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Friday, March 25, 2011

[ALOCHONA] Big Coal WikiLeaks Emergency in Bangladesh



Big Coal WikiLeaks Emergency in Bangladesh: Does Obama Support Removal of 100,000 Villagers?



By Jeff Biggers, AlterNet

When thousands of Bangladeshi take to the streets again on March 28th as part of a decade-long battle to halt a devastating British-owned open-pit coal mine, the world will not only be watching whether Bangladesh's government will honor a coal ban agreement from 2006 or resort to violence.

In light of disturbing WikiLeaks cables, American and worldwide human rights and environmental organizations will also be questioning why the Obama administration is covertly pushing for Bangladesh to reverse course and acquiesce to an internationally condemned massive open-pit mine that will displace an estimated 100,000-200,000 villagers and ravage desperately needed farm land and water resources.

The short answer, from US Ambassador James Moriarty's leaked memos: "Asia Energy, the company behind the Phulbari project, has sixty percent US investment. Asia Energy officials told the Ambassador they were cautiously optimistic that the project would win government approval in the coming months."

Two years ago, an independent review of the coal mine by a British research firm warned:

"Phulbari Coal Project threatens numerous dangers and potential damages, ranging from the degradation of a major agricultural region in Bangladesh to pollution of the world's largest wetlands. The project's Summary Environmental Impact Assessment, and its full Environmental and Social Impact Assessment are replete with vague assurances, issuing many promises of future mitigation measures."

For US-based Cultural Survival and International Accountability Project, the Phulbari coal mine is nothing less than a "humanitarian and ecological disaster."

Last month, Cultural Survival and International Accountability Project joined with Jatiya Adivasi Parishad, Bangladesh's National Indigenous Union, to launch an international campaign to stop the open-pit mine and raise awareness of on-going Big Coal human rights and environmental violations in Bangladesh.

I did this interview with Paula Palmer, Director of the Global Response Program for Cultural Survival, to get the backstory on this growing international crisis and CS/IAP's letter-writing campaign.

Jeff Biggers: Can you briefly described the controversial history over the British company and the Phulbari open pit mine?

Paula Palmer: This Earth Touch article has an excellent time-line of events starting with the Bangladesh government issuing prospecting and exploration contracts in 1994. It also tells the story of the massive August 26, 2006 protest that resulted in the death of three people, including a 13-year-old child. Huge public protests against the Phulbari coal project involving thousands of citizens started in 2005 and continue through today. In fact, this week there are daily protest events in various locations, building up to March 28, when organizers say they will blockade major highways unless the government responds to their demands. They are asking the government to honor the agreement signed after the August 26, 2006 protests, which committed the government to banning open pit coal mining and booting Asia Energy out of the country. Just about the only thing that actually changed after the 2006 protest is the name of the company, which became Global Coal Management.

What's fueling these protests? The project would forcibly displace over 100,000 people from their homes and their farms without offering them equivalent land in exchange, and reduce access to water for another 100,000 people (possibly forcing them to eventually leave their homes and farms). Among the potentially displaced are Indigenous peoples of more than 20 ethnicities who trace their ancestry in the region back 5,000 years. Clearly this forced displacement is the cause of the greatest public outcry against the project, but there are other reasons. The project will also contaminate the air and the water, destroy productive farmland in a country where nearly half the population is undernourished, and threaten the biologically and economically valuable marine and terrestrial life in the Sundarbans mangrove forest.

JB: The government must make a final decision by June. Do you foresee any compromise or canceling of the proposal?

PP: India and Bangladesh just signed an agreement for India to purchase electricity from the Phulbari coal-fired power plant, which seems to indicate a thumbs up for the project. But in the next week we are going to be seeing huge protests again, intensifying the pressure on the government. And international support for the protesters is growing too. Environmental and human rights organizations from the US, Canada, the UK, and India are now urging the government to abandon the project. The government also knows that we are monitoring its handling of the protests and its treatment of protesters for human rights abuses. How can it impose such a project against the will of tens of thousands of citizens?

JB: Why is Cultural Survival involved in the Phulbari dispute?

PP: Cultural Survival's Global Response program organizes international letter-writing campaigns at the request of Indigenous communities that are struggling to protect their lands and defend their rights. In January, we received a letter from the Jatiya Adivasi Parishad in Bangladesh (the National Indigenous Union), asking us to support their opposition to the Phulbari coal project. The project sponsors say that 2,300 Indigenous people will be forcibly removed from their homes and farms, but Jatiya Adivasi Parishad cites independent researchers who estimate the number as high as 50,000.

