Implement accord fully

Parbatya Chattagram Jana Samhati Samiti yesterday demanded full implementation of the Chittagong Hill Tracts Peace Accord for the sake of the existence of the hill people.

“The accord is a charter for safeguarding the existence of the people in the Chittagong Hill Tracts. If it is not implemented fully, their existence will be at stake,” PCJSS President Jyotirindra Bodhipriya Larma, popularly known as Santu Larma, said at a discussion at Hotel Sundarban in the capital.

The programme was organised on the occasion of the 19th anniversary of the signing of the CHT peace accord.

He said they would continue their “non-cooperation movement” based on their 10-point programmes aimed at ensuring full implementation of the accord.

The PCJSS, which launched the movement in 2014, demands that the government bring amendments to the Police Act, the CHT Regulation 1900 and other laws applicable to the CHT so that they are in conformity with the accord.

It is also pressing for withdrawal of all temporary camps from the CHT, formation of local hill district police force, rehabilitation of returnee Jumma refugees, proper resolution of land disputes, and relocation of Bangalee settlers and their proper rehabilitation outside the CHT.

The PCJSS president said they don't know how the government would react to their movement in the future, but he warned that if the government uses force or try to thwart it, the situation in the CHT wouldn't remain the same.

He came down heavily on State Minister for CHT affairs Bir Bahadur Ushwe Sing and Secretary Nabo Bikram Kishor Tripura, and termed them agents of the government.

Prof Mesbah Kamal of Dhaka University said the government is not sincere in implementing the accord fully.

The government doesn't have the political will, which is necessary to implement the accord. This political will needs to be created through a political movement, he added.

Mujahidul Islam Selim, president of the Communist Party of Bangladesh, said if frustration and anger continue to grow in the CHT, it would create an unexpected situation.

Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal President Sharif Nurul Ambia said that not only the people in the CHT, but people all over the country would have to unite to solve the problems in the CHT.

The discussion was addressed also by Oikya Nap President Pankaj Bhattacharya, International CHT Commission Member Sara Hossain, Bangladesh Indigenous Peoples Forum General Secretary Sanjeeb Drong and PCJSS Organising Secretary Shakti Pada Tripura.