Hill Voice, 11 August 2022, International Desk: Six Jumma rights organisations made appeal to the Department of Peacekeeping Operation (DPKO) of the United Nations to stop hiring Bangladesh military in Peacekeeping Missions for human rights violations in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT), Bangladesh.
The Jumma diaspora organisations have approached to the United Nations including Mr. Jean Pierre Lacroix, Under-Secretary General for Peacekeeping Operations, Department of Peacekeeping Operations, United Nations Secretariat in New York yesterday (10 August 2022). The appeal was copied to Ms. Michelle Bachelet, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights; Mr. Francisco Cali Tzay, Special Rapporteur on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples; and Bangladesh Focal Person, Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) in Geneva.
The submitting organizations of the appeal are the CHT Indigenous Peoples’ Council of Canada, American Jummo Network based in New York, European Jumma Indigenous Council based in Paris, Jumma Peoples Network Korea based in South Korea, Chakma National Council of India based in Agartala of India and Jumma Peoples Network based in Japan.
The Jumma organisations mentioned in the appeal that the Bangladesh government and its agency, the Bangladesh military always commit human rights violations on Jumma people. Though on December 2, 1997, the Bangladesh government made a peace agreement with Indigenous Jumma peoples to guarantee a limited self-determination for the CHT Indigenous peoples, the government has not kept its promise. Rather, it is trying to control the situation militarily like it did before the agreement. Now it is very clear that the Bangladesh militaries are the main actors in suppressing and oppressing the Indigenous Jumma peoples (13 communities unitedly as Jumma).
Some recent incidents including circulation of of the headquarters of the Directorate General of Defense Intelligence embargoing use of the word Adivasi and extra-judicial killing of Milan Chakma have been raised as the evidences along with necessary documents that the military are the main perpetrators in committing human rights violations on Jumma peoples. The Bangladesh military are carrying out all these human rights violations that correspond with racism, discrimination and religious difference.
The organisations appealed the DPKO to protect Jumma peoples from becoming the victims of human rights violations, discrimination, racism and extinction by not to hiring any Bangladesh military in the peacekeeping forces in future for time being until they respect humanity and Indigenous peoples’ rights in a broader sense.
