On 17 April 2011 Bangladesh army backed Muslim settlers attacked 5 indigenous Buddhist villages in Ramgarh and 2 indigenous villages in Manikchari in Chittagong Hill Tracts. In this attack around 200 indigenous houses including 2 Buddhist temples were torched. At least 20 indigenous people were injured and at least half dozen indigenous people were missing. Muslim settlers damaged and desecrated the Buddha image.

An appeal to save the Jumma Nation from being totally exterminated by the Bangladesh Government

Bangladesh Government is employing all types of genocidal tactics such as arson, robbery, religious persecution, forcible eviction, relocation to concentration camps, detention without charge or trial, rape, torture and murder in order to seize Jumma villages and farmlands for its co-religionists from the plains of Bangladesh.

Longadu Massacre

Under the instructions of Maj. Gen. Abdus Salam, the then GOC of the Chittagong Division of the Bangladesh Army,and the highest Authorities of Bangladesh, Major Zakir Hossain carried out the Longadu Massacres on 4 May, 1989. The international community pressurised the Bangladeshi Regime to set up an inquiry committee. But the Government has not yet published the committee's report nor has it punished the culprits yet. Perhaps, it is important to note that the Chakma Raja Debashish Roy and 21 leading Jumma leaders had asked the Government on 9 May, 1989, to bring the murders to justice. In stead of punishing the culprits, the-Government instructed Maj. Gen. Abdus Salam and Brig. Shafat to place the Chakma Raja under house arrest and to prevent him from speaking at a Buddhist religious ceremony to commemorate the dead. The Bangladeshi Regime has no intention to take action against these military officers because the Longadu massacres and indeed all the other massacres have been committed as part of its policy to systematically exterminate the Jumma Nation.

The Situation of the Jumma Refugees

The Jumma Refugees numbering about 70,000 could not return to their homes as the Government of Bangladesh has refused-

1. to vacate the Jumma villages and farmlands by removing the Bangladeshi infiltrators from the CHT
2. to stop genocidal atrocities by withdrawing the Bangladesh Armed Forces including the non-Jumma Police Force from the CHT
3. to find a political solution to the crisis in the CHT
4. to rehabilitate the Jumma Refugees under the supervision of the UNO, International Red Cross Committee and human rights organizations.

In short, the Bangladeshi Regime is not willing to create a climate conducive to the safe return of the Jumma Refugees to their ancestral villages and farmlands. The Jumma Refugees have no faith in the Bangladesh Government as the latter deceived them on all previous occasions. I, therefore, believe that the Regime of Bangladesh will have to be pressurized to meet the genuine demands of the Jumma Refugees in order to ensure their proper rehabilitation, the return of their ancestral villages and farmlands to them and above all the security of their lives and property.

The Refugee problem is an international problem and like the other Refugee problems around the world the Jumma Refugee problem should be dealt with by the international community. It is the responsibility of the entire international community to take care of the Jumma Refugees now camped in the Tripura State of India.

International Intervention

Amnesty International has repeatedly requested information from the Bangladeshi Regime on the composition, terms of reference and findings of an investigation committee which was making inquiry into the Longadu massacres. But it has not yet received detailed information from the Bangladesh Government.

The Anti-Slavery International has been pursuing a gang raping case in which some 14 girls and women were gang raped by the Bangladesh Army personnel at Bilaichari on 19 October, 1990. It fears that the Bangladesh Government has not taken any disciplinary actions against the military rapists because "Over the last decade or so rape has been used by the governing military authorities as a weapon of terror". Its fear is well founded by the fact that Mr. Rupak Krishna Chakma "was threatened by members of the army intelligence corps simply for trying to establish the facts of the case".

Dr. Wolfgang E. Mey of the Hamburgisches Museum fur Volkerkunde has been able to collect hundreds of evidence of the genocidal atrocities committed by the Bangladesh Security Forces against the Jumma men, women children. Now the Hamburgisches Museum is showing these evidence with a view to focussing the attention of the international community on the crisis in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT).

