by PROBIR KUMAR SARKAR
Sultana Kamal, a member of the Chittagong Hill Tracts
Dhaka, May 27 (bdnews24.com) — A former advisor to the caretaker government has asked the government to clarify who are indigenous and who are not.
Sultana Kamal, also a member of the Chittagong Hill Tracts Commission, told bdnews24.com the government cannot establish something forcibly.
She was responding on Friday to the comment of Iqbal Ahmed, first secretary of the Bangladesh Mission in the United Nations in New York at a session of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues on Wednesday New York time.
The UN official said that Bangladesh had no indigenous population and claimed that “forum did not have any locus standi in discussing issues related to the accord”.
Stressing that Bangladesh did not, in fact, have an indigenous population, he suggested that Forum members tended to consider the words “indigenous” and “tribal” or “ethnic minorities” as synonymous, which was not the case.
He, rather, said “for the first time, the government is actively considering to recognise the distinctive identity of ethnic minorities in the country’s constitution”.
The 12th and 13th meeting of the session were held to discuss on the report on 1997 Accord on Chittagong Hill Tracts.
Prime minster Sheikh Hasina on Apr 27 at a press conference said the same thing— “no indigenous”, but the Santals.
Iqbal, however, did not even name the community living sprinkled in different parts of the country.
But Sultana Kamal, executive director of Ain O Salish Kendra, an NGO that provides legal support, asked: “Should we now ask if we came before them [indigenous people], or not? Why did she (the prime minister) only recognise the Santals? What about the others?”
According to Sultana, a lawyer by training, indigenous people are those that have their own customs, rituals and culture.
“We should have an open mind to analyse these things in this time, not by forcibly labelling communities.”
She pointed that the word “indigenous” or “Adivasi” was used by the prime minister and her government top brass too, on several occasions. “But now (the government) is refusing to recognise them [indigenous people]”.
The indigenous people of the CHT and the other parts of the country have long been demanding their recognition in the constitution to preserve their existence.
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