CHITTAGONG HILL TRACTS OFFICIAL URGES REDUCTION IN

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 DHAKA 000659 SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: DECL: 06/15/2018 TAGS: PHUM PGOV PREL EAID KPAO BG SUBJECT: CHITTAGONG HILL TRACTS OFFICIAL URGES REDUCTION IN MILITARY PRESENCE AND BENGALI POPULATION REF: DHAKA 0470 Classified By: Ambassador James F. Moriarty. Reasons: 1.4 (b) and (d) -------------- SUMMARY -------------- ¶1. (C) The military and Bengali settler presence in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) should be cut to ease tension with the indigenous population, the Government official responsible for the region said. Devasish Roy added that much of the 1997 peace agreement between the Government and tribal insurgents to allow greater local autonomy had yet to be implemented. He also said he wanted to expand cultural exchanges between the U.S. and the Hill Tracts and to increase USG involvement in the region's development. -------------- PEACE TREATY NOT FULLY IMPLEMENTED -------------- ¶2. (C) The Chittagong Hill Tracts is home to an array of indigenous tribes whose livelihood has been under pressure from an influx of ethnic Bengali migrants since the 1970s. Special Assistant for the Ministry of Environment and Forests and for the Chittagong Hill Tracts Devasish Roy told Ambassador Moriarty on June 10 the 1997 peace accord between the Government of Bangladesh and the Shanti Bahini, the main insurgency group opposed to the influx of Bengali settlers, had not been fully implemented. On the positive side, Roy said the agreement had led to the creation of a Regional Council that gave local tribes a larger voice in government; the Ministry he headed also had been created. But a commission that was supposed to adjudicate land disputes between tribal people and Bengali settlers and a task force on internally displaced people were not yet functioning. Roy also said that the military had cut its presence by only one-quarter of what was required under the agreement. -------------- CHITTAGONG HILL TRACTS: TENSIONS STILL SIMMER -------------- ¶3. (C) Roy, who is king of the largest tribal group, the Chakmas, said the Government should not look at the CHT primarily as a security issue; law and order was no worse in that region than elsewhere in the country. He said military camps that housed an estimated 30,000 soldiers in the region should be replaced with "good policing;" that would require integrating tribal people into the local police forces that were now almost entirely ethnic Bengalis. Roy added that he believed the military was complicit in efforts by Bengalis to push indigenous people off their land. A local military officer had encouraged Bengalis to settle in a tribal area of Sajek Union, Rangamati District, creating tensions that Roy believed were responsible for an arson attack that left scores of tribal homes destroyed in late April. Roy assumed that the military officer was most likely working on his own initiative. ¶4. (C) Bengalis already accounted for the majority in at least one of the three CHT districts, Khagrachhari, and Roy believed the indigenous population of the CHT could dwindle to about 30 percent over the next two decades. Global warming could send even more Bengalis from their endangered sea-level homes to the hills of Chittagong, he predicted; this would create even greater pressure on a region he claimed reached its maximum sustainable population in the 1970s. Many Bengali settlers continued to rely on government subsidies and most of them would gladly return to the flatlands if the Government provided economic support, he said. -------------- THE WAY FORWARD -------------- ¶5. (C) Roy said a new national Human Rights Commission might provide an opportunity for aggrieved ethnic minorities to gain redress; he suggested one of its commissioners be charged with handling CHT issues. He also suggested that some seats in elective bodies be reserved for tribal representatives to ensure they retained a political voice. Roy clearly believed that strong international engagement with Chittagong's indigenous people was important and urged expanded cultural exchanges with the United States. DHAKA 00000659 002 OF 002 -------------- COMMENT: STRENGTHENING U.S. ENGAGEMENT -------------- ¶6. (C) U.S. Government engagement in the CHT has expanded in recent months. An interagency team traveled to the region in mid-April to assess damage from a rat infestation; its findings led to the Ambassador approving $100,000 in emergency assistance for famine relief. The Ambassador later met with CHT leaders and tribal representatives during his visit in May to Chittagong city, where he heard complaints that tribal cultures were at risk due to the Bengali influx. He agreed to meet Roy again to discuss cultural exchanges, international visitor programs and other ways to increase U.S. involvement in the development of the Hill Tracts. Moriarty