Defuse tension in Rangamati

THE fact that curfew has had to be imposed in Rangamati since Saturday following clashes between hill people and Bangalees centring the inauguration of a medical college can only have a mixed set of implications.

In the first place, it may sound ironical as to why the setting up of a medical institution in the heartland of the hill-region should touch apparently the wrong nerves of the indigenous people. This is explained away by the agitators who convey the impression that they were not consulted nor the regional council taken on board which was required in terms of the CHT peace accord. As a matter of fact, they seized the issue to vent out their pent-up discontent over non-implementation of some vital provisions of the peace accord even after 17 years of its signing.

Specifically on the issue of medical college, they fear that Bangalees will be the principal beneficiaries of it as they are educationally more advanced compared with their indigenous counterparts. Such apprehensions will have to be allayed in time through effective affirmative policies.

Meanwhile the government ought to realise that curfews, ad hoc measures and fringe-touching assurances cannot be solutions to deep-seated scars that will obviously not be healed through band-aiding. What is imperative is implementing the core elements of the peace accord   facilitated by back-up measures and what's more, by conducting long-pending elections to the district and regional councils.