by Mrinal Kanti Tripura and Sophie Grig
Information of the loss of life of Dr. Ramendu Shekhar Dewan, who died just lately on the age of 89, has been obtained with immense unhappiness.
For a number of a long time, Dr R.S. Dewan (as he was mostly recognized) was a UK-based worldwide spokesperson for Jumma peoples of the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) in Bangladesh.
For the reason that Seventies he devoted himself to working a global marketing campaign in opposition to the human rights violations and big land theft occurring in his homeland, recurrently sending updates and reviews, to lots of of individuals and organisations. At Survival Worldwide, we now have been receiving these reviews, typed until the top on a guide typewriter, for the reason that early Eighties. They have been a fount of information, and have been very important in retaining the worldwide neighborhood knowledgeable concerning the atrocities within the CHT, enabling Survival and others to marketing campaign.
The CHT was closely militarized: at its peak there was one soldier for each six Indigenous Jummas. Getting data out was subsequently extraordinarily troublesome, so Dr Dewan’s reviews have been typically the one approach for folks outdoors to study concerning the violence being waged in opposition to the Jummas. For instance, his work was instrumental in constructing the worldwide stress that, in 1990, pushed the federal government of Bangladesh to agree to permit an impartial fee into the CHT. The fee confirmed that the horrors depicted in Dr Dewan’s reviews have been true.
Few folks have been as devoted to the trigger as Dr Dewan. He campaigned day and night time for many years, typically at the price of his well being and all the time on the expense of his personal consolation. Till the top, he led a frugal life, consuming largely chilly, dry meals that didn’t should be cooked, disconnecting the electrical energy and heating in his flat (regardless of residing within the chilly north of England) so as to spend all his cash on his campaigning work. He defined this saying: “If the PCJSS [Jumma political] activists can endure coldness staying and shifting within the jungle and hill streams, then why would I not be capable to keep inside with out electrical energy and heater?”
Dr Dewan moved to London in 1967 to review chemistry. With the signing of the CHT Peace Accord in 1997, his household hoped that he would return residence, however he by no means did, not trusting the federal government and believing he may have a much bigger affect by lobbying from outdoors the nation. He devoted his life to attaining his dream of self-determination for the Jumma folks, however he left the world with out seeing his dream fulfilled.
Regardless of his personal austere life-style, refusing to spend any cash on himself, Dr Dewan was extremely beneficiant and considerate to others. He’ll all the time be remembered at Survival, and all over the world, for his braveness, dedication and massive contribution to the reason for the Jumma peoples, in addition to for his kindness. He has impressed generations of Jumma and non-Jumma activists and shall be massively missed.
