The
survivors swam ashore, but the armed Bengali Muslim settlers were awaiting for
them and attacked the indigenous passengers - men, women and children. About 30
indigenous people were killed.
Since 1980, the Bangladesh army and the
Bengali Muslim settlers had committed 13 major massacres in the Chittgong Hill
Tracts (hereafter CHT). Even then massacres were not new in the CHT by then.
During the Bangladesh's liberation war against Pakistan, in 1971 the Mukti Bahini (freedom fighters of Bangladesh) perpetrated 3 massacres against the Jumma civilians in the CHT. But it was during the war against Shanti Bahini (the armed resistance of the Jumma people), the Bangladesh Army and the Bangladesh Government stepped up the frequency and intensity of mass murders against innocent civilians.
These massacres are executed by
systematic planning of the Bangladesh military, often in collaboration with the
Bangladeshi settlers to uproot and wipe out the Jumma people from their land.
These massacres include only the incidents where large number of people are
killed in a single day at a single spot.
Large number of People are also killed
in military operations of extensive periods in wide areas, those are included
in 'Reprisal Attacks' of 'Genocide' section.
1. Kaukhali Massacre, 25/03/1980:
On that they the
Bangladesh military had asked the Jumma people to gather in the bazaar on the
pretext holding a meeting for the reconstruction of a Buddhist Temple.
Following the gathering the military suddenly encircled the area and opened
fired on the unarmed Jumma civilians.
The innocent Jumma
people were completely caught by surprise. The Bangladesh military beforehand
had informed and armed the Bangladeshi settlers for the massacres.
The Bangladeshi
settlers assisted the Bangladesh Army by axing the injured men, women, and
children, whom the military had hidden in the background for the massacre.
Buddhist temples and religious images had been destroyed by the Bangladesh Army
and the Bangladeshi settlers.
Thousands of Jummas
took refuge in the Indian state of Tripura. Later on they were repatriated on
an agreement between the Tripura government and the Bangladesh Army, and on the
promise that things like that would not happen again.
A parliamentary
investigation team was formed by then Ziaur Rahman Government, but the report
never saw the daylight. The military officers who engineered the killings not
only were never punished, they were promoted in the ranks of the Bangladesh
Army.
2. Banraibari-Beltali-Belchari Massacre, 26/06/1981:
The Bangladeshi
settlers, under the protection of the Bangladesh army, invaded the Jumma area
in the vicinity of Banraibari, Beltali and Belchari, murdered 500 Jumma men,
women and children, and occupied their villages and farmlands.
Thousands of Jumma
people fled to the nearby forests and 5,000 of them managed to seek refuge in
the Tripura State of India.
3.
Telafang-Ashalong-Tabalchari-Barnala Massacre,
19/09/1981:
The surviving
villagers fled to the Indian State of Tripura and to the adjacent forests.
Although the Bangladeshi regime had denied that these refugees were from the
CHT, it was forced by the international community to repatriate them.
These Jumma people
were met at the border by hostile Bangladeshi officials and were given the
equivalent of $18 and were left to their fate. Return to their native villages
was impossible because their homes and possessions had been appropriated by the
Bangladeshi settlers. Many of them died of starvation and of diseases.
4.
Golakpati-Machya-Tarabanchari Massacre,
June-August 1983:
On 26 June, 11,26,27
July and 9,10,11 August 1983, the Bangladesh armed forces and the Bangladeshi
immigrants massacred the Jumma people of the villages of Golakpatimachara,
Machyachara, Tarabanchari, Logang, Tarabanya, Maramachyachara, Jedamachyachara
etc. Hundreds of houses were looted and burned, and 800 people were murdered.
Most of the victims
were old men, women and children. After clearing the area of the Jumma people
the government settled Bangladeshi families there.
5.
Bhusanchara Massacre, 31/05/1984:
Three BDR (Bangladesh
Rifles) camps in the locality were also simultaneously attacked so that the BDR
personnel could not intervene. Bhusanchara was the village most severely
affected.
The attack was given
extensive coverage in the Bangladesh news media and President Ershad visited
the affected area on 5 June 1984. No publicity was given, however, to the
reprisals taken against the Jumma population by the Bangladeshi security
personnel immediately after the assaults on the Bangladeshi settlements.
