URGENT APPEAL: Protect the Indigenous Peoples in Bangladesh: Implement the Peace Accord now!

JOINT URGENT APPEAL FROM GHRD, KAPAENG FOUNDATION, JUMMA PEOPLES NETWORK UK

To: the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, Dhaka, the Office of the Prime Minister, London and the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, The Hague.

We, the undersigned organizations and individuals are joining forces to urge the Government of Bangladesh to keep its promise to protect its indigenous peoples, and implement the CHT Peace Accord before the next general elections in 2014.

Background
The Chittagong Hill Tracts Peace Accord was signed in Bangladesh in 1997 to promote peace and to protect its indigenous population. Today, almost 15 years later, it remains unfulfilled and violence against the indigenous peoples has continued.

Bangladesh has ratified numerous international human rights treaties and it is also the largest provider of UN Peacekeepers in the world. Despite this, it continues to violate the rights of minorities and its indigenous peoples. The indigenous people, known as Jumma in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT), have been under attack for over 35 years, ever since the Government brought in large numbers of Bengali settlers onto their ancestral land. Influential settlers – supported by the military who are heavily deployed in the region – have been attacking the indigenous peoples who have lost their lands at an alarming rate and have endured endless human rights violations ever since.

The protection of indigenous peoples and the implementation of the 1997 Peace Accord was one of the key election pledges of the current Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina. Unfortunately, at the end of her mandate, it remains unfulfilled.

We note with concern how violence against indigenous communities in the CHT has been escalating in recent months.

We are disturbed that this Government has rather taken regressive steps that work against the essence of the Accord, including publicly denying that there is an indigenous population in Bangladesh, refusal of giving constitutional recognition to indigenous groups and also recently demanding its district officials to take action against the celebration of World Indigenous Day.

Therefore, we urge Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, to take immediate and urgent action to fulfill her election promise and fully implement the Chittagong Hill Tracts Peace Accord within this tenure, to ensure the protection of Jumma lives, land, identity and culture.

In particular:
• Dismantle all temporary military camps in the CHT and demilitarize the region according to the Accord.

• Investigate and publicise all allegations of human rights violations against the indigenous peoples by the security forces.

• Solve the land disputes fairly; amend the Land Dispute Settlement Commission Act of 2001 according to the spirit of the Accord.

• Give constitutional recognition to the indigenous peoples of Bangladesh.
With the elections coming up in Bangladesh, there is a great fear that the CHT Peace Accord will remain unimplemented and that the situation will only worsen in the future, threatening the peace and existence of the indigenous peoples in Bangladesh!

Our call will be delivered to Governments in three countries on World Indigenous Day, August 9, in Dhaka, London and the Netherlands.

Yours Sincerely,

Global Human Rights Defence (The Netherlands)

Jumma Peoples Network (UK)

Kapaeeng Foundation (Bangladesh)

Hana Shams Ahmed, writer and activist

Join our shared efforts in protecting the indigenous peoples of the Chittagong Hill Tracts, Bangladesh. Take action today and sign our petition here! http://www.avaaz.org/en/petition/Protect_the_Indigenous_People_in_Bangladesh/?cUXFhdb]

For further information regarding the Chittagong Hill Tracts, see following web pages:

JUMMA PEOPLES NETWORK UK                                 

IN FOCUS: CHILDHOOD MEMORIES OF A JUMMA REFUGEE

On a chilly February day, GHRD met with a Jumma refugee who left the Chittagong Hill Tracts in a quest to create international support and awareness for the plight of his indigenous people: the Jumma. "If we can get strong backing from the European politicians, then we can add more pressure to the Bangladeshi Government to implement the peace accord and to claim our rights”, he says quietly.

While his family is still in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, he is the only one of his tribe who has left the village. Some of his relatives’ lands are now occupied by the army camps.

Here, he shares his memories of how his life changed when the army came to his village when he was a child.

A beautiful sky

“Above my village, when I grew up you could see the sky, there was no pollution. You could see the insects spinning, it was beautiful. I could see the army barracks from my home. There was no electricity for the indigenous people, but I could see the army barracks had their lights on even at night. The army came to my village when I was about four or five years old. Everybody was in panic. They thought they can kill us anytime. They would tell the villagers they needed porters; whether they were elderly or sick or not, they would force them to carry their belongings. They would ask the villagers if they knew the whereabouts of Shanti Bahini (“peace force” / resistance movement) if they said they didn't know, they would beat them”.

