Call for action to stop violence in Chittagong Hill Tracts

 

Ansar Ahmed Ullah:

 

Jumma Peoples Network UK, in association with Amnesty International, Survival International, and Friends of CHT organised a peaceful demonstration at the UK Parliament Square in London on Saturday, 19th October, against the recent violent communal attacks on the Indigenous Jumma peoples by Bengali settlers in the presence of state forces in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, Bangladesh.

Speakers at the protest shared details of the harrowing effects of the violence on 1st October in Khagrachari, which followed on from earlier violent attacks on 18, 19 and 20 September in Dhighinala, Khagrachari and Rangamati.

Among the speakers were Ujjaini Roy, Jeremy Allen, Ombaashi Grech Cato, Rumana Hashim and Noel Hume.

Ujjaini Roy, from JPNUK, condemned the recent barbaric attacks and expressed concern at the government’s failure to protect the indigenous Jumma community.

Jeremy Allen, the country coordinator for Bangladesh at Amnesty International, UK shared his experience of living and working in Bandarban. and said he witnessed land grabbing and attacks on women. He further said, “Amnesty International calls on the government of Bangladesh to immediately end mob violence and work to prevent further escalation of violence in the area”

Ombaashi Grech Cato from Friends of CHT said, “On Sunday, 6 October, Venerable Sraddhalankar Mahathera, President of the Chittagong Hill Tracts Combined Bhikkhu Sangha, announced that due to the threat to the life of the ongoing conflict, it is too dangerous to hold Kathin Chibor Dan festivities this year. The most important festival for the majority Buddhist Indigenous Jumma Peoples has been cancelled in all three Hill Districts of Rangamati, Bandarban and Khagrachari”.

“Most recently, the Interim administration in Dhaka announced the formation of six reform commissions, including on the National Constitution, the Electoral System, Public Administration and Judiciary. No Indigenous Jumma representative has been invited to join any of these commissions”.

Dr Rumana Hashem, a Bangladeshi born sociologist, who conducted her PhD on gender violence in pre and post conflict in the CHT stated that she was shocked to learn about the recent rapes against indigenous Jumma women in Khagrachari and Bandarban on 1st October and 18th October respectively. She mentioned that her research findings showed gender violence has increased in Chittagong Hill Tracts because of militarisation and inter-ethnic conflict. She also added that she finds it outrageous that the indigenous Jumma peoples have been re-constructed as small minority ethnic tribes in a country where they have lived

since time immemorial.

At the end of the demonstration, Ujjaini Roy, Jeremy Allen, Dharmapriya Sraman, Ombashi Grech Cato and Valentine Harding handed in the petition addressed to the British Prime Minister Keir Starmer at 10 Downing St.