15 Years of CHT peace treaty and how am I feeling today

Honestly I do not feel good and I can not breathe easy enough, if you ask me, "how do you feel about it?" Today, 2 December is the 15th anniversary of CHT peace accord, 15th anniversary of getting my family members back  from India who had to flee there because of the violent military attacks. My uncle is still an MBBS, after he finished his internship almost 10 years after he had to flee to India to save his and his pregnant wife's life. This could have been MBBS and MD (Doctor of Medicine) or   MS (Master of Surgery) or FCPS (Fellow of the College of Physicians and Surgeons), or MRCP but he is stuck in MBBS only cause he had to run for lives and join the armed conflict leaving all the dreams behind. I have very rarely seen such a devoted, honest, talented doctor in my life. My another uncle, whom I have never met in my life, whom I resemble very much, anybody who knew him, asks me if I am his blood. Yes I am, and that very talented graduate student left home to fight for rights of freedom/autonomy of the people of Chittagong Hills, and died in the jungles  in Indian and across India-Bangladesh Border without proper treatment; he was suffering from liver cirrhosis.
My mother's youngest brother, contemporary to my age (my grandma had 9 children) never got a good chance to study in peace as I did in the town. But wait. Can I say that I was in peace? Will you call it peace when you see your parents trembling in fear, sobbing in despair that the whole family is living in the jungles (6 of my mother's siblings with grandma were in India as refugees and haunted by Bangladesh Army since 2 of the family members were members of JSS)? Is it humane or enjoyable when you are asked to get off your bus/car at least 3 times between your 30 km journey to home and they check every single bag you are carrying including your body?

How does it sound when you hear that a dearest person is named after one of the refugee camps in Tripura where his full-term pregnant mother had to flee after observing the massacre in Panchari Upazilla or Khagrachari District (my home district)? His mom arrived there with him in the womb, and soon after he was delivered, the miserable parents could not find any other name to call him but the camp's that was saving their lives (I am grateful to India that she saved this person I adore so much). His father had to pretend as dead, lying next to dead man as the Bangalee setters with aid from the Army were trying to decapitate or chop the Jumma people bodies with fatal, sharp weapons.

How would a girl feel when she at her 13 years of age, meets her cousins for the first time in life in a distant, remote hard to reach area, where JSS has come for the peace treaty....only to say goodbye after an hour. People live apart, say friends of mine who have migrated to Australia, US, Canada for life, and visit their homeland very infrequently. They have chosen the way they live. For us, we never chose to live apart, there life was full of uncertainty, despair, nightmares. Soon after that very meeting with my Aunt, she looks very much alike my mother, and my Uncle, who is similar to my age, and my cousins, each in unhappy faces, tears in eyes, I had to walk back. Nobody in the world could answer to my dumb questions that why do people have to live in such misery? Why did I have to meet them for the first time in life after 13 long years and why didn't I get the chance to have them in my childhood!!!

Soon after the meeting, a few months after, I heard that yes my family is going to be reunited. And I met my Grandma only at my 14 years of age. My friends have always told me, how they enjoyed their childhood with their grannies telling bedtime stories, singing lullaby.  For me? No dear, I have no such memories.

Now 15 years of this accord, has passed. As we reunited with families, another era of "divide and rule" began in 1997. There are several statistics on how many people have dies simply out of the armed confilict between people for and against the treay, namely JSS and UPDF. How the politics in the small Chittagong HIlls became polarized day by day. If JSS and UPDF are the east and West poles, then the mainstream political groups, Bangladesh Awami League (BAL), the then in power party during the treaty and Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) , current and the then opposition and a powerful political group in Bangladesh are the north and south poles. So eventually, they also have Hill People, or Jumma people in their parties. Thus, CHT is divided in at least 4 major groups with may be hundreds of  subdivision within the groups who keep fighting, beating, yelling, etc. etc., all violent movements that are possible

I will not be surprised at all if someone comes up with statistics showing that the number of people who died since 1997 from conflicts between local political groups in CHT is equivalent or greater in number than those who died before 1997 during armed conflicts of JSS with Bangladesh Army. These numbers come up in newspapers. What does not is how people, families of those who are losing lives from these conflicts are living their lives. How do they collect food? Where do they sleep? have they got any house? are you sure they could live in their own dwelling following the head of the family, a member of X group was killed by members of Y? How do they achieve education? How the party, for whom s/he died, has compensated or extended their hands of support to this devastated family? Any example? Sorry, I can not remember any.

On this very day, while the government is celebrating 15th anniversary of the peace treaty, Honorable PM received some peace awards (Similar to Madam Su Chi in Myanmar, though not Nobel Peace Prize), honorary Doctorate degrees, do we know how many families in the CHT are sobbing? How many children became orphans? How many women were tortured and/or raped? How much land was again consumed by the growing number of Bangali settlers? What have you done honorable Indigenous MPs in Bangladesh Parliament in order to safeguard these poor souls?


Shall I ever forget February 2010? Villages, my workplaces, my colleagues houses being burnt down by the settler people, Tanks and armed Millitary vehicles passing by my house in the middle of the night, curfew ongoing in the town for 2 days??? My Bangladeshi friends take pride on the liberation war. I laugh at them. This is what you have brought to us. You fought for your mother tongue, and established "the International Mother Language Day" but never could imagine me sitting next to you have got my own tongue "Chakma". And you deny to teach us in our mother languages. History taught you nothing my Bangladeshi folks, nothing!!!

And my CHT folks, did you learn anything? I don;t think so. You guyz keep fighting and let the people "divide and rule". Will you please ever come to light? How many more brothers will you kill just because he/she is not or is a supporter of the peace treaty? That s/he is a JSS or a UPDF? (other issues will be talked about in later posts).


My disappointment, my despair, my grief will be upon the power, for not ensuring a safe life for all the citizens, but more will be upon you my CHT folks, for you have not yet realized what you have caused to your brothers-sisters of CHT....Please wake up before you are completely divided and ruled!

(could not attach a picture as I have not yet learnt to attach photos in posts)
Links:
1. Chittagong Hill Tracts Conflict (wikipedia article)
2. CHT peace accord full