Seminar: HUMAN RIGHTS IN THE CHITTAGONG HILL TRACTS
13 February, 1991
Mr. Chairman and Friends,
May I take this opportunity to introduce myself -- my name is
Ramendu Shekhar Dewan and I am a Chakma from the Chittagong Hill Tracts
(CHT), the south-eastern region of Bangladesh.
The CHT is the traditional homeland of ten ethnic groups -- Chakma,
Marma, Tripura, Chak, Khyang, Khumi, Murung, Lushai, Bawm and Pankho.
All these indigenous people are also popularly known as Jumma people or
Jumma Nation. They are totally different from the majority community of
Bangladesh in race, religion and culture. The British recognised their
distinct identity by creating the CHT as an Excluded Area and
administered it under a separate edict called the Chittagong Hill Tracts
Regulation of 1900 in order to protect constitutionally their political,
economic and cultural rights.
This Regulation prevented non-Jumma people from buying land or
settling in the CHT area. According to Rule 51, any outsiders found
guilty of doing anything prejudicial to the interest of the Jumma people
could be arrested, punished and expelled from the CHT within 24 hours.
In fact, the Jummas enjoyed a high degree of self-rule under the CHT
Regulation. Except a few top British Officers almost all the officials
of the CHT Administration were indigenous people. The CHT even had an
indigenous Police Force. Except the Superintendent of Police, who was
usually British, almost all the Members of the Police Force were
recruited from the local people. The British Officers were impartial,
honest and they maintained rule of law and justice. Under the British
the people of the CHT enjoyed Police and Official protection and the full
economic benefit of all resources in their homeland.
All successive Governments of Bangladesh violated the CHT Regulation
of 1900. They opened up the CHT to the Bengali immigration, disbanded
the CHT Police Force, replaced the Jumma Officers by Bengali Officers and
deployed the Bangladesh Security Forces to annihilate the Jumma people
systematically. The Bangladesh Armed Forces in league with the
Bangladeshi infiltrators have been using all kinds of genocidal tactics
such as wholesale burning of Jumma villages, forcible eviction, herding
of Jumma people into concentration camps, robbery, desecration and
destruction of non-Muslim places of worship, forcible conversion to
Islam, abduction, raping and forcible marriage of Jumma women, detention
without charge or trial, torture and mass-killings with a view of
depopulating the Jumma villages. After depopulating the area, the
Bangladesh Government resettled its co-religionists there.
The Jumma people have appealed to all Governments of Bangladesh to
solve the crisis in the CHT by constitutional means. In response, Sheikh
Mujibur Rahman, the Bangladeshi leader, told a Jumma delegation - "Forget
about your ethnic identity and demand for autonomy. Go home and become
Bengalis". Similarly the military leaders of Bangladesh including
Brigadier Hannan and Lt. Col. Salam declared the policy of the Government
in public meetings - "We want the land only and not the people of
Chittagong Hill Tracts". Mr. Ali Haider Khan, the Deputy Commissioner of
the CHT, and Mr. Abdul Awal, the Commissioner of the Chittagong Division,
threatened the Jumma leaders by saying that they would be extinct in the
next five years. To exterminate systematically the Jumma people, the
Bangladesh Government closed the CHT to human rights groups and foreign
journalists and then unleashed a reign of terror in the area. The
Bangladesh Armed Forces and the Bangladeshi infiltrators combinedly
massacred the Jumma villagers to make room for over half-a-million
Bangladeshi settlers. As a result of the State terrorism, tens of
thousands of Jummas had to flee to India for their lives many times.
At present some 70,000 Jumma Refugees are living in the Tripura
State of India. About 50,000 of them sought refuge in Tripura in May and
June, 1986, as the Bangladesh Security Forces in conjunction with the
Bangladeshi infiltrators attacked hundreds of Jumma villages in
Matiranga, Lakshmichari, Panchari, Khagrachari (in April & May) and
Dighinala (June) Upazillas (Sup-Districts. During the attacks, several
thousand Jummas were killed and many more thousands died due to
starvation, diseases and bullet-wounds in the forests in which they took
shelter. Most of the victims were old men, women and children. Even the
Jummas who were fleeing to India were chased and murdered. A victim told
Amnesty International - "Last Sunday (18 May) we were approaching the
border when a large group of soldiers caught us. The officer said that
we would be treated nicely and settled back. He asked us to walk back.