The impact of eviction on Indigenous Peoples is even greater than on other families. They fear that if their small communities are broken apart and dispersed, they will not be able to maintain the cultural traditions, religious practices, and languages that have sustained them for thousands of years. To them – the Karmakar, Shil, Kabra, Patni, Busab, Ghatoal, Bormon Paoch, Rajhongshi, Hari, Paal, Santal and others — the mine may mean ethnocide. Most indigenous families own an acre of land – or less—and they augment their income by sharecropping, selling their labor, or making baskets and other crafts. Their cultural lives revolve around a calendar of religious ceremonies that are closely tied to the land, the harvest, the sacred groves and springs, and ancient burial grounds of their peoples. The mine would sever all those deep cultural ties and threaten their survival as unique peoples.

JB: Can you describe the impact of the Phulbari mine on local populations?

PP: Thousands of families would be immediately removed from the mine site, losing their homes and agricultural lands. The company cannot offer them equivalent land simply because there is none. This is concerning because studies of "development refugees" have shown that cash payments to families displaced by development projects frequently results in impoverishment. Independent researchers estimate that as many as 220,000 people around the mine site would eventually be affected by reduced access to water, forcing them to abandon their lands. There is no plan for compensating these people for their suffering and loss.

JB: What can Americans and other foreigners do to show their support of the villagers?

PP: Write letters to the prime minister of Bangladesh! This crisis offers the prime minister an opportunity to make a name for herself and for Bangladesh by turning away from the old model of foreign exploitation and fossil fuels, and leading the way toward a sustainable energy future. It makes sense for Bangladesh – a country that will suffer greatly from climate change – to reject coal, a primary driver of climate change. Letters from international citizens will help convince the prime minister to take a historic, principled stand. Go to the Take Action section of the Cultural Survival website, www.cs.org, to join the letter-writing campaign.

http://www.alternet.org/water/150372/big_coal_wikileaks_emergency_in_bangladesh%3A_does_obama_support_removal_of_100,000_villagers

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[ALOCHONA] Not only shocking but also shameful



Not only shocking but also shameful



It is not only shocking but also shameful that the government has made no mention of the areas of the war-torn Libya which have large concentrations of Bangladesh nationals while informing the US authorities about the addresses of Bangladesh's 'diplomatic and other locations' inside Libya to keep them out of US-led air strikes. It also tends to betray the apathy of the Awami League-Jatiya Party government to the safety and security of the expatriate Bangladeshis in general. According to a report front-paged in New Age on Friday, quoting a government official, the foreign ministry has given the US embassy in Dhaka on Thursday, in response to the latter's request to inform it about Bangladesh's diplomatic and other locations inside Libya so that they can be spared of the military campaigns launched by it and other western forces, only three addresses that include the Bangladesh embassy in Tripoli and the residences of the Bangladesh ambassador and another official there. Even the US authorities, who are very much used to killing people, for their sheer self-interests, across the globe have reportedly got surprised to see such an indifference of the Bangladesh government towards the safety of its nationals.

It may be pertinent to note that as many as 60,000 Bangladesh nationals got stranded Libya when the civil war broke out in February following the conflict between the supporters and opponents of the Gaddafi regime in the country. With the rising demand of the people in general and the families of the stranded expatriate workers some 31,441 of them have been repatriated thus far by the government with the assistance of the employers concerned and different international agencies. Besides, around 1600 more are languishing on the borders of Tunisia, Algeria and Egypt with Libya. Overall, 27,000 Bangladesh nationals are now exposed to the western military campaigns against Libya.

