Aizawl: Aizawl-based Zo Reunification Organisation (ZORO) has rejected recent claims by Indian Chakma community members that Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) in Bangladesh should be incorporated into India, as well as their reported plan to pursue the issue before International Court of Justice (ICJ).ZORO, which advocates the reunification of Zo ethnic communities in India, Myanmar and Bangladesh, said it had taken note of the Chakma leaders’ statements on CHT and their description of Aug 17, 1947, as a “Black Day” for the Chakma community.The organisation disputed the Chakma claim over CHT, asserting that the region was historically inhabited by the Zo people and constituted their ancestral land.In a statement issued on Saturday, the Chakma leaders said they had decided to take up the issue with ICJ, citing the hoisting of the Indian flag in CHT on Aug 15, 1947, and the subsequent award of the region to East Pakistan on Aug 17, 1947, by Bengal Boundary Commission.Rasik Mohan Chakma, an elected member of Chakma Autonomous District Council (CADC) in Mizoram, proposed taking up the matter before ICJ. The proposal was endorsed by prof Gautam Chakma, president of Humanity Protection Forum; Pritimoy Chakma of Chakma Hajong Elders Forum, Arunachal Pradesh; and Suhas Chakma, founder of Chakma Development Foundation of India, the statement said.ZORO, however, claimed that CHT existed as an independent territory before the British established their administration in the region. It said the Zo people had their own traditional rulers and systems of governance and had not been under the authority of any outside power.“Chittagong Hill Tracts is the land of the Zo people from our ancestors,” ZORO said, reiterating its position on the historical status of the region.The organisation further claimed that the Chakmas migrated into the area at a later stage and disputed their assertion that they were the original inhabitants of CHT.ZORO said it would continue to maintain that CHT was the ancestral land of the Zo people and rejected what it described as attempts to claim the territory as belonging exclusively to the Chakma community.
