CHT peace accord not fully executed for lack of political goodwill
Santu Larma tells media in Rangamati
Chairman of Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) Regional Council (CHTRC) Jyotirindra Bodhipriya Larma yesterday said the CHT peace accord does not see full implementation due to lack of political goodwill among the policy makers in the government.
"Fifteen years into inking of the agreement, it could not be executed fully, and so, many problems have arisen in hills," Jyotirindra, who is popularly known as Santu Larma, told a press conference, on the eve of the 15th anniversary of the peace treaty, at the conference room of CHT Regional Council in Rangamati yesterday.
"CHT Regional Council cannot function well as relevant rules of business have not been fixed yet. Transferring matters like police, parjatan, secondary education under the three hill district councils (HDCs), as per the gazette published in 1998, cannot be done due to the reason. Elections in the HDCs and the Regional Council have remained held up too.
"The accord recognises CHT as a special region for indigenous people. But in realty, the culture of 14 indigenous communities living in hills since time immemorial is being destroyed gradually.
"Instead of recognising the indigenous people as such, the government created confusion about the identity of the jumma people through the 15th amendment of the constitution that termed us as small ethnic minorities," Santu said.
"We sent recommendations to the government to amend the contradictory provisions of CHT Land Dispute Resolution Commission Act 2001 but the government did nothing in this regard till date," he added.
Replying to a query, Larma said armed members of United People's Democratic Front (UPDF) are engaged in different crimes including murder, extortion, and abduction for ransom in the hills but the government is yet to respond to the call for banning it.
The CHT peace accord signed between the then AL government and the PCJSS on December 2 in 1997 put an end to two decades long insurgency in CHT region.
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