“The condition imposed by Foreign Ministry is contradictory to the Constitution”

CHT DESK

The ministry of Foreign Affairs directed UN delegation team not to make any comment on the situation in CHT, during their visit in Rangamati and Khagrachhari from 12-17 November.

In a letter to the office of the United Nations Resident Coordinator in Bangladesh, the foreign ministry on November 10 directed the delegation team not to provide financial or any other types of assistance either (secretely or publicly) to the local tribal community /representative and not to make any comment on the situation in CHT, which could make unrest there, mentioned in the letter.

The visiting delegation should avoid closed door and unscheduled meetings with the local community or representative, the letter also said.

Hasan Mohammad Shoaib ,nezarat deputy collector (NDC) of Rangamati said “We also got the letter from foreign affairs ministry which imposed ten conditions on the visit of UN delegation team in CHT.

“The delegation team was directed not to make any comment on CHT situation”, he said, adding, “I was accompanied with the delegation team all the time in Rangamati.”

Chakma Circle Chief, Raja Devasish Roy said, “The eighth condition of the letter of the Foreign Ministry, which asks the foreign visitors “not to provide … financial etc. assistance to tribal community/representative is patently discriminatory against the hill people of the CHT, since the advice implicitly allows the visitors to provide support to the non-tribal communities, but not to the tribal communities. This is directly contradictory to the equal rights clauses of the Constitution of Bangladesh, including articles 27 and 28.”   

Article 27 of the Bangladesh Constitution provides that all citizens are equal before law and are entitled to equal protection of law while Article 28(1) of the Constitution provides that the State shall not discriminate against any citizen on grounds only of religion, race, caste, sex or place of birth, he said.

The sixth condition focuses on two heads of institutions, the Chairman of the CHT Regional Council and the Chief of the Chakma Circle, in meetings with whom, the “MP of the Ruling Party” and the DC of Rangamati “may attend”, said Raja Devasish.

“No such condition has been attached to meetings of the visitors with the heads of other institutions based in Rangamati.”

“This, therefore, clearly shows bias and discrimination against these two institutions, who are deemed to require surveillance from a ruling party MP and a Deputy Commissioner”, he added.

“It is also disrespectful towards the MP and the DC, neither of whom, incidentally, attended the meeting of the foreign visitors with me”, he said.

“This is quite logical, since neither the visitors nor I asked for their presence. The visitors were free to meet the MP and the DC separately, in their respective offices or residences. Why an Hon’ble Member of Parliament, albeit from the ruling party, and a senior civil servant of the status of a Deputy Commissioner, should be entrusted surveillance work of the nature normally carried out by intelligence agency personnel is beyond my comprehension”, said Raja Devasish.

A team led by UN Resident Coordinator Gwyn Lewis visited  Rangamati and Khagrachhari from November 12 to November 17 to see SID-CHT, UNDP project activities, said an official of UNDP.

The other members of the team are UNDP Resident Representative Stefen Liller, FAO Country Representative Robert Simpson, UNICEF Country Representative Sheldon Yett, Head of EU Delegation Charles Whiteley, UK High Commissioner Robert Chatterton Dickson, Norway Ambassador Espen Rikter-Svendsen, UNRCO Peace and Development Adviser Rebecca Adda-Dontoh and UNRCO Peace and Development Analyst Flavie Bertouille, said Md Zahirul Islam,communication officer of UNDP Rangamati unit.