UNITED NATIONS ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL COUNCIL
COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS
Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination
and Protection of Minorities
Working Group on Indigenous Populations
12th SESSION,
GENEVA
25-29 JULY, 1994
A statement made by the Jumma delegation on
behalf of the Jumma Nation, the people of the
Chittagong Hill Tracts region of Bangladesh.
Madame Chairman, Honourable Members of the Working Group and
friends,
Thank you for your permission to submit my statement.
I, Ramendu Shekhar Dewan, am a Jumma from the Chittagong
Hill Tracts (CHT) region of Bangladesh. It is hoped that my
report will make some contribution to the understanding of
the Working Group about the developments in the area in the
past one year.
There is a Passenger Shed at the Launch Ghat (pier) of
Naniachar Bazaar. The Military Authorities have been using
it as a checkpost to detain, harass, rape, torture and even
murder the Jumma passengers and passers-by including the
Members of the Hill Student Council (HSC), who are stepping
up their campaign for the restoration of the Jumma Nation's
right to self-determination. Naturally, the HSC appealed to
the Local Authorities to withdraw the Military checkpost
from the Passenger Shed and restore it to the public. Having
its genuine demand rejected by the Local Authorities, the
HSC called a protest meeting at Naniachar Bazaar with the
permission of the Local Authorities on 17 Nov., 1993. The
Bangladesh Government sees the HSC as a thorn in its flesh
and so it seized the opportunity to crush the latter once
and for all and directed the local Military, Police and
Civil Authorities to massacre the Jumma students at the
meeting.
As per the instructions of the Government, the Local
Authorities mobilised the Bangladeshi Muslim infiltrators to
help them carry out the massacre so that the blame did not
fall on the Government. At first, the Muslim settlers
attacked the unarmed Jumma students with knives, spears,
sharp weapons, iron bars and wooden & bamboo sticks. Then
they attacked the Jummas in the Bazaar, in the Jumma
residential areas of the Bazaar and on motor launches &
boats. Naniachar Bazaar is surrounded by the Kaptai Lake on
three sides. When the Jummas tried to flee along the only
land route, the Military and Police personnel shot at them.
Many Jummas tried to flee by swimming across the lake but
the Muslim infiltrators followed them by boat and hacked &
clubbed them to death. The massacre continued from 4:15 p.m.
to 11 p.m. To cover up the massacre, most of the dead bodies
were thrown into the lake but the bullet-hit bodies were
burnt to ashes because the Government wanted to conceal the
evidence that its Security Forces had participated in the
mass-killings. Initially, the Local Authorities told the
Pressmen that only five people were killed and a few scores
injured. After a couple of days, some bodies were washed
ashore and the Local Authorities had to admit that nineteen
people were murdered. In fact, at least sixty-three Jummas
were slaughtered, over five hundred injured, many of them
seriously, and many still unaccounted for. So the death-toll
should be much higher. The Local Authorities also stopped
the supply of electricity to hospitals to let the injured
Jummas die without medical treatment. The massacre was so
well-planned and so well-executed that the Military
Commander of Naniachar, Lt. Col. Abu Nayeem sent a wireless
message at 6:30 p.m. to Maj. Gen. Azizur Rahman, the General
Officer Commanding of the Chittagong Division of the
Bangladesh Army, saying gleefully - "The Naniachar massacre
has been committed nicely".
Under massive world-wide public pressure, the
Government had to appoint Justice Habibur Rahman to
investigate the said massacre and had to promise to make his
report public within a month after the occurrence of the
mass-killings. Despite repeated requests by various human
rights groups, it has not yet published the report
indicating that it is still attempting to cover up the
massacre. It may be recalled that the Government has never
published the original report on the Logang massacre of 10
April, 1992, investigated by Justice Sultan Hossain Khan. I,
therefore, appeal fervently to you to send out a UN Special
Rapporteur to Naniachar and Logang so that the Bangladesh
Government cannot get away with all the massive ethnic-
cleansing crimes it has been committing against the helpless
Jumma people as part of its sinister policy what its
Military Leaders publicly declared - "We want only the Land
and not the People of the Chittagong Hill Tracts".
The Government is dragging its feet on the negotiation
with the Jana Samhati Samiti (JSS). It was promise-bound to
give its final opinion on the modified demands of the JSS at
the Fifth Round of the Dialogue held on September 18, 1993.
But it failed to keep its promise even at the Seventh Round
which took place on 5 May, 1994, confirming that it has no
intention to find a negotiated solution. Doubtless, the
Government is not negotiating with the JSS in good faith and
it is talking with the JSS just to placate the donor
countries. Perhaps, it is worth-mentioning that the
Bangladesh Security Forces are breaking all the terms and
conditions of the ceasefire by attacking the Members of the
Shanti Bahini (SB), the armed wing of the JSS, by setting up
new Military camps, by bringing in more Bangladeshi Muslim
infiltrators and by perpetrating incessant atrocities on the
innocent Jumma people. Needless to say, the peace-loving JSS
is strictly adhering to all ceasefire agreements despite all
forms of provocations from the Government side and is
sincerely continuing the Dialogue in the face of the
Government's refusal to meet its genuine demands.
379 Jumma Refugee families were repatriated from the
Tripura State of India to the CHT region of Bangladesh in
February last on condition that the Government would
implement its 16-point Benefit package immediately after
their repatriation. On 25-29 April, 1994, an evaluation team
consisting of three Indian Officers and eleven Jumma Refugee
Leaders visited the CHT to evaluate the situation of the
repatriated Refugees. It found that the Government had not
yet fulfilled most of the commitments given to the Jumma
Refugees before their repatriation. For example, most of the
Refugees could not get back their ancestral villages and
agricultural lands as the Bangladeshi Security Forces and
Muslim settlers were refusing to vacate those Jumma villages
and farmlands. The Refugees have also not yet received the
agricultural grant of Tk. 8,000/ - per family, the
subsistence allowance of Tk. 5,000/ - per family, job
facilities, admission to educational institutions and so
forth. In these circumstances, the Jumma Refugees
desperately need the involvement of the UN High Commissioner
for Refugees and the International Committee of the Red
Cross in their repatriation and rehabilitation.
I would like to thank you once again for giving me an
opportunity to read out my statement and also for lending me
your ears.
Ramendu Shekhar Dewan
Dated 26 July, 1994
-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
To have a current Center For World Indigenous Studies Publication
Catalogue sent to you via e-mail, send a request to
<or>
FTP ftp.halcyon.com /pub/FWDP/CWIS
Center For World Indigenous Studies
P.O. Box 2574
Olympia, WA U.S.A.
98507-2574
BBS: 206-786-9629
FAX: 206-956-1087
OCR Provided by Caere Corporation's OmniPage Professional
////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
John Burrows, Executive Director jburrows@halcyon.com <or>
Center For World Indigenous Studies The Quarto Mundista BBS
ftp://ftp.halcyon.com/pub/FWDP/WWW/fwdp.html FidoNet 1:352/333 206-786-9629
\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\\