In a little-known corner of Bangladesh, several violent incidents have inflamed old tensions between Bengali Muslim settlers and the indigenous Jumma people.
A decades-old conflict that has long remained under the radar of global awareness is threatening to boil over again, after a series of human rights abuses by government authorities. On May 25, a detachment of Bangladeshi soldiers from the Sindukchari camp in the Chittagong Hill Tracts region allegedly staged a raid on indigenous political organization Parbatya Chattagram Jana Samhati Samiti (PCJSS), arrested 17 of its members, and detained and tortured them for a day.
Jumma activists gathered the next day to protest against the raid. On May 27, Guimara police responded by ransacking PCJSS’s office and arresting 69 more Jumma, and raiding the houses of several indigenous individuals. Of those detained, 13 were sent to jail and were not released until last week.
A Bangladeshi news service has reported that the original 17 detainees—who have been jailed on criminal charges—were given electric shocks and had needles driven through their toenails and fingernails. Jumma activists also report that the detainees were beaten with rifle butts, and suspended by ropes from trees.
The unrest marks the latest development in a conflict that dates back to the birth of Bangladesh as a nation in 1971. The government has long pursued a policy of encouraging Bengali Muslim settlers to move in large numbers to the Chittagong Hill Tracts, which have historically been the home of the 13 indigenous nationalities collectively known as the Jumma. This policy, which entails a heavy-handed military presence and security apparatus in the region to "protect" the settlers, has been the primary point of contention between Jumma activists and the government.
Jumma advocacy groups have documented the large-scale displacement of Jummas from the late 1970s through the early 1990s. The Peace Campaign Group estimates that over 120,000 Jumma became refugees in India during that time, and nearly 15,000 Jummas were killed during the active phase of the conflict between government military and paramilitary forces and the armed indigenous opposition.
More than six years have passed since the signing of the Chittagong Hill Tracts Peace Accord by the Awami League government of Bangladesh and PCJSS, but abuses of Jumma residents continue unabated, said Prajnalankar Bhikkhu of the Peace Campaign Group. No concrete steps have been taken to withdraw the military from the region, a direct violation of one of the accord's core stipulations. Illegal voting by non-permanent residents has occurred, and Bengali settlers occupy government posts that were reserved for indigenous representatives. Bhikkhu and other Jumma activists decry government involvement in the recent spate of human rights abuses.
"It is the government, the security forces and law enforcing agencies that organize these crimes against the indigenous people," Bhikkhu claims. "We are not concerned with unorganized crimes. We are concerned with crimes with impunity, with state-sponsored crimes."
