December 1, 2004
Convenor of the United Peoples Democratic Front (UPDF) Prasit Bikash Khisha in a statement issued to the press on the occasion of the seventh anniversary of the controversial CHT accord, called upon the government to concede to the demand of full autonomy for establishing enduring peace in the CHT.
In the statement, issued on 1 December 2004, he also said grumbling over the non-implementation of the accord and a real struggle for establishing the rights of the people were two different things.
Terming the CHT accord as “a treaty on paper and ineffective” the UPDF leader said, “after seven years of the signing of the accord it has become clear as daylight that neither of the parties shows respect to it. The previous Awami League government did nothing to implement the treaty. On the other hand, the Jana Samhati Samiti was reluctant to go for an effective and vigorous action programme against the Awami League government. Now the BNP-led four party alliance is in power. The BNP and its allies opposed the accord while in the opposition and went to the extent of organising a long march demanding that the accord is scrapped. That the BNP government would not go about implementing the accord is a foregone conclusion.”
Mr. Khisha held the vested interest groups for the ongoing fratricidal conflict and the standoff in the CHT and said, “the accord has brought fortune for these interest groups, which also include the degenerated leadership of the Jana Samhati Samiti.”
He the common Jumma and Bengali people did not gain anything from the accord.
[Press Section, Publicity and Publication Department, United Peoples Democratic Front (UPDF). Issued on December 1, 2004]