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John Burrows Executive Director Center For World Indigenous Studies ()-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=() ||/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\|| ||=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-|| || || || The Fourth World Documentation Project runs entirely on grants || || and private donations. If you find this information service || || useful to you in any way, please consider making a donation to || || help keep it running. CWIS is a non-profit [U.S. 501(c)(3)] || || organization. All donations are completely tax deductible. || || Donations may be made to: || || || || The Center For World Indigenous Studies || || ATTN: FWDP || || P.O. 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INTRODUCTION Increasingly, indigenous peoples are striving to make their voices heard. They seek to protect and preserve their distinct ethnic identity and to participate meaningfully at national, regional and international levels. They face discrimination in race, religion and creed. They are geographically and culturally isolated and marginalized and are often victims of violence and oppression. The universal promotion and protection of the rights of indigenous peoples is integral to their continuing existence. There is growing recognition of the invaluable contribution indigenous experience and knowledge can make towards an equitable and sustainable world. Within the pluralistic societies of today, indigenous peoples seek to achieve equality within diversity. An issue of crucial significance to indigenous peoples is their diminishing control over their ancestral lands. Historical data reinforces this concern. In Asia, Latin America, Africa and the United States indigenous peoples have been systematically exploited in the search for capitalistic expansion. Where once they were the proud owners of vast tracts of land, colonialism and conquest have eroded their rights over their lands and their lives. Their ancestral lands are integral to their survival as indigenous peoples: the sine qua non of their existence. The recognition of the right of indigenous peoples to the use, management and ownership of their traditional homelands has to be enforced within the nation-states in which they live. There is a need to establish adequate procedures within the national legal systems for the protection of their rights; international legal standards can provide the enabling environment. The position of indigenous peoples has to be consolidated by special provisions which protect and establish the framework of the relationships between the State, indigenous peoples and other institutions of economic, social, cultural and political life. II. THE CHITTAGONG HILL TRACTS This project is on behalf of the indigenous peoples of the Chittagong Hill Tracts. It is to protect and enforce their legal rights to their land. INTRODUCTION: Little is known about the indigenous Jumma peoples living in the Chittagong Hill Tracts region of south-eastern Bangladesh. Isolated in an area of 5,095 sq. miles, thirteen ethnic people, collectively known as "Jummas" for their slash and burn style of agriculture, inhabit the Chittagong Hill Tracts. The Jummas (approximately 600,000) differ from the majority population of Bengalis racially, ethnically, religiously and culturally. They practice shifting cultivation on the hills (known as "jhums"), are predominantly Buddhist, have their own languages, and have lived according to their customs and traditions in peace and harmony in their ancestral lands since time immemorial. This has altered dramatically; the Jummas are struggling to survive as a distinct people; they face ethnocide and genocide. HISTORICAL DATA: Historically, the Chittagong Hill Tracts has always been an independent area. During British rule in the Indian sub-continent, the CHT was designated an "excluded area" under the direct control of the Governor- General. When India was partitioned in 1947, the CHT was arbitrarily granted to muslim Pakistan against the express wishes of the Jummas. Since then, successive governments have wrought a radical change in their economic and social life. REGULATION 1 OF 1900: The principal instrument which demarcates the CHT as an indigenous homeland, Regulation 1 of 1900 remains in force. The Regulation contains specific provisions restricting the right of non-indigenous people into the area unless prior conditions are met. It is note-worthy that the transfer of the 450,000 non-indigenous Bengali settlers into the CHT is in direct contravention of Regulation 1900. PAKISTAN PERIOD: One of the worst disasters to befall the Jummas was the construction of the Kaptai Dam (1959-61): 100,000 people were rendered homeless and 40% of the prime agricultural land of the Jummas was submerged. However, their lives were not threatened. HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS: With the emergence of Bangladesh in 