Fresh violence in CHT: Indigenous villages attacked
24 April 2008
Bengali settlers allegedly supported by a strong
Bangladeshi limitary contingent carried out arson attacks
in the four villages of Jumma indigenous people under Sajek
Union of Rangamati district. Nine indigenous people were
wounded and over 100 houses including a Buddhist temple
were burnt down in the attacks begun at 9.45 p.m. and
lasted till 2 a.m. on 20 April, sources close to the
indigenous people said. Indigenous women and girls were
raped during the attacks, the sources added. Details of the
incident are yet to come.
There has been a long-standing tension in the area between
local indigenous people and new Bengali settlers over
illegal land grabbing by the latter. The tension started
some three years back with the construction of a road and
other infrastructure by Bangladeshi military for settlement
of about 5000 new Bengali settler families and control over
the remote area rich with forest resources and thinly
populated by indigenous people. Local indigenous people
supported by indigenous political and human rights
organizations protested the move and urged the then
Government of Bangladesh to stop it. However, the process
of settlement of Bengali settlers in the areas near to the
villages continued and still continuing.
On 20 April while settlers were preparing for the attacks
in a usual manner, some 60 indigenous people gathered at
one point for defending their villages. Military cordoned
them and assured them "peace" and "security" in the area. A
military man Habildar Mohammad Harun is said to have told
them thus: "Since we're here, settlers won't attack you".
The Commanding Officer (C.O.) of Baghaihat military camp
was also present there. Meanwhile, an organized group of
settlers numbering about 100 equipped with spade, dao and
heavy stick started setting fire in the Jumma villages
namely Gangaram Mukh, Simana Chara, Purbo Para and
Baibachara. They raised anti-Jumma slogans, beat up
whosoever they found, looted the houses and raped women and
girls during the attacks. Military did not prevent them,
said the sources quoting local indigenous people.
Quoting police sources some Bangladeshi media
(http://www.thedailystar.net/story.php?nid=33251) reported
the incident as an attack by unidentified "miscreants" in
which nine Bengali settlers were injured. The
administration was left with no clue about the
'miscreants". No one responsible for the incident was
arrested so far.
Khagrachhari Hill District Council Chairman Monindra Lal
Tripura, Deputy Commissioner of Rangamati Md Nurul Amin,
Rangamati Police Super Md Abdul Baten and other high level
government officials visited the spot yesterday (21 April),
said the Daily Star.
The administration deployed police and military to maintain
what it called "communal harmony" in the area.
Soon after the incident the military-backed Caretaker
Government has become very active in making public
statements stating that the Land Commission will be made
effective before the end the term of the Caretaker
Government (see Raja Devasish Roy's talks to the
bdnews24.com, Monday), all land disputes will be settled
and detail discussion will be held on this issue etc. But
no one knows when the term will be ended, whether or not
this "detail discussion" will be translated into action and
why the Government is suddenly feeling now, after 11 years
of the "CHT Peace Accord", the need to settle land
disputes. All these statements seem to be nothing but a
deliberate attempt of the Government to divert the
attention of the international community from the Sajek
violence.
This is the fourth largest arson attack after the
Mahalchari (26 August 2003), Dighinala (18 May 2001) and
Ramgarh (25 June 2001) ones on indigenous villages by
Bengali settlers since the signing of the 1997 "CHT Peace
Accord". And it is believed to be part of the Bangladeshi
ethnic cleansing policy in the CHT.
The "CHT Peace Accord" signed between the Parbatya
Chattagram Jana Samhati Samiti (PCJSS=United People's
Party) and the then Government of Bangladesh seeks to
resolve the decade-old problems of the indigenous people.
However, the Government even after 11 years failed to
implement the major provisions of the Accord like
settlement of land disputes between indigenous people and
Bengali settlers, demilitarization of the CHT region, and
delegation of power to local government formed under the
Accord. The implementation process of the Accord suffered a
serious setback with the imposition of Emergency and de
facto military rule in Bangladesh since the mid of this
year. The Bangladeshi military regime in the CHT has
crushed with force all institutions and mechanisms which
were defending the "CHT Peace Accord" and the rights of the
indigenous people. A many indigenous political and human
rights activists have been put into jail. A representative
(name not mentioned for security reason) of the indigenous
people has been invited to participate in the United
Nations Permanent Forum holding from 21 April to 2 May 2008
at the UN Headquarters in New York. However, he was not in
a position to leave the country for the fear of being
arrested and jailed on return to home. Some indigenous
persons who worked closely with the Government of
Bangladesh are reportedly attending the Forum.
Historical Background Of The Conflict:
East Pakistan emerged as an independent and sovereign
nation-state named 'Bangladesh' in 1971. The Jumma
indigenous peoples led by PCJSS 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 (Sources: 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 Jumma refugees 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) (Sources: 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, the sources claim) and
social fabric of the CHT.
------------------------
* * *
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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