The CHT is like a closed door slaughter house. All foreign journalists and human rights groups have been banned from making free and independent investigation into the Government violence. The Bangladesh Government used to conceal this fact by telling the world that "any body can go anywhere in the CHT". For example, the then Finance Minister of Bangladesh, Mr. Syeduzzaman told so in a meeting in Oslo to the Norwegian Government, Members of Parliament, journalists and various human rights representatives including Dr. Teresa Aparicio, the Executive Director of the International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs (Copenhagen).

Relying on the Government assurance, many foreign journalists and human rights groups went to the CHT but they were not permitted to go beyond Rangamati, the capital of the CHT. One of them was Mr. Lee Swepston of the International Labour Organization. Even he was not allowed to talk with the Jumma people without the presence of military or Government personnel.

The Bangladeshi Regime also organised the visits of some foreign dignitaries and Amnesty International to a number of places in the CHT. These visits were meticulously stage managed and the visitors had no opportunity to talk with the Jumma people privately. In a nutshell, it seemed simply impossible for the foreigners to investigate the Government terrorism in the CHT.

Deeply moved by the heart-rending plight of the Jumma people, two adventurous and brave British journalists, Mr. Francis Rolt and Mr. Peter Barker set out at the beginning of 1990 for the CHT to see the situation of the Jumma people for themselves. They managed to slip into the southern part of the CHT and even they succeeded to visit a Jumma village. Their visit was extremely risky indeed! The trigger-happy Bangladeshi soldiers could seriously harm them! Luckily these two intrepid journalists came out of the area unscathed. They were simply thrown out of the CHT after being caught by the military although they had obtained permission from the Bangladesh High Commission in London and the Bangladesh Tourist Board to visit the CHT. Perhaps, it is worth-mentioning that an international inquiry commission was able to visit the interior of the CHT immediately after Gen. Hossain Mohammad Ershad was forced to step down from power.

District Council Law

The Care-taker Government of Bangladesh has restored democratic rights to the Bangladeshi people by removing all military officers from the State affairs and by dissolving the Bangladesh Parliament and all elected bodies in the country. But it has not done so to the people of the CHT. The military is still in charge of the CHT and the so-called District Council Law has not yet been repealed. This law has been imposed by the military tyrants on the Jumma people against their will.

So far, the new elected Government of Bangladesh has not done anything to meet the just demands of the Jumma people. On the other hand the systematic annihilation of the Jumma people is continuing as before.

The Anti-Slavery International is very much alarmed by the continued Anti-Jumma policy of the Bangladesh Government and it has rightly commented- "In spite of the overthrow of General Ershad and of what seem to be moves towards democracy in Bangladesh, it is disturbing that criminal law appears not to be in effect, at least in the case of the indigenous people of the Chittagong Hill Tracts. So far, it would seem that nothing has changed".

The Demands of the Jumma People

The Jummas have consistently made the following demands to survive the extreme hostility of the successive Governments of Bangladesh:

1. The removal of all non-Jumma settlers from the CHT.
2. The withdrawal of all Bangladesh Armed Forces including the non-Jumma Police Force from the CHT.
3. Autonomy for the CHT with a separate legislature.
4. Adequate financial help for the rehabilitation of Jumma Refugees and the return of their ancestral villages and farmlands to them.
5. The deployment of the U.N. Peace-Keeping Force in the CHT and the implementation of these measures under the auspices of the U.N.0.

Conclusion

The change of Government in Bangladesh has not changed the situation in the CHT. The systematic extermination of the Jumma people by the Bangladesh Armed Forces and the Bangladeshi infiltrators is continuing unabated. I, therefore, appeal to you to pressurize the Bangladeshi Regime to meet the demands of the CHT people. At the same time I would like to urge you to take care of the Jumma Refugees who desperately need your help. With my best regards.

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