CHT on Historical Outline with Special Reference to Its Current Situation

Dr. Prajnalankar Bhikkhu

THE CHITTAGONG HILL TRACTS covering an area of approximately 14,000 square kilometers shares border with Myanmar in the South, Bangladesh in the West, and India in the Northeast and Northwest. It is a traditional home to the eleven different ethnic groups who collectively identify themselves as 'Jumma people'[1]. Among these ethnic groups, the Chakma is the dominant and largest in terms of population (approximately 400,000). The Jumma people speak different languages belonging to Tibeto-Burman and Indo-Aryan families. They follow Buddhism, Hinduism and Christianity vis-�-vis their indigenous believes. Their culture, traditions and customs are unique and very rich and vibrant. Their total population is about 700,000. Their distinctive physical features unmistakably suggest that they belong to Mongoloid horde of human race. They look like typical Asian peoples.

Because of its geo-political advantages, the CHT had largely been an independent territory until the British took over it as their vassal in 1860. In 1900, the British had passed and enforced the 'Chittagong Hill Tracts Regulation of 1900'. The Regulation declares the CHT as an 'Excluded Area'. It bars 'outsiders', people other than indigenous one, to settle or purchase land in the territory, and provides substantive autonomy to the indigenous people. It had been in force till the end of the British rule in the Indian Subcontinent in 1947. The 200 year-long British rule established in Bengal in 1757 and subsequently in the entire Subcontinent came to an end in 1947 with the emergence of two independent and sovereign states, Islamic Republic of Pakistan and Secular Democratic Republic of India, under the Indian Independence Act of 1947. According to the Act, Pakistan was formed with those Provinces or areas where Muslims were the majority, while India with those Provinces or areas where non-Muslims (Hindus, Christians, Buddhists etc.) were the majority. In other words, the Subcontinent was bifurcated into two nations on the basis of religion. Amid strong opposition from the Jumma people, the Bengal Boundary Commission[2] chaired by Sir Syril Redcliff declared the CHT to be part of East Pakistan although non-Muslims constituted 98% of its total population. It is a clear violation of the principle of the partition of the Subcontinent. For this reason, many Jumma leaders still consider the partition to be undemocratic, unlawful and unjust. No specific reason was assigned for it. It is a historic blunder committed by the Commission for which the Jumma people are paying a very heavy price in blood to Muslims[3] of Bangladesh (former East Pakistan) everyday in our times.

The Islamic military regime in Pakistan forced many Jumma leaders like Sneha Kumar Chakma and Ghanashyam Dewan, who stood up against the merger of their territory with the Islamic Republic, into exile in India. They replaced the 'excluded area' status of the CHT with that of 'tribal area' in a constitutional amendment in 1962. This amendment has profound policy implications as far as the Jumma people and their country are concerned. It aims at opening up the CHT for settlement of Muslims as part of the regime's national integration policy, and it in fact paved the way for an influx of Muslims into the region in large number.

It may be noted here that by this time the regime had constructed the Kaptai Dam, the largest dam in South Asia in terms of area inundated by water-body, on the Karnaphuli River in the CHT without any consultation with the Jumma leaders to meet the need of energy for industrialization and domestic consumption with funds from Canada and the World Bank. It resulted in submersion of 54% of total arable land of the CHT into water and displacement of over 100,000 Jummas, Chakmas in particular, from their ancestral land and hearths. Only a few of the displaced families, who were able to produce land-deed[4] to the authorities, were provided with some grossly inadequate monetary compensation. As a result, about 50,000 Chakmas were forced to migrate to India and another 10,000 to Burma in search of livelihood. Those migrated to India had been settled in the North Eastern Frontier of Assam (NEFA), now Arunachal Pradesh, and later in 1971 recognized as Indian citizens under the Indira-Mujib Pact of 1971. And those migrated to Burma are on the way to complete assimilation with the identity of the majority Burmese. Some Jumma leaders like Manabendra Narayan Larma who protested the project overtly were put behind the bar. The dam is regarded as a national tragedy in the CHT; it had permanently disintegrated the Jumma as a people and strewn them around the Subcontinent and Burma on one hand, and destroyed the agro-based main economy of their country on the other. It lit all major cities in East Pakistan with electricity leaving the Jumma people uprooted and in sheer despair and dismay.

