THE London-based human rights organisation Amnesty international yesterday, 23 May, released its annual report. The document - Amnesty International Report 2007 - is the group's annual assessment of human rights country-by-country. It is available on its website at http://thereport.amnesty.org/eng/Homepage.
As soon as it was put on the website, I enthusiastically downloaded a copy and took a quick look on it. I typed “Chittagong Hill Tracts” and clicked search, but to my utter surprise and dismay failed to find any entry. Then I went through the Bangladesh chapter to try to find if the word “minority” was mentioned. But I was disappointed again. To be honest, I find it quite intriguing, because even lesser known (not in negative sense) Uighur community in China, national minorities of Myanmar and Hmongs of Laos have found special mention in the report. Kashmir and Tibet have also been dealt with adequately. Only the poor Chittagong Hill Tracts is missing!
Then, does it suggest that there have been no incidents of human rights violations in 2006 in the Chittagong Hill Tracts? Has peace at long last descended on the repressed hills? Far from it. Despite the CHT treaty of 1997, human rights violations continue unabated. The aim is to suppress the dissenting voices offered by UPDF and its associated organisations. The year 2006 has been no exception. Political repression reached a high pitch in that year. An incident will best illustrate the deterioration of the human rights situation in CHT.
On 5 March 2006, security forces led by one Captain Zahid entered into Khagrachari District Court without permission from the sitting judge. Captain Zahid took away two Jummas Shuchil Kanti Chakma and Kamala Ranjan Chakma, who were arrested from Mahalchari the previous day, out of court custody by force. He then photographed them after putting weapons in their hands. Khagrachari District Bar Association condemned the incident, but no action has been taken against the delinquent officer. (Cited in Delhi-based Asian Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Network’s report “Then and Now: Repression on the indigenous Jumma peoples of Bangladesh”).
Throughout the year arrests of innocent people, communal tension and land grabbing continued. In a remote village in Rangamati district, security personnel attacked a wedding party and shot dead the bridegroom. On 3 April, the Maischari settler attack took place. At least four Jumma women were raped and scores of innocent villagers wounded in that attack. The incident attracted national media attention and the Jumma people boycotted Boisabi festival in protest.
The CHT failed to attract AI attention in the past. In 1999 massive crackdown began on UPDF. Scores of its members and supporters were subjected to unlawful arrest and detention. In one single incident in Chittagong 45 UPDF members and sympathizers including Prof. Anu Muhammad of Jahangirnagar University and Bangladesh Chattra Federation leader Maruf Hassan Rumi were arrested and the founding anniversary programme of the Party was foiled by using brute force. On 22 April 1999, two persons were killed when the police opened fire indiscriminately on a peaceful rally of the Hill Peoples Council, a front organisation of the UPDF. On 16 October 1999, three Jummas were killed in a joint attack by Bangladesh security forces and the settlers in Babuchara under Khagrachari district. In yet another communal setter attack hundreds of Jumma houses were burnt down in Ramgarh. Many other cases of HR violations were reported throughout the year. And yet, the AI maintained complete silence. Since the CHT accord, the only incident that found a place in AI report of 2004 is the Mahalchari settler attack in which two Jummas died, ten Jumma women raped and hundreds of houses in 10 villages were burnt to ashes.
The deafening silence of Amnesty International is an ominous sign. It will definitely send a wrong signal to the government of Bangladesh. Further more, it has all the potential to encourage the security forces to continue to ride roughshod over the human rights of the Jumma people in CHT.
The war on terror has seized much of AI’s attention and its annual report 2007 has offered a scathing criticism of the most appalling human records of the world’s most powerful governments and rightly so. However, in doing so, the AI should not have forgotten the most vulnerable communities of the world.
As soon as it was put on the website, I enthusiastically downloaded a copy and took a quick look on it. I typed “Chittagong Hill Tracts” and clicked search, but to my utter surprise and dismay failed to find any entry. Then I went through the Bangladesh chapter to try to find if the word “minority” was mentioned. But I was disappointed again. To be honest, I find it quite intriguing, because even lesser known (not in negative sense) Uighur community in China, national minorities of Myanmar and Hmongs of Laos have found special mention in the report. Kashmir and Tibet have also been dealt with adequately. Only the poor Chittagong Hill Tracts is missing!
Then, does it suggest that there have been no incidents of human rights violations in 2006 in the Chittagong Hill Tracts? Has peace at long last descended on the repressed hills? Far from it. Despite the CHT treaty of 1997, human rights violations continue unabated. The aim is to suppress the dissenting voices offered by UPDF and its associated organisations. The year 2006 has been no exception. Political repression reached a high pitch in that year. An incident will best illustrate the deterioration of the human rights situation in CHT.
On 5 March 2006, security forces led by one Captain Zahid entered into Khagrachari District Court without permission from the sitting judge. Captain Zahid took away two Jummas Shuchil Kanti Chakma and Kamala Ranjan Chakma, who were arrested from Mahalchari the previous day, out of court custody by force. He then photographed them after putting weapons in their hands. Khagrachari District Bar Association condemned the incident, but no action has been taken against the delinquent officer. (Cited in Delhi-based Asian Indigenous and Tribal Peoples Network’s report “Then and Now: Repression on the indigenous Jumma peoples of Bangladesh”).
Throughout the year arrests of innocent people, communal tension and land grabbing continued. In a remote village in Rangamati district, security personnel attacked a wedding party and shot dead the bridegroom. On 3 April, the Maischari settler attack took place. At least four Jumma women were raped and scores of innocent villagers wounded in that attack. The incident attracted national media attention and the Jumma people boycotted Boisabi festival in protest.
The CHT failed to attract AI attention in the past. In 1999 massive crackdown began on UPDF. Scores of its members and supporters were subjected to unlawful arrest and detention. In one single incident in Chittagong 45 UPDF members and sympathizers including Prof. Anu Muhammad of Jahangirnagar University and Bangladesh Chattra Federation leader Maruf Hassan Rumi were arrested and the founding anniversary programme of the Party was foiled by using brute force. On 22 April 1999, two persons were killed when the police opened fire indiscriminately on a peaceful rally of the Hill Peoples Council, a front organisation of the UPDF. On 16 October 1999, three Jummas were killed in a joint attack by Bangladesh security forces and the settlers in Babuchara under Khagrachari district. In yet another communal setter attack hundreds of Jumma houses were burnt down in Ramgarh. Many other cases of HR violations were reported throughout the year. And yet, the AI maintained complete silence. Since the CHT accord, the only incident that found a place in AI report of 2004 is the Mahalchari settler attack in which two Jummas died, ten Jumma women raped and hundreds of houses in 10 villages were burnt to ashes.
The deafening silence of Amnesty International is an ominous sign. It will definitely send a wrong signal to the government of Bangladesh. Further more, it has all the potential to encourage the security forces to continue to ride roughshod over the human rights of the Jumma people in CHT.
The war on terror has seized much of AI’s attention and its annual report 2007 has offered a scathing criticism of the most appalling human records of the world’s most powerful governments and rightly so. However, in doing so, the AI should not have forgotten the most vulnerable communities of the world.
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