VZCZCXRO9858
RR RUEHCI
DE RUEHKA #3555/01 1660936
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 150936Z JUN 06
FM AMEMBASSY DHAKA
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 8752
INFO RUEHIL/AMEMBASSY ISLAMABAD 1167
RUEHLM/AMEMBASSY COLOMBO 7480
RUEHNE/AMEMBASSY NEW DELHI 9162
RUEHKT/AMEMBASSY KATHMANDU 8582
RUEHCI/AMCONSUL CALCUTTA

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 03 DHAKA 003555 
 
SIPDIS 
 
SIPDIS 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: PREL PGOV PHUM BG
SUBJECT: SOUTHWEST BANGLADESH: SECURITY AND THE 2006-07 
ELECTION 
 
REF: DHAKA 3321 
 
¶1.    Summary:  PolOff and PolFSN recently visited the 
Southwestern area of Bangladesh, which for over thirty years 
has seen some of the worst ultra-Maoists violence and where 
numerous atrocities were committed against minorities during 
the 2001 election.  While civil society expressed concern 
about the possibility of violence during the upcoming 
election cycle, political leaders denied any significant 
communal tensions and local people were unconcerned about an 
election they saw as far distant. The government has improved 
the local law and order situation over the last five years, 
making economic and environmental issues the current biggest 
concerns.  END SUMMARY. 
 
¶2.    PolOff and PolFSN visited the southwestern districts of 
Jessore, Khulna, Satkhira, Bagerhat and Golpanganj from May 
30 through June 1 to get local input on the upcoming 
elections, communal relations, and other issues of concern to 
the local population.  Local political and law enforcement 
leaders welcomed the visit as an opportunity to showcase a 
positive local situation. 
 
Peaceful Contrast to 2001 Elections 
----------------------------------- 
 
¶3.    The southwestern region of Bangladesh has been prone to 
political violence since the country's founding, especially 
from ultra-Maoist groups.  This traditionally pro Awami 
League region also witnessed significant election related 
violence during and immediately following the 2001 elections. 
 
 
¶4.    PolOff and PolFSN visited several sites of past 
violence, including a Catholic church in Baniarchar where in 
2000, ten people were killed during a bomb blast and a Hindu 
farm where a local AL leader was killed and female members of 
his family raped shortly after the 2001 elections.  Given the 
history of violence against minorities in this region, Poloff 
and PolFSN also visited numerous area Hindu and Christian 
villages. 
 
¶5.    Residents at all these sites expressed little fear of 
the upcoming elections.  Christians and Hindus said they 
enjoyed relatively peaceful relations with their Muslim 
neighbors.  The Hindu family in Bagherhat said they believe 
the attack on their family was personally, not politically 
motivated, and the BNP government has posted police 
protection at their home constantly since the attack.  The 
leaders of the bombed Church are convinced that "Bangla Bhai" 
is responsible for that attack. Now that he has been 
arrested, they feel their relations with the neighboring 
Hindu and Muslims communities are peaceful, and there is 
little reason to fear violence as the election season 
progresses. 
 
NGOs Concerned and Nervous 
-------------------------- 
 
¶6.    Civil society NGO's expressed a higher level of concern 
to us.  Leaders of Uttoron and Rupantor, two large NGOs in 
Khulna, said the minority communities in their service area 
are beginning to feel "shaky."  Rupantor claims minorities 
were scared by local gangs into voting for fundamentalist 
candidates in 2001 and could again be targets of 
intimidation.  Uttoron says there are patterns of 
discrimination in the voter rolls and minorities are not 
getting enumerated.  Most NGO's believe areas not visited by 
enumerators were overlooked not because of malfeasance but 
rather due to enumerator incompetence. 
 
¶7.    In Jessore, there was evidence of some of the pressure 
minority groups and NGO's are facing.  At the first NGO 
visited, Banchte Shekka, there was an open discussion about 
the upcoming elections and discussion of their programs. 
This was in marked contrast to our visit to Rights Jessore, 
an NGO particularly known for anti-trafficking activities. 
(Jessore is the closest city to Benapole, the largest land 
border crossing in Bangladesh.)  Our scheduled visit with the 
NGO's executive director and two junior staff members was 
short and no substantive information was exchanged. 
 
¶8.    A call to the executive director later in the day 
confirmed our suspicions: one of the "junior staff members" 
was an officer from the Director General of Forces 
Intelligence (DGFI).  The executive director asked to meet us 
at our hotel, where he claimed that the four-party alliance 
will lose three or four of its current six southwestern 
 
DHAKA 00003555  002 OF 003 
 
 
parliamentary seats in a free and fair election, but that the 
MP from Jessore -- the current Environment and Forestry 
minister -- would use his ties to illegal organizations to 
intimidate local minority voters. 
 
