http://www.thedailystar.net/2003/11/23/d31123020229.htm
The newly surfaced controversy over the status of the chairman for an important
taskforce to expedite rehabilitation of the internal refugees of Hill Tracts
is one of the many hurdles in the path of implementing the peace treaty. Whether
the chairman should be given the status equivalent to a state minister, undermining
the deputy minister of the Hill Tracts Ministry, is an issue that should have
been sorted out before the prime minister's office gave a nod to the appointment
of the new chairman. As it is, the position was lying vacant for two long years
ever since the former chairman stepped down to take part in the general election
in 2001 putting all activities of the task force to a complete stop.
This along with delay in other significant aspects of the peace treaty can easily be attributed to the frustration that lead to an angry outburst by the tribal leader Santu Larma. He even threatened to bring the region to standstill unless their demands related to the peace treaty are met by the end of this year. Do we really want instability to return in the Chittagong Hill Tracts? In fact the frustrations and disappointments of last five years have led the tribal leaders to express their desire to go back to guerilla warfare. It's not so long ago when Santu Larma himself had said in public that signing the peace treaty was a 'mistake'.
The government must show total sincerity in implementation of the treaty. The
plights and rights of the tribal community must be addressed sooner. We can
assume that the ruling party either has accepted the treaty or they have serious
reservations about it. The latter doesn't hold water, especially since the prime
minister herself met the tribal leaders and pledged her total support to the
implementation of the treaty. Therefore we fail to understand why it has been
put on the back burner. The delay has divided the tribal leadership, illegal
arms are being recovered by security forces from the region, armed clashed between
the pro and anti treaty groups are frequent. We just hope that actions are taken
before the situation gets out of hand. We urge the government to give the issue
the seriousness that it deserves.