 Under the army’s wing

“We built the army camps. As a boy, at 10 years old, I had to work as a porter, and I didn’t get paid. I had to cut their grass, supply the bamboo thatch and the wood to build the army camps. We provided their food, fruits, vegetables; we had to give them our animals, with minimum pay. I am the witness: I was there.

There was no freedom of movement; the army had the right to stop us at any time, we felt like captives. We grew up with fear of the Bengali army at all times: even when we were at home, we felt fear as we heard the sound of army boots passing by our house. The Bengali people who came to the village, they could move freely. We could not even buy matches; we had to get permission from the army to do that. When we would buy things, we had to report. We could not buy more than two matches. They claimed if we bought three, we must be giving one to the Shanti Bahini. We know the army is there to protect the settlers, but we have to live there.

The problem started from '75 onward, when they started bringing the illegal settlers and the armies. The illegal settlers see us as their enemy, and we see them as our occupying enemy as well. The army used to ask the village people to entertain them; young people had to dance and perform in the army camp, we were bound to do that. They sent letters to the village leaders who would inform the young people they had to go and perform and sing or dance for the army, whether it was rain or flood or whatever to make them happy. I went too, of course. They could do anything they wanted because they were the holders of power. There were incidents where army personnel abused the women, but not all”.

Assalumu Alaikum

“One night I witnessed how they tortured my people. The army teams led by 2nd Lieutenant Musharaf Hussain, from 1st Bengal battalion/regiment, a young man who belonged to the Muslim religion, had taught the young villagers to say Assalamu alaikum (Muslim greeting) This night, the army patrolled by and because some of my villagers, young people, forgot to say Assalamu alaikum, the officer became angry. Then the army brought them in front of our house. They started kicking, punching and beating them with their belts. They also beat them with the knives of their guns and they started bleeding. The villagers were crying and told them to ask pardon; the soldier stepped on their heads, like they were footballs. I was the witness to all this, together with other children. And this army officer, the Musharaf Hussain, I heard he got a promotion”.

We just want our freedom

 I went to boarding school, and when I came back, my village was destroyed. They had accused my village of harbouring the Shanti Bahini, so they destroyed it. Not only our village, several others too. The army beat them and put all the villagers into a kind of refugee camp.

 This was in the 1980s, but today the situation is the same. If there was no problem now, why are there no foreigners allowed into the Chittagong Hill Tracts? The main problem is the presence of the army. If they move from there, the problems will be solved with the settlers. Because with the army presence, the illegal settlers have the power. In the media they say that several hundred camps have been removed, but that's not true; they just shift to other places. We don't fight, but they claim there is a conflict. The government and army create the conflict. We want to live there as other people are living. We don't want to see the army. We just want our freedom”.

GHRD welcomes a Study Visit from the Exeter European Law Society

A group of fourteen highly-motivated and committed young people from the Exeter European Law Society visited GHRD on June 12, 2012 with the aim to learn more about the human rights issues through a workshop at GHRD. After being welcomed and familiarized with the principles, goals and work of the organisation by Anchelita Gowri, they were introduced to the situation of indigenous peoples in the Chittagong Hill Tracts in Bangladesh by Tove Stenqvist, as well as, human rights violations against minorities in Pakistan presented by Julia de Blaauw.

After that, they had the opportunity to watch the emotional and moving documentary SOLD - A Child Trafficked that kicked off an anti-human trafficking campaign in Nepal in 2010 carried out under the auspices of Maiti Nepal in cooperation with GHRD.

Students were surprised by the large scale of the problem of human trafficking and the high number of women being trafficked in Nepal on a daily basis. The documentary encouraged questions and a debate concerning the reasons behind human trafficking in Nepal, especially with regard to the political, social and economic situation in the country, as well as the course of the anti-trafficking campaign, its effectiveness and the results. More importantly, students showed high interest in screening the documentary at their campus and home university.

In the end, Shafferan Sonneveld asked the students to share creative ideas on how to advocate for human rights. The students responded eagerly and suggested spreading information to peers, following social network pages, engaging in discussions and campaigns, organising street dramas and flash mobs and raising awareness through articles, blogs and petitions. 

GHRD would like to thank the students for their attention and participation!

