Bir Bahadur Ushwe Sing MP, Minister
Ministry of the Chittagong Hill Tracts Affairs, Bangladesh
Secretariat Building, Dhaka 1000, Bangladesh
SUBJECT: PROTECT THE INDIGENOUS MRO PEOPLE FROM FORCED EVICTION
November xx, 2020
Honorable Minister Sing,
With this letter we, the undersigned organisations, wish to express our concern and show our solidarity with the Indigenous Mro communities, who right now are facing eviction from their ancestral lands as well as other human rights violations.
Villagers of the Mro community face eviction threats from eight of their ancestral villages at Chimbuk hill in Bandarban district in the Chittagong Hill District, Bangladesh due to the construction of a five-star hotel in their ancestral lands.
Officials of the Army Welfare Trust and a giant business entity (the Sikder Group-owned R&R Holdings Ltd.) have jointly encroached on their indigenous farm-land, village forest, cremation grounds and different fruit orchards to construct the hotel. [It has come to our attention that on 12 September 2020 Bangladesh army and Sikdar group announced that the five-star Hotel will be built on Chimbuk Hill in a joint venture between the 24th Infantry Division of the Bangladesh Army in Chittagong, the 69th Infantry Brigade in Bandarban, Army Welfare Trust and Sikdar Group (R&R Holdings). The hotel building will be accompanied by 12 separate luxury villas, a modern cable ride and a swimming pool.]
Some of the villagers have already been evicted, while others are facing threats due to the construction of the hotel. 800-1000 Acres of their land will be adversely affected by this project. Members of the Mro and other Indigenous communities are afraid that the construction of the hotel will damage sacred sites, forests, water resources and biodiversity in the region.
Indigenous Mro People in Kapru Para, Dola Para, and Era Para will be evicted while villagers in Markin Para, Long Baitong Para, Mensing Para, Riamanai Para and Menring Para are under threat of eviction if this hotel is constructed.
The construction of the luxury hotel will effectively destroy the social, economic, traditional and cultural fabric of the Mro Indigenous community. Mro villagers have no other way to survive without this land, moreover, this displacement and eviction will bring a destruction in the history of the Mro Indigenous Peoples civilization.
The construction of a five-star hotel under these circumstances would violate the Bangladeshi authorities’ responsibility and commitment as per national and international law, to protect and promote the rights of the Indigenous Peoples. Rather the Government should provide the Indigenous community with the necessary support to realize their own self-determined development.
The project violates the Constitution of the Republic of Bangladesh, provisions of the CHT Regulations 1900 (reinstated by the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court on November 22, 2016), CHT Regional Council Act 1998, Bandarban Hill Council Act 1998, Chittagong Hill Tracts Land Commission Act 2001 (amended 2016), and many established protocols and traditions.
Article 18A of the Constitution of Bangladesh commits the state “to protect and improve the environment and to preserve and safeguard the natural resources, bio-diversity, wetlands, forests and wild-life for the present and future citizens.” Article 23 obliges the state “to adopt measures to conserve the cultural traditions and heritage of the people,” while Article 23A obligates the state “to protect and develop the unique local culture and tradition of the tribes, minor races, ethic sectors and communities.”
The Hill District Council Act precludes BHDC authorities from transferring ownership of land to other parties without the expressed consent of the people and recommendation of the concerned mauza headmen. Therefore, any arrangement drawn by parties in breach of the provision makes the instrument void under the law. This project has not been taken in consultation with the highest authority of the CHT region which is a violation of the CHT Regional Council Act 1998 and the CHT Accord. Under the CHT Land Commission Act, the Commission is solely responsible for adjudicating on land disputes. Thus far, the failure of the government to frame the Rules of Business of the Commission has precluded it from functioning effectively. The project also violates the 1997 CHT agreement that explicitly prohibits building of any commercial facility that impairs the interests of the indigenous people.
