On 29 July, 2009 the Inter Service Public Relations (ISPR) announced in a media release that the Government of Bangladesh had decided to withdraw 35 temporary camps, three infantry battalions and a brigade of the armed forces, deployed in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT), in the south-eastern part of the country.
On 7 August, a temporary camp of around 40 soldiers of the Bangladesh Army was reportedly closed in Joysenpara under the Mohalchhari upazilla (sub district) of Khagrachhari district. This is a small beginning in the partial military pullouts. However, there have been at least five brigades of the armed forces deployed in the CHT for decades to combat the so-called ethnic and political conflicts that deteriorated in the mid 1970s.
A guerilla group named Shanti Bahini, was formed in order to fulfil the demands of the major ethnic groups in the CHT region. They later turned into the political party known as Jana Shanghati Samity (JSS) after the CHT Peace Treaty signed on 2 December in 1997. The ethnic groups had accused the armed forces of brutal atrocities towards civilians in the area, mostly the ethnic population. They demanded the withdrawal of all forces. The allegations of torture, extrajudicial killings, rape and other gross human rights abuses at the hands of the armed forces had been commonplace since their deployment. For more than three decades the government brought in a large number of non-local and non-ethnic people in order to create a so-called balance of population in the area. There were serious allegations made against the authorities, including the armed forces, for appropriating lands of ethnic minorities during the time the military was introduced and the new populations were settling in.
The situation called for the withdrawal of the military as one of the major demands of the ethnic communities. It was recognized by the government as one of the key conditions in the CHT Peace Treaty.
Almost 12 years after the signing of the peace treaty, the government made the decision to partially remove the military camps from the area. The ethnic groups and the human rights organizations welcomed the decision to pull the military from the area. However, a debate is going on regarding the territorial security issues around the pro-military, socio-political groupings.
The authorities have correctly assessed that, in the long run, the military presence in the CHT area did not bring about the needed changes. Therefore, the government decision to close down some of the CHT military camps can be viewed in a positive light.
While welcoming this decision, the Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) urges the government of Bangladesh to move further to establish sustainable solutions and peace in the region. The AHRC observes that there are diversified problems involving the ethnicity as well as dysfunctional features of the basic rule of institutions and other civil administrative organs of the State. It is important for the authorities, together with the civil society, to explore the dynamics of the prevailing problems as a whole. It is not merely an ethnic or a security problem and cannot be completely solved by either military action or a decrease in the presence of the armed forces. A people-friendly solution of the problems can be achieved. It can come about when the authorities take into consideration the citizens psycho-socio-political as well as the civil and economic aspects of their day-to-day life and address them with sufficient care.
The government of Bangladesh should form an independent commission. It should probe and investigate thoroughly the issues involving conflicts among the inter-ethnic and non-ethnic groups. Other areas of import are the peoples right to land, the allegations of military brutality and the damage, distrust and grievance in the minds of the citizens resulting from atrocities and other failures. The commission should include in their area of investigation the terms and rights enshrined in the constitution of Bangladesh. These rights should be in conformity with the UN international instruments, particularly the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the International Covenant on the Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR) of which Bangladesh is a party.
