Frustration rising in CHT over slow implementation of accord, says PCJSS chief Santu Larma

Frustration and apprehensions are on the rise in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) because of a tardy execution of the peace accord, says the Parbatya Chattagram Jana Sanghati Samity (PCJSS) chief Jyotirindor Bodhipriya Larma.

The PCJSS chief, better known as Santu Larma, said this at the foundation-stone laying ceremony of the Chittagong Hill Tracts building in Dhaka on Sunday, a function presided over by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.

“A delay in the execution of the agreement (peace accord) has given rise to questions and doubts among people of the Hill Tracts," he said.

In 1997, the then Awami League-led government signed a peace deal with the Larma-led, 'Shanti Bahini', an armed group seeking regional autonomy.

The treaty ended two decades of bloody conflict in the hill region.

But a faction of the Shanti Bahini spurned the accord, while Larma's PCJSS has been pressing for its thorough implementation.

Larma expressed confidence in Hasina’s leadership, saying she could solve the problems of the CHT.

PCJSS has been alleging that army camps have not been shifted out of the region despite an agreement on their removal.

He also said the district and regional councils were at loggerhead, the local administrations were unfriendly and the land commission remained ineffective.

Several organisations representing the CHT people have been holding demonstrations each year to press for the implementation of all of the terms of the accord.