CHT Deal Implementation
Roadmap sought
Parbattya Chattyagram Janasanghati Samity (PCJSS) on Wednesday demanded that the UN and international community encourage Bangladesh to declare a roadmap immediately to implement the Chittagong Hill Tracts Agreement.
PCJSS Information and Publicity Secretary Mangal Kumar Chakma made the demand at the 11th session of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) at the UN Headquarters in New York.
Adivasi leaders Raja Devasish Roy, Rabindranath Soren, Anmoy Kiran Chakma, Kamalasen Chakma and Sudattapriya Chakma attended the session, says a press release received here from New York.
Indigenous people of Chittagong Hill Tarcts are victims of development, militarisation and population transfer, Mangal Kumar Chakma said, adding that in 1960 the Kaptai Dam flooded the lands and homes of indigenous Jumma people, but even today many of the affected people are still un-rehabilitated.
“Our lands, forests and territories have been and are still being taken away without our free, prior and informed consent, to establish so-called “Reserve forests”, “Protected areas”, “National parks”, “Eco-parks”, Tourism, and even for establishing military bases and training centres,” he said.
In order to resolve the CHT problem through political and peaceful means, CHT accord was signed in 1997, but main issues of the accord are yet to be implemented, Mangal Kumar told the UNPFII session.
Due to lack of effective initiative, no basic changes have been achieved during the period of the present government, he said.
The 11th session of the UNPFII started on May 7 at the UN Headquarters in New York and will be continuing till May 18 .
For all latest news, follow The Daily Star's Google News channel.
Comments