See the SOLD Facebook page here: http://www.facebook.com/pages/SOLD-A-child-trafficked/176956828999949


Written by: Jana Lopusna
Photo by: Serena Sorrenti

Minority Chakma’s in India: “We are victims of constant human rights violations.”

As one of the tribes of the Jumma People, the Indigenous Peoples of Bangladesh, those who belong to the Chakma ethnicity are constant victims of abuses and racial discrimination, and have been for the past 40 years. The Jumma People have inhabited the Chittagong Hill Tracts for centuries but, following the partition of India in 1947, various governments have extensively and severely oppressed the minorities.

In 1964, about 35,000 Chakmas fled to India, mainly to the state of Arunachal Pradesh. Nowadays there are 64,000 of them living in those territories. The central government of India had issued valid migration certificates indicating legal entry into India and the government’s willingness to accept the Chakmas as future citizens. However, today the Chakmas remain stateless.

Up until 1980, the Chakmas in Arunachal Pradesh enjoyed all the rights, freedoms and facilities accorded to the fellow local tribes but, as the anti-foreigner movement swept the North East, in 1991, the Arunachal Pradesh Government withdrew these rights. Since then the Chakmas have been fighting for citizenship rights under the leadership of the Committee for Citizenship Rights of the Chakmas of Arunachal Pradesh (CCRCAP). Their situation continues to deteriorate.

We have interviewed a group of 40 boys that for the past two years have been given the chance to study in a private school in Bihar, the Alice Project Education School. After reading their answers, we felt we couldn’t sum them up. We copy them literally, in order not to modify the boys’ original voice.

When the Chakma came from Bangladesh to India as refugees:

1. At first, in the former the Chakma used to stay at Bangladesh. In 1964 the Chakma escaped from Bangladesh. Some stayed at Tripura, some at Mizoram and some escaped to Arunachal Pradesh. They are facing problem in the following reasons:

2. Still we did not get the citizenship. Somebody got but not all because they need document. We even don’t have the right to vote.

3. We did not get any sanition facilities like electricity supply, water supply and other facilities.

4. We did not have proper education, governmental school, good health care centre and public health care centre. We did not have enough land, enough house and enough hospitals. The boys are regretting for good education and teaching. They don’t give any job.

5. In my village the boys are facing problems because there is no good school. There is only one governmental school there. The teachers of that school do not teach properly. From another school the tribal people, I mean the local people, led the Chakma students out from class 1st till 10th. Now those students want to study but they can’t. Now they are wandering here end there. The tribal people do whatever they want. We don’t have any authority. If any facility comes from the government in our village, the local people take those facilities and they don’t give it to the village.

6. They faced lot of problems and they give lots of trouble. Sometimes they burnt the houses. The people can’t escape or save anything. Sometimes the terrorists, who are from other tribes, came to the village and demanded for money. They go to the head of the village and they asked for money. They threatened people not to inform about those things to the police or to military, otherwise we will abolish you all. One day the terrorists came to my grandfather’s house and looted his shop. They took away everything they found. The villagers don’t want to be crabbed against others out of fear. If it’s real, even then they don’t want to be crabbed against the other tribes.

7. Last year a dangerous thing happened because of the land. Since the Chakma came from Bangladesh and took shelter in that place, they settled there and started to do agriculture in that place. When the other tribes came to know about that place that it was very good for agriculture, they also wanted to take that land. They started to claim our places as their own. The Chakma refused to give those lands because they had settled there after fleeing from Bangladesh and had no other shelter. So one day the other tribal came in a car with gun and knife to fight. That time the Chakma people became united and faced the problem. When the other tribal came to know about this they went away. But still they use to come and claim for those lands.

Indigenous recognition still lacking in Bangladesh

Special Announcement: International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples

Indigenous recognition still lacking in Bangladesh

On this, the International Day of the World's Indigenous Peoples, Global Human Rights Defence (GHRD) would like to remind everyone that many Indigenous communities around the world remain unrecognized and unprotected by their governments. In Bangladesh, indigenous Jumma communities continue to fight for recognition of their indigenous status in the national constitution and experience human rights abuses on a daily basis without protection from their government.