1971, the situation in the CHT deteriorated rapidly. The Jummas have been subjected to massive human rights violations. Their lands have been taken from them. They are forced to live in specially designed "cluster villages " under the constant surveillance of the Bangladesh armed forces. They need passes to move from one place to another. Rape, torture, arbitrary arrest and forced detention are the norm. On April 10, 1992 hundreds of Jummas were killed in the cluster village of Logang (Amnesty International, Reuters). This was the eleventh ethnocide since the inception of Bangladesh. Persistent and gross human rights violations in the Chittagong Hill Tracts has been well documented by international human rights organizations including Amnesty International, Anti-Slavery Society and the International Work Group for Indigenous Affairs. The CHT issue has been raised at the United Nations Working Group on Indigenous Populations, the Human Rights Commission, Sub-Commission on Prevention of Discrimination and Protection of Minorities and at Treaty bodies. The International Labour Organization has repeatedly requested the Government for further information on the steps taken to improve the situation in the area and to conduct impartial and comprehensive investigations into reported massacres of the indigenous Jummas. INVOLVEMENT OF THE SECURITY FORCES: The chief perpetrators of human rights violations in the Chittagong Hill Tracts are the government security forces with the active collaboration of the non-indigenous settlers brought into the area. Statistical data indicates that nearly half the Bangladesh army is stationed in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, an area one-tenth the total land mass. The Chittagong Hill Tracts Commission, an international and independent fact-finding mission which visited the Hill Tracts in 1990- 91 categorized the Chittagong Hill Tracts as "an area under occupation". REFUGEES: As a result of the instability and insecurity of life and property for the Jumma people in their homeland, over 57,000 have fled across the border to refugee camps in neighbouring countries. By a bilateral agreement between the governments of Bangladesh and India, the refugees are to be repatriated shortly. The refugees refuse to return without full guarantees of life and property, and only under international auspices. DEMOGRAPHIC MANIPULATION: The Jummas are outnumbered in their own lands. The ratio in 1947 of indigenous : non-indigenous was 98% : 2%. Between 1979 to 1984 the government transferred 450,000 plainsmen settlers in the Chittagong Hill Tracts. Present census information puts the figures at 55% Jummas and 45% plainspeople. The Jummas are losing their ethnic identity and their lands by a systematic process of integration and assimilation. III. PROJECT JUSTIFICATION In a situation mirrored in many other indigenous areas, an issue of vital importance integral to the survival of the Jummas is LAND. This is the basis of their struggle. The bond between indigenous peoples and their ancestral lands is sacred. The preservation of this tie is essential to their physical and spiritual well-being. Land is the source of their economic subsistence. The Bangladesh government has openly declared its objective to take the land of the Jummas: it wants the land of the Chittagong Hill Tracts, not the people. To achieve this overriding goal, government considers the ancestral lands of the Jummas empty on the basis of the principle of Terra Nullius. Also, government is reluctant to recognize indigenous land title and seeks to impose its own land tenure methods. The traditional Jumma land tenure system, similar to other indigenous systems, is based on communal land ownership. Possession and use are granted protection and the right to the use of a specific plot of land or "jhum" is decided by the village headman and/or tribal elders. The concept of individual title is unfamiliar in the agricultural areas, but is imposed in the towns by the civil administration. The legal conflict is thus premised on the fact that there are two land tenure systems prevalent in the Chittagong Hill Tracts: a. Government imposed registration; b. Indigenous land ownership. OTHER RELEVANT FACTORS: The land tenure system is further influenced by a diversity of factors: a. illegal take-over by the plainsmen settlers; b. subsequent falsification of their land records; c. destruction of the Khagrachari district office containing land records; d. the large number of Jumma refugees in India (approximately 57,000). e. government policy of making inalienable land alienable. THRUST: In order to enforce and protect the land rights of the Jummas to their ancestral land, it is essential that a systematic analysis of the land tenure system of the indigenous Jummas of the Chittagong Hill Tracts be commenced. The legal basis of their land tenure system has to be clarified: otherwise their tenuous hold on their lands will be lost forever. IV. IMMEDIATE OBJECTIVE CADASTRAL SURVEY: The urgency for an initial study of the land rights system in the Chittagong Hill Tracts is aggravated by the Government's announcement that a cadastral survey is to be conducted shortly. According to the modalities of the survey, a time period is given for production of land records. This raises a number of concerns: 1. As many of the records have been lost or destroyed, it will be impossible for many Jummas to evidence their land rights. 