Nabila Tabassum Chowdhury > Recent Status Updates

"...do not our lives dissolve into the evening as quickly as this grief of childhood?

"Who knows? Perhaps we would end up evaporating altogether. Or we would merge with the mist which covered the windows, this stubborn mist which you could not wipe off."

"...in life it is not the future which counts, but the past."

"Perhaps, after all, I never was this Pedro McEvoy, I was nothing, but waves passed through me, sometimes faint, sometimes stronger, and all these scattered echoes afloat in the air crystallized and there I was."

"Inwardly I repeated this name I'd been given at birth, this name by which I had been called throughout a whole section of my life and which, for a number of people, had conjured up my face. Pedro."

"No, he had not recognized me. No one recognized me"

In all of these activities,councils will have to come in for the approval,or to secure the consent of the govt,which reserves the right to dissolve the councils. ... Last but not least,the local councils will have no authority to order the military forces out of their districts-they may well prove to not interested in doing this,since new "political solution"falls far short of the demands of the"fighters for peace".

Each council may draw up its own regulations for running the affairs of the district; each will be responsible for the maintenance of law and order and will, for this purpose, recruit a district police force; each will assess the social and economic needs of the people, levy taxes, and initiate development projects financially supported by the central government.

In the spring of 1989, just in time for the UN conference on human rights…adopted 3 new bills providing for the constitution of local government councils in the districts of Rangamati, Khagrachori & Banderban.A majority of seats on the councils, as well as the chairmanship is reserved for the local tribesmen.

One thing is certain:without foreign aid the government of BD couldn't flourish.Would it be asking too much to require the BD govt as a small remuneration for aid-to allow inhabitants of Hill Tracts to survive?Would it be asking too much to require the govt to discontinue its military & police terrorism,instead to grant ethnic groups their own administration & allow them to use their own land and their own reserves?

By means of terrorism, resistance to Bangali expansion can be repressed; but it can not be completely eliminated until the entire indigenous population has been either exterminated or driven off. Surely no one believes that this Final Solution for the non-Muslim inhabitants of the Hili Tracts would in fact at the same time solve the problems of Bangladesh.

Mru hv not been spared...not only have 2 strategic roads been constructed through their region,bt army units have been stationed in valleys of southern rivers,so that life in villages is no Ionger safe...Bangali settlement has resulted in forced eviction of large groups of Mru.In January 1983, army forced Anok Mru in 3 mouza bordering the Ctg Plains 2 leave their villages without any compensation.

For the donor countries it amounted to sheer hypocrisy to deny support to anything obviously serving the purposes of genocide, while allocating at the same time funds for such useful purposes as the development of communication facilities which not only benefited military operations, but also facilitated the harassment, displacement, expropriation and expulsion of the indigenous population.

Yet time and again whole tribal villages tried to flee; for wherever the guerrillas struck, the Bangali army devastated everything in the surrounding villages. They plundered the houses, raped the women, and tortured, mutilated, and killed all the men they could get their hands on. In 1981 alone, 10,000 members of the hill tribes are believed to have been killed.

The tribal inhabitants of the Hill Tracts, on the other hand, whose chosen representative, the Chakma Chief, had taken sides with Pakistan, were suspected of collaboration. They were powerless against land-grabbing Muslim Bangalis who, during the turmoil of war, had settled in their villages. The search for hidden collaborators offered paramilitary troops a good excuse to maraud around in the hills.

The first large stream of refugees left the northern Hill Tracts in 1971. Along with these people there also fled Hindu Bangalis from the plains area bordering the Tracts.

Everyday life goes on, but it is changing- and not for the better. Not only is the fertility of the land decreasing- land upon which too many people's existence is already dependent- but the hill people's right to the land itself is being disputed.

In a story concerning the origin of the cattle ceremonies-known only to a few masters of the old songs-the bird perched upon the bamboo mast is feast-giver's brother...who was infact transformed into a bird.Feast-giver hirnself acquires his wealth by catching a demon with fishnet.He slays this"monster ruler,"who is a devourer of men,domestic animals&entire villages;then he cuts the demon up & distributes its flesh...

...a story explains why tongue of sacrificial animal is cut off...When God created world,he sent a cow 2 impart 2 all peoples rules for their way of life.It went first 2 Bangalis&told them...they should weed once &harvest 3times a year.Then the cow ascended mountain...As midday neared...it became hungry&thirsty...it had swallowed d scroll.When it finally came to Mru,it told...they should weed 3times and harvest once.

Mru existence is dependent upon bamboo. Bamboo is also the major medium of artistic expression.

In the case of men, the pyres consist of five layers of wood; in the case of women, six layers- an extra layer in recognition of their daily task of securing the firewood.

According to the data I have on a few families, however, the mortality rate for newborns does not exceed 10 percent; in most of the families not one single child died. In view of the fact that the Mru have neither modern medicine nor medical knowledge at their disposal, this would seem to indicate relatively sound hygienic practices.

Menstruation, however, is not associated with dangers or special regulations for anyone and is also not treated as something shameful.)

Mru men r not gentlemen;without a moment's thought,they leave heavy work 2 women.But they r neither domestic tyrants nor patriarchs...Mru men r simply heads of households,if a husband should die,the wife can also take over this function.Being head of house does not mean men give orders.They carry out certain rites,in cooperation with others,maintain rules which guarantee continued existence of the established order.

Among adults, no person is Subordinate to another, neither children to their parents, nor a wife to her husband. There is only partnership. Everyone knows what his jobs are and what he must do, so no one needs to give instructions. Mutual agreement is sufficient.

As a rule, the young woman's father seems to discountenance the match, giving a long list of his daughter's weaknesses and faults. (These deficiencies need not be true, but if the groom's side insists on going ahead with the marriage, they cannot later complain if some of the negative points turn out to indeed be true.)

The most important criterion for beauty is fair skin; whereas other aspects of a girl's charm may be ephemeral, fair skin is Iasting and can even be passed on- it is hoped- to the children. Nothing is worse than having skin as dark as the Bangalis- who, incidentally, value fair skin no less than the Mru, since those of fairer skin claim to be descended from more distinguished ancestors.

It is obvious that neither the circumstances themselves nor the rules of proper behavior make it exactly easy for young people to spend a few undisturbed hours together. Nevertheless, it can happen that a girl becomes pregnant before her wedding. A child born out of wedlock has no legal disadvantages; for it will later be fully accepted by the husband of its mother and integrated into the husband's clan.

A good composer and singer, on the other hand, can easily make himself popular among the young girls. To marry a good singer, however, means in fact to render him silent, since these evenings of entertainment, in which a man may give expression to the pain of his love, are the prerogative of the unmarried.