Over the last 20 years since the signing of the CHT Accord, many scholars have even completed their PhDs on it, but the accord is yet to take full effectThe eviction of the indigenous Jumma people and land-grabbing by Bengali settlers in collusion with government officials are clearly evident in the hill tracts. As a part of their strategy, the administration concerned intentionally encourage settlers to marry hill girls and convert them to Islam. Al Rabita, a Saudi NGO is working in CHT has been trying to convert poor hill people to Islam by offering food security, money, and jobs. Massacres and rapes were carried out by the Bengali settlers so that indigenous Jumma people would not support the PCJSS. There is also a vehement increase in Islamic educational institutions in CHT, due to the increased Muslim settlers in the region. Moreover, due to this demographic engineering, the vast Muslim immigrant population in the CHT has had a damaging effect on the culture, language, and religious events of its native population. In some places, immigrants are more dominant than the hill people, mostly because they have strong back-up from the local establishment. In the 20 years it has been since the CHT Accord was signed, the government has undertaken elusive development projects to try and evict the indigenous Jumma people from their ancestral lands. And the tourism industry is a new instrument that is being used as a weapon to cleanse the indigenous people and grab their land under the thin veneer of “development.” The settlers in CHT have already replaced the Chakma and Marma names for various areas with Bengali Muslim names. The signing of the peace accord gave hope to the Jumma people that they would eventually live in peace and dignity. But their hope never materialised, not in the last 20 years since it was signed, as the state has failed to implement most of the provisions of the accord. As a consequence, the indigenous people became divided and started to opt for more revolutionary actions, fostering a new conflict with the government. The government needs to implement the accord fully and all institutions need to be established and made functional properly according to the peace accord. It is true that the CHT Accord was able to bring peace in the hill tracts for a few days, at most, but without initiatives taken for a comprehensive implementation, trust between settlers and indigenous people in the CHT will remain a far cry and the violent conflict in the region is likely to endure well into the future.John Tripura is an Indigenous Peoples Human Rights Defender.
The Chittagong Hill Tracts Accord ended the decades-long fierce, armed conflict between the Jumma people and the government, granting a host of benefits to the indigenous Jumma.
This accord was hailed and welcomed not only by the Jumma and the democratic and progressive political parties in Bangladesh, but also by the United Nations, the European Union, many democratic governments, national and international organisations, and various agencies fighting for progressivism.
Despite its introduction, even after two decades, the accord has yet to bear fruit -- it still only remains on paper, while the suffering, misery, and exploitation of the indigenous Jumma people continue on. Over the last 20 years since the signing of the CHT Accord, many scholars have even completed their PhDs on it, but the accord is yet to take full effect.
The region is still the most unstable in the country and there is more resentment fostering now among the indigenous Jumma people due to delays in the full implementation of the accord. The failure to fully implement the CHT Accord has led to continued sufferings of internally displaced families and India-returnee refugees in the CHT, who were the innocent victims of government atrocities and the humanitarian crises witnessed in the 1980s and 90s.Promises and goalsThe major objectives of the 1997 peace accord included protection of the land rights of the indigenous people, revival of their cultural uniqueness, rehabilitation of internally displaced people and refugees who had left the country, withdrawal of the military from the CHT (with the exception of permanent military establishments), and the right to self-government through regional and district councils.
The signing of this accord was an important achievement for both the AL government of 1997 and the Jumma representatives of the PCJSS. The accord greatly enhanced the current prime minister’s image internationally, and she was awarded the UNESCO’s Peace Prize in 1999 -- however, the Accord failed to make an impact on the indigenous Jumma people for the better, who fought and shed blood to make this accord a reality.
But what has the accord given to the Jumma people in the last 20 years?
Political instability and lack of firm political commitment have crippled the accord, because of which the hopes and aspirations that accompanied it have withered. The cost of failure is high: Armed warfare, violations of human rights, loss of life and resources, exposing the border regions to external threats -- all of these are costs that the nation can hardly bear if peace is not achieved.
This has resulted in grave consequences for the indigenous. Intra-group rivalry and conflict, fragmentation within communities, a dwindling economy, and stagnating social and human development due to the poor health-care and education sectors are but the tip of the ice-berg.The hits and missesThe CHT Accord is comprised of the following: General, Hill District Local Government Council; the Chittagong Hill Tracts Regional Council; Rehabilitation, General Amnesty; and various other issues.
The accord was implemented, to an extent, in the first couple of years, with the demobilisation of the PCJSS, the repatriation of Jumma refugees, the enactment of the three revised Hill District Council Acts and Regional Council Act, the establishment of CHT Affairs Ministry, and so on. But the vast majority of the most important provisions of the accord, such as the withdrawal of temporary military camps, resolution of land conflicts, and making the hill district councils and the regional council functional, still remain unimplemented.
Moreover, there has been an increase in Bengali Muslim population in the CHT region, in contrast to a decline in the Jumma population.
The Bengali Muslim population, which was around 2% of the total population of the CHT in 1947, rose to 49% in 2003. On the other hand, the Jumma, who comprised 98% of the total population of the hill tracts in 1947, declined to 51% in 2003. The Jumma people, in fact, seem destined to become a minority in their own homeland if this trend continues.
These official figures are widely seen in the CHT to be politically manipulated and motivated. Indigenous sources put the Bengali Muslim settler figure at more than 65%. It is alleged that the Bengali settlers frequently grab land by force, sometimes with the tacit consent and even connivance of the local administration and security personnel (mostly Bangalis with the Bangladesh army stationed in various locations in the CHT), and sometimes by luring illiterate indigenous people and forging documents.
