The XIII General Assembly of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organisation (UNPO) held on 26-28 June 2017 in Edinburgh, Scotland has, among others, adopted member resolution of Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) urging for fullest implementation of CHT Accord of 1997 in its letter and spirits. The UNPO also called upon the Government of Bangladesh for declaring a timeline (roadmap) for speedy and proper implementation of the CHT Accord giving priority to devolution of authority to the CHT Regional Council and three Hill District Councils, resolution of land disputes, withdrawal of all temporary camps and de facto military rule ‘Operation Uttoron’ from CHT, relocation of government-sponsored Bengali settlers outside the CHT, among others.
The UNPO’s General Assembly takes place every 18-24 months and is the organisation’s most important meeting, since all UNPO Members gather from all around the world to discuss the past and future activities and strategies of the organisation, in addition to electing the organisation’s 8-member Presidency. A total of twenty-four Members’ delegations coming from different continents around the globe who attended the assembly. The XIII General Assembly elected Mr Nasser Boladai (West Balochistan) as President of UNPO and Mr. Abdirahman Mahdi (Ogaden) and Mr Dolkun Isa (World Uyghur Congress) as The Vice-Presidents. The other members of the Presidency are from Afrikaner, Brittany, District of Columbia, Iranian Kurdistan, Khmer Krom, Oromo, Taiwan, Tibet.
From Chittagong Hill Tracts, Ushatan Talukder, MP and Vice President of PCJSS and Pranati Bikash Chakma, General Secretary of PCJSS attended the event. The XIII General Assembly adopted different member-resolution including Chittagong Hill Tracts.
UNPO General Assembly 2017
UNPO’s member resolution on CHT said, after a long struggle, the indigenous Jumma people compelled the government of Bangladesh to engage in negotiations which resulted in the signing the ‘CHT Accord’ on 2nd December 1997 in order to resolve the CHT crisis through political and peaceful means. However, the main issues of the CHT Accord, such as, preservation of tribes-inhabited characteristics of the region; devolution of effective authority to the CHT Regional Council and three Hill District Councils, resolution of land disputes; withdrawal of all temporary camps and de facto military rule and ‘Operation Uttoton’ for demilitarization of the region; rehabilitation of returnee Jumma refugees and internally Jumma displaced families; amendment of all the other laws applicable to CHT including the Police Act, Police Regulation and CHT Regulation 1900 to make them in conformity with the Accord; rehabilitation of Bengali settlers outside CHT with dignity etc. are yet to be done.
UNPO also uttered that after 15 years of intensive lobbying and campaigning demanding for the amendment of these contradictory provisions of the Act, the government has amended contradictory provisions of the CHT Land Dispute Resolution Commission Act 2001 in the Parliament on 6 October 2016. But the CHT Land Commission could not start its functions for resolution of land disputes due to lack of adequate funding, staff and office set-up. The government is yet to allocate adequate funding, approve adequate manpower and set up two sub-offices in the Rangamati and Bandarban districts. The Rules of Business of the Commission has not been finalised to this today. The CHT Regional Council submitted a draft Rules of Business to the government on 1 January 2017, but no substantial progress has been made in finalizing and approving it. It would be difficult for the Commission to start processing cases relating to land disputes as well as adjudicating them without the Rules of Business.
UNPO expressed its concern by saying that because of the lack of implementation of the CHT Accord, human rights situation in the CHT is worsening very sharply. Land grabbing, violent communal attacks, violence against indigenous women and girls committed by Bengali settlers, in most cases in collusion with security forces are common in the CHT; and in those cases, the perpetrators enjoy absolute impunity. Increasing massive political migration of the outsiders continues, and religious militancy is now in alarming scale in the CHT. With support of the civil and military administration, racist Bengali settlers’ group are active with their hatred against the process of the implementation of the CHT Accord and indigenous Jumma peoples.