UNDP INITIATES CHITTAGONG HILL TRACTS ACTION

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 DHAKA 004390

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 9/1/2015
TAGS: PHUM PREL PGOV BD
SUBJECT: UNDP INITIATES CHITTAGONG HILL TRACTS ACTION
SUB-GROUP

REF: DHAKA 1558

Classified By: Charge D'Affaires Judith Chammas, Reason(s): 1.4 (b)


1. (C) Summary: UNDP and donor ambassadors met on enhancing
economic development in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT).
UNDP's Lissner said he plans to have UN Secretary General
Kofi Annan raise the CHT when he meets with Prime Minister
Khaleda Zia at the UNGA. Charge briefed ambassadors on her
August trip to the CHT (septel). End Summary.


2. (C) On August 30, UNDP Resident Representative Jorgen
Lissner briefed ambassadors who have either a "financial
engagement or serious interest" in the Chittagong Hill Tracts
(CHT). The group included Australia, Demark, the European
Commission, Japan, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and the US.
The US contributed $3.2 million in USAID Quick Impact Funds
over the past two years (reftel). Lissner proposed a "CHT
Consortium" among interested nations to better focus economic
development efforts.


3. (C) Lissner said that the ruling BNP, which considers the
CHT tribes as pro-Awami League, the ruling coalition partner
Jamaat Islami which dislikes the Buddhists in the CHT, and
the thinly disguised BNP anti-tribal group, the Equal Rights
Movement, funded by either the Army or the BNP, seek to
undermine tribal social and economic progress. Donors, he
said, are considered pro-tribal, and the CHT Development
Board, led by Wadud Bhuiyan, is badly managed and has failed
to develop the CHT.


4. (C) Lissner said that the UNDP's five-year CHT Economic
Development Plan had changed several times to accommodate
government demands, each time becoming more pro-Bengali, yet
the government, which approved it in March, has not approved
a needed related document authorizing UNDP to begin work.
Lissner said that after the government approved the five-year
plan, elements of the Army, uncomfortable with increasing
numbers of outsiders visiting the CHT, became hesitant in
granting additional approvals. He gave as an example the
Army rejection of a UNDP proposed construction of a commonly
used UNDP internet communication V-Sat installation. The
rejection letter, which he showed to participants, objected
that the V-Sat installation would permit people in the Hill
Tracts increased communications with the outside world, and
"miscreants could use the V-Sat to spread news about the CHT
to the world media." He quoted one prominent government
official, who criticized the Army rejection, saying that
since it's easy to get email in the CHT commercially, denial
of the UNDP V-Sat was "silly."


5. (C) Lissner said that he believes the Army, which
considers the CHT as "theirs" and enjoys tapping its forestry
and other resources, is starting to withdraw its tacit
support for international aid efforts in the CHT. In
reaction to this recent resistance to UNDP's efforts, Lissner
said that he has asked for the UN Secretary General to raise
with Zia when she meets with him at the UNGA in September.


6. (C) Charge briefed ambassadors on her recent trip to the
CHT (septel). She said that security was a continuing issue,
but that she received conflicting observations from groups
she met with on the continued need for the Army. She added
that she was surprised to learn that 30,000 Army troops are
in the CHT, that journalists as well as the Equal Rights
Movement accused UNDP of neglecting Bengalis and openly
preferring tribals, and that the journalists accused UNDP of
being secretative with their activities in the CHT.


7. (C) Outgoing European Commission Ambassador Esko
Kentrschynkyj said the new Bangladesh Chief of Army Staff
told him that the Army was scaling back its presence in the
CHT, that the police are ethnically mixed with Bengalis and
tribals, and any "land grabbing" Bengalis are arrested by the
Army and turned over to the police. He said the Chief
offered his staff to sit with UNDP to better coordinate
activities. Lissner said that UNDP, as a development agency,
never works with the military.


8. (C) Lissner said that when UNDP first began operating in
the CHT, the government did not expect development efforts to
be successful. He said that the Army was shocked that
tribals could learn advanced farming techniques and
progressive marketing from UNDP workers. The reason for the
new government resistance to UNDP's efforts may be tied to
the coming national elections, he said, because the Equal
Rights Movement has struck a chord with many Bengalis, and
that donor interest in supporting projects in the CHT has
increased. These factors, he speculated, when combined with
the different interests of the Army, Jamaat Islami, and Wadud
Bhuiyan's closeness to PM Zia's son Tarique Rahman, fuel the
BNP government's discomfort with foreigners in the CHT.
CHAMMAS