-----Original Message----- From: "Satyakam Phukan" <titbit...@gmail.com> Sent: 09-01-2016 10:14 To: "sakya talukdar" <sakya...@hotmail.com> Subject: Fwd: Eviction of Chakmas of Toijongdor village stayed by GuwahatiHigh Court today
---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Satyakam Phukan <titbit...@gmail.com> Date: 9 January 2016 at 09:04 Subject: Re: Eviction of Chakmas of Toijongdor village stayed by Guwahati High Court today To: ACHR TV <suhascha...@gmail.com> Dear Mr Chakma, Happy to know some Chakma people, who are brotherly community of Assamese have got a temporary relief, hope you win the case but hoolganism cannot be guaranteed in future. I would like to know the names of the lawyers team of the Chakma petitioners. I WOULD LIKE TO GIVE ALL AN IMPORTANT CAUTION, WHATEVER THE SITUATION PLEASE TACTFULLY AVOID FALLING INTO ANY GAME PLAN OF THE INDIAN INTELLIGENCE AGENCIES. THEY ARE REAL BAD PEOPLE, THEY WILL TRY TO TAKE ADVANTAGE OF THE SITUATION. I AM SPEAKING AS A VICTIM OF THESE "DIRTY INDIAN INTELLIGENCE AGENCIES" AND CAN ALWAYS SAY THAT PAKISTANI AND BANGLADESHI INTELLIGENCE AGENCIES ARE BAD, BUT NOT AS DIRTY AS THE INDIAN INTELLIGENCE AGENCIES WHICH GIVES AN IMPRESSION OF BEING A HOLY COW, IN REALITY, THEY ARE CUNNING FOXES. THEY CAN MANIPULATE EVEN THE JUDICIARY, KHUDIRAM CHAKMA (Arunachal Pradesh) CASE IS ONE EXAMPLE, DON'T FORGET THAT. Dr Satyakam Phukan On 8 January 2016 at 17:58, ACHR TV <suhascha...@gmail.com> wrote: Dear all, I am writing to inform that the Guwahati High Court today (08.01.2016) stayed the eviction of the Chakmas from Toijongdor under Lunglei district of Mizoram. The Chakmas of Toijongdor say they have been living there from British period. The records available with us establish that the State of Mizoram has been providing land passes since 1977. It has been an extremely difficult journey, among others, because of the communication problems. There was no cause but on 15 November 2015, Mizo Students Union (MSU) guys came and asked the Chakms to leave the village by 31st December without any reason. A meeting was called by the Additional Deputy Commissioner who tried to reason out with the MSU guys. The MSU guys had only thing to say: we have asked them to leave – they have to leave. On 24th December we came to know about the 31st December deadline. Everything was closed on 25th December because of the Christmas. But we managed to put Kalendor Chakma, Karbari of the village in a jeep from his village on 26th, once we were confirmed by the afternoon that he will reach Aizawl on 26th, we bought flight tickets for him to fly to Guwahati on 27th December with another person (as he had never taken a flight). The aim was to file the petition before the vacation bench of the Guwahati High Court which was scheduled to sit for one day on 28th December (Monday). In the meantime, myself and Paritosh had drafted the petition to enable the counsel to file it for hearing on 28th December. As holidays for the Court was too short, the High Court did not sit on 28th December. Kalender went back after signing the documents (I had the opportunity to meet him in Guwahati as I was addressing a meeting of the tribals of Assam during the same period). We have been extremely lucky to have an excellent counsel. As this matter relates to Mizoram, the Registrar of the High Court did not allow filing the case on Monday (it wanted us to file in Aizawl/Mizoram bench). We approached the Chief Justice yesterday and on exceptional ground, he was pleased to allow it. When the matter was taken up today, the Standing Counsel of Mizoram Govt opposed it on the ground that there was no record of land ownership of the Chakmas. Our counsel stated that we have been there for 40 years as per records and much before that, and we are only being harassed at the behest of anti-social elements. When the Hon’ble judge asked the State’s standing counsel on what ground and under what law the notice was issued – Mizoram’s Standing Counsel had no answer. The Hon’ble judge was pleased to direct to maintain status quo (hope to get the order soon). I must say it is not for any joy or any credit that we had decided to file the case (not to mention about drafting petitions however small