A civil war flared up between the Bengali-speaking Muslims and the Urdu-speaking Muslims of Pakistan over language right of the first in the late 1960s. It eventually led to the dawn of East Pakistan as an independent sovereign state named 'Bangladesh' in 1971 with crucial Indian military interventions for the Bengali-speaking Muslims.

In 1972, an 18-member delegation of the Jumma people led by Manabendra Narayan Larma submitted a memorandum to the first Prime Minister of Bangladesh Sheikh Mujibur Rahman demanding, inter alia, constitutional recognition of the different ethnic groups living in the CHT and regional autonomy for protection of their distinct ethnic and cultural identity. The Prime Minister rejected their demands summarily and advised them to forget their ethnic identity and become Muslims.[5]

Right from the very beginning, all the successive democratically elected governments and military regimes[6] of Bangladesh have been trying to integrate the Jumma people culturally with the majority Muslim population of their country. Three main strategic means they follow for this purpose are:

1. Demographic Invasion: In the late 1970s and early 1980s, the military regime in Bangladesh had accomplished a program of Muslim population explosion in the CHT. Under this program, the authorities systematically transferred more than 400,000 Muslims from various plain districts of Bangladesh to the CHT under tight military security-cover. This demographic invasion locally known as 'islamization' is still on. And it has rather been capitalized and systematized. It has resulted in a drastic change in the demographic composition[7] and social fabric of the CHT. It has threatened the very identity of the Jumma people.

2. Use of Force: The CHT is said to be one of the heavily militarized zones in the world today. Bangladeshi military deployed in the CHT had allegedly committed gross human rights violations including thirteen major genocides against the Jumma people in the 1980s and early 1990s with complete impunity under strict censorship. As a result, around 15,000 Jummas were killed, 120,000 Jummas were forced to take shelter in India as refugee and 98,000 Jumma families were displaced within the CHT.

3. 'Divide and Rule' Policy: The authorities in Bangladesh have been systematically applying the classic 'Divide and Rule' policy against the Jumma people, especially those opposing the national integration policy or fighting for the legitimate rights of the Jumma people.

Following the topple of the Ershad regime in 1990, an agreement popularly known as the 'CHT Peace Treaty' was signed between the Parbatya Chattagram Jana Samhati Samiti[8] and the democratically elected Awami League government of Bangladesh in 1997 for a lasting political solution to the problems of the Jumma people amid opposition from the then main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party and Islamic radical parties and groups. Under this agreement, 70,000 Jumma refugees living in camps in India for twelve years or so had been repatriated to their homes in 1998. However, most of the crucial provisions of the agreement, such as delegation power to the local government formed under the agreement, land right of the Jumma people and return of land forcefully occupied by Muslims settlers with direct support from Bangladeshi military to original owners, withdrawal of the Bangladeshi military rule and 'temporary' military camps from the CHT etc. remained in paper.

A BNP-led four party coalition mostly comprising with Islamic radical parties like Jamat-e-Islam came to power after the 2001 general elections. The coalition government did not implement the unimplemented provisions of the 'CHT Peace Treaty' during its five-year long term demitted in 2006. Rather it had violated or manipulated them in various ways while implementing projects for further settlement of Muslim settlers in the CHT. The government, however, left no stone unturned to make proper use of the treaty as a major project for raising funds from donor countries in the name of 'peace' and 'development' in the CHT. Ironically, most of these funds had been used in settlement and empowerment of Muslim settlers [for instance, building manufacture of mosques and madrasas (Islamic schools) and 'Wadud Palli(s)', Muslim villages named after Mohammad Wadud Bhuiyan, an Islamic extremist leader and then Member of Parliament elected from Khagrachari Hill district of the CHT through alleged electoral frauds] in the region under the hidden national integration policy. Its consequences have been a receiving end to the local indigenous people.

Indigenous people and their organizations like PCJSS opposing or resisting the national integration policy and programs and demanding democratic engagement with the coalition government for proper and early implementation of the 1997 'CHT Peace Treaty' in the interest of sustainable peace and development in the CHT had been targeted as 'terrorist operatives' and suppressed with military force.

