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By Mrinal Kanti Chakma
April 1999
2nd December, 1997 was the day of joy and hope for the Jummas of Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT). The jubilant crowd welcome the Shanti Bahini, the armed wing of the Jana Samhati Samiti (JSS) for signing the peace agreement with the government of Bangladesh on this day. However, the simple minded indigenous people and most of the population of Bangladesh were yet to know the content of the accord. Because, due to some reasons or other there was not any open discussion on it before signing of the peace accord.
So, as soon as the content of the accord came into public, apart form the jubilant modes of the signatory parties two types of reactions were observed. The opposition parties of the Awami League government like Bangladesh National Party (BNP), Jatiya Party and Jamate-islami etc. of the dominant Bengalis felt that too much concession had been given to the indigenous peoples of Chittagong Hill Tracts. So they launched program against the accord, organized demonstrations and strikes and blamed the Awami League government for "selling out the sovereignty and interest" of the country and demanded denouncement of the accord. On the other hand Hill Peoples Council (HPC), Hill Student Federation (HSF) and Hill Women Federation (HWF), three over ground organization of the indigenous people who were once associated with JSS felt that the rights provided in the 'peace accord' are too little in comparison to sacrifice done by the indigenous people in two decades long war. So this trio-group raised their demand for "Total Autonomy" and started blaming the JSS for making a "compromise deal" with the government and selling out the faith, bloods and tears of the indigenous Jumma People at a low rate.
10th February, '98 was the day of a mega-event in the history of the Chittagong Hill Tracts. The venue of the event was the stadium of Khagrachari, the administrative centre of the northern district of CHT where the first batch of 739 armed Jumma fighters surrendered their arms in presence of the Prime Minister of Bangladesh. Suddenly, the event became a flash point of national and international news and it was telecast through out the globe by the dominant media like BBC and CNN. National media of Bangladesh projected the event as the highest achievement of the government. The event was described as an end of conflict and a beginning of a new era of peace, stability and development of the CHT. But what had not been telecast was the demonstration of anger, frustration and the reasons of the above mentioned trio-group of the indigenous people who were against this accord. Perhaps they were considered as minority in this mega-event hence kept in the sideline.
But after this mega-event of surrendering the arms and much publicized campaign of peace and development, gradually the hope of durable peace and stability dried up form the mind of the indigenous people as the government followed the tactics of "go slow" approach in regard to implementation of the accord. It had been observed that the government intentionally delayed process of passing the 'CHT Bills' in the parliament, releasing the JSS members form jail, withdrawal of army camps, rehabilitation of the refugees and the JSS members in their homestead and restoration their land rights, taking legal steps to withdraw the different cases framed against the JSS members at different period of time etc. As these demands were committed for implementation in written in the peace agreement (of course with out any time frame!) so it was a general expectation that the government would take necessary steps to realize its commitment sharply as a gesture of good political will from its part to resolve the conflict permanently. In fact the government did nothing except giving out a meagre amount of taka fifty thousand to each JSS family and providing shelter to the senior JSS members in the government guest house and supplying the minimum rationing to the JSS members in the first six months. From the report of JSS internal source it was also observed that at this stage the members of the JSS began to face confrontation with the government representatives at various meetings in regard to interpretation of different terms and conditions of the accord. So the JSS was left with no option but to follow a policy of persuasion in the domestic front and appealing to the international human rights groups and supportive governments to create pressure upon the Bangladesh government for proper implementation of the accord. In a situation like this, the JSS faced another big blow when the 'CHT Bills' were introduced in the parliament six months after signing of the accord. To their utter surprise they had found so many points inconsistent with the already signed accord in these introduced 'CHT Bills' and felt the desperate attempt of the government to curtail down the rights of the indigenous people to an enormous scale by playing with 'words, dots, or, and etc.'. All these made them more suspicious about the political will of the government hence, they started launching their campaign program by sending out appeal letters through their network. But with the on set of the monsoon in '98 in Bangladesh, the country of natural calamities faced another disaster. About 70% of its total land surface became inundated in an unprecedented flood which continued to rage for more than one and half months. Naturally, this flood robbed the international attention of Bangladesh in another direction and the issue of CHT remained in the sideline of the media focus. So their appeal did not work as effectively as they thought. After the improvement of the flood situation however the political impasse between the JSS and the government on formation of the expected "Regional Council" continued which led to an almost stalemate situation in the later stage. Series of meetings held from October '98 to February '99 between the JSS leadership and the CHT affairs minister Mr. kalpa Ranjan Chakma and his team failed to bring out any solution of this political impasse.
By this time the trio-group of the HPC, HSC, and HWF launched their extensive campaign for their political support mobilization and became successful to some extent by establishing network at grass root level. As a campaign tactic they began to explain the limitations, constraints and vulnerability of the accord. They also followed the tactic of exposition of corruption and excess done by a few JSS members at their individual level in their insurgency life and tried to capitalize on this. Thus the JSS began to face a competition in political support mobilization in favour of the agreement. In a situation like this two well known supporters of the trio-group Mr. Kusum Prio Chakma and Mr. Prabir Lal Chakma were killed brutally in day light by some unknown miscreant (assailant were reported as wearing mask). This became a sensational issue within and outside CHT which tilted the support in favour of the trio-group. Not only that the 'delaying tactic' of the government, the campaign of BNP and its allies for denouncement of the accord and presence of military in the CHT as before even after signing of the accord, non returning of the lands of the Jumma refugees to their rightful owners deepened the sense of insecurity among the Jummas which also contributed to a great extent in gaining popularity for a further movement among the younger generation of the Jummas. At this stage this trio-group felt confident enough to form a political party and came out with a open declaration of forming a new political party named United Peoples Democratic Front (UPDF) at the end of the meeting of their representatives held from 25-26, December '98 at 'Teacher-Student Centre' of Dhaka University.
At this stage the JSS is left with no option except coming into a term with the government on accepting the Regional Council. It has been reported that the leader of JSS, Mr. Santu Larma is now touring the CHT districts for an assessment survey of his supporters regarding acceptance of the Regional Council. Hopefully an announcement will be made from JSS side on this matter at the end of this month after consultation with his support groups. If JSS come into agreement with government in a case like that, there is every possibility of mounting pressure upon members of the newly form parties of the UPDF. The sign of this crack down is already visible in the form arrest and killings of their members by the police in the last few days. So far the policy of the government was putting one Jumma group against the other and follow the conventional colonial policy of divide and rule and also weaken the JSS support. At the end, now if JSS come into term with government than obiviously the next target will be the UPDF members who still dare to defy the government policy.
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End note : It is not that Proshit & Sanchay, the leaders of the newly formed
UPDF enjoy support of all the Jumma students. A section of the student also
support the JSS known as pro-peace accord group.
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(c)Japan CHT Committee
Contact us: jcchti@alles.or.jp