Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bangladesh (Hum.), Vol. 59(1), 2014, pp. 111-138 PEACEBUILDING IN THE CHITTAGONG HILL TRACTS (CHT): AN INSTITUTIONALIST APPROACH * Ananda Bikash Chakma ** * Abstract The ethnic tensions in the Chittagong Hill Tracts originated from the hill-men’s demands for autonomy and recognition of distinct identity in the newly adopted constitution of Bangladesh in 1972. While successive governments have neglected both demands, they have also established a host of political institutions to address the grievances of the tribal people and to establish peace and security in the CHT. The formation of the Tribal Cultural Institutes and the Chittagong Hill Tracts Development Board, the creation of three administrative districts splitting the old CHT district are just a few examples. The foundation of three Hill Local Government Councils and the CHT Regional council, and of late, the Ministry of CHT Affairs are also notable developments. This paper argues that the evolving political institutions created both before and after the 1997 CHT Peace Accord have played varied level of role toward the process of peace-building. The evolution of these political-administrative institutions and their performance are analyzed in this paper. In the end, the author identifies a few challenges toward the full implementation of the CHT Accord in general and the democratic governance of local institutions in particular. Introduction Since the independence of Bangladesh in 1971, the ethnic problem in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) has drawn sustained attention from the successive governments, regardless of their political ideology and proximity to the civilian or military leaderships. The problem in the CHT region originated with the demand for special ethnic identity by the hill people and the denial of such special identity by the government of Bangladesh’s independence leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. It was therefore no surprise that the 1972 Constitution of Bangladesh neither included any provisions for recognizing the distinct identity of the indigenous hill people nor accorded the CHT any special administrative * The paper was presented at the National Seminar on “Bangladesh at 40: Achievements and Challenges’’ organized by the Asiatic Society of Bangladesh in Dhaka during 14-15 March 2013. ** Assistant Professor, Department of History, University of Chittagong, Bangladesh.