News
No. 06/2016: Wednesday, January 06, 2016
THE
year 2015 was marked by intense repression on the United Peoples’ Democratic
Front (UPDF) and its front organizations in the CHT, UPDF Human Rights
Monitoring Cell noted, saying a total of 143 of its members and supporters were
arrested while 35 of them were subjected to inhuman physical torture during the
year.
Releasing
data on human rights abuses to the media on 4 January, advocate Ripan Chakma,
head of the UPDF-HRMC, stated that in 2015, a total of 102 houses and a
Buddhist temple were searched, 33 Jumma women were subjected to rape or sexual
assault and 13 settler attacks took place on Jumma people.
“Most
of the arrests were made by the army, and among the arrested were also some
school-going boys and girls,” he further said, adding that many UPDF activists
were still languishing in jails in Khagrachari and Rangamati.
Ripan
Chakma said democratic and fundamental rights were denied to the UPDF as its
peaceful rallies and processions came under attack several times during the
year.
“Even
a festive procession on the occasion of the Boisabi festival was attacked in
Khagrachari”, he added.
Referring
to the land grabbing problem as most serious, Ripan Chakma said, “Grabbing of
Jumma people’s land is a perennial issue which needs to be addressed as a
priority.”
He
said attempts at forcible occupation of Jumma people’s lands by Bengali
settlers had often resulted in communal tension.
In
the southern district of Bandarban, a village chief named Kyola-ching Marma,
45, was arrested because he dared to protest illegal land grabbing in Lama,
Ripan Chakma stated.
To
improve human rights situation in the CHT Ripan Chakma suggested six
recommendations to the government. These include, among others, putting an end
to political repression on UPDF, restoration of full democratic environment,
release of UPDF members and supporters still detained in jail and bringing
those involved in sexual abuses to justice.
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