By Alastair Lawson BBC correspondent in Rangamati

Five years ago a long-running insurgency in the Chittagong Hill Tracts in the south-east of Bangladesh came to an end.

The indigenous people particularly are leading a very miserable life

Shantu Lama, ex-rebel leader

A peace treaty was signed between the government of Bangladesh and a rebel group made up of indigenous people called the Shanti Bahini.

Under the terms of the treaty the area was given more autonomy and a regional council established to improve relations between migrants to the area from the plains of Bangladesh and the indigenous population.

But indigenous people in the area say peace has not brought with it all that was promised.

And the government is concerned by tensions within the indigenous community that they say are hindering development.

Festivities

The Khothin Chibor Dan festival takes place each year in Rangamati, a bustling town on the edge of a large lake in the Chittagong Hill Tracts.

Carnival atmosphere despite peace challenges ahead

Buddhists from all over the area converge here with offerings for the monks.

A few years ago, this celebration would neither have been so exuberant nor so well attended.

Until 1997 the area was the centre of the long-running guerrilla war between the Shanti Bahini and Bangladeshi troops.

But while fighting has stopped, indigenous leaders are disappointed by the progress made since the peace deal was signed.

Its obvious we are suffering due to the fighting between the two groups

Moni Swapan Dewan, government minister

"Five years have already passed, but the agreement has yet to be implemented properly," says Shantu Lama, former leader of the Shanti Bahini.

"The indigenous people, particularly, are leading a very miserable life.

"Moreover, we see there is a military administration in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, so the common people, they're not in a position to move from one place to another place freely," he says.

"People always live in fear."

Arrested development

Rangamati is one of the poorest regions of Bangladesh and it is here that the after-effects of a 20-year insurgency are most keenly felt.

In the villages there's little or no electricity, no running water, little healthcare and few schools.

And tension remains between indigenous people and the Bengali settler population who moved into the Chittagong Hills Tract region in large numbers from the 1970s onwards.

Indigenous people once formed the overwhelming majority of people here, but now Bengali settlers equal them in numbers.

Arup Chakma, a teenage member of the main indigenous group, the Chakmas, says the traditional population has welcomed the incoming Bengalis.

"But the settlers don't treat the hill people as human beings."

Mr Chakma is optimistic about his own future, but says: "If the government doesn't implement the peace accords, I think our lives will not be better."

Many villagers also complain that they haven't been properly compensated for land seized by the newcomers as was promised by the peace treaty.

Divisions

And now even the future of the peace treaty looks uncertain.

The government of Khaleda Zia, which came to power last year, pledged to revoke the 1997 agreement saying that it had made too many concessions to indigenous people.

The heavy military presence irks many

It is now particularly concerned by tensions between different factions of the indigenous community.

Moni Swapan Dewan, deputy minister for Hill Tracts Affairs in the Bangladesh Government, asserts that "among the tribals and Bengali peoples, we don't have any misunderstandings".

"But there are two groups who're still fighting each other," he says.

"One group is for the implementation of the peace accord and another group are opposing the peace accord.

"Its obvious we are suffering due to the fighting between the two groups. Its hampering the development of the Chittagong Hill Tracts and has caused some problems."

Outside the royal residence of Raja Devasish Roy, chief of the Chakmas, there's a carnival atmosphere as the festival comes to an end.

It's one of the measurable successes of the peace treaty that succeeded in bringing an end to a bitterly fought and brutal insurgency.

But there remains much still to done.