23 Yrs of Peace Accord: CHT still plagued by myriad ills

The hills have remained restive due to land disputes, extortion, killings and feuds between and within the region's political parties 23 years into the peace accord in the Chittagong Hill Tracts.

Officials and a section of locals blame this on regional political groups trying to establish supremacy in the hill tracts. Rights organisations and another section of locals, meanwhile, see the treaty not being fully implemented as the reason.

They also said when the peace accord was signed, people of the hilly districts of Rangamati, Khagrachhari and Bandarban thought their lives would change for the better and the bloodshed would come to an end.

"The core issues of the treaty were not implemented. That's why frustration among people of the hills is growing and the law and order situation is deteriorating," Sanjeeb Drong, general secretary of Bangladesh Adivasi Forum, told The Daily Star.

He said implementation of the provisions of the peace accord would improve the law and order situation and also reduce the frustration.

When asked about the violence by armed groups in the hilly districts, he said, "It is the responsibility of the law enforcement agencies to check it."

There has been a spate of killings -- 115 -- since the start of 2019 till October this year, along with 49 abductions during the same period, according to information obtained from the security forces and various intelligence agencies.

Most of the people killed were members of the four regional parties -- Parbatya Chattagram Jana Sanghati Samiti (PCJSS Santu Larma faction), PCJSS (MN Larma faction), United People's Democratic Front (UPDF) and UPDF (democratic).

According to law enforcement officials and intelligence agencies, hundreds of armed youths working for the factions of the two main parties -- PCJSS and UPDF -- are responsible for crimes like killings, extortion and abduction in the three hilly districts of Rangamati, Khagrachhari and Bandarban.

An attack on a member of one group is met with retaliation from the rival faction with no one ever claiming responsibility, said locals and intelligence agencies.

This violence has put the lives of 16 lakh people of the CHT -- comprising 13,189sq km and home to 11 ethnic communities -- in danger.

Rangamati district Superintendent of Police (SP) Md Alamgir Kabir said the problem with prosecuting these crimes -- murder, abduction or extortion -- is that there are no witnesses.

"The conviction rate is hardly satisfactory because of the lack of witnesses. They are always afraid to testify," he said.

He said the hilly terrain was a barrier since some of the witnesses would have to come forward from remote areas of Rangamati.

"Language barrier is another problem. But the main problem is fear of reprisal," he said, adding that locals are scared of saying anything on record about extortion and atrocities of the political cadres.

"On the surface the hill tracts would seem to be peaceful and you will never see extortion up front since everything is done through mobile money transactions," said a Chakma businessman at Shuvolong Bazar.

He said if anyone disclosed details of the transactions, they would surely face serious reprisals.

According to intelligence sources, the hill districts generate about Tk 300-400 crores in extortion yearly.

They said from January 2019 to September 2020, a total of 105 extortionists were arrested by law enforcement agencies and more than Tk 40 lakh was recovered.

"They change their methods frequently, which makes it difficult to trace them. Now they carry out online transactions, which are even harder to trace. A cyber-crime unit of police is working here to monitor them," SP Kabir said.

Former state minister for Chittagong Hill Tracts Affairs Dipankar Talukdar said the four armed groups are basically the "extortionists".

"The negative attitude of the PCJSS are the barrier for implementation of the peace accord treaty. Armed groups have to surrender the illegal arms to smoothen the implementation of the peace accord," he told The Daily Star.

Contacted, Rangamati Deputy Commissioner (DC) AKM Mamunur Rashid said intra-party conflicts of the regional groups to establish supremacy is the reason for killings and extortion in the hilly areas.

This correspondent tried to contact PCJSS and UPDF for their comments but could not reach any of their members. An e-mail was sent to PCJSS, but there was no reply.

The peace accord was signed on December 2, 1997 between the PCJSS and the Bangladesh government.