CHITTAGONG HILL TRACT ACCORD

 

The indigenous people of Bangladesh have demanded quick implementation of the Chittagong Hill Tract (CHT) Accord signed in 1997.

 

Chittagong Hill Tract (CHT) Accord

The government signed CHT accord in 1997 with Parbatya Chattogram Jana Sanghati Samity (PCJSS) representing Jumma indigenous people to end decades of armed conflict in the South Eastern region of the country.

Protection of the land rights of Jumma people, rehabilitation, self government and withdrawal of military from the region were the key points of the accord.

The CHT Accord provided recognition of CHT region as a tribal-inhabited region, introducing a special governance system based on an institutional structure formed by the CHT Regional Councils and three Hill District Councils (HDCs), and transferring competencies on general administration, law and order, police (local), land and land management, development, education, health, environment and forestries, demilitarization of the region, resolution of land disputes, rehabilitation of returnee Jumma refugees and internally displaced persons, and the setting up of a CHT Affairs Ministry at national level.

 

Chittagong Hill Tract (CHT)

• The CHT in the south-eastern part of Bangladesh comprises a total area of 13,189 sq. km. encompassing three hill districts: Rangamati, Khagrachari and Bandarban.
• It shares borders with Myanmar on the south and southeast, India on the north and northeast, and the Chittagong district of Bangladesh on the west.
• It is one of the most diverse regions in the country.
• Home to eleven indigenous ethnic groups, colectivelly known as the Jumma people, these indigenous groups are distinct from the majority Bengali people of Bangladesh in respect of race, language, culture, heritage, religion, political history, and economy.
• This ethnic and religious differences that separate the Jumma people of the rest of the Bangladeshi population has been a source of permanent conflict in the region.
• After an armed conflict that lasted more than 20 years, the signing of the 1997 “CHT Accord” was regaded as the cornerstone of a new period of peaceful coexistence between the inhabitants of the Chittagong Hills Tracts and Bangladesh.

 

Important info

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was honoured with the UNESCO Peace Prize in 1998 for the accord.

 

Source: DD News

 

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