Thirteen years after the signing of a peace accord between the government of Bangladesh and the indigenous population in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT), the human rights situation of the indigenous people of the highlands, also referred to as the Jumma, has hardly improved. "Some 700,000 indigenous inhabitants of the CHT in southeastern Bangladesh are still waiting for the question of land rights to be clarified and for the recognition and support of their culture, as well as the withdrawal of the military from the CHT," criticized the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) on Wednesday in Göttingen. The human rights organization is calling on the German government to remind Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wazed of her repeatedly stated intention to complete the implementation of certain points of the accord. In particular, controversial questions concerning land rights must be cleared up without delay, in cooperation with the CHT land commission. "This is the greatest obstacle in the tense relationship between indigenous peoples and the more recently arrived Muslim settlers," stated Ulrich Delius of the STP's Asia section.

"Human rights abuses are inflicted daily on the indigenous population of the CHT by the Muslim settlers, under the eye of the military," criticized Delius. In February 2010, settlers in Sajek (Rangamati District) destroyed 450 Jumma homes in twelve villages by setting fire to them. Far from trying to alleviate the conflict, members of the army from nearby Camp Bagaichari are said to have taken part in the mayhem, which lasted several days. To date, the government has not initiated any official investigation of the incident. "This is not an isolated occurrence. The mountain dwellers are constantly being dispossessed of their lands by military units," Delius pointed out. Currently there are plans to remove some 15,000 CHT

inhabitants in Bandarban District from 23,623 acres of their tribal land for the expansion of the Ruma military base. Moreover, plantations and "reserved forests," earmarked for logging, are blocking the access to the small area of fertile land used by indigenous peoples for their traditional slash-and-burn cultivation.

For 400 years, indigenous peoples have lived in the 5400 square mile forested mountain region of the CHT, which was once in eastern Pakistan and since 1971 has been in Bangladesh. The increasing commercial exploitation of the highlands led to disenfranchisement and brutal displacement of the indigenous population in the 1980s and '90s. The land gained through expropriation was settled by some 400,000 Muslims, and also used for forest and other agricultural as well as military purposes. Around 200,000 inhabitants of the CHT were killed in the implementation of the government's displacement policies, while hundreds of thousands were made refugees and lost their livelihood. In desperation, indigenous resistance groups took up weapons to defend themselves. The peace accord ended the fighting on 2 December 1997, but political recognition and specific demands of the Jumma have been ignored to this day. In the 1960s, 100,000 CHT inhabitants were made refugees when 40 percent of the arable land was in the CHT was flooded for the Kaptai dam.

For further Information, please contact Ulrich Delius: 0049 -551 - 4990627

Translated by Elizabeth Crawford