The general elections were due to be held in January 2007. Before leaving the office, the coalition handed over power to a 'neutral' interim caretaker government consisting of eleven Advisors headed by the President of Bangladesh Ijasuddin Ahmed. The 14-party grand opposition alliance led by Sheikh Hasina's Awami League turned down the interim caretaker government for its alleged 'biased' role for BNP-Jamat coalition in the election preparations. Political crisis deepened in the country with violent confrontations between the 14-party grand alliance and the outgoing coalition and interim caretaker government over conditions for free, fair and credible elections. At least 50 people were killed and several hundreds were wounded in these confrontations. In this backdrop, the President Ijasuddin Ahmed invoked the emergency rule in December 2006 with sweeping power with the military to control 'law and order' situation in the country. Soon he himself resigned from the post of Chief Advisor to the caretaker government under mounting popular pressure. It paved the way for formation of a new interim caretaker administration headed by Fakhruddin Ahmed in January 2007.

The new interim caretaker administration backed by the country's strong military postponed the general elections due to be held on 22 January 2007 for indefinite time and imposed ban on all political activities and freedoms of press.

Initially, Fakhruddin administration enjoyed wide national and international support and appreciation for targeting corruption[9] and corrupt political leaders, bureaucrats and godfathers countrywide as part of its drive for political and administrative 'reforms' in the country. It has arrested over 100,000 political leaders irrespective of party leaning including influential and powerful former ministers, officials and businessmen allegedly involved in corruption and criminal cases.[10] However, it has lost its track apparently for being too ambitious to rule the country for long or even for indefinite time in line with the political doctrine of the current military regime in Pakistan headed by General Pervez Musharraf. It had designed a plot to force two popular political icons and former Prime Ministers of Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina of Awami League, daughter of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, and Begum Khaleda Zia of Bangladesh Nationalist Party, wife of Major General Ziaur Rahman, into exile respectively in the UK and Saudi Arabia the way the President of Pakistan General Pervez Musharraf did two former Prime Ministers of Pakistan Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif respectively in the UK and Saudi Arabia to clear the hurdles for his abiding and absolute dictatorship in Pakistan. It issued an arrest-warrant against Sheikh Hasina, who was on a trip to the USA in May this year, if she returned to the country for her alleged involvement in murders of her rival BNP opposition activists while in power. The British immigration refused to give her boarding pass to fly while she was in London on her way back from the USA to Bangladesh on the ground of her impending arrest-warrant. The Fakhruddin administration, on the other hand, threatened Tareq Rahman, son of Begum Khaleda Zia, with arrest for his alleged involvement in wide ranges of corruption if his mother refused to go exile in Saudi Arabia. Both of the powerful ladies have been kept under virtual house arrest. It goes without saying that the design did not work for intense domestic and international pressure. Rather it turned out to be counter-productive for the Fakhruddin administration. Now people in and out of Bangladesh have been disillusioned about the stated 'reforms' undertaken by his administration. Some observers have started apprehending about the real motive of the Fakhruddin's administration. They think his administration to be a shadow of the country's elite military force engaged in preparing a ground for replacing Bangladeshi political model with Pakistani one -- but in different setting -- in the smokescreen of cleaning up corruption in the country. It is using 'corruption' as a political tool against the leaders of mainstream political parties as part of its design, they feel. Many Western powers like the USA are coming forward for the popular demand of Bangladeshi people for early elections and restoration of democracy. The Commonwealths has suspended Bangladesh from its membership as part of its pressure on the Fakhruddin administration for early installation of a democratically elected government in the country.

The Fakhruddin administration is an absolute and ruthless military dictator with regard to the Jumma people of the CHT. Here, unlike in other parts of Bangladesh, it is using the emergency rule for a different purpose: to liquidate the political leadership and organizational capabilities of the Jumma people once and for all so as the national integration policy can quickly be put in practice without any challenge. That is why, its forces have been targeting Jumma leaders as 'terrorists' for killing them in fake encounters or for imprisoning them by framing false cases like 'terrors' and 'murder' against them. At least two top Jumma leaders have been killed and 15 others including the General Secretary of PCJSS Satyabir Dewan have been arrested and jailed so far without any trial. Around 15,000 young Jummas chased by Fakhruddin's forces for arrest are reportedly hiding in different villages and jungles. The emergency rule is being used as a political tool to quell the democratic movement of the Jumma people.

