The political unwillingness of successive governments has caused the country’s indigenous people to stay far behind in achieving their political rights, speakers said at a discussion yesterday.
They also urged the government to ensure all kinds of rights for the indigenous people by recognising them in the constitution.
“The achievements of the country’s indigenous people over the last two decades are very few. Regarding the political rights, the achievement is none because of the political unwillingness,” said former information commissioner Sadeka Halim.
Addressing the programme at the city’s National Museum Auditorium, she said it was “unexpected” that the country was yet to constitutionally recognise the indigenous people.
Fazle Hossain Badsha, president of the Parliamentary Caucus on Indigenous Affairs, also called for constitutional recognition and urged the government to implement the CHT Peace Accord, signed between the government and Parbattya Chattagram Jana Samhati Samiti on December 2, 1997.
He also expressed the need for a properly functioning CHT Land Commission for solving the land-related disputes in the region.
The indigenous people living on plain land would continue to be evicted from their own land by influential people, unless the government formed a separate land commission, he added.
Even though Bangladesh is a country of diversity with its different types of culture, none of the government had so far taken any initiative to sustain the harmony, claimed Sanjeeb Drong, general secretary of Bangladesh Indigenous Peoples Forum.
“Like women, the indigenous communities have also been the victim of discrimination regarding their rights because of the different cultural identity,” he said, adding that the government should promote diversity to make the country really secular.
Blaming the government for not implementing the CHT Peace Accord, Jyotirindra Bodhipriya Larma, chairman of Chittagong Hill Tracts Regional Council, said the government was not even ensuring the fundamental rights of the indigenous people.
The discussion, titled “Second international decade of world’s indigenous peoples and situation of indigenous people in Bangladesh,” was organised by Kapaeeng Foundation with the support of European Union and Oxfam.