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The ineffectiveness of the bodies formed under the Chittagong Hill Tracts peace accord has been delaying the full execution of the treaty signed about three decades ago, national minority leaders and rights activists have said.

For its effective implementation, they have said that initiatives from the professor Muhammad Yunus-led interim government are crucial to activate all relevant bodies, including the CHT Land Commission having no chairperson since August 2023, the CHT Accord Implementation and Monitoring Committee, and the advisory committee of the CHT affairs ministry.

The frustrating delay in the treaty’s execution was increasing uncertainty of the national minorities in the hill districts of Rangamati, Bandarban and Khagrachari, they observe. 

Describing the ‘CHT issues as both national and political’, ethnic minorities and activists emphasise that the full implementation of the accord, popularly known as the peace treaty, signed 27 years ago to establish peace  and rights in the region, is crucial for the greater interest of Bangladesh. 

They blame the ineffectiveness of the CHT land commission as a major barrier against ensuring their rights to land ownership, a crucial issue for the hill people mostly depending on land for their livelihoods.

They have also underlined the need for handing over responsibilities through executive orders to the regional and district councils for each hill district under the ‘CHT special governance system’.

‘After the interim government took charge, all bodies established under the CHT accord became non-functional and till now remain so, which is dangerous as it has heightened uncertainty regarding the full implementation of the treaty,’ Khairul Chowdhury, joint coordinator of the Chittagong Hill Tracts Accord Implementation Movement, told ¶¶Òõ¾«Æ·.  

He added that the situation led to growing disappointment and frustration among the national minority communities in the hills.

Particularly, the ineffectiveness of the CHT Land Dispute Resolution Commission, formed in 1999 under the provision of the treaty, as it had no chairman now and lacked corresponding rules under the law, has deprived many national minority people of their land, heightening the instability in the region.

‘Land dispute is the prime problem of the CHT. A major part of the inhabitants have become landless due to the ineffectiveness of the land commission,’ observes KS Mong, a member of the CHT Regional Council.

The CHT Land Dispute Resolution Commission Act 2001 was amended in 2016 to recognise the customary rights of the region’s national minority communities and resolve land disputes in accordance with the law, customs and practices in force in the CHT.

But over 22,000 land dispute applications from the national minorities remained unresolved as corresponding rules under the law are yet to be formulated, the speakers said.

‘Resolving the land dispute is essential to give the special governance system, incorporating the CHT Regional Council and the three hill district councils, an institutional shape,’ said KS Mong, also a central committee member of the Parbatya Chattagram Jana Samhati Samiti. 

He explains that a voter list needs to be created for an independent election for the CHT Regional Council that has been operating under an interim committee, and that a person must have a permanent address and ownership of land legally in order to be eligible to vote.

To mark the 27 years of the treaty today, government, several organisations of national minorities and rights activists have announced programmes, including discussion events.

National minority leaders have also said that fundamental issues, including land problems, withdrawal of army camps, resettlement of Bangalee settlers, and self-governance, were not addressed in keeping with the accord in these 27 years. 

Chittagong Hill Tracts Affairs adviser Supradip Chakma could not be reached for a comment over phone.

Abul Hasanat Abdullah, then chief whip of the Jatiya Sangsad and convener of the National Committee on CHT, and Jyotirindra Bodhipriya Larma, better known as Santu Larma, who heads the PCJSS, signed the accord respectively on behalf of the then AL-led government and the ‘residents of the CHT’ in the presence of then prime minister Sheikh Hasina on December 2, 1997.  

The accord was signed to end the armed conflicts between the ethnic communities and the security forces with promises to protect the hill people’s land rights and the revival and conservation of their cultural uniqueness. 

The accord was also aimed at rehabilitating people displaced due to the conflict and repatriating those who had left the country, limiting the presence of security forces, and setting up regional and district councils headed by representatives mostly from the national minority communities.