US embassy cable - 05DHAKA4390

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