US embassy cable - 05DHAKA224

C O N F I D E N T I A L SECTION 01 OF 02 DHAKA 000224 
 
SIPDIS 
 
CORRECTED COPY--PARAS RE-NUMBERED 
 
E.O. 12958: DECL: 01/18/2015 
TAGS: PREF, BG, PINR, PHUM PTER 
SUBJECT: BIHARI UPDATE 
 
REF: 04 DHAKA 02463 
 
Classified By: Polcouns D.C. McCullough for reason para 1.5d 
 
1. (SBU) Summary: While Bihari spokesmen continue to press 
for resettlement in Pakistan, many Biharis are integrating 
themselves into local life and say they want Bangladeshi 
citizenship.  End Summary. 
 
------------- 
Background 
------------- 
 
2.(SBU) The Biharis are an internally displaced group of 
Urdu-speaking people who supported Pakistan in the 1971 war 
of independence.  They are neither Bangladeshi nor Pakistani 
citizens, and now number about 300,000 in 68 camps throughout 
Bangladesh.  Many Biharis have jobs on the local economy and 
educate their children, illegally, in Bangladeshi schools. 
The self-appointed spokesmen of the Biharis, the Stranded 
Pakistanis General Repatriation Committee (SPGRC), are based 
in Dhaka and insist the only solution for Biharis is 
resettlement in Pakistan. 
 
3. (SBU) In 1971, the BDG, in a gesture to national 
reconciliation, offered Bangladeshi citizenship to the 
Biharis.  The Biharis declined believing they would return to 
Pakistan soon and settled in camps in Dhaka, Chittagong, 
Khulna, Saidpur, and Ishurdi. These camps, popularly known as 
Geneva camps, were set up under the Geneva Convention and 
initially run by the International Red Cross.  Almost half 
the Bihari population made it over the years to Pakistan, 
which in 1993 declared an end Bihari emigration.  In 2003, a 
Bangladeshi High Court ruling granted 10 Biharis voting 
rights. 
 
-------------------- 
Current Situation 
-------------------- 
 
4. (SBU) On January 13, Poloff and Pol FSN visited the 
largest camp in Dhaka, Geneva Camp, and a neighboring smaller 
camp, Community Center Camp.  The camps resemble normal 
Bangladeshi slum neighborhoods, with uncontrolled access, no 
fencing, and no special security. With few latrines for the 
entire camp, sanitation is poor and crowding is severe.  Many 
Biharis have jobs or run small shops outside the camps.  In a 
random sampling, inhabitants--including three mothers with 
children--stated that Biharis and some Bengalis rent homes in 
the camps from Biharis who have semi-ownership of the plots. 
 
5. (SBU) The BDG provides free electricity and water supply, 
along with 3 kg of wheat per person per month.  However, camp 
residents said, food rations are irregular and stopped 
several months ago. Camp residents and SPGRC spokesmen 
separately stated there was previously small aid from 
Islamist NGO's like Rabita Trust and Muslim Aid, but now 
there are no international organizations or NGO's providing 
comprehensive services to Biharis. 
 
6. (SBU) Recently, Poloff met with Nigel McCollum, a city 
councillor from England, who is spending a month in 
Bangladesh investigating the Bihari situation as the 
representative of a group of concerned British politicians 
called the Dhaka Initiative.  The group, McCollum said, wants 
to raise awareness about the Biharis with international 
donors, the European Commission, and local diplomatic 
missions to put pressure on the BDG to do more for the 
Biharis. 
 
7. (C) In a review of camp conditions, McCollum asserted that 
the camps are becoming a recruiting ground for Islamic 
extremist groups and that Rabita Trust and other Islamist 
NGO's have given substantial aid to Biharis.  On January 19, 
a German-Filipino missionary couple who has been doing 
vocational training with the Biharis for seven years told 
Poloff that Kuwati and Saudi NGO's reportedly provide aid to 
the camps. 
 
8. (C) At at small madrassah in Geneva camp that seemed to 
teach mostly young boys and girls, in Urdu and Arabic, the 
teacher identified education and health care as the Biharis 
most pressing problems. The teacher, a Bihari who lives 
outside the camps, stated there was no NGO or local political 
party presence in the camps. 
 
9.(SBU) Poloff also met with UNHCR Bangladesh Deputy 
Representative Mulusew Mamo, who stated that UNHCR has little 
knowledge about the Biharis.  UNHCR, he said, could do 
nothing for Biharis because they are not an official refugee 
group.  . 
 
10. (SBU) SPGRC spokesmen reiterated to poloff that only 
resettlement in Pakistan could resolve their situation, but 
that they receive no cooperation from the BDG or GOP. 
McCollum and the missionary couple alleged that the SPGRC 
wants to stick with the status quo because they make money 
out of the current situation by skimming off NGO and other 
aid for Biharis.  Camp residents, however, insisted that the 
great majority of Biharis recognize that Pakistan is not an 
option and prefer to stay in Bangladesh and take up 
Bangladeshi citizenship (reftel).  Younger Biharis were 
particularly adamant that their future is in Bangladesh, that 
they were born in Bangldesh and speak better Bangla than Urdu. 
 
------- 
Comment 
------- 
 
11. (C) There's a logic to the allegation that Islamists are 
active in Bihari camps, which presumably contain at least 
some disaffected young Muslims who feel alienated from the 
Bangladeshi mainstream.  However, we are unaware of any 
specific corroborating evidence, and note that the radical 
Islam card is often played here in a bid to generate 
international engagement.  When Poloff visited the Dhaka 
camps, there were no obvious manifestations of Islamist 
activity -- posters, literature, or "special areas." 
However, the Urdu and Arabic curriculum of the small 
madrassah at Geneva camp suggests an affiliation with 
so-called qawmi mosques, which support radical Islamist 
groups like IOJ, instead of the more mainstream aliyah 
mosques which have links to the BDG.  In 2004, pursuant to UN 
sanctions, the BDG closed the Bangladesh office of Rabita 
Trust; we are unaware of any continuing Rabita Trust presence 
in Bangladesh. 
THOMAS