From July this year, the government ceased the provision of rice rations to 65,000 indigenous refugees, while continuing supplies to 26,000 Bengali settlers in villages near the Indian border.

The government provided rations for the indigenous people who returned from the northeast Indian state of Tripura after the signing of a peace treaty in 1997.

Thousands of indigenous people had earlier crossed into Tripura at the height of violent conflicts in various districts of the CHT.

Upto June this year, the rations -- five kilograms of rice for an adult, and two and a half kilograms for a child a week were distributed to around 65,000 people of 12,222 families.

Secretary of the CHT Affairs Ministry, Syed Mushtak claims the rations were halted due to lack of funds, not discrimination.

The move was slammed by regional political organizations of the hills people, like the Parbatya Chattgram Jana Samhati Samity and United People's Democratic Front (UPDF), who termed it discriminatory, spearheading protests in various hill towns.

From mid-September, indigenous people in the CHT's Bandarban district, launched a series of demonstrations protesting against the army's possession of over 9000 acres of their land to build an army cantonment.

The woes of the discriminated hill people do not end there.

Earlier this month, leaders of the indigenous communities were enraged to learn the CHT affairs ministry planned to confer the status of permanent residents to more than 100,000 land settlers from the plains.

A move that blatantly violates the CHT peace treaty, this spurred Deputy Minister for CHT Affairs, Moni Swapan Dewan who also hails from the CHT to threaten to resign from the government.

The disgruntled minister is reported to have said that, "I would rather resign than sit idle on the virtually stalled process of the Peace Treaty and tardy development process."

Dewan blamed the higher authorities for neglecting the indigenous community, leveling corruption charges against officials incharge of the CHT's affairs.

Thanks to his protests, on October 14, Bangladesh Prime Minister Khaleda Zia directed the concerned authorities to restart the distribution of rations for indigenous refugees from her contingence fund.

But although a week has passed, the rations have not been resumed.

Explains member of the parliamentary standing committee on CHT Affairs, Zulfiquer Ali , "Against an annual demand of 15000 metric tons, the government has decided to allocate 7500 metric tons of rice to refugees from the existing stocks. We are trying to decide how to provide the rest."

An Indian news agency reported in June that over 43,000 Bangladeshi tribal refugees living in camps in Tripura in northeastern India, have refused to return to their homeland in the CHT.

The refugees allege the Bangladesh government has not implemented a 20-point economic package, which was promised earlier.

Protests Chairman of the Chittagong Hill Tracts Regional Council, Jyotirindra Bodhipriyo Larma, a signatory of the 1997 signed treaty, "The refugees returned home believing in the economic package under the Peace Treaty. But they are now facing extreme hardship without rations."

Accusing the government of negligence, Larma points out that it has not taken any initiative to solve the problems of the refugees since assuming office.

To the extent that the top post of an internal refugee task force, formed by the lpeace pact, remains vacant.

Regular protests against the army cantonment expansion, were organized in CHT's Bandarban district.

Government officials claim the expansion is taking place in lands acquired in the 1960s.

The district administration ordered ethnic communities inhabiting vast stretches of land to immediately vacate the region.

Complains UPDF Convener Prasit Bikash Khisa, "After the signing of the CHT peace accord, there is no legal provision for expanding the cantonment. These are only new ploys to displace the hills people."

Khisa says farmers were served with eviction notices for the cantonment expansion.

Expansion of the cantonment and construction of an airforce and artillery center were previously stalled due to widespread protests against the acquisition of 28,000 acres of land.

The acquisition left around 5,000 people of the backward Mro community homeless.

Claims leader of the Chittagong Hill Tracts Reserved Forestry Protection and Land Rights Committee, Ranglai Mro, "In Bandarban alone, hundreds of hill families have been uprooted from their ancestral homes after 20,000 acres of land were acquired by the forest department in the name of Social Forestry."

In another development last week, the Greater Chittagong Hill Tracts Hill Students' Council, popularly known as Pahari Chhatra Parishad (PCP), and the Hill Women's Federation held rallies protesting against the government's decision to permanently rehabilitate 26,000 families of land settlers from the plains.

Elaborating on the plan, an official of the CHT affairs ministry says, "This process will take several years to complete, but the settlers' issue can't be allowed to drag on forever. The government wants a permanent solution to their problems."

The land settlers from the plains, primarily Bengalis, were relocated from the northern and southern regions in 1982-83. They were promised government lands as an incentive to settle in the trouble-torn CHT. They now receive a free ration of 28,000 tons of food grains from the government annually.

The settlers' issue has spawned numerous ethnic conflicts, with the recent government move expected to exacerbate the situation, especially after recent incidents in the Mahalchhari region where Bengali settlers set afire houses of indigenous people in nine villages.

Remarks CHT affairs deputy minister, Moni Swapan Dewan, "I expect the Bengalis and non-Bengalis to live in a peaceful manner."

More than 300,000 Bengalis co-exist with one million indigenous people in the three CHT hill districts of Rangamati, Khagrachhari and Bandarban that cover a total area of 5,093 square miles.

The CHT peace agreement between the government and the hill people ended decades of bush war in the hilly terrain. The conflict began in the 60s after the government launched a scheme to settle plainspeople in the hills.