Some of the Jumma
people, apparently anticipating retaliatory raids, left their homes at once and
sought to hide in the surrounding forests. Others remained in their villages.
Later on 31 May and
the following day, the Bangladesh Army personnel, from the 305th brigade of the
26th Bengal Regiment, and members of the 17th battalion of the Bangladesh
Rifles, accompanied by the Bangladeshi settlers, attacked the Jumma villages in
the area, principally Het Baria, Suguri Para, Gorosthan, Tarengya Ghat, Bhusanchara
and Bhusan Bagh.
A total of 400 Jumma
people including children and women were killed. Many women were gang raped and
later shot dead. Seven thousand Jummas crossed the border into the Indian state
of Mizoram.
A Jumma villager from
Het Baria gave the following account of his experience to the Amnesty
International:
"My village
falls in the Barkal rehabilitation zone where large number of Muslims have
settled over the years. There is thus continuous tension between the two
communities.
In the summer of 1984
there were frequent clashes and the Muslims often used to threaten us saying
that the army will come and teach us a lesson. The army came on May 31,
accompanied by a large group of Muslims some of whom were armed.
They destroyed our village,
raped women and killed people. I saw two women getting raped and then killed by
bayonets. One Aroti, who is my distant cousin, was also raped by several
soldiers and her body was disfigured with bayonets.
Several people,
including children, were thrown into burning huts. I was among the people
singled out for torture in public. Five or six of us were hung upside down on a
tree and beaten. Perhaps I was given up for dead and thus survived.
The memories of that
day are still a nightmare for me. Even now I sometimes wake up in a cold sweat
remembering the sight of the soldiers thrusting bayonets into private parts of
our women. They were all screaming 'No Chakmas will be born in
Bangladesh".
6.
Panchari Massacre, 1/05/1986:
On 1 May and the
following days, law enforcement personnel, together with Bangladeshi settlers,
entered a number of Jumma villages in the Panchari-Khagrachari area and
arbitrarily killed the Jumma inhabitants.
The villages included
Golakpratimachara, Kalanal, Soto Karmapara, Shantipur, Mirjibil, Hetarachara
(also known as Khedarachara Mukhpara), Pujgang, Laogang, Hathimuktipara,
Sarveswarpara, Napidapara and Dewan Bazar.
After entering the
Jumma villages, The Bangladeshi security personnel ordered the inhabitants to
assemble on open ground, men separate from women, away from the villagers'
huts. While the villagers were held in this way their settlements were set on
fire by the Bangladeshi settlers. The Bangladeshi security personnel then
opened fire randomly on the groups of villagers who were assembled, killing
hundreds of Jumma men, women and children.
Part of this process
was described to the Amnesty International by a woman from Mirjibil, about a
mile from Panchari, who was witness to the killing of another woman, aged in
her 70s:
"As soon as the
raid on my village began, people (other villagers) began to shout asking
everybody to leave the village. But before most people could gather their
senses the soldiers and the Ansars had come. They were followed by several
hundred Muslim settlers.... They immediately began to ransack the
village."
"The soldiers
asked the men and the women to stand separately.... One old woman, Phoidebi,
had trouble getting up and joining the group outside. A soldier shot her at
close range."
7.
Matiranga Massacre, May 1986:
Following the
Bangladesh military atrocities described above many people from the affected
areas sought refuge in the forests away from their homes. A few hundred people
from several different villages gathered during the first week of May between
the villages of Sarveswarpara and Manudaspara, in the Matiranga area.
One night, probably
that of 1/2 May although the precise date is not known, while they were trying
to reach the Indian border, they were ambushed by a detachment of Bangladeshi
soldiers. The soldiers opened fire without warning and shot at them randomly,
without provocation. Over 70 Jumma people were killed.
8.
Comillatialla-Taindong Massacre, 18-19/05/1986:
After the Matiranga
massacre a large group of Jumma people fleeing from their homes, numbering over
200, most of whom were of the Tripura nationality, were moving towards the
Indian border at Silachari in southern Tripura in mid May. Their presence in
the area appears, to had been known for some time to the Bangladeshi security
personnel.
