pdf 25 Years of Building Just Peace Popular

The Journey of Struggle for Indigenous Peoples’ Rights in the Chittagong Hill Tracts of Bangladesh

The CHT Accord, signed on 2.12.1997, was meant to end armed violence in the CHT. It was welcomed by indigenous peoples in CHT as an opportunity to claim their rights as indigenous peoples and citizens of Bangladesh. Indigenous civil society leaders came together with NGO donors from Germany. They requested capacity-building and professionalisation to the extent of being in a position to access funds for their future activities. Given the trauma inflicted by the violent conflict, there was fear and mistrust against members and institutions of the mainland community. Therefore, involving experienced Bangladeshi NGOs in leading such a process was impossible. Donors had to think out of the box and go an extra mile in managing challenging funding procedures in order to support the post-Accord activities. Eventually it was decided to work with an international organization. This organization was considered to be neutral and given their focus on indigenous peoples worldwide, “like-minded”. This introduced Maleya Foundation to the international community of indigenous activists.