Honourable Minister,
We would like to remind you that the government of Bangladesh has committed to the United Nations General Assembly in 2014 and 20181, to uphold the fundamental principles enshrined in the Constitution, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and international and regional human rights instruments to which it is a part. Further, Bangladesh Government has committed to good governance, democracy, rule of law, and promotion and protection of all human rights and fundamental freedoms for all citizens. Therefore, this project implementation over the Mro Indigenous Peoples land is a gross human rights violation and a violation of the Bangladesh Government commitment at the international forum including to the UN General Assembly and the Human Rights Council.
We would like to recall that Article 11 of the Indigenous and Tribal Populations Convention, 1957 of the ILO (C-107) obliges the state to recognise the “right of ownership, collective or individual, of the members of the populations concerned over the lands which these populations traditionally occupy.” Bangladesh ratified the convention in 1972.
Moreover, another gaping hole of the lease transfer mechanism is its failure to secure the Free, Prior and Informed Consent (FPIC) of the Mro people impacted by the project – as enshrined in the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) which Bangladesh has an obligation to respect as a Member State of the United Nations. The UN Expert Mechanism on the Rights of
Indigenous Peoples (EMRIP) asserts that it is the duty of the state to obtain FPIC of indigenous peoples to effectively determine the outcome of decision-making that affects them. FPIC is a standard protected by international human rights law and the Government of Bangladesh obliges to respect this legal principles as a member of the UN Human Rights Council.
The indigenous communities of the area were not informed, and definitely no FPIC was given by the community for this “development” on their land. As members of an indigenous community, they are supposed to be protected by a number of national and international laws, regulations, protocols, declarations and customs. On October 8, they appealed for redress to the highest executive of the state through the District Commissioner without success. This has revealed a gross human rights violations of the Mro Indigenous Peoples including their civil, political, economic, social and cultural rights. Moreover, this approaches of the Bangladesh Government will set an example as the violator of the human rights and constitutional rights of the Mro Indigenous Peoples as fellow citizens of Bangladesh.
Harassment and intimidation
The Mro community who organize protests against the project claim that they have been subjected to threats and intimidation. Peacefully contesting the construction has been named as a ‘terrorist activity’ and the organizing of such risk being killed or put in jail.
On November 13, 2020, the community however did organise a human chain and rally in Cheragi Hill. The unique protest was a cultural showdown. Community members of all ages participated in the event.
After this, villagers claim that they have been forced by army personnel to join a staged human chain protest. 2 community members were forced to read statements during this staged protest, but after telling this to the press, they have been facing threats to their lives.
The presence of army personnel and spies has increased exponentially in the past two weeks in the villages of student leaders and human rights defenders. The community members are questioned by army personnel, who want information on the whereabouts of the youth, who are organizing the protests. They are now in hiding fearing for their lives. The villagers are harassed over phone or in person. They are demanded to show up in army camps, where they are made to wait for hours, whereafter they are physically and mentally humiliated and tortured for another few hours.
The army has publicly threatened community members of killing indiscriminately with brushfire if they plan or stage any protest or demonstration.
We therefor urge your government to:
Immediately abandon the construction of the luxury hotel on the Chimbuk-Thanchi route, and ensure that any further construction or establishment in the Indigenous land respects the free prior and informed consent of the community;
Protect and develop the lives and livelihood of the Indigenous peoples in line with
Bangladesh’s commitment in its Constitution and international human rights law.
Immediately stop the harassment and intimidation of the Mro indigenous peoples movement for protesting the project
Conduct an investigation by an independent team (into the scam protest as well as the illegal detainment of the peaceful movement)
Establish a constructive dialogue with the indigenous Mro communities and their representative organisations regarding their concerns
to declare a timeframe road map for the speedy, proper and full implementation of the CHT Accord
Yours sincerely,
International Work Group on Indigenous Affairs (IWGIA), Denmark Asia Indigenous Peoples’ Pact (AIPP), Thailand
%2020.49.20.png)