They were eventually
discovered, by the troops of the 31st battalion of the Banglaesh Rifles (BDR),
who surrounded them and made them walk into a narrow valley between the
villages of Comillatilla and Taidong.
In the restricted
space of this valley, the soldiers fired indiscriminately at the group, killing
most of the people. Once the firing had ceased, a number of Bangladeshi
settlers further attacked the group with machete to kill the injured men, women
and children.
The massacre was
described to the Amnesty International by a survivor and refugee in India:
"I am chief of a
large colony of Tripuri tribals and we used to live a little outside Matiranga.
Around the end of April and early May, when the Shanti Bahini began raids on
the BDR, army and Muslims, the soldiers began to come and bother us. We told
them we were not even Chakmas and had thus nothing to do with the Shanti
Bahini. But they harassed us."
"Later, on 8
May, they came in strength and began to burn our village. The officer-in-charge
said you Hindus have no place in Bangladesh and asked us to run away. We
decided to flee along with some Chakma families in our neighbourhood. But the
soldiers did not even let us run away in peace. They chased us and we hid in
the jungles in the day, making some progress by night."
"Last Sunday (18
May) we were approaching the border when a large group of soldiers caught us.
The officer said that we would be treated nicely and settled back. He asked us
to walk back. The soldiers were around us."
"They took us to
a narrow valley between Taidong and Comillatilla and there suddenly we heard
thousands of bullets and shrieks and screams of our people. At least 200 of our
people, mainly Tripuris, died. I do not even have any trace of my family. I do
not know whether my family members are still in hiding somewhere or if they got
killed."
"As bullets
rained from all sides the Muslims too descended on the valley, raping women and
killing people with swords, spears and knives; we all ran for our lives in
(the) direction of India."
9.
Hirachar-Sarbotali-Pablakhali Massacres,
8,9,10 August, 1988:
The Bangladesh Army
along with the aid of the Bangladeshi settlers killed hundreds of the Jumma
people(actual number not known, figures based on the eye witness report) in the
above areas. Many women were gang raped by the Bangladesh Army and the settlers.
10.
Longadu Massacre, 4/05/1989:
In reprisal to Abdur
Rashid's killing the Bangladesh Army, the Village Defense Party (armed group
formed by the Bangladeshi settlers) and the settlers carried out this gruesome
massacre. 40 Jumma people were killed, there dead bodies never returned to the
relatives.
Their houses were
burnt down and Buddhist temples in the area were destroyed. Among the fallen
victims were the wife, children and grand-children of the former chairman of
the local council Mr. Anil Bikash Chakma. The Bangladesh Army had grabbed his
land and settled the Bangladeshi settlers around his homestead.
Mr. A.B. Chakma's
friends and relatives had warned him of the potential danger of living so close
to the Bangladeshi settlers. But he had nowhere else to go. On that day he was
not in home, and that saved his life. Later on even after repeated appeal to
the Bangladesh military authority, the dead bodies were never returned for
Buddhist religious rites and cremation.
11.
Malya Massacre, 2/02/1992:
On 2 February 1992
two bombs exploded on a passenger boat at Malya. The boat was on its way from
Marishya to Rangamati. Malya is now inhabited by the Bengali settlers from the
plain.
The explosion killed
one passenger and seriously injured the driver of the boat. The survivors swam
ashore, but the armed Bengali settlers were waiting for them. The settlers
attacked the Jumma passengers- men, women and children. About 30 of them were killed.
Fourteen bodies were recovered, the others were lost in the water.
Some representatives
of the Jumma people were supposed to board the boat on their way to Rangamati
and Dhaka to protest against recent army atrocities in the area: Captain Masiur
Rahman of Bangladesh army had tortured a student Mr. Biswamuni Chakma and a
Buddhist monk (the Rev. Bodhimitra Bhikkhu) and had treated some female
students indecently.
Moreover three
Buddhist Viharas (monasteries) had been desecrated by the army. According to an
eye-witness account, two members of the security forces boarded the boat at
Dulachari carrying two kerosene tins. They disembarked at the next stop,
leaving the tins. These exploded shortly afterwards. The Bangladesh media
reported that the explosion was caused by the Shanti Bahini.
