B3-0296 and 0350/94

Resolution on the situation of the Jumma Refugees from Bangladesh in India

The European Parliament,

A.concerned at the situation of the Jumma Refugees in the Indian State of Tripura who are suffering from inadequate food and medical supplies and are faced with forced repatriation to the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh without a general plan of resettlement for both the Jumma Refugees and the Bengali People,

B.having regard to the visit of its Delegation for relations with the countries of South Asia and SAARC to the Chittagong Hill Tracts in October 1993,

C.having regard to the report on the Chittagong Hill Tracts published by the South Asia Human Rights Documentation Centre on 14 February 1994,

D.whereas successive waves of Jumma tribespeople (including the Chakmas) have fled from their homeland in the Chittagong Hill Tracts to neighbouring Tripura, following the large-scale settlement of Bengali-speaking people and ensuing massacres of Jumma people since 1984,

E.noting that the proportion of Bengali Moslems in the Chittagong Hill Tracts has increased from under 3% in 1941 to a position where they are now approaching a majority of the population;

1.Condemns the Logang massacre in Khagrachari on 10 April 1992 and the latest massacre of Jumma tribespeople which occurred at Naniachar, Rangamati district, on 17 November 1993;

2.Considers that the Bangladesh authorities have failed to safeguard the lives and property of its Jumma tribespeople against both encroachment on their traditional lands and acts of violence committed against them;

3.Calls on the Government of India to ensure that there is no repatriation of Jumma refugees against their will and to ensure that adequate food and medical supplies are provided to the refugee camps;

4.Asks the Government of India to consider whether the UNCHR could not make a contribution to the solution of this tragic problem, thereby reducing the burden which India has borne for 10 years;

5.Calls on the Government of Bangladesh to create the conditions necessary for the repatriation of the Jumma refugees, as put forward by the Jumma refugees, including lifting the military occupation of the Chittagong Hill Tracts, and negotiating with the Jana Samhati Samiti on the future autonomy of the Chittagong Hill Tracts within the constitution of Bangladesh, in order to seek a sustainable solution to the ongoing conflict, and to offer the refugees written guarantees of their safety;

6.Calls on the Government of Bangladesh to allow the United Nations High Commission for Refugees to offer its full protection services to returning refugees and to allow the International Committee of the Red Cross and other international humanitarian and human rights organizations to monitor the process of resettlement;

7.Calls on the Commission to offer humanitarian assistance for the repatriation of the Jumma people, and to impress upon the Bangladesh authorities the need to respect the human rights of the indigenous people of the Chittagong Hill Tracts;

8.Calls on the major international donor countries and especially the EU to create a special budget to support a resettlement programme for both the Jumma refugees and the Bengali people, as Europeans have to recognize their responsibility for the present situation, which is largely a result of European colonialism in the past;

9.Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Commission, the Council and to the Governments of Bangladesh and India.