Recently, government representatives have proclaimed that ethnic minorities in Bangladesh, particularly the Jumma living in the Chittagong Hill Tracts are “not indigenous” but are rather to be considered as “tribal groups”. The Government went even further and stated that Bangladesh does not have an indigenous population within its borders.
This argument is used to avoid responsibility and defer the focus from their suffering. The unwillingness to recognise indigenous peoples is a commonly used mechanism of Governments to deny their rights and dismiss international scrutiny.

In reaction to this, indigenous peoples, academics and rights groups have recently protested in Dhaka, denouncing these statements and demanding their recognition in the constitution of Bangladesh.

GHRD, along with many international human rights organizations, rejects these statements and maintain that the Jumma clearly meet the available criteria to identify indigenous peoples, they have close link to natural resources, a distinct social, economic and political system, a distinct language and culture, and particularly the most crucial element: self-identification.

On this day, we wish to emphasise the responsibility of all governments and of the Bangladeshi in particular, to protect its indigenous population from destruction, and to provide its vulnerable communities with special protection. The rightful recognition of indigenous status, as well as constitutional protection is one clear and strong indicator of such commitment.

GHRD, The Hague, The Netherlands
9 August, 2011

Dealing with a Burning Issue

Naila Furath was on her way home from school, in Pakistan. She was only 13 years old when she was burnt by an acid attack. Two young men (Irshad Hussein, and Furath`s science teacher: Mazhar Hussein) ambushed the girl and threw a cup of acid-like liquid in her face, which disfigured her for life. Naila`s ‘crime’ was to have refused a man, and to have dishonoured him for rejecting his interest in her. The man punished her by perpetrating an acid attack to avenge his pride. These types of stories are extremely common in Pakistan and are often crimes committed against women, but perhaps now something can be changed due to the recent implementation of a new law on May 11th 2011. Members of the Pakistani Parliament were unanimous in their approval of the legislation.

The Bill in question is called “The Acid Control and Acid Crime Prevention Bill 2010,” (which has become an Act under the aegis of the ‘Code of Criminal Procedure (Amendment) Act, 2011) which stipulates a minimum of 14 years with a maximum of life imprisonment, and a fine of more than 12.000 Euros for those charged with these types of offences. It is important to note that these types of provisions are crucial in paving the way for the abolition of this type of violent assault. Acid throwing attacks disfigure around 200 women a year.

Naila had the courage and determination to let her voice be heard: Hussein has recently been fined 10.000 Euros and her case was brought before the Supreme Court of Pakistan. This particular case was taken into account in order to raise the consciousness of Pakistani lawmakers about the need for specific legislation to punish perpetrators committing acid attacks.

We do have wait and see what type of effect this will have on Pakistani society; whether they continue to perceive acid attacks as an integrated part of their culture or, acknowledge the bill as a legislative tool that can really alter Pakistan’s global image! Lastly, we have to assess whether the Bill will be put into practice as opposed to just being written in theory, but at least we can assure ourselves of the fact that the legislation has now been approved and that citizens are obliged to respect the law. Is Pakistan evolving, only time will tell!

If you would like to find more information on the new law, please click on the link below: http://www.na.gov.pk/private_bills/pvt_bill2010/acid_control_act2010_260110.pdf

Virgina Pierfelice ©

Killing in the Name of...

Osama Bin Laden, the “most-wanted” person by USA, was killed by American forces in his residence of Abbottabad, Pakistan.

Early this year and also in Pakistan, another not so well known fact took place: the Governor of Punjab (Pakistan), Salman Taseer, was assassinated by his bodyguard who objected to his attempts to repeal the blasphemy law, an arbitrary and controversial law that persecutes those who in any way insult the prophet Muhammad. The law is most often used as a tool to persecute religious and other minorities.

There are several obvious differences between these two deaths but there is one common factor we can observe from these killings: they were celebrated by many different groups from different corners of the globe, and many treated the perpetrators of these killings as heroes – in the USA, the killing of Osama was seen as a victory for the war on terror and in Pakistan, the death of Salman Tasseer was viewed as a victory for Muslim extremists.

The right to life and the right to fair trial are human rights which should be respected and upheld. Regardless of the fact that OBL allegedly killed many persons, the man should still have his right to a fair trial preserved, something that was denied him. Despite the circumstances, human rights must remain inviolable.

By celebrating a murder of these two persons, society has emphasized its total disregard for the human rights precepts that apparently govern our society.

By Julia Rodero Castro