Fundamental rights and freedoms of the people have been seized and ban has been imposed on all political activities and press freedoms in the CHT under the emergency rule. The entire CHT has been permeated with fear and terrors unleashed by Fakhruddin's forces. Anyone voicing concern even in democratic way is being picked up for arrest and jail. The situation has developed to such an extent that Jumma activists have almost stopped speaking up and sending reports to civil and human rights groups in Bangladesh and abroad on the situation in the CHT for the fear of being arrested, tortured and jailed. For them, 'silence is the golden means'. Of course, there are some who dare sending e-mails to their human rights network abroad from anonymous e-mail IDs reflecting on the tough time and situation the Jummas have been going through since January this year.

Following the World War II, the United Nations came into being in 1945. The main objective of this world organization is to ensure peace, security and justice for all nations, peoples and communities irrespective of race, ethnicity, religion, language, color, gender and geographical boundary. Many international human rights instruments like the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide (1951), Declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples (1960), International Covenant on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (1969), International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (1976), Declaration on the Elimination of All Forms of Intolerance and Discrimination based on Religion or Belief (1981), Declaration on the Right to Development (1986), Covenant against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (1987), Millennium Development Goals (2000), etc. have been adopted to achieve and realize this objective. In addition, the United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Populations, United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues and United Nations Working Group on Minorities have been established to address the concerns of vulnerable groups in society like indigenous and tribal peoples and minorities and to set international standards on their rights, and thus the Convention No.169 concerning Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in Independent Countries (1991) and the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (2006) were adopted.

Being a member of the United Nations, Bangladesh has ratified most of these international human rights instruments. Bangladesh strongly advocates for early adoption and implementation of international standards on the rights of indigenous and tribal peoples and minorities at international forums, like the United Nations, but on back to home it never respects them and its obligations to international human rights instruments with relation to the Jumma indigenous people who are on the brink of losing all their rights to land, territory, resources and identity to Bangladeshi Muslims today. The same is true with regard to religious minorities (Hindu and Christian communities) in plain districts of Bangladesh. This kind of double standard forms part of the Bangladeshi foreign policy. It involves the country in tough international diplomatic maneuverings for availing aid from donor countries and UN agencies for its 'development'.

The Jumma is a people embattling for survival of their distinct identity in Bangladesh, an Islamic state[11] with 145 million people of whom 88% are Muslims. Their voice is not heard if they talk to the Bangladeshi authorities. They are arrested and jailed or killed as 'terrorists' if they fight with the authorities democratically or undemocratically for their rights and identity. Bangladeshi and international laws do not protect them and their rights and identity. Then what will they do and where will they go?

June 3, 2007

* * *

[1] The generic term 'Jumma' has been derived from jum or shifting cultivation.

[2] The Commission was formed with the sole purpose of demarcating the boundary between Pakistan and India in Bengal Province.

[3] The religious term 'Muslim' is being used here as a historical legacy of the partition of the Subcontinent. It is not intended to hurt the sentiment of Muslims as a religious group.

[4] Jummas do not keep any land-records, as land is customarily treated as a 'community property' in the CHT.

[5] The Chittagong Hill Tracts Commission, 'Life is not Ours': Land and Human Rights in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, 1991, Amsterdam, P. 14

[6] Bangladesh had been under two long military regimes headed by Major General Ziaur Rahman (1977-1981) and Lt. General Hussein Mohammad Ershad (1983-1990) respectively.

[7] Census Report, 2001. Muslim population in the CHT has increased from nearly 2% in 1947 to 49% in 2001. Some Jumma leaders, however, think that the authorities manipulated these demographic data for political reasons, and they say that the Muslim population in the region is higher than 60% by now.

[8] PCJSS = People's United Party, the political organization representing the Jumma people.

[9] Bangladesh had been figured as the 'most corrupt state' in the world in five consecutive years, Transparency International Report, 2001-2005.

[10] Adhikar's Report, April 2007, Dhaka

[11] Bangladesh is an Islamic state in the sense of recognizing Islam as the only 'state religion' (Bangladesh Constitution, Part I, Article 2A).

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CHT on Historical Outline with Special Reference to Its Current Situation

Dr. Prajnalankar Bhikkhu