Congratulations on your appointment as the Law Adviser to the Care Taker Government.
A F Hassan Aariff
Honourable Adviser to the Care Taker Government
Special Assistant to the Chief Adviser
Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs
Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh
Building No. 721, Floor 7th, Building No. 4
Bangladesh Secretariat
Dhaka 1000
Bangladesh
30 March 2008
Dear Honourable Adviser,
Congratulations on your appointment as the Law Adviser to the Care Taker Government.
We commend the government’s initiative to partly enforce the Chittagong Hill Tracts Regulation Amendment Act of 2003 through the activation of criminal courts in the Chittagong Hill Tracts by early March 2008 (The Daily Star, 27 February 2008).
We would also call upon the government to immediately establish:
- Civil courts in the CHT to fully enforce the CHT Regulation (Amendment) Act 2003;
- Special Tribunals on Violence against Women in the CHT, to eliminate discrimination against CHT citizens vis a vis other citizens of Bangladesh.
Reflecting on your previous work in defending human rights, including your work as a founder member and the President of the Odhikar, and remembering your visit with a multidisciplinary group of activists on an informal investigation at the Logang massacre site in 1992, we would like to draw your attention again on the CHT.
We, the Jumma diaspora and Jumma supporters around the world, are concerned about the resumption of illegal land grabbing by the Bengali settlers with active and passive support from a good number of individually motivated military personnel and civil administrators in the CHT since 2007 (for example, Human rights Practices Report on Bangladesh by US State Department 2007, Pratham Alo, 11 February 2008, reports of the Hill Watch Human Rights Forum and the Kapaeeng Watch).
We ask for your immediate attention on the following demands which are important in resolving long standing land dispute in the CHT, and by extension restoring long lasting peace and prosperity in Bangladesh:
- Immediate action from the government to stop the resumption of illegal land grabbing in the CHT;
- Activate the Land Commission by amending the CHT Land (Dispute Settlement) Commission Act 2001, for example, the most important relate to the mandate, functions and process of the Land Commission’s work, including:
(i) the undemocratic veto powers currently vested upon the Chairperson (Section 7 (5)) which is not enjoyed by comparable judicial and quasi- judicial bodies in Bangladesh or elsewhere;
(ii) the Section 2(f) which exclude the indigenous CHT refugees repatriated from India under a 16-point Accord signed by the then Bangladesh government and the indigenous CHT leaders in 1992; and
(iii) the provisions, under the Section 6 and Section 13 of the CHT Land Commission Act 2001, which are inconsistent with the CHT Peace Accord.
Yours sincerely,
CHT Jumma Peoples Network of the Asia Pacific
Warawara School of Indigenous Studies
Room 320 W3A
Macquarie University
NSW 2109 Australia
Jumma Peoples Network – Japan
E-mail: jumchakma@hotmail.com
Jumma Peoples Network – Korea
E-mail: jpn2@hotmail.com
Jumma Peoples Network – UK
E-mail: Jpn_uk@hotmail.com
Website: www.jpnuk.org.uk
Jumma Peoples Network – USA
E-mail: bhikkhubuddhratna@yahoo.com
Jumma Peoples Network – International
E-mail/add: vanishigrites@hotmail.com
Jumma Net – Japan
E-mail: office@jumma.sytes.net
Vanishigrites – UK
E-mail: vanishigrites@hotmail.com
Survival International – UK
E-mail: info@survival-international.org
Organising Committee CHT Campaign (OCCHTC)
P O Box 11699
1001 GR Amsterdam
The Netherlands
E-mail: desh@xs4all.nl
Copy to:
• Barrister Raja Devasish Roy
Special Assistant to the Chief Adviser
Ministry of the CHT Affairs, Bangladesh
Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh
Building No. 4
Room No. 610, 6th Floor
Bangladesh Secretariat
Dhaka 1000
Bangladesh
E-mail: mochtadh@bttb.net.bd
• Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust (BLAST)
E-mail: mail@blast.org.bd
• Advocate Pratim Roy
President, Rangamati Bar Association
Rangamati, Bangladesh
E-mail: kapocht@yahoo.com
Copy to:
a. The Hon Stephen Smith MP
Minister for Foreign Affairs
Suite M1 46, Parliament House
Canberra ACT 2600 Australia
E-mail: Stephen.Smith.MP@aph.gov.au
b. The Rt Hon David Miliband MP
Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs
Foreign and Commonwealth Office
King Charles Street
London SW1A 2AH
E-mail: milibandd@parliament.uk
c. Mike Gapes MP
Chairman
Foreign Affairs Committee Office
House of Commons, London SW1A OAA
E-mail: foraffcom@parliament.uk
d. Ms Geeta Pasi
Chargé d’Affaires, a. i.
Embassy of the United States
Baridhara, Dhaka
Bangladesh
e. Masahiko Koumura
Minister for Foreign Affairs
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Kasumigaseki 2-2-1, Chiyoda-ku
Tokyo 100-891, Japan
f. Koji Sugiyama
Deputy Director, Southwest Asia Division
Southeast and Southwest Asia Affairs Department
Asian and Ocenian Affairs Bureau
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Kasumigaseki 2-2-1, Chiyoda-ku
Tokyo 100-8919, Japan
Fax: 81- 3- 5501 8266
g. Hon. Yu Myung-hwan
Minister for Foreign Affairs and Trade
Republic of Korea
E-mail: web@mofat.go.kr
h. Minister, Ministry of Justice
e-mail: moj@moj.gov.kr
i. Amnesty International – Korea
e-mail: amnesty@org.kr
j. UNHCR – Korea
e-mail: unhcr@un.org.kr
k. PNAN & N BSP
e-mail: pnan@pnan.org
l. The Hon John Dowd AO QC
President, International Commission of the Jurists, Australia
GPO Box 173
Sydney NSW 2001
Australia
e-mail: president@icj_aust.org.au
m. Ms. Victoria Tauli-Corpuz
Secretariat of the Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues
United Nationa, 2 UN Plaza
Room DC2 – 1772
New York, NY, 10017
e-mail: indigenouspermanentforum@un.org
