UA/CHT/01/05 |
28 June 2005 |
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H.E. Louise Arbour
Subject: Complaint to Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous peoples, Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights on adequate housing and Representative of the Secretary-General on the human rights of internally displaced persons.
Dear High Commissioner and the Special Rapporteurs,
We are writing to seek your intervention with the government of Bangladesh against forcible eviction of 300 indigenous Jumma families after destroying their houses in Devachari, New Lonkor, Old Lonkor, Halimbari and Chizhok villages in Sajek Union under Rangamati district of the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHTs) of Bangladesh on 23 June 2005. The para-military forces known as Bangladesh Rifles have destroyed the villages. This forcible eviction is believed to be part of the programme to carry out planned population transfers of an estimated 65,000 mainstream Muslim settler families, which equals almost 3,90,000 persons with each family comprising of at least six persons, in Rangamati district.
It is feared that the destruction and forcible eviction of the indigenous Jumma peoples will continue unabated until the completion of population transfer progarmme.
Between 1979 and 1983, the military administrators in Dhaka had transferred an estimated half a million plain settlers by providing inducements. This has made the indigenous peoples in the CHTs a minority in their own land.
This present population transfer programme would be the first one to be carried out by socalled democratic government in Dhaka. Although details are not available, it is clear that population transfer in Sajek Union was planned quite sometime back. The government allowed the Bangladesh Army Engineer Construction Battalion to construct the Baghaihat-Sajek road in the dense Kassalong reserve forest in clear violation of the Forest Act of 1927 and Bangladesh Forest (Amendment) Act 2000. These forest laws prohibit construction of any structures and human intervention creating threats to the natural forest.
Member of Parliament from Khagrachari district, Wadud Bhuyan admitted on 4 June 2005 that some plain settler families have started making houses beside the Sajek road, but the army did not allow them on safety ground. The government has also taken away thousands of acres of lands from indigenous peoples for the construction of army camps.
In the first week of June 2005, the government of Bangladesh placed a proposal to continue to provide “free food rations” to 28,000 Muslim plain settler families. These settlers families were brought under the government sponsored transmigration programmes from 1978 to 1983. Since 1978 Bangladesh government has been providing free food rations to these plain settlers.
According to Moni Swapan Dewan, Deputy Minister of CHTs Affairs, the government of Bangladesh also placed a proposal to provide free rations to the “new settlers”. This was obviously meant to provide free rations to 65,000 plain settler families who are being settled in Sajek and to those thousands of plain settlers who have been trickling into the CHTs since 1983.
The government sponsored population transfer violates Article 52 of the Chittagong Hill Tracts 1900 Regulation which prohibits settlement of “non-hill men” or outsiders. Yet what is more pertinent is the blatant violation of the Article 49 of the Fourth Geneva Conventions which states that "The occupying Power shall not deport or transfer parts of its own civilian population into the territory it occupies". While governments deny the "occupation of particular region" and the applicability of the Fourth Geneva Convention, the issues that prompted the Fourth Geneva Conventions transcend the issue of "occupation". The intention of the Fourth Geneva Convention is to prevent the abuse of human rights, and consequently the issue of historical sovereignty is irrelevant to the prohibition of the transfer of population.
At the United Nations, Bangladesh government consistently and rightly sponsored resolutions and voted against the settlement of the Israelis in the Palestinian territories. But, back home in the CHTs, the government practises similar population transfer policy.
The providing of free food rations only to the settlers who displaced indigenous Jumma peoples from their lands but not to the indigenous Jumma peoples is an act of racial discrimination and violates Article 28 of the Constitution of Bangladesh and International Convention on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination to which Bangladesh is a party.
From 1978 to 1983, the military governments had settled an estimated 500,000 plain settlers by providing inducements in order to make indigenous Jumma people a minority in their own land. If the present population transfer programmes are carried out in Rangamati district, the populations in the CHTs will increase by over 25% of the total populations of the CHTs and all of them are mainstream plains people. This will destroy the distinct identity of indigenous peoples of the Chittagong Hill Tracts.
We shall be grateful if Your Excellency and Special Rapporteur on human rights and fundamental freedom of the indigenous peoples, the Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing and the Special Representative of the Secretary General on Internally Displaced Persons could kindly intervene to urge the government of Bangladesh to:
- Immediately stop further forcible eviction of the indigenous Jumma peoples and ensure proper rehabilitation of the evicted indigenous Jumma peoples in their own villages at Devachari, New Lonkor, Old Lonkor, Halimbari and Chizhok in Sajek Union under Rangamati district of the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHTs) of Bangladesh;
- Bring an end to government sponsored settlement of the plains people into the Chittagong Hill Tracts;
- Bring an end to providing “free food rations” to 28,000 Muslim plain settler families who were brought under the government sponsored transmigration programmes from 1978 to 1983 as it is an act of racial discrimination; and
- Extend invitation to the Special Rapporteur on human rights and fundamental freedom of the indigenous peoples, the Special Rapporteur on the right to adequate housing and special representative of the Secretary General on the Internally Displaced Persons.
Should you require any further information or clarifications, please do let us know.
With kind regards,
Yours sincerely
Suhas Chakma
Copy to:
Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights and fundamental freedoms of indigenous peoples
Mr Miloon Kothari
Special Rapporteur of the Commission on Human Rights on adequate housing as a component of the right to an adequate standard of living
Mr. Walter Kälin
Representative of the Secretary-General on the human rights of internally displaced persons
Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights