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Bangladesh: Indigenous people and religious minorities still affected by displacement
Source: IDMC
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Armed conflict and human rights
violations including forced evictions and government policies discriminating against religious minorities have displaced at least tens of thousands of people in Bangladesh. The armed conflict in the
Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) of south-east Bangladesh broke out in 1973 when the central government rejected demands by indigenous groups there for constitutional protection and recognition as a
separate community within the new state of Bangladesh. The relocation of some 400,000 Bengali settlers from the plains to the CHT also fuelled the conflict.
No recent estimates of the number of IDPs in the CHT are available. At least 60,000 indigenous people were in 2000 estimated to have been internally displaced during the conflict, while around 60,000 fled to India. In the same year the government estimated that 500,000 indigenous people and settlers had been displaced.
The conflict ended officially through a peace accord in 1997, but many of its causes have persisted, the accord has never been fully implemented, and many of the displaced remain without a durable solution. Bengali settlement in the CHT has continued on a smaller scale, and indigenous people continue to be forcibly displaced from their land, due to evictions by authorities, or by settlers with the knowledge or direct support of the army.
Religious minorities outside the CHT have also been displaced as a result of discrimination or communal violence. The Hindu community in particular lost much of its land due to the nationalist Vested Property Act of 1974. This act was repealed in 2001, but there has since been no restitution of land to minorities. Communal violence, particularly between 2001 and 2006 when the Bangladesh Nationalist Party was in power, is believed to have affected many religious minorities including the Ahmadi Islamic sect.
Elections in December 2008 brought a new government to power and its premier has promised a full implementation of the 1997 peace accord in the CHT and protection of religious minorities all over the country. The government must implement these pledges if the situation of internally displaced people is to improve.
Read full Report on Internal Displacement in Bangladesh
No recent estimates of the number of IDPs in the CHT are available. At least 60,000 indigenous people were in 2000 estimated to have been internally displaced during the conflict, while around 60,000 fled to India. In the same year the government estimated that 500,000 indigenous people and settlers had been displaced.
The conflict ended officially through a peace accord in 1997, but many of its causes have persisted, the accord has never been fully implemented, and many of the displaced remain without a durable solution. Bengali settlement in the CHT has continued on a smaller scale, and indigenous people continue to be forcibly displaced from their land, due to evictions by authorities, or by settlers with the knowledge or direct support of the army.
Religious minorities outside the CHT have also been displaced as a result of discrimination or communal violence. The Hindu community in particular lost much of its land due to the nationalist Vested Property Act of 1974. This act was repealed in 2001, but there has since been no restitution of land to minorities. Communal violence, particularly between 2001 and 2006 when the Bangladesh Nationalist Party was in power, is believed to have affected many religious minorities including the Ahmadi Islamic sect.
Elections in December 2008 brought a new government to power and its premier has promised a full implementation of the 1997 peace accord in the CHT and protection of religious minorities all over the country. The government must implement these pledges if the situation of internally displaced people is to improve.
Read full Report on Internal Displacement in Bangladesh
