http://www.thedailystar.net/2004/02/08/d40208070166.htm
The Daily Star, Vol. 4 Num 250
Sun. February 08, 2004
Monirul Alam, Rangamati
Flow of tourists in Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) and income from tourism
have fallen drastically due to deterioration in law and order in last
one year.
This is also taking a heavy toll on the economy of the region.
The Parjaton Holiday Complex, a Bangladesh Parjaton Corporation (BPC)
motel in Rangamati, earned about Tk one lakh last month against Tk nine
lakh in January last year due to slide in law and order, its manager Md
Fazlur Rahman told this correspondent.
Tourists are very sensitive to security. They cancelled hotel booking
over telephone if any incident of violence, abduction, extortion or
killing is reported in newspapers, he said.
Khan Academy, a school in Dhaka had booked the Rangamati BPC motel for
three days from January 28 and paid Tk 30,000 as advance. But they
cancelled the booking over telephone after seeing the news of killing of
a tribal youth, he said.
A series of bloody clashes took places between supporters and opponents
of the CHT peace agreement in the last one year.
In the latest incident of violence, unidentified youths in a heist
robbed foreign tourists from a resort at Bandarban and kidnapped its
owner on Monday. The captors demanded Tk two core ransom. He is yet to
be rescued.
On January 25 armed supporters and opponents of the CHT peace agreement
clashed at Pukurpar in Naniarchar upazila, killing one person and
leaving two others bullet-hit.
Scared tourists left the motel soon after the January 8 incident at
Shapmara in Naniarchar upazila in which three persons were killed and 10
abducted, he said.
The scenic beauty, mountains and lakes attracted tourists round the
year.
"But this year, the number is all time low since signing of the CHT
peace agreement in 1997", said Md Selim, a shopkeeper at the Parjatan
motel.
"Tourists used to flock here in hundreds with the beginning of winter.
But we are passing bad days this year", he said.
"Rise in incidents of clash, abduction, extortion and the government's
failure to contain those have decreased flow of tourists", said Abbas
Uddin, proprietor of a Rangamati-based tourist guide, Ranga Tour.
"Even, when foreign tourists come to Dhaka to visit the hill districts,
tourist guides there advice them not to come to the area and to go to
other areas like the Shundarbans and Cox's Bazar", he said.
"Locals were making a booming business in crafts and garments made of
indigenous raw materials as those were attractive to tourists. But many
of them are now sitting idle", said Liton Dev, a teacher and a cultural
activist.
Flow of tourists had increased as law and order improved after signing
of the peace agreement that temporarily stopped decades of insurgency.
But peace in CHT became elusive as the tribesmen were divided, one
supporting the agreement and the other opposing it, demanding 'full
autonomy' for the region.
Even local people are not spared from extortion. On December 24, some
forty people, most of them children from Champoknagar area in Rangamati
town, went for a cruise in Kaptai Lake. As they went to at Balukhali to
visit a horticulture farm, three indigenous youths come and called one
of the guardians and told him, "You will have to purchase a Chhatra
Parishad token".
Paharee Chhatra Parishad (PCP), a students' body backed by Parbattya
Chattagram Jono Sanghaty Samity (PCJSS), is known as Chhatra Parishad.
"Finding no alternative we paid them Tk 100 to avoid any untoward
incident", the guardian told this correspondent preferring anonymity.
He said the youths told him that they realise Tk 300 per boat from local
visitors and Tk 500 from "outsiders".
When this correspondent brought this to the notice of PCJSS' Students
Affairs Advisor Ushaton Talukder, he dismissed the allegation. PCP has
no relation with those who extort money from tourists, he said.
<http://www.thedailystar.net/2004/02/08/d40208070166p.htm>
Picture
Picturesque tourist spot without tourists in peak season... The photo
was taken from Kaptai lake on Friday.. PHOTO: STAR