To understand the complex situation prevailing in the CHT region, we need to go through the recent events and try to identify the key reasons with a view to finding out a peaceful solution.
The hardline Pahari group, UPDF has split recently with some of its former leaders of the military wing announcing a new faction terming it democratic and raising a volley of allegations against the current leadership of the UPDF including their involvement in arms trading, extortion, fund embezzlement etc. Political observers and main UPDF leaders allege that the new faction backed by the GoB has been established to create division among the Pahari groups and weaken them so
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that the demands for the fulfillment of the 1997 CHT Accord or Peace Accord are not heard, and that they cannot wage any strong movement.
The two factions of the other influential Pahari political group, PCJSS, have apparently remained inactive and reacted carefully following crackdown by the joint forces that began in January 2015 under the pretext that the CHT had become a risky zone due to the criminal activities by the notorious armed members of the PCJSS and the UPDF.
The new directives came only two months after PCJSS chief Santu Larma declared a non-cooperation movement from May 2015 in which their arch-rivals, UPDF expressed solidarity for the first time. The consent scared the Bengali settlers, the army and the GoB. It is perceived that the army had floated the UPDF in 1998 as an opponent to the PCJSS that surrendered arms and sought peace.
A day after the UPDF split, the army chief visited camps in Bandarban in the CHT area after a long time. As per the 1997 Accord, there cannot be any temporary army camp in the region. But their presence, under Operation Uttoron, is justified by detaining PCJSS/UPDF members with arms, bombs, drugs etc. Since last year, the army has forced/convinced a number of national newspapers to write imaginary special reports on Buddhist terrorists of CHT and Myanmar’s Rakhine working together to liberate the region/to seek sovereignty.
It should be mentioned that the Bengalis have outnumbered the Paharis in all the three hill districts in the last 40 years and now the Bengalis live in the most developed areas, grab lands of the Paharis and enjoy impunity. Different government agencies also have occupied/acquired land at different times are poised to grab more since the CHT Land Resolution Commission has been kept idle since its inception. The GoB does not only seem less interested in removing the inconsistencies in some laws related to the CHT but also are reluctant while violating the existing laws to benefit the Bengalis.
The nexus of Bengali settlers and the army-BGB-police are spreading hatred against the Pahari peoples by all possible means – from implicating them in crimes to bullying for their lifestyle. The spread of militant activities in the CHT since 1980 has become a matter of concern as it was found that a banned Islamic extremist group had a training camp in Bandarban. It is also well known that the army and the BGB have been sheltering the Rohingya extremist groups of Myanmar in the remote areas of Bandarban.
Denial in identifying the CHT’s Paharis as adivasi or indigenous people, has remained a major problem. The current government and others in the past had used the term, as suggested by the United Nations to describe underprivileged ethnic communities who maintain their culture and
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heritage, but stopped using it since the 15th Amendment to the Constitution in June, 2011 where the term ‘ethnic minorities’ was replaced with tribe or Upojati.
Recent incident of Romel Chakma’s death and Langadu attack have once again up-roared media attention especially for social networks. The situation in CHT has turned very volatile, at this moment, after the army – for the first time in recent years – was accused of torturing Romel Chakma, an HSC examinee linked to UPDF’s student wing in Naniar char of Rangamati, which led to his death after two weeks in Chittagong Medical College Hospital on the 19th April, 2017.
The army has not responded to the National Human Rights Commission’s letter asking for explanations on Romel’s detention but falsely claimed to the police that Romel had fallen from a hill and was hit by a speeding CNG auto rickshaw when chased by an army patrol team near T&T Bazar in the night of the 5th April. The army has also implicated Romel with two incidents of arson and loot of transports to justify the detention and interrogation.
Witnesses and Romel’s father Binoy Kanti Chakma said that he had been picked up by the army – in violation of the law and special rules that require joint forces to conduct raids and arrests – from Naniar char Bazar in the morning. According to case documents, Romel was taken to the police station at 12:30am on April 6 – more than 12 hours later after his detention.
At that time, Romel was so sick that the police had refused to take his responsibility and advised the army’s representative, Warrant Officer, Maznur Rahman, to take him to the upazilla health complex. Documents at the hospital say that Romel had been treated there from 2am to 3:30am.
CMCH police outpost record book reads that critically injured (reason stroke out) Romel (wrongly spelt Royal) was admitted there at 7:10am.
The NHRC has confirmed that law enforcers were present during the treatment of the youth in different wards of the CMCH until his death. They gave the army one month to come up with a reply but the matter became insignificant after the arson attack on three Pahari peoples’ villages of Langadu in Rangamati on the 2nd June where the army and the police played the role of instigators instead of preventing the mayhem.
The NHRC in its report has asked the GoB to probe the involvement of army personnel in the arson attack and take due action against the culprits to regain trust. It has also been suggested to search for the reason why the intelligence had failed to predict the attacks and to take necessary actions against those responsible.
In the case of communal attack on the Pahari people of Langadu in Rangamati on the 2nd June, 2017, the NHRC has found out that the members of the army helped the Bengalis to torch the
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houses of the Paharis who had built resistance. It has also been discovered that the army and the local police had assured security to the Pahari people in the previous night when approached but they took no action to tame down the rowdy settlers and instead gave infuriating speech at a demonstration. Later when the Pahari political groups staged protests, the army and other forces swooped on them again.
Under the current circumstances, it is apparently clear that there is volatile situation persisting against the implementation of peace accord in the CHT in the near future. Attempts to implement the accord may make things worse as the GoBt and the armies are not willing to implement the CHT Accord and are trying to push the Paharis further behind.
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Chapter Four
Drawing the Curtains: Concluding Remarks