12.
Logang Massacre, 10/04/1992:
The military forces
forcibly relocated some fifteen hundred Jumma families from the surrounding
Jumma villages to the Logang cluster village, which is nothing but a
concentration camp, and distributed their ancestral villages and farmlands to
the Bangladeshi infiltrators free of cost.
Then they hatched a
plot to find an excuse to get rid of those Jumma prisoners. On 10 April, 1992,
the military authorities sent two Bangladeshis, armed with machete, to rape
some Jumma women who were grazing their cattle at their Logang cluster village.
The Jumma women tried
to defend themselves and at the same time they cried for help. A Jumma
gentleman came to their rescue and asked the Bangladeshi rapists to leave the
Jumma women alone.
Instead of going
away, the rapists attacked the Jumma gentleman and hacked him to death. During
the attack, one of the rapists was also injured. After killing the Jumma
gentleman, the rapists went straight to the camp of the Bangla Desh Rifles (BDR).
The military
authorities found the excuse they were looking for and used the injured rapist
as a victim of the Shanti Bahini (SB) attack. On the pretext of searching out
the SB, the military forces and the Bangladeshi settlers combinedly attacked
the Logang cluster village immediately after the arrival of the two rapists at
the BDR camp.
They hacked many
Jummas to death and shot dead those who tried to flee. Then the invaders forced
the old people, women and children into their homes and burnt them alive by
setting their homes on fire.
The exact number of
the Jumma people killed at Logang will never be known, as many of the dead
bodies had been removed by the military immediately after the massacre.
According to several eye-witness reports the number must be well over 400. Some
800 houses were burnt down and more than 2000 people fled across the border to
Tripura of India after the massacre.
13.
Naniachar Massacre, 17/11/1993:
The rally was
organized by the Greater Chittagong Hill Tracts Hill Students' Council, with
the advance permission from the local authorities, and was part of a campaign
against the use of the only waiting shed for motor-lauch passengers as an army
check post.
The reports about the
massacre which the CHT Commission has received from various Bangladeshi and
Jumma peoples' organizations and individuals all draw roughly the same picture
of the cause of events.
Naniarchar is
surrounded on three sides by the Kaptai Lake, so people travel mostly by boat.
People arriving and departing from Naniarchar are regularly questioned and
harassed by the army personnel from the checkpoint. There was widespread
resentment among the local residents against the army checkpost.
On 17 November, soon
after the students had held their meeting and rally, Bangladeshi settlers led
by Union Council member Ahmed Miah held a counter demonstration, for which they
had obtained permission on the same day.
They were joined by a
few hundred settlers from adjacent villages, led by Md. Ayub Hossain, president
of Parbatya Gana Parishad (Hill Tracts Peoples' Council, an organization of the
Bangladeshi settlers, not to be confused with the Hill Peoples' Council of the
Jumma people), and Abdul Latif, chairman of Burighat Union Council.
They arrived on
boats, armed with iron rods, sticks and machete. Surprisingly, the settlers
were not disarmed by the army personnel at the check post. Tension rose and at
one point the settlers started attacking the Jumma people. Even the Jumma
people who tried to escape by jumping into the lake were hacked to death.
It was reported that
the law enforcing agencies did not try very hard to stop the attack and
observed impassively. Students defended themselves with firewood and sticks
which they collected from tea shops. Then the settlers were already retreating,
there was a whistle from the army camp and the army opened fire on the
students.
Investigations:
Most of the massacres of the Jumma people, have never been investigated
by the Bangladesh Government. After a few massacres the government did set up
an investigation committee, but never to much effect.
The report of the inquiry committee set up after the Logang massacre in
April 1992 in which few hundred Jumma people were killed by the Bangladeshi
security forces and the Bangladeshi settlers, was made public. However it
largely projected the Bangladesh Army version of the event.
The report of the Naniarchar Massacre in November 1993 has never been
made public. Moreover, never have persons responsible for any massacre or other
human rights violations been tried in court. At the most a few of the army
officers have been transferred or given early retirement.
