Bangladesh
Hill Tract Treaty Chittagong Hill Tract Peace Treaty is a rare event in world history: Prime Minister
Own Correspondent, Dhaka, 3 December 2023: Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina termed the Chittagong Hill Tract Peace Agreement as a rare event in the history of the world. She said this in a speech given on the occasion of the 26th anniversary of the signing of the Chittagong Hill Tracts Peace Treaty.
The Prime Minister said, "This historic peace document was signed between the Awami League-led Bangladesh government and Chittagong Hill Tracts Association on December 2, 1997, without the intervention of any third party or external power, to resolve the long-standing conflict situation in the Chittagong Hill Tracts region. This is a rare event in world history."
Congratulating the people of the hilly districts, the Prime Minister said, "Through the Chittagong Hill Tracts Peace Agreement, the long-standing ethnic strife of the Chittagong Hill Tracts has ended. The trend of peace and development has been established in the backward and underdeveloped hilly areas. The achievement of the UNESCO Peace Prize is a reminder of the international recognition of this agreement."
Sheikh Hasina said that Bangabandhu was the first to bring back the backward hill communities deprived of the touch of modernity to the mainstream of development and took various programs to improve the living standards of the hill dwellers. In addition to regional development, he took measures to provide equal opportunities to the hilly students in the field of education. To this end, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib issued instructions to reserve specific seats for hill students in colleges, universities and technical institutions in June 1973.
Pointing out that the Awami League government is working for the development of the Chittagong Hill Tracts in the light of the peace agreement, the Prime Minister said, "We have formed the Chittagong Hill Tracts Affairs Ministry, the Chittagong Hill Tracts Regional Council, the Chittagong Hill Tracts Development Board and the three hill district councils. Education, health, electricity, We are implementing comprehensive programs for the development of all sectors, including communication, infrastructure and mobile networks. We inaugurated 42 bridges on the same day in the hilly areas last year. We are removing all the Bailey bridges in the region and constructing new bridges.”
She also said, "We have established a science and technology university and a medical college in Rangamati. Various activities are ongoing by the land commission formed to settle land disputes. Development activities are continuing in the three hill districts through the Chittagong Hill Tracts Development Board and Hill District Councils."
