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Bangladesh hill tribes seek support against their ‘extermination’
January 27, 2023 07:07 pm | Updated January 28, 2023 12:10 am IST - GUWAHATIThe Zo Reunification Organisation urges Prime Minister Narendra Modi to nudge his Bangladeshi counterpart to declare a ceasefire with an armed indigenous group in the Chittagong Hill Tracts
THE HINDU BUREAU
Photo: Twitter/@ZOROonline
GUWAHATI
An organisation representing the Chin-Kuki-Mizo communities living in India, Bangladesh and Myanmar has sought the help of Prime Minister Narendra Modi in ending the “policy of extermination” of ethnic minorities inhabiting the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) of Bangladesh.
More than 300 people belonging to the Chin-Kuki-Mizo group have taken shelter in Mizoram’s Lawngtlai district since November 2022, following an alleged offensive by the Bangladesh army in collusion with the Arakan Army, a Rohingya Muslim extremist group.
A 13,000 sq. km hilly and forested area comprising Khagrachari, Rangamati and Bandarban districts of south-eastern Bangladesh, the CHT borders India’s Mizoram and Tripura States and the Chin and Rohingya-inhabited Rakhine States of Myanmar.
The constitutional and human rights of the indigenous Kuki-Chin tribes -- such as the Bawm, Pangkhua, Lushai, Khumi, Mru or Miria, and Khiang who have been living in the CHT for centuries -- are being violated with impunity under a policy of the Bangladesh army to exterminate them, the Zo Reunification Organisation (ZORO) said in a memorandum to the Prime Minister.
CHT history
The pre-British CHT had self-governing chiefdoms and chieftaincies. The population was categorised either as the Khyoungtha, tribes who live along the river banks, or the Toungtha, tribes who live in the thick jungles of the hills, said ZORO president R. Sangkawia. The tribes remained beyond the realms of Hindu kings and Muslim nawabs, but the annexation of the CHT by the British in 1860 made them vulnerable to external pressures, the organisation said.The British gave special constitutional status to the CHT to protect the identity, customs, culture, tradition and ancestral land of the tribes. The restrictive laws were, however, repealed by 1903 to let the dwellers of the plains infiltrate the areas of the highlanders.
“Contrary to the expectations of the indigenous people, the CHT was merged with Pakistan in 1947… all the indigenous tribes began to face discrimination in all aspects of life,” the ZORO said.
Encroaching on tribal land
While the tribal population of the CHT declined drastically, the government of Bangladesh encroached upon the ancestral land of the indigenous tribes, particularly the Kuki-Chin people, in the name of promoting tourism, the organisation said.
The Kuki-Chin tribes of the CHT have been demanding a separate State due to the large-scale influx of non-tribal people into the hills. But the Bangladesh government chose to step up its oppressive measures, the latest example of which was the “proxy war” carried out by the Bangladesh army through the Arakan Army against the Kuki-Chin National Army (KNA), an armed group fighting for the rights of indigenous communities, the ZORO said.
Seeking Indian intervention
Pointing out that Dhaka’s action “is clearly in violation of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples”, the ZORO asked Mr. Modi to advise his Bangladeshi counterpart, Sheikh Hasina to declare a ceasefire with the KNA and stop abusing the rights of the Kuki-Chin people in the CHT.The organisation also appealed to Mr. Modi to direct the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Border Security Force not to drive away the Kuki-Chin people who are fleeing Bangladesh and taking refuge among their “blood-related tribes” in Mizoram.
