chtnews.com
News No. 111/2010, June 09, 2010
Members of the Bangladesh Army in Baghaihat have seized relief materials meant for the 19-20 February Sajek attack victims.
In a statement issued to the media convenor of the Sajek Land Protection Committee, Gyanendu Bikash Chakma and convenor of Sajek Nari Samaj, Ms Ompika Chakma, condemned the seizure of the relief goods of the Baptist Church USA.
They said a group of activists led by Dirgho Dhan Chakma were stopped at Baghaihat zone at 11:30am as they were on their way to Gangaram to distribute relief among the victims on behalf of the Baptist Church USA.
“The army pressured them to agree to distribute the relief goods at Baghaihat bazaar, saying the distribution must be done from there alone” they alleged. The army did this in spite of the fact that “relief has always been distributed from Gangaram in the past.”
The army kept the relief goods to themselves and forced Dirgho Dhan and his companions to leave Sajek.
Relief goods included one bundle of CI sheets, 25kgs of husked rice, cash Taka 700, salt, cooking oil and lentils for each victim family.
They were supposed to distribute the relief among 407 Jumma and 78 Bengali families.
Besides Dirgho Dhan Chakma, the relief team also included Asha Priya Chakma, Prabir Tripura, Sushil Tripura, Tusher Biswas, Liton Bala, Rajeeb and Kushi Tripura.
The leaders of the two organisations further said “a vested interest group is now out to starve the Sajek residents to death after it has failed to uproot them through attacks. It has already forced the World Food Programme, the UNDP and many other NGOs to discontinue their development activities in Baghaihat area.”
They called upon all to stop the politics of relief, and urged the authorities to hand over the relief goods of the Baptist Church USA to the relevant committee [of the victims] for their distribution.
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