2. The situation is further complicated by the 57,000 Jummas in refugee camps in Tripura, India. The envisaged cadastral survey will be conducted without their participation. 3. Indigenous leaders have communicated to government that the cadastral survey, if completed under the prevailing circumstances, does not have the consent of the people concerned. 4. The principal effect of the survey will be to effectively legalize the rights of the settlers to Jumma lands and undermine whatever rights the Jummas have to their ancestral lands. COMMISSION RECOMMENDATION: The Chittagong Hill Tracts Commission recommended (see Report) that a study of the land rights was essential to protect the Jumma titles. As the first international commission to have been granted access to the Hill Tracts this recommendation is significant to protect the land rights of the Jummas prior to the entire dispossession of their traditional homelands. V. EDUCATIONAL COMPONENT One of the aims of this initial study into the land rights of the indigenous peoples of the Chittagong Hill Tracts is to emphasize the need for a comparative analysis of indigenous land rights from different parts of the world. As yet there is no comprehensive analysis of the legal basis of Jumma land rights. It is hoped that this study will advance the rights of the indigenous peoples of the Chittagong Hill Tracts within the framework of international and national law. It is projected that this initial study will provide an impetus to the collection and dissemination of information on other indigenous legal systems, as a part of a documentation system containing information on indigenous legal systems worldwide. VI. YEAR OF THE INDIGENOUS PEOPLES 1993 was designated the Year of the Indigenous Peoples by the United Nations. This has served to draw attention to the different issues significant in the promotion and protection of indigenous rights of which land is a high priority. A proposal for a Decade for Indigenous Peoples was made at the World Conference of Human Rights, Vienna June 1993. This pilot project will contribute to the Year and the proposed Decade. To further the objective of empowering indigenous peoples and supporting their priorities and goals, this project will be entirely indigenous-oriented. The chief consultant is an indigenous lawyer, the legal researchers and consultants in Bangladesh will also be Jummas or other indigenous peoples, and the project is forwarded by the Jumma Peoples Network in Europe, an organization of Jummas living in different countries in Europe. A strategy meeting on the Chittagong Hill Tracts in November, 1992 at The Hague which attended by Jummas and representatives of international organizations working for the CHT unanimously supported the proposal to commence a study as essential - Amnesty International, Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization, Organizing Committee CHT, Survival International, and the Jumma Peoples Network. VII. PROJECT SPECIFICATIONS 1. In view of the complexities of the situation, this study will be a pilot project only. 2. The project will commence in March 1994. Initial research work has already begun. 3. Envisaged time-frame is approximately six months. The first three months will be for field work and research and the second half for writing the paper. 4. The project will be co-ordinated and conducted by an indigenous lawyer with the assistance of a local Jumma attorney, including support staff. VIII. BUDGET (in US Dollars) 1. Salaries: a. Indigenous Lawyer/Consultant US$ 20,000 b. Local Attorney (Part-time) 3,500 c. Resource Person 3,000 d. Financial/Accountant 1,000 2. Travel (including travel in Bangladesh) 7,000 3. Computer (Laptop) and Printer 4,500 4. Supplies 1,500 5. Printing and Postage 2,500 6. Telephone/Fax 3,000 7. Infrastructure (Part-rent) 5,000 ___________ US$ 50,500 INDIGENOUS LAND RIGHTS IN THE CHITTAGONG HILL TRACTS Presented By: Jumma Peoples Network in Europe c/o Alliance for Rights of Indigenous Peoples (ARIP) 2 Romero Close Stockwell Road London SW 9, U.K. Tel: (44-71) 733-7900 Fax: (44-71) 274-9630 -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- To have a current Center For World Indigenous Studies Publication Catalogue sent to you via e-mail, send a request to jburrows@halcyon.com http://www.halcyon.com/FWDP/cwiscat.html Center For World Indigenous Studies P.O. Box 2574 Olympia, WA U.S.A. 98507-2574 FAX: 360-956-1087 OCR Provided by Caere Corporation's OmniPage Professional