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THE CHITTAGONG HILL TRACTS: REFUGE AND REFUGEES

Migration and Military Occupation in CHT

Suresh Chakma, a 78-year-old cultivator, told me:

"It was better for us when the British were here. We were protected by special rules. Even under Pakistan it was better we were independent. When the CHI became part of Bangladesh, everything was taken. These hills that were once the land of Jumma aren't for us now. Slowly the Bengalis have taken over everything."

In 1971, after the Bangladesh Liberation War resulted in Bangladesh's independence, the Jummas hoped for political recognition and some form of autonomy within the state of Bangladesh. Instead, between 1974 and 1984, the government brought 400,000 Muslim Bengali settlers & on the plains into CHT an area with little cultivatable land remaining after the construction of the Kaptai Dam. The government stationed the major part of the Bangladesh army in CHT. This military occupation of CHI has obstructed political and economic development and resulted in gross human rights abuses. There have been 11 major massacres in CHI since the late 1970s. Thousands of Jummas have been killed, as reported by Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and Survival International. Manushi Chakma told me what happened in her village:

"When the Bengalis arrived, they were accompanied by the army. They directed us to leave the village. Otherwise, they said, there would be trouble. They said that Bengali families would be moving onto our land, that the land didn't belong to us anymore. They were pointing guns at us.... Some of my neighbors said they wouldn't leave. Many of them were killed when the Bengalis took over our village."

In the mid 1980s, a tribal resistance group called Shanti Bahini started fighting back against the Bengali settlers and the army. Horrific counterattacks ensued. Throughout the 1980s and 1990s, there were many reports of killings, torture, rape, arson, forced relocation, and cultural and religious oppression of the Jummas. As many as 55,000 Jummas fled over the border into northeast India.

For many people, the experience of fleeing from attacks was often as harrowing as the assaults. Kamini Chakma, a middle-aged cultivator, recalled his escape following the attack on his village in 1986:

"We had to run through the jungle for days with no food or water. The army chased us; we saw people being killed.... there were cut-up bodies everywhere. I left our village with my wife, but we had to split up and travel separately. My son was at school at the time of the attack, and we couldn't find him.... It took seven days for me to reach the refugee camp in Tripura. l searched for my wife and son.... Eventually I found someone who told me my wife had died of exhaustion before she reached the border of India. I kept up my search for my son. I heard stories of the school being burned down and students and teachers and Buddhist monks being killed, but still I kept hope I would find my son. Today, I am still waiting for news about him."

The 1997 CHT Peace Accord: Broken Promises

The 1997 Peace Accord between the Bangladeshi government and CHT tribal leaders promised tba.1 refugees could return to their original land in Bangladesh. However, very few of the agreements that were set down in the Peace Accord have been kept. Only a small number of refugee families were able to move back onto their land, since in many cases it was now inhabited by Bengali settlers from the plains. Kamini Chakma told me what happened when he returned to Bangladesh after 11 years as a refugee in India:

"I found my home occupied by Bengalis. We had been promised that our land would be returned to us if we returned to Bangladesh, but the Bengalis refused to vacate my property. The army just instructed us to move into the transit camp. I stayed there for 2 years waiting to move back onto the land that has been in my family for generations."

Kamini Chakma finally gave up hope. He has moved to a different area of CHT and is working as a laborer on someone else's land. The situation in CHT remains unstable and uncertain, and it is aggravated by continuing settlement of Bengali Muslims into CHT.

Although they are not as frequent as they were in the 1980s and 1990s, violent attacks continue to take place throughout the Hill Tracts. As one Chakma man explained to me:

"There are no human rights for Jummas from the Hill Tracts. Nothing happens when wrongs are committed against us. Last month, the homes of 400 Jumma families and a Buddhist temple were looted' and burned down by Bengalis. People were killed and girls were raped. "What will happen to those who lost everything? They are Jiving in the forest now with no food, no home. Where is the justice in that? Who will listen to us?"

These disturbing experiences have had an impact on people's sense of citizenship in different ways:

"How can I be Bangladeshi? I have no connection with Bengalis or Bangladesh. They look down on us. They threaten and criticize us. They say we should wear saris and dress like them, that we should speak Bengali, not Chakma. They say the food we cook has a bad smell. How can I feel any connection with them when they treat us like that? How can they be 'my peopIe'? I am not Bangladeshi; I am a Jumma woman of the Hills."

Others are indifferent to the political borders that surround them:

"I have always lived here in the same village yet when I was young my country was India; "when I was middle-aged it was Pakistan, and now that I am old it is Bangladesh-what does it mean to me? Yes I am a Bangladeshi citizen, but to me all that means is that I live in a country called Bangladesh.”

Seeds of Change

The CHT region is known for its wild forest resources, and is one of the most bio-diverse areas of the Indian subcontinent, rich in rare medicinal plants.

Jummas traditionally depend on herbal medicine practices. Sadly, these traditions are being practiced less and less frequently. A coalition of Buddhist and human rights groups has launched a program to provide training and jobs for Jumma people while also improving the health of the Jumma population.

Our plan is to reintroduce a program of traditional herbal medicine and primary health care to people who desperately need it. We plan first to train young people from the Bodhicariya School, who will then offer training programs for villagers and farmers in remote areas, in the propagation of medicinal plants, primary health care and some basic pharmacy for the' management of common health complaints.

We need support to cover the, cost of setting up and running this program. Any donations would be greatly appreciated.

Through my work in CHT, I have found a path that has given me a new and meaningful direction. I hope this article will help generate interest in protecting and preserving a rich indigenous culture that is currently disappearing in Bangladesh.

Polly Jones is a postgraduate from East London. For a decade she has been working with indigenous people in BangIadesh and India, researching their traditional knowledge systems and cultural practices. She may be reached at info@bodytree.org.

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