CHITTAGONG HILL TRACTS
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The Jumma Refugees fetch water in the relief camp of Tripura. These refugees fled the Bangladesh military induced terror in their homeland. An exodus to India was not a new event. But for the first time, the refugees went in very large numbers and refused to be returned. The exodus in 1986 led to the establishment of six relief camps in Tripura state of India.
The Bangladesh armed forces and the Bangladeshi settlers had committed numerous massacres and atrocities against the indigenous Jumma people of the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) as part of the Bangladesh Government's policy to wipe out the Jumma people from their traditional homeland in order to populate it with the Bangladeshi settlers. The state terrorism forces the Jumma people to leave their ancestral villages and farmlands and to join the tens of thousands of homeless refugees. Thousands of them fled across the border to India and Burma to escape the racial and genocidal atrocities of the fundamentally hostile Bangladeshi regime. Since the CHT conflict started in 1975 the Jumma refugees cross the border three times, in 1981 to Tripura, in 1984 to Mizoram and in 1986 to Tripura. The waves of refugees are directly related to the waves of violence against the Jumma people in the CHT. However, the origins of the refugees depend on the accessibility of their villages to the borders. Most of the refugees in Tripura come from the Khagrachari and Dighinala areas. On the other hand, the majority of those fleeing from Langadu after the attacks on 4 May 1989, were not allowed into Mizoram and so remained in the forest areas and did not attempt to make the dangerous trek across the CHT to Tripura.
1.REFUGEES TO TRIPURA
As a consequence of the Bangladeshi security forces genocidal campaigns at Banraibari, Belchari, Ashalong, Gurangapara, Tabalchari in Feni valley in June and September 1981 some 18,000 Jummas took refuge in the Tripura state of India. At that time the Bangladesh Government denied that the refugees were from Bangladesh. But the world community forced the Bangladesh Government to repatriate the refugees. The Jumma refugees agreed to go back to Bangladesh on the government's promise that they would be given full protection from repression and that they would get back their villages and farmlands in addition to sufficient financial help for their rehabilitation. It is needless to say that the Bangladeshi regime did not keep its promises. Mr. Michael Roche (the Secretary of the Buddhist Peace Fellowship, Berkeley, California, U.S.A) visited the CHT to investigate the genocidal crimes committed by the Bangladesh Authorities against the innocent indigenous people of the CHT. He gave a very clear picture of the plight of the refugees in his report published in the Buddhist Peace Fellowship Newsletter-
"...early this year, some 18,000 of them were repatriated to Bangladesh. These tribal people were met at the border by hostile Bangladesh officials and were given the equivalent of $8 and were left to their fates. Return to their native villages is, of course, impossible for these refugees because their homes and possessions have been appropriated by Bengali settlers, so they join the tens of thousands of homeless now in the Hill Tracts. Harassed by government authorities, unable to flee the country and without any means of support, they live in limbo in a land where the quality of tribal life approached the infernal".
2.REFUGEES TO MIZORAM
In May and June 1984, the Bangladesh Army (7th and 26th Bengal), the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR - 17th Battalion) and Bangladeshi settlers launched surprise attacks on the Jumma inhabitants of Bhusan Chara, Gorostan, Bhusan Bagh, Tarengya Ghat, Het Bhoriya, Suguri Para, Choto Harina in the Barkal sub district killing at least 300 Jummas mostly women and children, burning houses, looting valuables and destroying Buddhist temples. The Bangladesh Army also pursued a "scorched earth" campaign for a month between 20 September and 19 October 1984 in order to evict the villagers of Bar Kalak, Othyal Chari, Harin Hat Para, Mong Chari, Shivram Para and Bamer Subalong in the Gaba Chari area of the Subalong valley. As a result of these massacres and scorched earth campaign, about 18,000 Jumma refugees fled to Mizoram, India. But the Mizoram state government pushed most of them back to Bangladesh. However the Indian Government has kindly given shelter to over 4,000 refugees at Tibira Ghat and Tagalak Bak in the Demagiri Sub Division of the Lunglei District of Mizoram. Those refugees who were sent back to Bangladesh could not return to their homes because their villages had already been distributed to the Bangladeshi settlers. They took refuge in the neigbouring upland forests and mountains.
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