HWF team meets Ain-o Salish Kendra chief Sultana Kamal

chtnews.com
News No. 18/2008, February 06, 2008

A team of Jumma students led by Hill Women's Federation president Ms
Sonali Chakma met with Ms Sultana Kamal, ex-adviser to the interim
caretaker government and executive director of Ain o Salish Kendra, a
leading human rights body in Bangladesh, at the latter's office today.

The team apprised her of the appalling human rights situation of the
Chittagong Hill Tracts and requested that her organisation monitor the
situation more intensely and systematically.

Earlier on 4 February, a memorandum was submitted to her on behalf of
the HWF, a platform of the Jumma women in CHT. The memo highlighted
the incidents of human rights abuses including land grabbing,
political repression, extra-judicial killings, rape and arrest
committed in CHT since the declaration of state of emergency on 11
January last year.

The HWF president told her that due to unwritten harsh censorship on
the media imposed by the local military authority, who are the defacto
ruler of the area, the incidents of rights violations go unreported in
the local as well as national newspapers and other media outlets.

The HWF leader also requested her to send a team to CHT to assess the
human rights situation, make its findings public and put pressure on
the government to stop human rights abuses in CHT.

Ms Sultana Kamal assured the HWF team that she would continue her
fight for the rights of the Jumma people and raise the issue of the
CHT at national as well as international forums.

The HWF team also included Konica Chakma, Aungyo Marma and Somen
Chakma.