Work to implement CHT deal

Courtesy:


The New Nation, Dhaka, Internet edition, Jan 6, 2010
http://www.ittefaq.com/

Staff Reporter

Deputy Leader of Jatiya Sangsad Syeda Sajeda Chowdhury yesterday said the government wants full implementation of the Chittagong-Hill Tracts Peace Treaty and land survey is going on in the hill region to implement the treaty.

"The hill people have every right to use the hill lands," she asserted and sought cooperation from all quarters for implementing the Peace Treaty to improve the standard of life of the indigenous people.

"It is our duty to implement the treaty for the greater welfare of the indigenous people," Sajeda said while addressing a view-exchange meeting at National Press Club auditorium in the morning.

Shampritimanchya, a voluntary organisation, organised the view-exchange meeting titled "A Decade of Chittagong Hill Tracts Peace Treaty: Expectation and Achievement".

Chaired by Prof Ajoy Roy, the function was addressed, among others, by State Minister for Chittagong Hill Tracts Affairs Dipankar Talukdar, General Secretary of Indigenous Forum Sanjib Drang and leader of Janasanghati Samity Shaktiphad Tripura.

Journalist and poet Shahriar Kabir read out a key-note paper in the meeting.

In his keynote paper, Shahriar Kabir said the government must take an initiative to ensure constitutional recognition to the special rights of tribal people side by side with nurturing their language and culture, if the country wants a room in the map of civilization.

"The CHT has become a sanctuary of militant fundamentalists due to Jamaat-e-Islami. The militants are threat not only to the tribal non- Muslims, but also to the national security," he said.

Sajeda Chowdhury, also the chief of CHT Peace Accord Implementation Committee, said the hill people should be given their rights. Steps should be taken so that the tribal people can live with their own culture, tradition, education and opinion, she added.

Sajeda Chowdhury said the government always believes in secularism and if we want to establish Bangladesh as a secular country, we have to establish peace in CHT.

Criticising the position of the opposition party on army pull out from the CHT, she said the opposition party with the help of the fundamental forces was trying to establish unrest in the CHT again as they had long been creating hindrance in establishing peace in the hill areas.

Recalling the great contribution of the indigenous people in the liberation war, she said we have to remember that they are the child of the country as they had played significant role in the liberation war in 1971.

Dipankar Talukdar emphasised on bringing the indigenous people back to the mainstream politics of the country to implement the CHT peace treaty successfully.

He informed that multi-language software will be introduced in primary-level education in CHT soon so that the indigenous children can easily learn their mother languages.