Bangladesh insurgency set to end despite protest 12:37 p.m. Feb 09, 1998 Eastern By Anis Ahmed DHAKA, Feb 9 (Reuters) - A 25-year insurgency in Bangladesh's Chittagong Hill Tracts will formally end on Tuesday when tribal rebels surrender their weapons. But the ceremony, to be held in a 20,000-capacity football stadium, will coincide with a day-long general strike called by the opposition. Diplomats expected to attend the event at Khagrachhari hill town said on Monday the ceremony was a welcome end to years of bloodshed. ``All seems set for the big day. This will be the first major weapons surrender after Pakistani General A.A.K. Niazi surrendered to a joint Bangladesh-India command in Dhaka in 1971,'' one Asian diplomat said. Niazi's surrender, with nearly 90,000 of his troops, on December 16, 1971 represented the final victory in a nine-month war that turned former East Pakistan into Bangladesh. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, accompanied by her full cabinet, hundreds of diplomats and guests will fly to Khagrachhari on Tuesday morning for the ceremony, scheduled to start at 11.00 a.m. (0500 GMT). Security is expected to be tight, bolstered by the army, paramilitary soldiers and police. The main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, headed by former prime minister Begum Khaleda Zia, and its right-wing allies have rejected the treaty. They say it would allow neighbouring India to ``take over'' the 5,500 sq-mile (14,200 sq-km) Hill Tracts, which also border Myanmar (Burma), and have called for a day-long strike in the Hill Tracts on Tuesday. ``Opposition protests over the issue worry us but the government and rebels both appear quite determined to implement the treaty,'' the Asian diplomat told Reuters on Monday. ``No one should oppose peace...the world is changing,'' he said. Around 750 members of the tribal Shanti Bahini guerrilla group had already gathered at different camps near Khagrachhari on Monday. They will be escorted from those camps to the stadium early on Tuesday. ``They will bring along their weapons but without bullets,'' one security official said. ``Shanti Bahini chief Jyotirindra Budhipriya Larma, alias Shantu Larma, will be the first to lay down his weapon,'' he added. Over 1,200 more guerrillas will surrender before the end of this month under a government amnesty included in a peace treaty signed by the two sides in December. The government has dismissed opposition protests over the treaty as propaganda. ``Those trying to block peace and mislead people by selfish propaganda are not your friends,'' Hasina told a public rally on Sunday. The Shanti Bahini began the insurgency in 1973 after Bangladesh rejected its demands for autonomy in the Hill Tracts. The insurgency has left at least 8,500 people killed and forced some 55,000 tribespeople to flee to northeast India, most of whom have now come back. Hasina, since taking office in June 1996, said restoring peace in the Hill Tracts and ensuring the rights of both communities was one of her top priorities. Western diplomats also plan to attend Tuesday's arms surrender ceremony. ``We want to be there, and watch it happen. We also need to see the people's reaction to it,'' one diplomat said. Khaleda alleged the treaty signed on December 2 was ``nothing but a smokescreen'' and called for all-out efforts to force Hasina to scrap it. Copyright 1998 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. Republication and redistribution of Reuters content is expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Reuters. Reuters shall not be liable for any errors or delays in the content, or for any actions taken in reliance thereon. -------------------==== Posted via Deja News ====----------------------- http://www.dejanews.com/ Search, Read, Post to Usenet