Government halts CHT accord execution, says Santu Larma

The government has halted the process of implementing the Chittagong Hill Tracts Accord by putting on hold about two-thirds of the accord provisions, Parbatya Chattogram Jana-Samhati Samiti president said on Sunday in Dhaka.

PCJSS chief Jyotirindra Bodhipriya Larma, better known as Santu Larma, also accused that the government instead had launched a campaign of killing, abduction and indiscriminate detention under false cases across the region to destroy the PCJSS leadership.

And for this purpose it is using security forces, local units of the ruling party and its associate organisations and is creating rift among the ethnic communities, he also alleged while speaking at a press conference in the capital.  

‘The situation in the entire CHT region is very vulnerable due to the non-implementation of the accord, unimaginable repression, insecurity and uncertain future of the people of all communities,’ Santu Larma claimed.

‘Our back is now stuck against the wall as all the paths for regular movement are also sealed off,’ he commented. 

The people of the CHT region are in extreme frus tration, dissatisfaction and anger as the accord was yet to be fully implemented though the Awami League has been in the government for about 11 years, he further said.

Certain quarters have created divisions among the people in the CHT region and equipped a section of them with arms to thwart the implementation of the accord, he stated.

The same quarters are out with a plot to brand the PCJSS as a terrorist organisation, he went on.

Both ethnic and Bangla-speaking peoples are in difficulties as the authorities have imposed an implicit military control across the CHT region to keep transgressions hidden from the outer world, said Larma, a signatory to the accord.

The government is also obstructing activities of democratic, progressive, secular and liberal organisations and individuals supporting implementation of the accord, he said.

‘A campaign for ultra-nationalism and Islamisation is also underway to destroy the existence of the ethnic communities,’ he added.    

He said that 2.4 per cent of the Chittagong Hill Tracts people were Bangla-speaking non-ethnic permanent residents after the partition in 1947, adding that now the Bangla-speaking and ethnic peoples ‘are almost 50:50’.  

Santu Larma reasserted the demand for a full implementation of the CHT Accord for political and peaceful solutions to the region’s problems.

Replying to a question as to why he did not get registered for a National Identification card, Larma said that he did not feel the need for the NID card so far. 

Oikya NAP president Pankaj Bhattacharya said that the state was illiberal in dealing with the matters involving the Chittagong Hill Tracts.

Describing the CHT situation as a political problem, Dhaka University history teacher Professor Mesbah Kamal said that a political problem could not be solved through repression.

The government must extend constitutional recognition to the 78 ethnic communities, he said.  

The university’s journalism teacher Professor Robayet Ferdous, Bangladesh Adivasi Forum general secretary Sanjeeb Drong and Jolly Mong of PCJSS were also present at the function. 

The AL-led government signed the peace pact on December 2, 1997, to end armed conflicts between ethnic communities and security forces, ensure protection of their land rights, and revive and protect their cultural uniqueness.

Santu Larma signed the instrument on behalf of the ‘residents of the Chittagong Hill Tracts’ while Abul Hasanat Abdullah, then chief whip of the Jatiya Sangsad and convener of the National Committee on Chittagong Hill Tracts, signed it on behalf of the government with then prime minister Sheikh Hasina present.

News Courtesy: www.newagebd.net