18 YEARS OF CHT PEACE TREATY : Govt urged for full implementation

Different organisations on Wednesday urged the government to implement the Chittagong Hill Tracts Peace Accord fully to uphold the rights of the ethnic people and the spirit of War of Independence.
They made the call in separate programmes in Dhaka and elsewhere in the country to mark 18 years of the accord.
Describing the issue as a political one, speakers in the programmes urged the government to solve it politically, not through the display of power by bureaucrats and military.
Parbatya Chattgram Samaadhikar Andolon, an organisation of Bengali people living in the CHT, however, in a human chain in front of the National Press Club branded the treaty as a ‘black’ treaty and demanded its cancellation.
The peace treaty was signed on December 2, 1997 by Abul Hasanat Abdullah, now Barisal district Awami League secretary and the then convener of national committee on Chittagong hill tracts affairs and Parbattya Chattagram Jana Sanghati Samiti president Jyotirindra Bodhipriya Larma.
The Chittagong Hill Tracts Commission, in a statement signed by its co-chairpersons Sultana Kamal, Lord Eric Avebury and Elsa Stamatopoulou, expressed their deep concern over the non-implementation of the treaty even in 18 years and urged the government for its full implementation.
The CHT commission also demanded passing the proposed amendment to the CHT Land Disputes Resolution Commission Act, making the CHT land disputes resolution commission functional, making the CHT regional council act and three district council act active, handing over the responsibility of law enforcement, land and land management, appointment in the local police, forests and environment over to CHT district councils, rehabilitation of India back and internal refugees in their own lands, withdrawal of all military camps, stopping land accusation by the government and to stop hill encroachment by influential people.
In a discussion on ‘Implementation of CHT accord: a national commitment’ organised by Jatiya Nagarik Udyog at Bangladesh Engineers’ Institution, the speakers urged the government to implement the accord fully if they wanted to uphold the spirit of liberation war.
Veteran politician Pankaj Bhattacharya, also president of Oikya NAP, identified sectarian attitude, ‘Pakistanisation’, colonial mentality and Bengali racism as the main obstacles to implementing the accord.
Communist Party of Bangladesh president Mujahidul Islam Selim described the accord as ‘completing the incomplete works of liberation war’ and said non-implementation of the accord after signing it might be called as cheating.
Parbatya Chattragram Janasanghati Samity vice-president Ushatan Talukder MP urged political parties to keep the issues of the indigenous people in both hills and plain lands in political programmes and in their election manifestos.
Presided over by columnist Syed Abul Maksud, the discussion was also addressed by Dhaka University professor Mesbah Kamal, Institute for Environment and Development executive director Numan Ahmed Khan, journalist Mojammel Hossain, ALRD executive director Shamsul Huda and Bangladesh Adibasi Forum general secretary Sanjib Drong.
Our Correspondent in Bandarban reported that the PCJSS organised a rally in the local old Rajbari ground to mark the day.
Addressing the rally as chief guest, CHT regional council member Gunendu Bikash Chakma alleged that the government was buying time in implementing the treaty.
Presided over by Bandarban district PCJSS general secretary U Chaw Sing Marma, the rally was also addressed by Aoung Thowai Ching Marma and Hill Women’s Federation president Me Swe Pru Marma, among others.
New Age Correspondent in Khagrachhari reports: the Khagrachari hill district council and the administration held a procession to mark the day.
PCJSS (MN Larma-reformist), on the other hand, brought out a ‘silent’ procession under strict guard of police in the district town.

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