Two UPDF activists shot dead by JSS militants in Babuchara

The military-backed Jana Samhati Samiti militants shot dead two activists of the United People’s Democratic Front (UPDF) in Babuchara under Dighinala Thana of Khagrachari district at midnight yesterday.

The armed JSS men raided a house at Mandirghat (Natun Bazaar) where the UPDF members - Tarun Chakma alias Tuk Chand (32) s/o Mongol Mohon Chakma of village Baghaichari Duar and Subodh Chakma alias Suresh s/o Perabua Chakma of village Boidyo Para, Dighinala Sadar - were putting up for the night. They shot Tarun Chakma right there and took Subodh a few yards away from the house before gunning him down. After that the miscreants ran away fearing popular backlash.

The incident is the latest of a series of similar attacks by JSS militants. On 2 December they shot dead three other UPDF activists in Ramgarh. On 15 November two members of Hill Student’s Council, a front organisation of the UPDF, were kidnapped and are believed to have been killed.

Attack on the Babuchara unit of the UPDF is not new either. The JSS armed members set its office afire twice, on 2 December 2003 and again on 5 June this year. In an armed assault on 2 December 2003 they killed Gyaneshwar Chakma, a UPDF para medic, and wounded two.

The Jana Samhati Samiti, which spearheaded an armed struggle for the right of self-determination for long two decades, has changed its role following a peace deal with the government of Bangladesh in December 1997. Since then it has become a part of the government, which finds it handy to use its armed militants to preempt any popular movement in the Chittagong Hill Tracts. So far, the JSS armed cadres have killed more than 200 members and supporters of the UPDF and kidnapped many more.

UPDF has repeatedly appealed for talks with JSS, but its peace overtures have always been met with more frenzied attacks. Many Jumma personalities as well as international organisations have offered to mediate in the conflict, but the JSS leaders have ruled it out without providing any explanation. In a desperate attempt to bring the JSS to the negotiating table, the UPDF has pledged to join efforts to force full implementation of the CHT accord. The offer constitutes a big concession on the part of the UPDF, but nonetheless, the JSS remains unmoved and refuses to stop its armed offensives against UPDF and innocent people.

The JSS leaders often talk tough against the government over non-implementation of the accord and threaten to go for tougher movement, but those remain as empty rhetoric. They never translate the threats into a reality even when prodded by others and continue to enjoy the perks and privileges provided by the government in Dhaka.

There can be no doubt that since the surrender, the JSS has been playing a role similar to that of the Jingaweed militias in Durfur of Sudan and the Indonesia-backed armed gangs in the aftermath of the Independence vote in East Timor in 1999.

While in both cases the international community held the militias and the armed gangs responsible for human rights violations and indeed some of the perpetrators have been brought to justice in Indonesia, the criminal acts of the JSS militants are conveniently overlooked, if not condoned. This contributes to a climate of impunity where the JSS militants are allowed to have a free hand. The international human rights organisaitons should act immediately to intervene in the CHT, and in a show of contrast to the role of the government of Bangladesh, they should ask the JSS to stop human rights violations.

Prepared by Press Section, Publications and Publicity Department, United People's Democratic Front (UPDF), December 14, 2005, Dhaka.