The soldiers were around us. They took us to a narrow valley between
Taidong and Comillatilla and there suddenly we heard thousands of bullets
and shrieks and screams of our people. At least 200 of our people mainly
Tripuris, died. I do not even have any trace of my family. I do not
know whether my family members are still in hiding somewhere or if they
got killed. As bullets rained from all sides the Muslims too descended
on the valley, raping women and killing people with swords, spears and
knives; we all ran for our lives in the direction of India." The
massacres in Baghaichari area (8-10 August, 1988) and in Longadu area (4-
6 May, 1989) sent another 20,000 Refugees to Tripura.
Initially the Bangladesh Government denied that these Refugees were
from Bangladesh. However, under the tremendous pressure from the
international community the Bangladeshi Regime very reluctantly admitted
that only 29,920 Refugees fled to Tripura. At the same time it claimed
that 10,000 out of 29,920 Refugees had returned to Bangladesh. The
Bangladesh Government is dragging its feet on the repatriation of the
Jumma Refugees. Our past experience shows that the Government of
Bangladesh has no intention to repatriate them at all. For example, some
18,000 Jumma Refugees took refuge in Tripura in 1981 as a result of the
Bonraibari-Beltali-Belchari and Asalong-Gorangapara-Barnala-Kalanal
massacres in the Feni Valley. These Refugees agreed to return to
Bangladesh on condition that the Bangladesh Government would return their
ancestral villages and farm lands to them and that it would ensure the
security of their lives and property. After their repatriation was over,
the Government gave them money equivalent to U.S. $8 per family and then
abandoned them at the border. They were neither rehabilitated nor
allowed to go back to their native villages because the Government
refused to remove the Bangladeshi settlers from their ancestral villages
and agricultural lands. On the other hand, the Government did not take
any steps to protect them from the oppression of the Bangladesh Security
Forces and the Bangladeshi infiltrators. These helpless Refugees were
beaten, women and girls were raped and then they were asked to return to
India. Nobody knows what happened to them.
As a consequence of the Bhusanchara massacres in 1984, about 4,000
Jumma Refugees sought refuge at Tagalak Bak and Tibira Ghat in the
Mizoram State of India. These Refugees were also repatriated in 1986 on
the Bangladesh Government assurance that they would be rehabilitated in
their native villages and that their lives would be safe in Bangladesh.
The Bangladeshi Regime sent motor launches to bring the Refugees. As soon
as the Refugees boarded the motor launches, the Bangladeshi soldiers
started to beat the men and to gang-rape the women and girls in front of
the Indian Officers. The Refugees were not rehabilitated. Even they
could not go back to their ancestral villages. In short, the Government
did not keep its promises. The fate of these 4,000 Refugees is still
unknown.
Under intense pressure from the international community, the
Bangladesh Government sent a 16-member delegation led by Mr. Faruque
Ahmed Chowdhurry, the Bangladesh High Commissioner to India, on 11-12
July, 1988, to Tripura in order to persuade the Jumma Refugees to return
to Bangladesh. The Jumma Refugees agreed to go back to the CHT provided
the Bangladesh Government would meet their 11-point demands. Their main
five demands were:
1) the removal of the Bangladeshi infiltrators from the CHT
in order to vacate the occupied Jumma villages;
2) the withdrawal of all Bangladesh Armed Forces including
the non-Jumma Police Force from the CHT in order to
ensure the security of the Jumma peoples' lives and
property;
3) a meaningful talk between the Bangladesh Government, the
Indian Government and the Jana Samhati Samiti to find a
political solution to the crisis in the CHT;
4) adequate financial help for the proper rehabilitation of
the Jumma Refugees; and
5) the implementation of all demands under the supervision
of the U.N.O., international human rights groups, the
International Committee of the Red Cross, and so on.
These measures are absolutely necessary for creating the climate
congenial to the safe return of the Jumma Refugees to their homes.
Needless to say, the Bangladesh delegation rejected all the 11 demands of
the Jumma Refugees and thus it has proved once again that the Government
of Bangladesh is not sincere in dealing with the Jumma people.
