Govt allows activities detrimental to CHT Accord implementation: Santu

Parbatya Chattagram Jana Samhati Samiti president and Chittagong Hill Tracts Regional Council chairman Jyotirindra Bodhipriya Larma, better known as Santu Larma, on Monday complained that the government had been allowing activities detrimental to the implementation of the Chittagong Hill Tracts Accord, 1997. 
Addressing a discussion marking the 20th anniversary of the accord, Santu said that the hill people would resist all conspiracies that were blocking the full implementation of the accord. 
Kapaeeng Foundation, a nongovernmental organisation working for the rights of ethnic minorities, hosted the discussion at CIRDAP Auditorium in Dhaka. 
Santu alleged that hill people’s demands for self-determination as well as their cultural and political rights had been repressed by military-led administration in the hill tracts.
Seeking support from all the democratic forces of the country, he said that the country’s secular, progressive and nationalist political parties’ verbal support to the hill people were yet to be translated into an active movement that could put pressure on the government to implement the accord.
Sumon Marma, general secretary of Parbatya Chattagram Pahari Chhatra Parishad, said that Prime Minister Shiekh Hasina had won UNESCO Peace Prize for leading the CHT Accord signing at its final stage, but the hill people were still witnessing their rights being violated the same way as they saw during the pre-accord period.
Dipayan Khisa, information and publication secretary of Bangladesh Adivasi Forum, urged active participation of the youth from the hills to make the government implement the accord.
Broadcast journalist Antara Biswas said that the hill people should review their demands considering the changed situation and redesign the politics accordingly to revamp their pro-accord movement. 
Chaired by the foundation’s executive director Pallab Chakma, the discussion was also addressed by, university teachers Taslima Yasmin and Sajedur Rahman, journalists Golam Mortoza, Nazrul Kabir and Shakil Ahmed, lawyer Subrata Paul, former president of Bangladesh Chhatra Union Manabendra Dev, rights activists Sanjib Drong, Jannat-e-Ferdousi and Harendranath Singh.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net