FAMINE NEARING IN CHITTAGONG HILL TRACTS?

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 DHAKA 000442 SIPDIS SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 04/17/2018 TAGS: AID PGOV PHUM PREL BG SUBJECT: FAMINE NEARING IN CHITTAGONG HILL TRACTS? REF: DHAKA 0102 Classified By: Ambassador James F. Moriarty. Reasons 1.4 (b) and (d) -------------- SUMMARY -------------- ¶1. (C) A food crisis in remote regions of the Chittagong Hill Tracts may be headed toward famine. Villages that lost rice and other crops to a rat infestation last year show signs of severe food insecurity and widespread malnutrition. Many lack seed rice to plant before the arrival of the rainy season in a few weeks. Other villages may soon be in similar dire straits when the bamboo flowering that causes rat populations to explode spreads to new areas. Recent assessments of the Hill Tracts by an Embassy Dhaka interagency team and several non-governmental organizations found a need for immediate international emergency relief and for subsequent ongoing food assistance if disaster is to be averted for tens of thousands of people. -------------- ANATOMY OF A FOOD CRISIS -------------- ¶2. (SBU) Remote areas of the Chittagong Hill Tracts along the Indian border in southeastern Bangladesh are covered by bamboo that flowers once every 40 to 50 years, triggering a series of events that lead to a rapid increase in rat populations (Reftel). When the hordes of rats first arrived in August, they ate their way through entire crops of rice, fruits and vegetables, leaving many people with little option but to forage for wild potatoes and roots in the forest. Numerous villages lost seed rice, which means there is nothing to plant before seasonal rains arrive in May. Even if seeds were available, the next crop would not be ready to harvest before early fall. ¶3. (SBU) To date, food relief has been insufficient. The Government of Bangladesh (GOB) has allocated 1,400 metric tons of rice in the three districts of the Hill Tracts, while the United Nations Development Program has provided rice, salt and shrimp paste to 7,000 families in Rangamati district. By the reckoning of non-governmental organizations and tribal officials, that aid is not nearly enough to support the affected population through the crisis. The situation clearly exceeds the capacity to respond of the GOB, which is struggling to ensure affordable food is available throughout the country in the wake of crop-destroying natural disasters and high international commodity prices. �0A; -------------- HUNGER AND DESPAIR IN SAJEK UNION -------------- ¶4. (SBU) Sajek Union of Rangamati District, whose 40,000 people are tucked into the extreme northeastern corner of the Hill Tracts, is among the worst-hit areas. On April 11, two EmbOffs traveled to Philamukh village -- a 3-hour car ride along narrow, serpentine roads from Khagrachhari city to Ruilui town, followed by a two-hour jungle trek -- to see part of the affected area. Nilik Dhan Chakma, the local headman, recounted how the rats came eight months earlier and devoured nearly all of the rice, vegetable and ginger crops that the villagers eat and sell in the local market, where they purchase shrimp paste, rice and basic household goods. He displayed a wicker basket with a gaping hole in its bottom to show how rats had gobbled up stored grain as well. Some of the approximately 100 villagers have earned money by selling their labor to people with unaffected fields, while many others have resorted to hiking up to eight kilometers into the forest to find edible roots and wild potatoes."Life is very uncertain," said Nilik Dhan, whose relentlessly grim mien is testament to his 60 difficult years, as he sat on a raised bamboo porch of a local home. "I don't know what will happen next." At least some of the rats remain and can be heard scurrying about at night, he said. The fields remain unplanted. Since the infestation, he reported, not a single government official has visited the village. ¶5. (SBU) Residents of Philamukh and nearby villages said they often go a day or more without food; before the rat attack they typically ate two meals a day. Some younger children showed signs that typically indicate weight loss -- visible rib cages, thin arms and pot bellies. Another sign of food scarcity was the failure of the Philamukh headman to offer refreshments to the EmbOffs; Bengali and tribal hosts without DHAKA 00000442 002 OF 002 fail aggressively ply visitors with local delicacies. ¶6. (C) A preliminary draft report of 34 villages in Sajek Union conducted by the non-governmental organization Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) found "a severe food crisis with potential to progress, at least in some areas, toward famine." The survey, conducted over several weeks by three teams of six members, found nearly four out of five households faced severe food insecurity, which typically means cutting back the size or number of meals. Two deaths were reported in the survey that could be related directly to food shortage. Nearly half of those questioned had to sell livestock to survive while the vast majority had to borrow money. Several families in the most remote areas have migrated across the border to India in search of food. Some areas reported food theft within villages, suggesting the fraying of social cohesion in a region where tribal insurgents remain active. "It's a matter of weeks, not months, before serious mortality comes out of these places," said Frido Herinckx, MSF's head of mission in Dhaka. -------------- HOW MANY PEOPLE ARE THREATENED? -------------- ¶7. (SBU) It remains unclear exactly how many people are at risk from the rat infestation in the Hill Tracts, although the number is certainly in the tens of thousands. Mohammad Nurul Amin, the deputy commissioner of Rangamati, put the number at 5,540 families in his district, one of three that comprise the Hill Tracts. Still, during an hour-long meeting with the interagency team neither he nor his aides were able to provide a clear picture of the scope of the crisis or outline a cogent government response, lending credence to criticism from tribal officials that the government was not on top of the problem. The UNDP, meanwhile, provided emergency aid to 7,000 families in Rangamati alone. Medecins Sans Frontieres says most of Sajek Union's 40,000 people are affected by the infestation. As the bamboo flowering continues to move west through the Hill Tracts, the number of affected people will only rise. -------------- COMMENT -------------- ¶8. (C) Raja Devasish Roy, the king of the Chakma tribe that is bearing the brunt of the rat infestation, implored the Embassy interagency team to help provide food and seed rice to the affected areas during this time of greatest vulnerability. Roy, who also is special assistant to the Chief Adviser for the Ministries of Chittagong Hill Tracts Afairs and of Environment and Forests, is working with UNDP to set up a distribution system to immediately get any available rice to the neediest areas of Rangamati. As an initial step, Ambassador will request $100,000 in USAID Office of Foreign Disaster Assistance funds to provide emergency supplies in time for the current planting season (Septel). We will also work with Roy, the UNDP and other international agencies to assess the longer-term needs of tribal areas affected by the rat infestation and to come up with a multilateral response to a crisis MSF's Herinckx expects could last at least several years. Assistance will not only help stave off famine but will deny space ripe for exploitation by tribal insurgents. Moriarty