Bangladeshi military forcing Muslim settlers to occupy
indigenous lands in CHT
23 Feb 2008
Bangladeshi policy of demographic invasion i.e. settlement
of Muslim Bengali outsiders in the lands of Jumma
indigenous people in the CHT has taken a new dimension in
which Bangladeshi military is allegedly forcing Muslim
Bengali outsiders to occupy lands traditionally belonging
to Jumma indigenous people, according to reports received
from a many Jumma villagers in Dighinala. Unfortunately, no
detail information is available on the issue due to the
State of Emergency and de facto military rule placed in the
country since the mid January of this year forcing all
indigenous human rights defenders to close their
activities.
The Jumma indigenous peoples led by the Parbatya Chattagram
Jana Samhati Samiti (PCJSS=United People's Party) have been
fighting with the Bangladeshi authorities for recognition
and protection of their distinct identity and culture and
for self-determination since 1972. In response, the
authorities have adopted a policy of demographic invasion
or 'Islamization', the term as the local people prefer to
use for it, under which hundreds of thousands of
Bangladeshi Muslim Bengalis are transferred to and settled
in the land of the indigenous peoples with government funds
and active involvement of state-actors, military in
particular. It goes without saying that the policy is aimed
at cleansing the indigenous peoples ethnically and
culturally. It resulted in killing of over 10,000 Jummas in
the 13 major genocides (Jumma Committee for International
Campaign, 1999, http://www.angelfire.com/ab/jumma; PCJSS,
An Account of Genocides and Atrocities committed by
Bangladeshi Forces and Illegal Muslim Bengali Infiltrators
in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, November 1986-19 January
1987, 1987, p. 1) and other forms of human rights violation
as well as in an influx of about 70,000 Jummas into the
Indian State of Tripura in the late 1980s and early 1990s.
It brought about a dramatic change in the demographic
composition (of the total population of the CHT, Muslim
Bengalis constituted 1.5% in 1941, 6.29% in 1951, 11.77% in
1961, 41% in 1981, 49% in 1991 and 65% in 2001: Census
reports, 1941, 1951, 1961, 1981, 2001. Indigenous sources
believe that the figure shown in 1991 and afterwards is
highly manipulated and politically motivated. Muslim
Bengalis constituted more than 65% of the total population
of the CHT in 2001, and the figure was increasing
alarmingly everyday) and social fabric of the CHT.
PCG Team
* * *
Peace Campaign Group (PCG)
RZ-I-91/211, West Sagarpur, New Delhi-110046, India
Tel: + 91-11-2 539 8383
Telefax: + 91-11-2 539 4277
E-mail: pcgoffice@yahoo.co.in, pcgonline@gmail.com
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