Homeward Bound,Finally

IT is just a short walk across a temporary bridge from south Tripura into Bangladesh. But for the 64 families who formed the first batch of Chakma refugees repatriated to Bangladesh on Good Friday, it was a walk into a future fraught with uncertainty.

A 20-point package offered by the Bangladesh government assures them that their land holdings will be returned and that they will be given the basics to begin anew in a land they fled following government persecution 11 years ago. But after one aborted repatriation in 1994, the tribals are afraid. Their mountainous homes in the Chittagong Hill Tracts are now occupied by Muslim settlers from the plains. And the mostly Buddhist tribals who had earlier formed a majority in the Hill Tracts now form only 50 per cent of the population.

Almost all the homeward-bound families looked apprehensive. "Who does not want to go back to his own soil? But I do not know whether we will be able to stay there permanently," said Arjun Chakma, one of the returnees. Over the next six months, about 50,000 Chakmas are expected to return to Bangladesh.

The first phase of the repatriation was almost stalled over non-payment of dues by the Indian government to the refugees. They were paid just hours before they began their journey back to Bangladesh.

In the past, neither the government of Lt Gen. H.M. Ershad, nor that of Begum Khaleda Zia had made any serious attempt to resolve the problems of the Chakmas who had been fighting for autonomy in the Chittagong Hill Tracts for several years. A policy that was initiated by Gen. Zia-ur-Rehman in the late ’70s, of resettling Bengali Muslims from the plains in the Hill Tracts with the help of the army, created fresh tension which finally led to the exodus of the tribals.

바카라 웹사이트So what has changed? Not much, believes Ravi Nair of the South Asian Human Rights Documentation Centre. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has stated that no plainsman who resettled in the Chittagong hills following the exodus will be asked to return to the plains. "The issue is not nine months of rations, or whatever dole they (the tribals) are going to get from the Bangladeshi government, the issue is how are they going to sustain themselves if they do not get back their land?" asks Nair perplexedly. The situation has worried international observers.

The United Nations High Commission For Refugees ( UNHCR) has been denied permission by the Indian government to monitor the repatriation of the first batch of 5,000 and is yet to receive a response from the Bangladesh side. "Normally anywhere in the world when there is a repatriation, UNHCR involvement on either side strengthens the process of return...it builds confidence," says Rajiv Kapur, deputy chief of mission at UNHCR.

But tribal leader Upendralal Chakma is more optimistic. "The present Awami League government led by Sheikh Hasina Wajed is sincere about solving the problem of the Chakmas, unlike the preceding regimes. If the first-phase repatriates are rehabilitated according to the agreement, I see no reason why we all should not be back home in a short time," he told 바카라.

바카라 웹사이트"There is ample land for settlers and the tribals to live in harmony," insists Bangladesh High Commissioner C.M. Shafi Sami. "We will just have to be very careful in the process of resettling the tribals. They, of course, would like to retain their cultural identity, and we will address the problem," he adds with bland confidence. The refugees’ existence in Trip-ura has not been without incident. According to a Tripura politician, they were becoming a "burden". Social tensions were increasing as the refugees were willing to work as labourers at half the rate charged by the locals. Delhi has reportedly spent Rs 80 crore for the upkeep of the refugees.

Growing goodwill between India and Bangladesh in recent times, complemented by the signing of the Ganga water-sharing agreement, helped to make the repatriation possible, believe analysts. The Bangladeshi army which patrols the Chittagong Tracts is expected to show greater restraint than it did with the 1994 repatriation attempt.

And Dhaka, which had virtually ignored the plight of the tribals until last year, is finally showing some concern for its own people, says North-east analyst Sanjoy Hazarika. "What is most significant here is that the subject is being discussed at all. Because the Hill Tracts have been under army rule for so long, it is seen as an area that has never been under the control of Dhaka," he says.

The change of policy in South Block towards Bangladesh is palpable. The two countries have agreed to back off from encouraging insurgency in each other’s countries. India has promised that if it encounters any members of the Shanti Bahini (a Bangladeshi insurgency group allegedly aided for many years by India), it will send them back to Bangladesh. "And it is only a matter of time before the ULFA (United Liberation Front of Assam, reportedly supported by Bangladesh) feels the heat of the Bangladeshi government," believes Hazarika.

India plans to get tough with illegal economic migrants as well. There are proposals to fence off most of its porous 4,000 kilometre-long border with Bangladesh, says G.K. Pillai, joint secretary North-east, at the Ministry of Home Affairs, displaying a map of the proposed fence.

India’s border problems with Bangladesh have been fed partly by local politicians who have absorbed some of the illegal migrants into the community in an attempt to increase their vote-banks, admits a former senior bureaucrat. "In a democracy you can’t rule out the possibility of vested interests," he stated.

While some Bangladeshis may be willing pawns, others can only hope that the new rosy relationship with India will help build more permanent bridges.