Residents Praise Improved Law and Order Situation 
--------------------------------------------- ---- 
 
¶9.    The consensus from residents spoken to on this trip was 
that law and order had improved dramatically in the last four 
years.  Residents of small villages, business leaders in 
Khulna, and even NGO leaders talked about the ultra-Maoists 
gangs that have operated there for over 30 years.  These 
gangs, an offshoot of the Naxalites of West Bengal, engaged 
in theft, extortion, assault and murder with little 
interference from local government.  In 2001, for the first 
time, the vast majority of the Southwest voted for the BNP 
and Jamaat Islami, in hopes that they would succeed where 
other governments had failed in stopping these criminal 
activities. 
 
¶10.   Residents say that through Operation Clean Heart, use 
of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), and other police 
activity, the security situation has dramatically improved. 
Business is again growing, people are less afraid to 
participate in activities after dark, and the murder and 
violent crime rates have dropped significantly.  Civil 
society rightly protests the extra-judicial killings, 
torture, and other human rights abuses committed by RAB. 
Ordinary residents, however, appear confident that RAB and 
the police were targeting genuine "bad guys" and were not a 
threat to society at large. 
 
Everyday Concerns, Environment Uppermost 
---------------------------------------- 
 
¶11.   Since most people seem unconcerned about violence or 
the elections, PolOff and FSN asked what the biggest problems 
the area faced were.  Villagers in all areas talked about the 
rising prices of food, petroleum products and other essential 
commodities.  There were also specific local concerns, 
primarily around the larger cities. 
 
¶12.   In Jessore, we heard about "water logging" caused by a 
government sponsored engineering project.  In an effort to 
reduce the damage from seasonal flooding, the government has 
constructed a series of dikes and levees which brought 
year-long standing water to thousands of formerly arable 
acres. Many people allege that money for projects intended to 
alleviate the water logging has been stolen by corrupt 
politicians. 
 
¶13.   In Khulna, the biggest concern was the environmental 
and social impact of the shrimp industry.  While providing a 
substantial source of revenue to the region and the country, 
dedicating former farmland to salt-water shrimp raising is 
having a huge impact on the future ability to grow anything 
in that region.  There is also some concern that the benefits 
of the shrimp ponds is not trickling down.  In fact, the 
increasing salinity of the land and streams is having a 
negative economic impact on village families, who complain 
that local government is not responsive to their needs. 
 
Indigenous People Struggle for Land Rights 
------------------------------------------ 
 
¶14.   Indigenous people in the southwest face the same issues 
of land grabbing that they face elsewhere in the country.  In 
the Kashipur village in Satkhira district, Munda villagers 
spoke about recent violence over ownership of a small plot 
(less than an acre) next to their homes.  The Munda are a 
relatively small indigenous group in Bangladesh who practice 
a Hindu-influenced form of animism.  Like many indigenous 
people, they do not have clear title to the land which they 
have traditionally occupied, making them vulnerable to 
displacement.  Their village was once surrounded by small 
farms; it now sits like an island in the middle of many 
shrimp ponds, inaccessible by cars or rickshaws.  When an NGO 
recently tried to erect a sanitary latrine on this piece of 
land, a relative of the local JI MP claimed he bought that 
tract in 1994; the seller's job, not coincidentally, was 
listed as "deed writer."  Several villagers were injured by 
thugs hired to drive off the NGO and intimidate the village 
residents.  Cases have been filed at the local police 
station, and an investigation is under way. 
 
¶15.   The village is divided in its attitude toward the local 
MP. Leaders believe the JI MP was not involved in the 
 
DHAKA 00003555  003 OF 003 
 
 
attempted land grab, and claim he has been honest and fair in 
dealing with the villagers.  This is similar to the level and 
type of support seen for Golam Parwar, a Jamaat Islami MP 
whose constituency is almost 40% Hindu (see reftel).  About 
half of the Kashipur village families, however, support the 
former AL MP, going so far as to drop their own Munda last 
name and adopt his Hindu name. 
 
Comment 
------- 
 
¶16.   Significantly, in what has been a violent section of 
the country for 30 years, only a handful of NGO leaders are 
concerned about attacks against minorities.  Even previous 
targets of attacks seem satisfied that relations between 
groups are healthy and the BNP has sufficiently restored law 
and order.  Because elections are still many months away, 
most villagers seemed more concerned about everyday issues 
than the elections.  One priest told us that we should expect 
to see fears rise as the elections near, and post will 
continue to monitor this area.  NGO's are prepared to post 
observers before, during and after the elections. 
 
¶17.   It is also unusual to hear local villagers discussing 
the importance of environmental issues.  The destruction of 
farmland in this heavily populated country is a matter of 
survival for these villagers, and the BNP needs to address 
these issues if they expect to retain these seats, as well as 
averting any further ecological destruction. 
BUTENIS