Author:
Publication: Human Rights Congress
for Bangladesh Minorities
Date: September 8, 2003
URL: http://www.hrcbm.org/NEWLOOK/cht-090803.html
Note: Minorities in Bangladesh are
victims of "Genocide". A systematic and planned annihilation is underway.
The news herein will depict some of the "Elements of Crime" as defined
in the "Genocide convention" and preparatory documents of "International
Criminal Court". Please refer to Genocide convention at http://www.hrcbm.org/genocide
for further details.
Report: The Daily Star News:
Pinaki Roy back from Khagrachhari.
http://www.thedailystar.net/2003/09/08/d30908011111.htm
Padma Shova Chakma stared vacantly
at her burnt-out house, holding a charcoal of a betel nut tree. Piles of
coal of what constituted her property a few days ago were strewn all over.
"I don't know why they ruined my
life. I've lost everything. I don't know where to go and what to do with
my five daughters," Shova said, tears welling up in her eyes.
The 40-year-old woman and her family
lost everything at their Lemuchhari village on the afternoon of August
26 when a mob of Bangalee settlers from neighbouring Chanrachhari village
torched their village at will.
Lemuchhari was not the lone village
of indigenous people that was reduced to ashes; seven other villages of
Babupara, Pahartali, Keranganal, Durpajjanal, Ramesshu Karbaripara, Sawmill
Para and Basanta Para also stood in ruins.
Burnt-out houses, piles of charcoal
and blackened trees marked the villages of ethnic people. Only a few worn-out
dishevelled villagers were milling around the ruins of their house in the
hope of salvaging the petty things for rebuilding life. Most of them lost
all their clothes, except for those they were wearing.
"Many of us have been starving since
the nightmare," said Paingcraio Marma, a villager of Babupara. "Only a
few lucky families have got rice handouts from the government."
A few animals, mostly pariah dogs,
pet pigs and poultry birds, roamed the battered homesteads seemingly in
a daze.
'SCORCHED EARTH' APPROACH
The indigenous people claim that
Bangalees, both Hindu and Muslim, torched and looted about 350 houses in
the villages under Mahalchhari Police Station, killing two and raping at
least 10 women.
The marauders also ransacked three
Buddhist temples and razed one and took away four Buddha statues, they
alleged.
The abduction of a Bangalee youth,
Rupan Mahajan, allegedly by a gang of indigenous people on August 24 triggered
the violence.
Rupan's family said the hostage-takers
demanded Tk 5 lakh in ransom.
"I was working at my yard, unaware
of the disturbance brewing elsewhere. Suddenly a group of 60 to 70 Bangalee
settlers came shouting towards our village. They were armed with machetes,
sticks and spears and jerrycanful of kerosene," said Shova.
"Before I could make out the situation,
they stormed houses, looting and burning everything. I saw some people
of the neighbouring village with whom our villagers had good relations,
in an unbelievably marauding mood."
"Our villagers ran helter-skelter
for cover. They were crying, calling out relatives and running towards
the Kalabanya jungle. I asked my daughters to follow me and run to save
life. We had no time to think of property or anything else."
She said the gang in their two-hour
frenzied attack on the village torched all the 63 houses one after another.
"They looted valuables, farm animals and burnt everything including rice,
wheat and maize in their scorched earth policy," Shova said.
"I came out of the jungle the next
day to find the village of lost hope. Nothing was standing, ashes of burnt
thatched houses were scattered all over."
Proggajyoti Chakma of Lemuchhara
village said some hills people rushed to the police camp, just 100 metres
off the village, to inform them of the raids, but the law-enforcers never
responded to their cries for help.
"We had no other way but to flee
to the jungles," he said.
"Our people say the situation in
all the eight villages is the same. Even seven days into the arson, we've
got only a handful handout of rice from the government," Shova said.
She and other villagers like Joyotibikash
Chakma, a schoolteacher, Sonaratan, headman of the village, Amal Kumar
Chakma, Union Parishad member -- all live in the Kalabanya jungle.
They have no shelter and no way
to save them from monsoon rains. Those who had flimsy shelters in the jungles
were drenched in the cloudburst yesterday.
Living a precarious life in the
jungles is better than living in damaged houses under the spectre of unceasing
fear of mindless acts of bestiality, say the indigenous people.
Avinas Chakma, a student of Dhaka
State College and a resident of Babupara village, had read about the incident
when he was in Dhaka. He went to his home village five days after the incident
to see the scars of the plunder.
"What remain of my house are only
ashes. If I tell the barbaric story to my friends in Dhaka, they won't
believe it. It's totally unbelievable in a society that claims itself to
be democratic," he said.
ADMINISTRATION INDIFFERENT
The indigenous people allege that
the administration is soft-pedalling on bringing the criminals to justice
and trying to shift the blame onto rival political groupings of indigenous
people.
The administration has no definite
information on how many houses were burnt and how many indigenous people
became homeless.
According to the indigenous people,
63 houses were burnt in Lemuchhari village alone and the loss ranged between
Tk 30,000 and Tk 12,00000 a house.
The Bangalee settlers say the violence
was the act of ethnic people. Some of them set fire to a house in their
simmering conflict raging in the area and the fire soon leapt to neighbouring
houses and villages, they claim.
Local legislator Wadud Bhuiyan said
it was not the Bangalees, but the indigenous people were their own enemies.
The Prime Minister's Office is planning
to allocate Tk 30 lakh for the rehabilitation of the victims.
