Daily Star, Tue. September 02, 2003
http://www.thedailystar.net/2003/09/02/d3090201011.htm
Hills people irked as free supply to Bangalee settlers continues
Pinaki Roy
The government is not providing rice ration for 65,000 indigenous refugees,
but giving the free supply to 26,000 Bangalee settlers in different cluster
villages in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT).
The move drew fire from rival regional political organisations -- Parbatya Chattgram
Jana Samhati Samity (PCJSS) and United People's Democratic Front (UPDF), who
said the action was discriminatory and would bring further sufferings to the
refugees.
Last week, the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) directed the CHT affairs ministry to stop ration to the refugees and rehabilitate them with fund from the annual development programme. It, however, asked the ministry to keep the Bangalees on rations.
The PMO's directive came when the ministry asked for rations for the first quarter of the current fiscal year.
The government has yet to take any rehabilitation programme for the indigenous people.
The government provided rations for the indigenous people who returned from the Indian state of Tripura after the signing of the CHT peace agreement in 1997 that ended decades of bush war in the hilly terrain.
About 65,000 people of 12,222 families enjoyed the rations -- five kilograms
of rice for an adult and two and a half kilograms for a child a week -- upto
June this year.
CHT Affairs Secretary Syed Mushtak admitted a break with rations for the refugees this year.
"Actually, we have not stopped the ration, but could not provide as the
finance ministry did not make the allocation. Now we are considering whether
the rations could be provided from the emergency fund or not," he said.
He, however, mentioned that under the peace agreement, the government was to offer the rations for only a year and the period had expired long ago.
Thousands of indigenous people crossed into Tripura at the heights of conflicts in the highlands of Rangamati, Khagrachhari and Bandarban.
According to official statistics, 3,055 families out of the 12,222 are yet to get back their homesteads. The process to rehabilitate them was stalled after the four-party coalition government took office.
Chairman of the Chittagong Hill Tracts Regional Council Jyotirindra Bodhipriyo Larma, popularly known as Shantu Larma, said stopping the ration without rehabilitating the refugees would land them in utter misery.
"The government has not taken any initiative on the refugees since taking office," Shantu told The Daily Star yesterday.
"The top post of the internal refugee task force, formed by the landmark peace pact, stands vacant. We're repeatedly asking the government to fill the vacancy as well as implement other provisions of the accord, he added."
UPDF Convener Prasit Bikash Khisa threatened to launch a movement against the 'discriminatory government move'.
"We have long been demanding settlement of all tribal refugees in their own land. But the government did not take any such step and is now stopping their ration. If the government does so, we will fight against it," he said.
Alongside the government, the Red Crescent Society that used to provide pulses
and edible oil rations to the refugees has stopped their programme.