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CHT peace punctured by rival gunshots

PINAKI ROY, back from CHT
A new spate of violence between rival tribal outfits has shattered the hopes of peace in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) in the wake of a historic peace pact.
Since the 1997 peace accord, clashes between the Parbatya Chattagram Jana Sanghati Samity (PCJSS) and the United People's Democratic Front (UPDF) has claimed more than 100 lives and
injured many more on the hilly terrain.
Several hundred people have also been abducted by rival activists in their simmering political hostility.
The CHT Peace Agreement signed between the past Awami League government and the PCJSS in 1997 brought an apparent end to decades of bloodshed in the three hill districts that constitute the CHT.
In the latest incident of violence, an alleged armed group of the PCJSS torched a UPDF office at Shawnirvar in Khagrachhari and abducted two of its members on May 12.
Things started going wrong when some activists of the then Pahari Chhatra Parishad decried the peace deal at the dawn of its signing branding it an instrument of robbing the hills people of their rights. They put up the UPDF to oppose the peace pact and push forward their five-point demand that included full autonomy for the CHT, pullback of the armed forces and withdrawal of Bangalee settlers from the hill districts.
The group firmly believes that without total implementation of its demand the fate of hills people would not change.
On the other hand, the PCJSS that believes peace in the CHT lies in unqualified implementation of the peace deal is carrying on negotiations with the government for its actualisation.
Meanwhile, mainstream political parties either sat on the fence or gave lip service to the vital national issue.
The Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), the leader of the ruling four-party alliance, stood in a fog. While Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh, a constituent of the coalition, stuck to its earlier position that the agreement was anti-constitutional.
The key opposition party, the Awami League (AL), believes that only the realisation of the pact can bring peace to the battered terrain, but it has not virtually raised its voice for its implementation.
Meanwhile, the PCJSS locked its horns with the UPDF and continued to swap blames for the raging violence in the CHT. Their thorny ties are characterised by mutual disbe-
lief, mistrust and hatred.
Before the signing of the pact, all the tribal outfits had joined forces in the fight against government forces and Bangalee settlers.
"After the signing of the agreement, Bangalee settlers are safe in the hill districts. The tribal people are fighting among themselves now," said a government official posted to CHT, requesting anonymity.
The PCJSS now control much of Rangamati district while the UPDF commands considerable clout in Khagrachhari. The activities of both organisations are limited in Bandarban district.
"Their actions will bring no good to the nation. They are enlisting help from the BNP and the government and working against the interest of the hills people," said Rupayan Dewan, vice-president of the PCJSS.
A top UPDF leader in Khagrachhari, however, dismissed the PCJSS leader's claim.
"They could not give the tribal people anything, they don't have any vision. They have no following among the young generation," he said, requesting anonymity.
"Full autonomy of the CHT is our ultimate goal, we will fight to achieve it," he said.
"Nothing can budge us from our position and we are not fearful of the vassals of the government," he said.