Trouble in Hill Tracts again

This along with delay in other significant aspects of the peace treaty can easily be attributed to the frustration that lead to an angry outburst by the tribal leader Santu Larma. He even threatened to bring the region to standstill unless their demands related to the peace treaty are met by the end of this year. Do we really want instability to return in the Chittagong Hill Tracts? In fact the frustrations and disappointments of last five years have led the tribal leaders to express their desire to go back to guerilla warfare. It's not so long ago when Santu Larma himself had said in public that signing the peace treaty was a 'mistake'.

The government must show total sincerity in implementation of the treaty. The plights and rights of the tribal community must be addressed sooner. We can assume that the ruling party either has accepted the treaty or they have serious reservations about it. The latter doesn't hold water, especially since the prime minister herself met the tribal leaders and pledged her total support to the implementation of the treaty. Therefore we fail to understand why it has been put on the back burner. The delay has divided the tribal leadership, illegal arms are being recovered by security forces from the region, armed clashed between the pro and anti treaty groups are frequent. We just hope that actions are taken before the situation gets out of hand. We urge the government to give the issue the seriousness that it deserves.

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