Photo: Young Jumma girl joins the protest against ethnic cleansing of Jummas in Chittagong Hill Tracts, Bangladesh in front of the United Nations, New York in April 2008
BENGALI SETTLERS allegedly supported by a strong Bangladeshi military 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. #
24 April 2008 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
Sajek settler attack: Victims speaks to journalists
ReplyDeleteApril 27, 2008
Victims of Sajek settler attack held commander of Baghaihat Zone Lt. Col. Sajid Md. Imtiaz and businessman Golam Mowla responsible for it.
Five of the victims who came to Dhaka for the press conference were speaking to the newsmen at Reporters Unity at Segoon Baghicha today, Sunday. (photo attached)
Reading out a written statement Binoy Chakma alleged that the 20 April incident was preplanned. He said prior to the incident settlers from Merung and Kobakhali in Dighinala and Marishya and Longudu in Baghaichari were gathered together, while on 19 April a leader of the so-called Samo Odhikar Andolon, a platform of the illegal settlers, Selim Uddhin Bahari, came to Baghaihat to confer with Lt. Col. Imtiaz.
He further said "at around 9:45 pm approximately 200 settlers first proceeded towards Dane Baibachara. When they saw the Jumma villagers in an organized way, they went back. Afterwards they came along with the army personnel and burned down our houses. They began the attack by torching the house of Nirmol Kanti Chakma. This was soon followed by the burning down of houses in the villages of Purbopara, Retkaba and Gangaram. They even burned down a church and two village schools (Para Kendra) run by Unicef. In Retkaba village, they settlers destroyed a mixed fruit garden developed with financial assistance from UNDP and then put up a signboard of Baghaihat Jeep Employees Association."
Binoy Chakma said the attackers also looted away almost everything that is movable including furniture and utensils. "Even the cows bought with the financial assistance from UNDP were taken away" he alleged.
He said "we tried to resist the attackers. However, when we saw the military we had no other option than to run away."
Background:
The victims narrated many incidents that ultimately culminated in the 20 April attack. They said 90 percent of the Jummas inhabiting the affected areas were previously displaced due to army and settler attacks. Despite continued military repression, they had been living in peace with a small Bengali community who had come to Sajek on business purpose.
They said "since January this year this scenario began to change" as the settlers grabbed lands belonging to the Jummas.
In the written statement, Binoy Chakma cited 13 instances of intimidation, land grabbing and measures of economic strangulation of the Jummas.
Damage:
He said besides a church and two Unicef-run schools, a total of 77 Jumma houses were burned down. These includeded 28 houses out of 33 in Purbopara, 11 out of 47 in Gangaram, 5 out of 94 in Retkaba and 33 out of 100 in Dane Baibachara. He said property worth of Taka 15,000,000 was damaged.
Injured:
He said that three Jummas were injured in the attack. They are Newton Chakma alias Kalabo, Bijoy Singh Chakma and Ratan Chakma.
Aftermath of the incident:
According to the victims, after the incident the military has been putting pressure on the settlers to build houses on the Jummas' land. They said on 22 April, two settler families mounted on a Chander Gari (jeep) to leave Baghaichari; however one Kashem pulled them down and showered them with abusive language. On 23 April, zone commander Imtiaz dropped a group of settlers at Bana Vihar area lying between Dane Baibachara and Retkaba and ordered them to construct houses on burned land. On 24 April, Zone commander Imtiaz held a meeting at his headquarters in which elders from both the communities took part. At the said meeting he warned the Jummas that "if anything happens to the Bengalis in the future, I will kill all of you in brushfire. You have no need to live in this country."
Binoy Chakma said the Jumma villagers were living in fear. "We have to live in constant fear of losing our lands" he wailed.
The culprits
They said commander of Baghaihat zone, Lt. Col. Sajid Md. Imtiaz and Golam Mowla, a businessman in Baghaihat bazaar, were mainly to blame for the attack on Jumma villagers on 20 April. The motive of the attack was to grab the Jumma people's lands after evicting them.
Demands
The victims placed the following demands before the government: 1. adequate compensation to all the Jumma victims and their proper rehabilitation; 2. arrest of Lt. Col. Imtiaz, Golam Mowla and their cohorts and to take legal actions against them; 3. putting an end to intimidation, coercion and torture resorted to by Imtiaz to subdue the Jumma villagers; 4. to stop land grabbing and implantation of settlers in Sajek and to withdraw all the settlers from Sajek area; and 5. to stop attack on religious institutions such as churches and Buddhist temples; return all the grabbed lands belonging to Banani Bana Viahr, to rebuild Bishwa Moitree Bouddha Vihara at its previous site and to provide monetary compensation for the damage caused to the Kuthir (temple) built for the use of Rev. Jogashiddhi Bhikkhu at Gangaram.
The press conference was also attended by Gyanendu Chakma (Retkaba Mukh), Clinton Khisha (Gangaram Mukh), Shanti Bikash Chakma (Dane Baibachara) and Dino Mohan Chakma (Retkaba)