[Reader-list] Kashmir/Chittagong Hill Tracts, hard to see your own nether parts

[Naeem Mohaiemen]

<From: Shuddhabrata Sengupta: ...what makes it possible for Indian
newspapers and television stations to report mass graves in Iraq and
Bosnia and suddenly turn all coy when they are found in Indian
administered Kashmir.>

The same way that every Bangladeshi newspaper's heart bleeds for
Palestine, but after 36 years we still refuse to use the words "ethnic
cleansing" for our three decade long army-backed resettlement &
pacification policy against the indigenous Jumma people in Chittagong
Hill Tracts.

When Fazle Lohani first used the platform of his popular magazine show
"Jodi Kichu Mone Na Koren" (If You Don't Mind) to talk about the
Sabra-Shatila massacre, no one in Bangladesh knew where Palestine was.
His first words in opening that program (I still remember, it made
hair on my arms stand up) "Today we take you far far away, to a land
called Filisthin" (cue dramatic arabic music). Lohani was part of the
third world solidarity sentiment, but within a decade Palestine had
been appropriated by the Islamists, with "jalamoi" (fiery) khutbas
before and after each Jumma prayer.  But this treatment was never
extended to the CHT. One letter writer acidly commented that local
crusaders were willing (they claimed) to march all the way to
Palestine, but not to Chittagong (6 hours by train, 25 minutes by
plane).

The topic remains radio-active in all media. Sensitivities so high
(sovereignty, Indian interference, etc most often cited) that many of
us use pseudos when writing about it.

In 1997, the guerilla war came to a halt during the first Peace Talks
between CHT guerillas and government (the backstory was that India had
withdrawn support for guerilla camps, and was sympathetic towards the
Awami League gov't). Guerilla leader Shantu Larma came flying out of
his basecamp in a helicopter (in India we were told, we never really
knew). I desperately needed to get a text published.The editor refused
to print without first removing the phrase "genocide". He got his way.

After all, victims of a historic genocide (1971) could not possibly be
capable of committing their own genocide. Could they? Was Sheikh Mujib
aware of the nasty irony of saying to the Jumma "from today you are
all Bengalis", having become leader of a country fighting against
"Urdu will be the national language of Pakistan".

My Own Little Palestine
http://www.thedailystar.net/2007/07/10/d707101502126.htm

Ain Salish Kendra 2007 Annual Report
http://www.drishtipat.org/blog/2008/03/27/adivasi-07/

I'm Sorry, Choles Ritchil
http://shobakorg.blogspot.com/2007/04/sorry-choles.html
http://www.thedailystar.net/magazine/2007/03/05/sfeature.htm

Genocide Chronology (1997)
http://www.jpnuk.org.uk/chronology.html

Court Attacks Peace Treaty
http://www.drishtipat.org/blog/2007/08/29/cht-peace-treaty/
http://www.drishtipat.org/blog/2007/10/25/cht-treaty-challenged/

Region At Unrest
http://www.drishtipat.org/blog/2007/07/12/region-at-unrest/

Amnesty Silent on CHT
http://www.drishtipat.org/blog/2007/05/24/amnesty-cht/