Seized in name of dev: speakers
Ancestral lands of indigenous people, both in hilly areas and plains, are being seized for constructing hotels, eco-parks, and security camps, in the name of different development projects.
Speakers made the remark yesterday at a virtual webinar titled "Protection of the lands of indigenous peoples and our duties".
Despite repeated promises from the government to stop land-grabbing and attack against indigenous groups, the reality is quite the opposite, they said.
Various major incidents of land grabbing within just one year indicates that land grabbing and violence against indigenous communities have increased during the pandemic.
Sohel Chandra Hajong, executive member of Bangladesh Indigenous People's Forum, presented the concept note, where he talked about major incidents of land grabbing in the last one year.
Evicting Mro people from Bandarban to construct a luxurious five-star hotel, destroying betel leaf plantation and ancient orchards of Khasi people to evict them from their villages, declaring indigenous lands as reserve forest in Madhupur and Tangail, land acquisition to construct eco-park, and grabbing Rakhine temples and their assets in Kuakata were mentioned in the concept note.
Sohel said, "The government's initiative to prevent such incidents is not satisfactory at all. Although it has formed a land commission for Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT), the commission has no visible activity. Although promised a long time ago, a separate commission for indigenous peoples of the plains has not been formed yet."
Echoing the concept note, Sanjeeb Drong, general secretary of Bangladesh Indigenous People's Forum, said, "It has been proven that protection of land rights of indigenous peoples is not possible with the existing land laws of the country. The government should empower and mobilise the CHT land commission, and establish the commission for indigenous groups of the plains, which authorities promised 13 years ago."
The discussants also criticised the government's role in not recognising the country's indigenous peoples as "indigenous". Instead, it still uses the term "ethnic minorities" or "small ethnic groups".
Syeda Rizwana Hasan, chief executive of Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers' Association, said, "There is a political goal behind such land grabbing and eviction. The government does not recognise them as indigenous communities and even ordered NGOs not to use the word 'indigenous'."
"We need to focus on this political motive and build a political discourse of our own to protect land rights of these groups," she added.
Fazle Hossain Badsha, lawmaker and secretary general of Bangladesh Workers' Party, said, "It is really alarming that oppression of indigenous people is continuing even in this pandemic. National Human Rights Commission is supposed to submit a report on the protection of their land rights this month."
"We shall then take this report to the parliament and emphasise mobilising and empowering the CHT land commission, which is currently non-functional. We should also form a separate ministry for indigenous peoples of the plains, otherwise they will always remain excluded from the national budget," he said.
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