"SAVE US FROM TOTAL EXTERMINATION" - A NON-STOP REVERBERATION ON MY MIND

Today I was surfing on internet. Suddenly I came across a few photos posted on the Flickr by International Work Group on Indigenous Affairs (IWGIA). Many photos were placed up on there. One of the folders contained photos exclusively from the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT), Bangladesh. I was clicking on the photos one by one. To my surprise, I got a few photos of jumma refugee camp at Thakumbari, Tripura state of India. These photos were taken by Jenneke Arens. A lot of thanks go to Jenneke for the photos.

By seeing these photos I lost in reverie and got 20 years back to 1990, when I was a refugee boy at Thakumbari refugee camp in Tripura state of India. I clearly remembered and visualised the long sheds, where we refugees spent our days in inhuman condition. I forgot the exact date, but I still remembered that day in 1990, when a team from the Chittagong Hill Tracts Commission visited the refugee camps in Tripura. Then I was a boy and student of class eight. The name of our school was 'Thakumbari Refugee Camp Model High School'. Our Headmaster was Akshoy Moni Chakma. I clearly remembered, our Headmaster got us, the students make a dais on the school premises.

Next to the school there was a hostel for students. As there was no environment for study at home (actually congested long sheds), many students (mainly the boys) used to live in the hostel. Shri Monoj (Subesh Kumar Chakma), a PCJSS leader who was posted in Thakumbari refugee camp, was there for full-time to look after the students. I called him Aju (grandfather). I learned English and Bengali grammar with him. He was very fond of me. He encouraged and inspired me a lot to study more and more. He used to explain the motto, "knowledge is power" and many other things.

Shri Monoj acted not only as a hostel super, but also a guardian for the students. He lived in a small bamboo house next to the hostel. He used to help the students with learning. He was a very strict hostel super. Every body had to follow the house-keeping rules very strictly. If anyone, who breached any rule, could not escape a hard punishment. Out of both fear and respect of him, students paid attention to their studies. I strongly believe, no one of the students of that time would forget him.

I clearly remembered, Shri Monoj used to be busy with writing memorandum and the messages for the placards, if any high profile delegation, ministers or dignitaries were due to refugee camp. I visualised that scene that prior to the CHT Commission team's visit to Thakumbari refugee camp, Shri Monoj called in a few students, who had good handwriting, to write the slogans up on the placards. I was one of them. Some wrote the slogans on white paper sheets, while some others fixed those pieces of papers with the bamboo sticks. We wrote many slogans. Still I remembered the slogan I wrote, "SAVE US FROM TOTAL EXTERMINATION" on the pieces of plain paper sheets. Today, the photo below reminded me of the memories of twenty years back. That time, I did not understand the meaning of 'extermination'. So, I had to consult a dictionary to get the meaning of it. Since then I have never forgot this word.

jumma children in Thakumbari refugee camp holding placards:"save us from total extermination",
"save humanity in CHT", Tripura state, India, photo: Jenneke Arens, IWGIA (1990).

On the day when the CHT Commission visited Thakumbari refugee camp, we the students along with other mass people stood in queues on two sides of the road. There were long queues. Children greeted the CHT Commission team in a traditional way of greetings by folding two hands (see the photo below).

jumma children greeting the CHT Commission in Thakumbari refugee camp
photo: Jenneke Arens, IWGIA (1990).

I can still visualise the faces of people. There was so much ethusiasm among refugees that 'foreigners' were coming to see the situation on the spot; what a sub-human life the refugees were leading in the camps. They had an expectation that those foreigners would put up the sufferings of refugees to the 'world community'. They had an expectation that the 'world community' would come forward to rescue the refugees, and indigenous jumma people from the clutch of oppression by the Bangladesh army and the Bengali settlers in the CHT of Bangladesh. The placard reads, "REPEAL DISTRICT COUNCIL IN CHT". The then military-backed Ershad government introduced the Local Government Council for three hill districts in 1989 against the will of the CHT people; while PCJSS opposed the Local Government Council. In this backdrop, there were high level of tensions, and conflicts across the whole CHT. Indigenous people were displaced in thousands. Many of them were compelled to take refuge in Tripura state of India. There was a strong demand for cancellation of the local government council system. 

In the eye of my mind, I still can see the scene of the meeting held on the refugee camp high school premises between the CHT Commission team and Jumma Refugee Welfare Association led by Upendra Lal Chakma, former MP. On behalf of the refugees, Akshoy Moni Chakma, Headmaster of the Thakumbari Refugee Camp Model High School read out the memorandum to the CHT Commission; while Upendra Lal Chakma spoke on the situation of the CHT. People gathered there in thousands on the school premises. We, the students of the high school were also present. I did not understand English that much. I did not understand what Upendral Lal Chakma said in his speech, except a few words and sentences. I understood one few sentences, which Upendra Lal Chakma uttered emotionally, "we the jumma people are on the verge of total extermination"; "Save us from total extermination." That day, I did not understand English that much, but I got inspired from Upendra Lal Chakma to learn English.  

Late Upendra Lal Chakma, former MP and Chairman of the Jumma Refugee Welfare Association,
Photo: Japan CHT Committee.

Upendra Lal Chakma is no more in this world, but his leadership role for the greater interest of the jumma refugees should never be blurred. He will be remembered by jumma refugees with due respect for good. 

Today, by seeing the photos on IWGIA's Flickr, I turned to be nostalgic. I was wondering whether anybody had taken photos of the long long sheds (known as shibir, not home), where the jumma refugees spent their days in inhuman condition, which was not worthy for living. At those sheds,  the jumma refugees shed their tears in sorrows and pains. The jumma refugees spent many days and nights with family members by starving, and sometimes half-fed. I saw, many lost their beloved ones there. Those long shibirs now could tell many stories of weal and woes of refugee life. I asked to myself: "did any jumma took snaps of those long shibirs? If anybody did so, would he or she share some photos with us? If I get those photos, I could show them to my future generations; I could tell them the stories and history of being refugee in Tripura state of India. Is there anybody to provide the historical elements for jumma history?     

Today I have remembered again: I lost my home long ago; as of today I am like a refugee, and a homeless person. Still I cannot forget the jumma children's cry, "SAVE US FROM TOTAL EXTERMINATION".