& çâÌæÚUæð´ ·¤è ¥ôÚU Îð¹Ùæ ÁæÚUè ÚU¹ð´ ¥ÍæüÌ ¥ÂÙð ÜÿØ ÂÚU ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´Ð ãæÚU Ù ×æÙð´, €UØô´ç·¤ ·¤æ× ·¤ÚUÙð âð ¥æÂ·¤ô ©gðàØ ·¤è Âýæç# ãôÌè ãñ ¥õÚU ÁèßÙ ·¤æ ¹æÜèÂÙ ÎêÚU ãôÌæ ãñÐ ÖÜð ãè ÁèßÙ ×ð´ ç·¤ÌÙè Öè ·¤çÆÙæ§ü €UØô´ Ù ¥æ°, çÁ™ææâæ ¥õÚU ©ˆâæã ÕÙæ° ÚU¹ð´Ð ŠØæÙ ÚU¹ð´, ÜÿØ ã×ðàææ ¥æÂ·Ô¤ Âæâ ãôÌð ãñ´ çÁ‹ãð´ ÂæÙð ·Ô¤ çÜ° ÂýØæâ ¥æÂ ·¤Öè Öè àæéM¤ ·¤ÚU â·¤Ìð ãñ´Ð

Signing in next meet: Ceasefire till Dec 31

Draft CHT accord prepared

By Special Correspondent
The draft of an agreement to end the decades-old Insurgency in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) has been prepared after four days of intensive negotiations between the National Committee on Chittagong Hill Tracts (NCCHT) and the Parba-ttya Chattagram Jana Sanghati Samity (PCJSS).
"We have prepared a draft agreement and we are going to initial the agreement in the next meeting after discussion with my colleagues.’ PCJSS chairman Jyotirindrlyo Bod-hipriya Larma alias Shantu Larma told newsmen yesterday at state guest house Padma at the end of the fourth days’ talks
Larma. however, did not say when or where the next meeting would take place.
NCCHT Convenor Abul Hasnat Abdullah stood beside the chief of the PCJSS whose
military wing. Shantibahini. has been waging a bush-war in the CHT demanding self-rule.
The PCJSS supremo also announced that the ceasefire in the CHT in force since August 1992 had been extended till December 31. It was scheduled to expire on September 30.
"I cannot say anything now", Larma said when asked whether he was happy with the draft. Despite urgings from newsmen on the porch of the guest house, he declined to add more He appeared debonair in a smartly tailored olive-green safari suit but maintained his composure when he arrived at the porch along with his host Abdullah at 7:40 pm.
The four days of negotiations were dominated by the thorny issues of land management, removal of the settlers from their hearths to khas
lands and withdrawal of security forces from their temporary camps, scattered across the CHT.
The two sides had been haggling also on the authority of the proposed Regional Council to oversee the administration, levy taxes and run the affairs of the CHT under a Chairman, enjoying the status of a state minister.
Though details were not given during the brief press appearance by the two leaders, preceded by no official briefing, sources said the breakthrough' had been achieved when the government side assured the PCJSS of the formation of a commission headed by a High Court Judge to survey the lands in the CHT and arbitrate in dis-Butes on mortgaged lands, nder the draft accord, the government side offered that there
would not be fresh lease of holdings in the CHT. where all lands have been categorised in four types.
The categories are: Privately owned lands, leased holdings, mortgaged lands and those under Jhum or slash-and-burn farming practice.
The Land Commission will take over the mortgaged lands after settlement between the two sides, this had been one of the main obstacles to the land management policy offered by the government as the tribal people had complained that their lands had been mortgaged due to poverty and taken by the settlers, the sources pointed out.
After a permanent ceasefire, the land survey will begin to assess the position of lands in the CHT. Besides, the government will speed up the resettlement of some 43,000 tribal refugees when they return to the CHT from their camps in Tripura. India. They have been staying there since 1986. The settlers will be resettled on khas lands in the CHT. The government will help build houses for the returnees who are homeless and the settlers. The members of the Shantibahini will be resettled when they lay down their arms.
The CHT Development Board and other organisations will provide Jobs to them and the refugees. Different international relief organisations will be urged to help resettlement of the refugees.
But, one source said, the issue of authority of the Regional Council was still to be settled. The PCJSS agreed on the structure of the council but had reservations on the authority of the council to levy taxes, run the administration and police. They want it as an autonomous body. The government package offered to them provides authority to appoint police officials up to tne level of sub-inspectors.
Neither Larma nor Abdullah offered any chance to newsmen seeking details of the draft accord.
Larma and his six-member delegation, including his phy-
sician. were flown to the city by a military helicopter on Sunday.
They are returning sometime this morning to their temporary headquarters at Duduk-chhara, a tiny frontier hamlet in Khagrachhari near the border with Tripura.
According to reports reaching Dhaka, hundreds of tribal people had been gathering there to meet the insurgents who camped there prior to arrival of the PCJSS high command.
Larma is likely to address the gathering when he reaches there today, giving a summary of the draft. He goes back to his headquarters, believed to be in Bishnupur in southern Tripura sometime Friday.
The security forces camps will be reactivated three days after departure of the PCJSS high command and their security personnel from the Shantibahini.
The talks that ended yesterday were the sixth round in the current series of negotiations since the Awami League-led government reconstituted the NCCHT in October last year and Invited the PCJSS for resumption of talks.
The talks this time were the 25th in the aeries since formal negotiations began in October.