‘Want right to ancestral land, not luxury hotel’, 3 March 2021

People of the Mro community need the right to live on their ancestral land maintaining their traditional lifestyle, not any five-star hotel, said speakers at a protest rally...

They demanded the cancellation of a project to establish a five-star hotel and amusement park at Bandarban's Chandrapahar, popularly known as Chimbuk.

...According to them, a welfare organisation and Sikder Group are trying to grab about 1,000 acres of jhum land from Kapru Para Bazar to Jiban Nagar area, in the name of constructing a luxury hotel and tourist spot there.

The initiative, if implemented, will directly affect six villages of the Mro community and indirectly affect another 70-116 villages.

A group of Mro people, who have been directly affected by the project, came from Bandarban to protest.

Reng Young Mro translated the speech of one of their representatives, Mengchit Mro, who spoke in his mother tongue.

The group also played their traditional flutes and, protesting the project.

Different organisations, including Bangladesh Indigenous Peoples Forum (BIPF), Manusher Jonno Foundation (MJF), Bangladesh Somajtantrik Dal, Communist Party of Bangladesh (CPB), Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association (Bela) and Kapaeeng Foundation, expressed solidarity at the event...