BANGLADESH: Peace under threat in Chittagong hills, where land is a common source of dispute
RANGAMATI, 1 December 2010 (IRIN): Indigenous groups (indfødte folkeslag) are questioning the political will to implement a peace accord signed 13 years ago to resolve land disputes in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) of southeastern Bangladesh.
Over the last few decades, the Jumma, a group of 11 indigenous communities in CHT, have lost land to Bengali settlers brought in by the government to this heavily militarized, restricted zone.
In 1977, the Shanti Bahini, the military wing of Parbatya Chattagram Jana Sanghati Samiti (PCJSS), a pro-indigenous political party, began a 20-year armed struggle in part to counter the settlement of Bengalis in CHT and to gain self-autonomy, a conflict which ended with the signing of the 1997 CHT Accord.
– The politicians have committed on paper, but up till now there has been a lack of initiative in implementing the accord, said Santu Larma, president of PCJSS, at a conference in Dhaka on 29 November marking the anniversary of the accord.
The 1997 Accord, which met fierce opposition from some indigenous and Bengali groups, acknowledged CHT as a “tribal inhabited” region, and called for recognition of the CHT Accord within the constitution of Bangladesh, the immediate withdrawal of the military, and an end to the settlement of Bengalis.
But little has been done by the government to honour the agreement, activists say.
– The peace accord stipulates land should be returned to the owners once their ownership rights can be ascertained (fastlagt). However, many Jummas [indigenous peoples] share communal land, do not have deeds (skøder), or their paperwork was lost when the land records office was burned down in Khagrachari, said Raja Devasish Roy, king of the Chakma Circle – representing the largest ethnic group in the Jumma – and adviser to the Ministry of CHT Affairs.
Landless on both sides
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