Chakma people

The Chittagong Hill Tribes possess many factors that increase the likelihood of rebellion in the future: territorial concentration; Bangladesh's limited history of democratic rule; high levels of group organization and cohesion; and Bengali repression against tribal members. There has also been growing dissatisfaction with the lack of full implementation of the 1997 peace agreement. Factors inhibiting rebellion include efforts at negotiations and reforms between the main political party of the region and the government of Bangladesh. Transnational support and international assistance have included the initiation of development projects by various IGOS and UN agencies. Despite the slow implementation of the peace agreement, there has been an extremely limited amount of protest generated by tribals in 2006. The PCJSS, ruling party of the Chittagong Regional Council, is the main channel through which the Hill people express their demands for full implementation of the peace accord. However, this party does not represent the anti-peace accord members of the United People’s Democratic Front, (UPDF), whom call for full autonomy in the region. Still, the Bangladeshi military has continued violently repressing the tribal populations. Some of the key issues that remain to be addressed include the creation of a commission to manage land distribution and ownership rights, the removal of the army from tribal areas, and potential limits on Bengali immigration into the hill tracts. How these issues are addressed can significantly influence tribal opposition to the agreement. The Chittagong Hill Tribes primarily reside in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) region of southeastern Bangladesh (GC6B06 = 3). The tracts region borders tribal areas in neighboring India and Bangladesh. The region contains significant natural gas deposits, it covers 10% of Bangladesh's territory, and its tropical rainforests comprise 60% of the country's reserve forests (GC11906 = 1). Also referred to as the Jummas, which indicates their historical occupation of slash and burn cultivation, the Chittagong tribes differ significantly from the majority Bengali Muslim community. The group speaks multiple languages; it has different social customs than the dominant group; a small minority follows Animist and Christian religious traditions, while the majority practice Buddhist religious traditions; and it is racially related to the tribals in neighboring Burma, Northeast India, and Thailand (LANG06 = 2, CUSTOM06 = 1, BELIEF06 = 2, RELIGS106 = 8, RACE06 = 1). The tribals consist of 13 tribes of which the Chakmas are the largest, making up almost half of the group's population. The Chittagong tribes entered Bangladesh from Burma beginning in the 15th century. The tribals have violently resisted efforts to subjugate them. The Mughal empire that ruled the subcontinent granted the tribals local autonomy in the mid-17th century. They were able to resist British control until 1860 when they received special status. When India and Pakistan were created in 1947, the Chittagong tribes were incorporated into the Muslim-majority East Pakistan despite their desires for the creation of an independent confederation of northeast tribal states. The geographic and social isolation of the tribals ended with the building of the Kaptai Hydroelectric Dam in the early 1960s. Along with flooding more than 40% of the arable land in the CHT, more than 100,000 Chakmas were displaced, which was some 25% of the area's population. In 1964, the region's special autonomous status was revoked and the area was opened up to economic exploitation and an influx of Bengali settlers (AUTONEND 1964). Since the 1970s, successive Bangladeshi governments promoted the migration of Bengalis to the hill tracts region which led the tribals to fear that they would become a minority in their traditional region of residence. Further, tribal lands were taken away and given to migrants, and the tribals were subject to v