Subrata Kumar Roy
A tree is known by fruits, which are the culmination of its non-stop intelligence happening inside it. In the same manner, an action signifies name as well as characteristics of a person or a business entity. The recent activity by Lama Rubber Industry at Lama upazila in Bandarban, a part of the Chittagong Hill Tracts, throws up a harrowing picture of how a commercial enterprise to satisfy its own interest can go for such cruel action as forced eviction of ethnic minority community like Mro and Tripura from their ancestral habitat.
Setting up a new industry in the best interest of economic upswing is always welcome since it creates more jobs, and fixes unemployment problems, but Lama Rubber Industry has utterly failed to abide by the norm. It is leaving no stone unturned to grab a large swath of hilly land inhabited by the tribal people, and to do so, the rubber company continues to attack, vandalize and set fire to Mro houses, compelling them to leave the place where they were born and brought up. From April 26 last year to this New Year of 2023, eviction efforts by the industrial authority continues unabated under the very nose of local administration that says that they are just waiting for formal complaint from the affected people to go into action. The action of the rubber industry is nothing but a flagrant violation of human rights, which has left the ethnic population on edge. Forced eviction has already led Mro and Tripura people to go through severe trauma that has set back their lives. A question is obvious to pop up in everyone’s mind that the would-be development by the rubber industry will be happening at what cost.
Is it so, that one would only cash in on other’s weakness as the latter belongs to minority or ethnic minority group that would have to live at the mercy of the big shots while law enforcement apparatus would play a puppet role without stopping exploitation? Is it that the rights body will only keep shouting for the preservation of rights for all including the minority people, the women and those neglected and marginalized in society while their call would fall on deaf ears? In an independent Bangladesh – for the liberation of which ethnic people also contributed from their respective sides, such a blatant disregard to law and rights by the rubber company as well as the administration’s silence is unexpected. At least the tribal people should have their fundamental right to live on in their permanent abode where they are born, have grown up and continue their mode of living generations after generations.
According to Zohon Mro, a member of Lama Land Protection Committee, 39 families of Mro and Tripura ethnic groups in Sorai union under Lama have been cultivating jhum in their 400-acre land for generations, and to grab the large swath of land, the rubber industry set fire to the jhum vegetation on April 26 last year without any provocations.
Nearly a hundred acers of field were burned to ashes due to arson, and three false cases were filed against the affected people since they protested at the company’s action.
In the most recent attack on January 2, dozens of Mro people were attacked and their houses were set on fire at Rengyen Karbari village in Lama, thereby rendering them homeless. The police, however, gave the version that the attack was carried out over land dispute.
Allegations had it that on September 6, 2022, the rubber company poured poison into a stream, the only source of water for villagers, and damaged a large banana orchard belonging to one Mro family on last September 24 – actions that are tantamount to despicable crime – while the local administration is yet to take any actions against the accused.
Rights activists, academician and citizens have raised their voices over the vandalism and arson attack on Mro dwellings. In a joint statement, they demanded that legal actions be taken and punishments be meted out to the officials of Lama Rubber Industry and their patrons. Their observation found that the rubber company is deliberately trying to evict the ethnic minority people with the help of local police. They insisted that the affected families should be provided with security, the attackers and the policemen who helped the perpetrators commit the crime be identified, the rubber company’s illegal land lease be scrapped, and the victim families be compensated. It is time to see whether any of their demands be met with earnestness.
The lawmen, however, said that there had no case or complaint been filed since the recent vandalism and torching of houses took place. If the police are savior of people, is it not their duty to rush to the place of occurrence as soon as they are tipped off about criminal acts? Do they really need to wait for formal complaint or filing of cases before going for action to save lives and property?
In the words of Mro locality head Rengyen Karbari, local administration officials visited the affected families and distributed reliefs. But is it enough to heal the wounds already inflicted by the business entity through its violent actions? Shouldn’t the administration have brought the perpetrators to book immediately after their malfeasance? The victim families are still in panic, homeless and have taken shelter in other houses of the locality. In a free land where they should lead a life with no question of facing forced eviction, they are being frequently haunted by the ‘land grabber’ rubber company that appears to have begun a reign of terror by taking law into their own hands, and is bulldozing the Mro locality to make way for setting up their industrial unit. They have simply become land grabber in terms of their actions. The tribal people are poor and agriculture is their mode of living. They might be reluctant to deal with intricate legal matters like filing cases and going to courts to settle the land issue, but when it would be the question of their existence, and when they would have their back against the wall, they would also turn around and retaliate against the oppressor – Lama Rubber Industry – and ultimately peace and tranquility in Lama upazila, which is also a part of the CHT, will be destroyed.
If that happens, it would bring a bad omen for both the oppressor and the oppressed.
Subrata Kumar Roy is a journalist at New Age
