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Hopes in the hills left unfulfilled

JS coming to an end without passing CHT land commission bill

Staff Correspondent
The rights of the indigenous people of the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) yet again remained ignored as the Awami League-led grand alliance government did not pass the CHT land disputes resolution commission bill, a key constituent of the 1997 Peace Accord.
Though a total of 37 bills were passed during the 19th session of the ninth parliament, the much talked about bill did not see any headway.
Since the 19th session, most likely the last of the current parliament, according to Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, ended on Wednesday, the indigenous people of the CHT will have to wait till the next parliament, provided that the next government shows its intent to settle the issue.
Without this amendment, the land rights of the indigenous people would not be established which threatens the full imple- mentation of the CHT Peace Accord, a promise Awami League made in the section 18 (ii) of its election manifesto in 2008.
AL's pledge made the indigenous people hopeful of establishing rights on their lands occupied by others upon the realisation of the treaty that ended two decades long bush war in the hill tracts. The BNP-Jamaat alliance directly opposed the accord when it was signed in 1997 and did not implement it while in power from 2001 to 2006.
Currently, the land dispute is the main reason behind the unrest in the CHT and a number of violent incidents including killing and arson attacks have taken place in the region recently.
The land disputes turned severe when a few thousand indigenous refugees returned home after the signing of the peace accord but did not get back their lands which were already allocated to others by the government. Besides, a vast area of land remains
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occupied by majority Bengali speaking people and different government agencies.
Indigenous leaders and rights activists say, around 70 percent land disputes will remain unresolved or out of the CHT land commission's jurisdiction if the act is not amended properly.
Six commissions have been formed since the Land Disputes Resolution Commission Act was passed in 2001 but none of them were functional as they were not empowered enough to resolve the land disputes in the region.
The AL-led government took initiatives to amend the act only a few months back and prepared the draft of the CHT Land Disputes Resolution Commission Act (Amendment) Bill 2013 containing 13 points of amendment agreed upon by indigenous leaders and an inter-ministerial committee. On June 16, the land ministry placed the bill in the parliament and the speaker sought opinion from the parliamentary standing committee on the ministry within seven days, a deadline never kept.
In several statements, the International Chittagong Hill Tracts Commission (CHTC) demanded that the government take the opportunity of fulfilling its own election pledge by implementing the peace accord.
However, the government turned a rather deaf ear to the demand and did not pass the bill and, thus, did not keep its promise.