under tight deadline and the cost). There was simply no option. First, when Mizoram Govt issued notification in 2015 to deny access to higher education on not being indigenous to Mizoram, Chief Minister Lalthanhawla told the Chakma leaders that he would finance the case issued by his own govt! It was a struggle in itself given the deadline and with the support of all Mizoram Chakmas including CADC, we could draft and file the case in the Guwahati High Court (Rupayan Chakma was the petitioner). Even then our students faced physical assaults to appear for the counseling (while Minister Dr B D, CADC Chairman KK Tonchongya, student leader Hiniadon tried to address the violence on the day of the counseling and further follow up) ! Secondly, in the case of Toijongdor my colleagues Paritosh and Victor met the Joint Secretary of the Ministry of Home Affairs, Government of India on 19th November and he sought report from Mizoram. More threat followed and they once again met India’s Home Minister Rajnath Singh (25th December – good governance day). Home Minister Rajnath Singh directed his Secretary to immediately call up Chief Secretary to Mizoram in front of them – yet no relief. All Chakma leaders of Mizoram signed a joint letter (first time ever) but there was no relief – and yesterday only Land Department officials visited Toijongdor stating that Chakmas may not be allowed to stay. Yesterday, Member of State Legislative Assembly from that area Nihar Kanti Chakma met Chief Minister Lalthanhawla and asked why was the eviction notice issued when he had already explained the situation. Chief Minister said he will soon speak to the District Administration. This has been going on since 15th November. Therefore, there was no option. Finally, eviction of the Chakmas is not new and somewhere we had to start. There is no guarantee that hooligoons will not destroy the houses. There is no guarantee that people will be intimidated. The case is yet to be finally adjudicated – it is an interim stay only (though we are convinced by the merits of the case). This case would not have been possible without Kalendor who refused to give a dog when one Mizo guy demanded on 31st December for his/their New Year Feast (!) and asked, “when are you vacating the village”? There are number of others – Paritosh, Ramesh, Priyatam, Matanga, Hiniadon, all the Chakma leaders who signed the memorandum (please see the memorandum), Nihar Babu and finally our North East Director in Guwahati. All I would say is this: if we were to be unable to defend our community people, our human rights activism shall have no meaning. We may win, we may lose the cases (which we are careful about), we have to continuously try, be responsive to the needs and time, and be innovative. At the same time, all these are meaningless if we cannot find the victims to be the petitioners (whether Rupayan or Kalendor – they do take more physical risks than us who draft the petitions and use contacts). Therefore, it is my request to encourage our own people living in the wretched of the earth to be brave to fight. I always say the struggle of the Chakmas in Arunachal Pradesh (who once upon a time used to be insulted/assaulted in public places including markets and buses for being refugees) is not similar to the Afro-Americans in the US. When a fragile old man spent the night on the bank of the Dhihing river to file his citizenship applications 51 years after migration as Deputy Commissioner was coming from far off – I thought it would have made to The New York Times. In the last 25 years, Chakmas of AP had shaken the State of AP and India many times and finally sat across with the State and other opponent (a turn around from Chakma Dogs go back days). Our struggle in AP could be one of the best case studies of using justice system for rights anywhere in the world. We have a case as an example for inspiration and there is no reason as to why Chakmas of Mizoram cannot repeat the same even if there is no difference between the State and community (Mizos) in Mizoram. Will share the order as and when we get it. Best, Suhas _______________________________________________ assam mailing list assam@assamnet.org http://assamnet.org/mailman/listinfo/assam_assamnet.org
