The Chittagong Hill Tracts Association has released its annual report on the human rights situation in the three hill districts of Chittagong for the year 2023. The annual report was released by the organization on Tuesday (January 2).
The report is detailed below
The overall human rights situation in Chittagong Hill Tracts has become very fragile and worrisome due to non-implementation of Chittagong Hill Tracts signed between the government and the Chittagong Hill Tracts Association in 1997. Repression by security and law enforcement forces, arrests, imprisonments, murders, disappearances, involvement in false cases, land grabbing, evictions from homelands, government-sponsored expansion of settler cluster villages, infiltration, marginalization of Jummads, communal attacks, cultural aggression, Violence against women has become a daily occurrence in Chittagong Hill Tracts.
It should be noted that although 26 years have passed since the Chittagong Hill Tract Agreement signed between Bangladesh Government and Chittagong Hill Tracts Association in 1997 to solve the Chittagong Hill Tracts problem in a political and peaceful way, the Chittagong Hill Tracts Agreement has not been properly implemented. The Awami League government, which signed the Chittagong Hill Tracts Agreement, has been in power for 15 years since 2009. But even in this long time, the current government has not come forward to implement the basic issues of the mountain agreement. The government has not taken any effective steps to implement the agreement and continues to implement anti-agreement activities and anti-jumma interests.
One of the examples of this is that the Chittagong Hill Tracts Association, which signed the agreement, bypassed the Chittagong Hill Tracts Implementation and Monitoring Committee and violated the Chittagong Hill Tracts Agreement on September 28, 2022 by the Chittagong Hill Tracts Affairs Ministry to review and evaluate the Chittagong Hill Tracts Agreement and formulate recommendations for further action. Forming ‘Inter-Ministerial Committee on Chittagong Hill Tract Peace Agreement Evaluation, Progress and Monitoring’ and spreading disinformation that 65 of the 72 articles of the Hill Agreement have been implemented through this anti-agreement committee. However, only 25 of the 72 clauses of the Mountain Agreement have been implemented. The remaining Í 47 clauses are either completely unimplemented, or partially implemented and left in limbo. In 2023, the 7th and 8th meetings of the Chittagong Hill Tract Agreement Implementation and Monitoring Committee were held on March 9 at Kuakata and August 20 at Jatiya Sangsad Bhavan, but there has been no progress in implementing the decisions taken in the previous meetings including these two meetings. As a result, due to the non-cooperation and negligence of the government, the Mountain Agreement Implementation and Monitoring Committee has become an ineffective organization.
In order to cover up the government’s failure to implement the agreement, with the aim of disrupting the process of implementation of the mountain agreement through the security forces and the movement to implement the agreement, the leaders and activists of all levels of the Jana Sanhati Samiti have called the people agitating for the implementation of the mountain agreement as ‘terrorists’, ‘separatists’, ‘armed miscreants’, ‘extortionists’ etc. Criminalizing by name. As a part of that, the hill pact with Jana Sanhati Samiti In the implementation, anti-fascist and anti-human rights activities such as well-planned illegal arrests, extra-judicial killings, arrests at gunpoint, sent to jail on false charges, searches of houses without warrants and destruction of belongings, beatings, harassment etc. have been intensified.
In 2023, there were 240 human rights violations committed by security forces and law enforcement forces, army-backed armed terrorist groups, communal and fundamentalist groups, Muslim Bengali settlers and land robbers, and 1,687 Jumma victims of human rights violations, 64 villages One or more raids were carried out by the army and 84 houses and family members were searched by the army.
(a) Persecution by the administration and security forces In 2023, 135 incidents were committed by the security forces and law enforcement forces, resulting in 643 human rights violations. Among them, 31 people were arrested and temporarily detained, 245 people were beaten, injured and harassed, 53 people were victims of false cases, military operations were conducted in 64 villages, 84 houses and families were searched by the army, 31 families were threatened with eviction, and 5 new camps were set up. has taken place
(b) Activities of Army-supported armed terrorist groups In 2023, 57 incidents were committed by army-backed armed terrorist groups and 1,055 people and residents of 30 villages suffered human rights violations. Among them, 19 people were killed, 17 people were beaten, 21 people were kidnapped, 22 people were detained, 6 people were handed over to the police after being detained, 195 people were evicted from the village of Bom and Marma families, and the residents of 25 villages were harassed and threatened with eviction. etc. incidents have occurred.
(c) Encroachment and dispossession by settlers
In 2023, 24 incidents were committed by sectarian and fundamentalist groups, Muslim Bengali settlers and land grabbers, and 19 families and 210 Jummas were victims of human rights violations. Among them, 6 people were killed and 18 houses were set on fire.
(d) Sexual Harassment, Violence, Rape and Murder:
In 2023, there were 24 incidents of violence against Jumma women and children by state and non-state actors, and 25 women were victims of human rights violations. Among them, one person was killed, 12 women and children were raped, 7 were attempted to be raped and 2 women and children were abducted and attempted to be trafficked.
