Daily Star, 13 August 2002
18 months of kidnapping episode
UNB, Dhaka
After nearly 18 months of the kidnapping episode, the Danish government now
plans to resume its development work initially on smaller scale in the Chittagong
Hill Tracts by late September. The abduction of two Danish consultants and one
Briton by some gunmen in March 2001 and holding them hostage for a month forced
the country's development partners, including Denmark, to suspend their development
projects in the CHT.
Recently a risk-assessment mission, sponsored jointly by the UNDP and the government, visited the hill districts and observed that the present situation is conducive to development activities.
Talking to UNB, Ove Fritz Larson, Deputy Head of the Mission of Danish Embassy,
said the law and order situation in the CHT did not differ from the rest of
the country and they would start some small projects there through NGOs and
local authorities.
"The work would start as soon as we get information from the Danish parliament
and get our planned activities cleared by the NGO Bureau here. Hopefully, we
would start some small projects with available funds of 2 million Danish Kroners
(about 350,000 US dollars).
Later on, Larson said, the Danish government would come up with some big projects
like drinking and sanitation water and watershed management for agriculture
and horticulture in the hill districts.
The planning for the projects might start in November and implementation sometime
next year, Larson said. However, he would not say anything about the funds for
those projects at this stage. Development of the CHT region was undertaken following
the 1997 Peace Agreement signed between the government and the PCJSS to end
over two decades of tribal insurgency.