the Sadhana Tila Buddhist temple of
Babuchara area under Dighinala upazila in Khagrachari district. As
national and international protest grew, the de-facto ruler of the
country General Moeen U Ahmed visited Dighinala on 28 August 2007 and
assured locals that the temple will not be destroyed.
On 12 September 2007, Khagrachari district authorities banned
the "construction of new Mosque, Hindu temple and Buddhist temple" in
Mahalchari sub-division without prior permission of the authorities.
While the order does not specifically target any religious group,
given the long history of well documented evidence of violations
against the Jumma peoples the political reality is that the order is
targeted at the indigenous peoples and their religion i.e. Buddhism.
On 5 November 2007, Major Qamruzzaman, Commander of Babuchara zone,
summoned Sneha Moy Chakma and Santosh Jibon Chakma to his camp and
ordered them not to use loudspeakers to announce the Katin Chivor
Danotsav, the Buddhist festival that follows the end of the rain
retreat of Buddhist monks.
On 31 December 2007, a group of army personnel led by Captain Sohel,
Commander of Shuknachari Indra Singh Karbari Para camp of the
Bangladesh Army, demolished Bhujulichuk Kuthir, a Buddhist meditation
centre in Lakshmichari Upazila in Khagrachari district. Captain
Shohel threatened witnesses on a prior attack that : "We will not
tolerate any Buddha house here; we want only Allah's house".
On 17 January 2008, the Commanding Officer of Baghaihat zone in
Rangamati district threatened Reverend Dwip Bongshaw Bhikkhu, the
Head Priest of Bishwa Moitri Bouddha Vihar at Hazachara village in
Baghaihat. The Commanding officer threatened to demolish the temple
if the priest did not leave.
The motivation for taking land of the Sadhana Tila Buddhist temple
and its surrounding areas is simple: further illegal settlement.
Asian Centre for Human Rights (ACHR) is in possession of a letter
dated 19 November 2007 issued by Md. Sulut Zaman, Deputy Secretary of
the Ministry of Chittagong Hill Tracts Affairs (MoCHTA). It orders
the Deputy Commissioner of Khagrachari district to illegally settle
812 families into the lands of the indigenous Jummas at Babuchara
area, Baghaichari mouza under Dighinala upazila (sub- district) in
Khagrachari district.
Land grabbing:
There are many other recent incidents of forcible land grabbing. In
December 2007, illegal plain settlers led by Md. Wahab from Burighat
under Rangamati district forcibly grabbed 25 acres of land belonging
to the indigenous Jumma people at Hatimara village under Burighat
Mouza in Rangamati district.
During March 2007-November 2007, a total of 399.22 acres of land
belonging to 133 Jumma individuals and a primary school in 14
villages under four Unions of Mahalchari police station and
Khagrachari Sadar police station under Kagrachari district have been
illegally and forcibly grabbed by the illegal plain settlers with
direct help from the army. [1]
At a press conference in Dhaka on 19 January 2008, representatives of
the Committee for Protection of Land in Bandarban called upon the
government to cancel the ongoing process of acquiring 9,560 acres of
land for the purpose of expansion of Ruma Garrison. The government is
presently at the final stage of acquiring 9,560 acres of land for the
purpose of expansion of Ruma Garrison in three Mouzas of Galenga,
Pantola and Sengum under Ruma Upazilla in Bandarban. Out of the total
land to be acquired, 1,569.06 acres belong to the indigenous peoples
and 4,000 acres belong to the Forest Department. The project will
lead to displacement of 4,315 indigenous persons from 644 families.
Way back in 1988, a joint study team of Bandarban District
Administration and the Bangladesh Military stated that the project
would be disastrous for the local indigenous peoples. [2]
Background to the CHTs crisis:
The root of the CHTs crisis lies in the policies of the government of
Bangladesh which seek to establish homogenous Bengali muslim society.
This implies the destruction of the identity of the indigenous
Jumma peoples. 'Jumma' is the collective name for the eleven tribes
of the CHTs.
Over the last 50 years, hundreds of thousands of Bengali settlers
have been moved onto Jumma land. Successive regimes in East Pakistan,
and later Bangladesh have supported the influx of Bengali-speaking
Muslim migrants into the 5,000 sq km Hill Tracts, which is sparsely
populated in comparison to the rest of the country. The settlement
has been carried out with varying degrees of violence, including in
earlier periods massacre.
Today, as a result of the aggressive settlement policy, the
Chittagong Hill Tracts has a population of 900,000 which is evenly
divided between Muslim homesteaders and the indigenous Jummas.
On 2 December 1997, the government of Bangladesh and the Jummas
signed a peace accord that brought an end to the long running
insurgency. It committed the government to removing military camps
from the region and to ending the illegal occupation of Jumma land by
settlers and the army.
Since emergency rule was declared in Bangladesh in January 2007,
arrests, torture and extrajudicial killings of Jummas have escalated.
Jumma activists have been targeted by the Bangladesh military taking
advantage of the emergency. Since the declaration of Emergency on 11
January 2007, at least 50 Jumma activists have been arrested,
including 20 members of Parbatya Chattagram Jana Sanghati Samity (
PCJSS) and 10 members of United People's Democratic Front (UPDF).
False cases such as extortion, kidnapping, murder etc have been
lodged against arrested jumma activists. During raids, the Bangladesh
military plant arms and ammunitions and claim to have recovered the
same from the houses of the indigenous activists to provide grounds
for arrest. Most cases have been filed under Section 16(b) of the
Emergency Power Rules of 2007 which denies release on bail to the
accused during the enquiry, investigation and trial of the case.
Prospects:
The state has been carrying out illegal land grabbing in CHT since
independence. There should be no doubt about the central government's
long term intentions in the CHT. The deliberate destruction of
religious centres and intimidation of the priests is part of the
political strategy to realize the aim.
The Army (the de facto government) is actively involved in the
ongoing settlement policy. There is no protection under the law: the
rule of law in Bangladesh is subverted to political interference,
weak institutions and an indifference to human rights. And the
history of grave violations of human rights and ongoing arrest and
torture and extra-judicial execution of Jumma activists means any
protest carries a high risk.
Jumma culture centres around the religion and the community derives a
sense of protection from the religion. Attacking the religion is
intended to dissipate Jumma communities. The attacks facilitate a
climate of fear that undermines what remains of any organized
peaceful resistance to the settlement policy.
The international community:
Despite the increasing rate of illegal settlement and blatant human
rights violations, international concern is hard to discern. Even
Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International omitted reference to the
CHTs in their Annual reports 2007.
In more ways than one, international community is responsible for the
gradual extinction of indigenous Jumma peoples in Bangladesh. They
had funded the programmes for implantation of plain settlers into the
CHTs. While speaking about peace in the CHTs, they continue to remain
mute witness as the government of Bangladesh continues to provide
free rations only to the illegal plain settlers.
The failure to condemn state sponsored racism has given a free hand
to the authorities in Dhaka to take measures that will eventually
destroy the identity of the indigenous Jumma peoples.
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