Even though 27 years have passed since the historic Chittagong Hill Tract (CHT) Accord was signed between the Bangladesh government and the Parbatya Chattagram Jana Samhati Samiti (PCJSS), the much-cherished political and peaceful solution to the CHT crisis has not been achieved yet as it has not been fully implemented. Instead, the successive governments have opted for the policy of repression and extinction of the Jumma entity in an undemocratic manner. As a result, the enormous possibility that was created for putting an end to the long-standing bloody conflicts and discrimination and, above all, establishing peace and development in the hill tracts, is falling at risk of getting foiled day by day.

Following the signing of the accord in 1997, five political governments and two caretaker governments have been in power, but none of them showed the political will in fully implementing the CHT Accord. The student-led mass uprising in July-August 2024 caused the downfall of the Sheikh Hasina government, following which the interim government led by Prof Muhammad Yunus was formed. This administration has been in power for almost four months, yet it has not taken any initiative in this regard either. To this date, two-thirds of the clauses of the accord, including the core issues, remain unimplemented.

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Can the interim govt make progress with the CHT Accord?

The Jumma people were in hope that the long-standing conflicts and violence in the CHT region would come to an end, that the accord would establish an imitable example of resolving a conflict peacefully. That in place of armed movement, mutual confidence, cooperation and tolerance would be achieved. That the Jumma people would not be subjected to enforced jailing, repression, harassment, arbitrary arrests and killings any more. That like the citizens living in other parts of the country, residents of the hill tracts would also enjoy the security of life. But it is a regrettable fact that due to non-implementation of the accord, the Jumma people have not yet achieved the secured life free from undemocratic and suppressive rule.

Rather, the CHT region continues to be ridden with conflicts, similar to how it was during the pre-accord period. In the post-accord period, the successive governments have applied aggression and forceful measures as means to handle the crisis. The security forces deputed in the CHT have been regulating the region, including general administration, law and order, judiciary, and the development programmes, through Operation Uttoron, which is serving as an obstruction to the introduction of a special governance system incorporating the three hill district councils with the CHT Regional Council atop.

A vested quarter within the government has been conducting various conspiracies and propaganda to criminalise the justified movement for full implementation of the CHT Accord. As a part of the mission, the fascist modus operandi includes identifying the right activists and people as "terrorists" and subjecting them to arbitrary arrest, extrajudicial killings, imprisonment under false charges, beatings, harassment, etc.

The government over the years has engaged in programmes that were counterproductive to the CHT Accord and against the interest of the Jumma people, and applied the colonial "divide and rule" policy to deal with the unruly and opportunist sections within the Jumma people, divided them into different armed groups, and incited them against the current movement of the Jumma people demanding the full implementation of the accord.

Indeed, a special vested quarter has been creating a formidable environment in the region by nurturing these armed groups and providing support while continuing with repressive measures upon the people in the name of dealing with the terrorists. Not only that, the government has been operating against the interest of the Jumma people by making use of the opportunists, power-hungry and greedy Jumma individuals affiliated with various national political parties, including the deposed Awami League.

In recent months, propaganda along the communal line has been intensified with a planned revival of communal hatred among the Indigenous Jumma people and the Bangalee people. Since the accord was signed, numerous communal attacks upon the Jumma people have taken place, including arson attacks on Indigenous homes and businesses by Bangalee people in Khagrachhari's Dighinala upazila in September, as well as clashes and mob beatings in Rangamati and Khagrachhari.

Instead of resolving the CHT crisis through peaceful, political means by fully implementing the CHT Accord, the authorities are employing a blueprint for the displacement of the Jumma people by utilising all possible means. As part of the whole, the development programmes include the conspiring acts of evicting the Jumma people from their ancestral lands and homesteads, breaking down their economic spine, and destroying biodiversity and the natural environment. Actions that pose a threat to the Indigenous culture and are counterproductive to the environment of CHT include the redesignation of reserve forest areas, leasing the traditional Jhum farming land and mouza land out to outsiders, establishing tourism centres via illegal occupation of traditional Jhum farming land, constructing border road, link roads and other infrastructures, establishing and expanding camps of the security forces, exploring for gas and oil resources, etc by destroying plantations and homes of the Jumma people.

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The twisted ‘facts’ of CHT Accord implementation

The Jumma people cherished a hope that the time-immemorial feature of the Jumma-inhabited region would be restored through the implementation of the CHT Accord. The national identity of Jumma people, their culture, language, customs and practices, etc would thereby be developed and preserved. With this, the multiracial, multicultural and multilingual characteristics of Bangladesh would be strengthened and firmly founded. Instead, the Jumma people's fate stands at risk of getting abolished in the absence of a fully functional CHT Accord.

Democratic governance of the CHT region can never be developed while one-tenth of the area remains under undemocratic rule. A happy, prosperous and peaceful Bangladesh is possible only when the inhabitants of CHT are released from repression. Indeed, through full implementation of the CHT Accord, the historic opportunity to resolve the crisis through political and peaceful means will be revived and the long-standing conflict and discrimination will come to an end. Hence, the inhabitants of CHT continue to hope that the interim government, led by Prof Yunus, will take the step to create a roadmap in order to speed up the full implementation of the CHT Accord.

Mangal Kumar Chakma is information and publicity secretary at Parbatya Chattagram Jana Samhati Samiti (PCJSS).

Views expressed in this article are the author's own.

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