Again the world community pressurized the Bangladeshi military
Regime to repatriate the Jumma Refugees. So the Government of Bangladesh
had to send another delegation headed by Mr. Abdul Mayeed Chowdhurry, the
Director General of the Bangladesh President's Secretariat, to Tripura on
10-11 May, 1990, to negotiate with the Jumma Refugees for their
repatriation. The Jumma Refugees submitted their 11-point demands to the
Bangladesh delegation and the latter as usual refused to accept any of
the formers demands. Clearly, the Bangladesh Government has no genuine
intention to take back the Jumma Refugees at all.
The compassionate Governments of India and Tripura are sacrificing
their limited resources to save the lives of the Jumma Refugees. But
India cannot afford to feed so many thousands of Refugees for so many
years. So the survival of these Refugees now very much depends on the
help and kindness of the international community. The Jumma Refugees
desperately need relief supplies, medical facilities, drinking water
facilities, housing facilities and educational facilities.
The Bangladeshi Regime has imposed the so-called District Council
Law in the CHT against the will of the Jumma people in order to 1) repeal
the CHT Regulation of 1900 which protected the political, economic,
social and cultural rights of the Jumma people and to 2) legitimize the
resettlement of the Bangladeshi infiltrators in the CHT. It also forced
the Jumma people to contest and to vote in the District Council Elections
against their will. The District Council has almost no power and the
District Council Law has almost nothing for the Jumma people.
The Care-taker Government of Bangladesh has restored democratic
political rights to the Bangladeshi people by removing the military
officers from the State of Affairs and by dissolving all elected bodies
which were unfairly and undemocratically elected during the recently
ousted military regime. But it has neither removed the military from
power nor dissolved the unfairly and undemocratically elected District
Councils in the CHT. It means that the Interim Government of Bangladesh
has not restored democratic political rights to the Jumma people. As a
result, the military will decide who will contest and who will vote in
the coming elections in the CHT. This is the reason why the Jana Samhati
Samiti appealed to the Acting President of Bangladesh to postpone the
ensuing Parliamentary Elections in the CHT. There cannot be free and
fair elections in the CHT so long as the military is not withdraw from
the CHT and the District Council Law is not repealed. The previous
military regime enacted the said Law through the undemocratically elected
Parliament. Moreover, this Law was vehemently opposed by the Jumma
people. So the District Council Law is invalid and it should be done
away with immediately.
The military rulers starting from the President to ordinary soldiers
are corrupt, undemocratic, trigger-happy and extremely hostile to the
Jumma people. They have no regards for human rights and they do not know
what is rule of law or justice. Under their tyrannical rule, the Jumma
people live in constant fear and terror. In brief, the relentless
persecution of the helpless Jumma people by the Bangladesh Government has
pushed them on the verge of extinction. If the international community
does not intervene in Bangladesh immediately, then it may be too late to
save these seriously threatened indigenous people from being exterminated
by the Government of Bangladesh. The following measures are absolutely
necessary to ensure their survival:
1) the removal of non-Jumma settlers from the CHT;
2) the withdrawal of all Bangladesh Armed Forces including
the non-Jumma Police Force from the CHT;
3) autonomy for the CHT with a separate legislature;
4) adequate financial help for the proper rehabilitation of
the Jumma Refugees and the return of their ancestral
villages and farmland to them; and
5) the deployment of the U.N. Peace Keeping Force in the CHT
and the implementation of these measures under the
auspices of the U.N.O.
The Bangladeshi Regime is heavily dependent on foreign aid. So the
donor countries are able to change its genocidal policy by using their
economic levers and to pressure it to implement the above-mentioned just
demands of the Jumma people. I fervently appeal to you to take all
necessary actions against the Bangladesh Government in order to protect
the Jumma people and their traditional homeland from the Bangladeshi
invasion.
I am most grateful to you for giving me this great opportunity to
present the plight of the Jumma people to you for your sympathetic
consideration. You have honoured me and the Jumma Nation by inviting me
to address such an important gathering at such a great Centre of
Learning. Thank you ladies and gentlemen for kindly listening to my
prayer for help.
R.S. Dewan
[Dr. Ramendu S. Dewan is the official spokesperson for the Jana Samhati
Samiti -- The United Peoples Party - Chittagong Hill Tracts.]
He may be contacted at the following address:
Dr. R.S. Dewan
c/o Dr. H.D. Locksley, Dept. of Chemistry
Salford University
Salford M5 4WT
England
Address inquires to:
Center For World Indigenous Studies
P.O. Box 82038
Kenmore, Washington 98028
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