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Peace lies in roadmap

Hills people still unhappy over non-implementation of some vital provisions of1997 agreement

Staff Correspondent
twelve years into signing a peace agreement that ended over two decades of armed struggle by the indigenous people of Chittagong Hill Tracts, the hills people are still dissatisfied over nonimplementation of some vital provisions.
After Awami League came to power this year, it immediately took a number of steps to implement the peace accord it had inked to end the conflict with the ethnic people that had started in the 1960s when Kaptai Dam had been built inundating thousands of acres of land of the indigenous communities.
Among the few steps the Awami League-led coalition government took was the formation of a taskforce to rehabilitate the indigenous people who had become refugees of the conflict. A committee to implement the accord was formed with Deputy Leader of the House Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury as the head. Chittagong Hill Tracts Development Board got an ethnic chairman instead of the military officer who had previously held the post
Even then, the indigenous people of the hills and their political organisation. Parbatiya Cattagram Jana Shanghati Samity (PCJSS), feel the progress on full implementation of the accord is too slow, especially in view of the long 12 years that have passed since its signing.
They feel that one of the main features of the 1997 accord - recognition of the hill tracts as a region inhabited by the indigenous people — still remains to be fulfilled, as Bangalees from the plain who were settled there after 1979 have not been removed from the region yet
The government in 1979 took a policy of sending plain land people to the hills by giving them lands and other facilities there as a neutralising strategy as the conflicts escalated. That subsequently reduced the indigenous population in the region from 97.5 percent in 1947 to only 51 percent now.
The situation deteriorated further as newer cluster villages of settlers were set up since the accord. Even in 2007 during the caretaker government s tenure, over 200 Bangalee families were freshly resettled in Datkupa of Khagrachhari.
The hills people also feel unhappy over the nonactivation of Chittagong Hill Tracts Regional Council and the three Hill District Councils set up following the agreement
Those councils are supposed to get control over 33 aspects of governance including vital issues like law and order, and land management, which have not been handed over to them. The district administration and police authorities still control those and sometimes ignore the councils, indigenous leaders alleged.
Resettlement of the displaced indigenous people -who had fled homes and either crossed the border or went deeper into the forest as the conflict had begun - has been one of the thorniest issues since Shanti Bahini. the armed group of the hills people, laid down arms. A land commission was set up to resettle the refugees, but its functioning has tailed to please the ethnic communities.
The ethnic people traditionally would occupy three kinds of lands -- lands with proper ownership records; lands without ownership records; and jhum lands which also have no
records.
Much of those lands were later distributed among the settlers from the plain, and the indigenous population wants a proper settlement of the land disputes. However, they resent the decision of the land commission for starting a cadastral survey before settling the disputes, as that would lead to recording of lands in disputed persons' names.
The workings of the land commission have also irked the ethnic people. They feel that the commission should make decisions on any issue on the basis of unanimous consensus. But the commission chairman is empowered to make decisions arbitrarily in case of a lack of that consensus. The Jhummo people feel the Land Dispute Settlement Act should be changed to stop such practice, and the regional council already recommended an amendment to that end in May. But efforts in that direction are yet to be seen.
Moreover, although the indigenous refugees received financial packages for rehabilitation. about 9,000 families out of a total 12,000 have not got their lands back.
A deep resentment also prevails about the lingering presence of temporary army camps in the hills, which were supposed to be withdrawn after the peace accord. The withdrawal of camps started soon after the accord was signed, but then it halted, and only recently, after Awami League came to power. 35 camps were withdrawn.
Figures also significantly vary about the total number of camps wrapped up. PCJSS, the political party of the hills people, claims it only knows of a total of 31 camps that have been wrapped up in the last eight years while the government figures put it at 200. Even according to that estimate, 300 other camps still exist
Against such a backdrop, Mongal Kumar Chakma. information and publicity secretary of PCJSS, said, "Over a decade has passed since the signing of the accord, but the political, social and economic rights of the Jhummo people have not been established due to nonimplementation of the peace deal We need a road map from the government."
Similar views were voiced by Goutam Dewan, former chairman of Rangamati Local Government Council
Without full implementation of the peace accord, the problems of the hill tracts will never be solved," he said adding, "We can see a positive sign after the new government took over."