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Mark · Site Admin Joined: 13 Nov 2007 Posts: 1052

Jumma representative tells British MPs of repression of tribes

http://www.survival-international.org/news/3327

Excerpt:

Hundreds of thousands of Bengali settlers have been moved into the Hill Tracts over the last sixty years, displacing the Jumma tribes. The government signed a peace accord with the Jummas in 1997, and made a commitment to remove military camps from the region and to end the theft of Jumma land by settlers and the army. But military camps remain in the Hill Tracts and violence and land grabbing continue. Abuses have escalated since the declaration of emergency rule in Bangladesh in January 2007.

Mr Amlai said, ‘The army has been bringing in more settlers, even though they were supposed to have stopped this years ago. This is making Jummas a minority in their own land and is leading to conflicts, resulting in the recent burning of seven Jumma villages and the beating of Jumma men, women and children by settlers in Sajek, while soldiers watched.’