It is needless to point out that from the very beginning of the trouble allegations have been there that the incumbent government is indifferent about the safety and security of the Bangladesh nationals stranded there. The revelation in question only substantiates such allegations. In line with the constitution and, also their pre-election pledge, the incumbents are bound to do everything with regards to ensuring safety and security of all the Bangladesh nationals, at home and abroad. Hence, the government needs to immediately take steps necessary for the safety and security of the Bangladesh nationals in Libya, not to mention requesting the relevant US authorities to spare the locations that have the concentration of Bangladesh nationals so that they are spared from the Western military campaign against the Gaddafi regime.

http://newagebd.com/newspaper1/editorial/12935.html

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[ALOCHONA] General Fazlur Rahman on Zia-Taher debate



General Fazlur Rahman on Zia-Taher debate



http://www.dailynayadiganta.com/2011/03/21/fullnews.asp?News_ID=268331&sec=6


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[ALOCHONA] Sen. Dick Durbin to hold hearing on Muslim civil rights




Hearing Slated on Muslims' Civil Rights

By CQ Staff

A top Senate Democrat announced plans Tuesday to hold a hearing March 29 on protecting the civil rights of Muslim Americans.
Assistant Majority Leader Richard J. Durbin, D-Ill., said the "first ever" hearing is in response to what he called "the spike in anti-Muslim bigotry in the last year including Koran burnings, restrictions on mosque construction, hate crimes, hate speech, and other forms of discrimination."

Aides denied any connection to Rep. Peter T. King's probe of "radicalization" within the Muslim community.  [Really!]

"Our Constitution protects the free exercise of religion for all Americans," Durbin said in a statement. "During the course of our history, many religions have faced intolerance.It is important for our generation to renew our founding charter's commitment to religious diversity and to protect the liberties guaranteed by our Bill of Rights."

Witnesses will include Assistant Attorney General Tom Perez, the Obama administration's top civil rights official; former Assistant Attorney General Alex Acosta, the Bush administration's top civil rights official; Muslim civil rights leader Farhana Khera; and Cardinal Theodore McCarrick.

The hearing is before the Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights and Human Rights, which Durbin chairs. The subcommittee's ranking Republican is Lindsey Graham of South Carolina.
 


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[ALOCHONA] Fw: Hearing on protecting the civil rights of Muslim Americans



Dear All:
 
Please open attachment to see a news on Hearing on protecting the civil rights of Muslim Americans on March 29, 2011 by top ranking US Senator Richard Durbin, D-ILL. Thanks,
 
Anis Ahmed,
North Potomac, Maryland




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[ALOCHONA] Villagers tortured and woman sexually abused by police

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=pLl7NPbkHSU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3FUY2uUX6Uc&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGJlg3t1egw&feature=player_embedded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=PUdXkyxk-_0


http://www.srilankaguardian.org/2011/03/villagers-tortured-and-woman-sexually.html

Villagers tortured and woman sexually abused by police


by William Gomes

(March 25, Dhaka, Sri Lanka Guardian) Police carried out atrocities in
revenge of the humiliation of a police officer of Biral Thana in
Dinajpur district. The victims included men, women, children and the
elderly. They suffered severe injuries and the women victims were
sexually molested and abused. The police perpetrators remain
unpunished due to the culture of impunity and the absence of
legislation to protect the people from torture. The police have filed
at least one case against the villagers and are harassing them.
To-date no proper investigation has been carried out.

Mr. Lutfor Rahman, chairman of the Forokkabad union council said to
Srilanka Guardian that on 8 March 2011, at around 1am a group of plain
clothed persons knocked on the door of Mr. Shahjahan in Duptoil
village under the jurisdiction of Forokkabad union council of the
Birol police station in Dinajpur district. The strangers claimed to be
from the police. Shahjahan's family, who were aware of an incident
which occurred the previous night when a group of robbers claiming to
be police robbed the house their neighbor Mr. Suresh Mohuri, suspected
that their house was about to be attacked by robbers in the same
manner. The family decided not to open the door mentioning the
previous night's robbery. The strangers continued to knock on the door
demanding that Shahjahan accompany the "police" to locate the house of
Suresh Mohuri. Upon hearing this refusal the strangers, who were
actually from the police shouted at the family in abusive language.
The family, who were still uncertain of the true identity of the
strangers then called to their neighbours on a cell phone that they
were afraid of a probable attack by robbers.

The villagers came out of their homes with sticks and bamboos and as
they were approaching Shahjahan's house they saw some people running
toward a vehicle parked on the road. They chased the suspected
robbers, who switched off the headlights of their vehicle after
reaching an open place named Sotighata in the middle of their way and
stopped there. The vehicle restarted driving and stopped again at
Chhetra Bazar, which strengthened the people's suspicion about a
potential robbery. A few of the agitated villagers hit one of the
fleeing persons with a stick resulting in the person being injured in
the head. The villagers then found that the vehicle, which had been
parked, belonged to the police and that the group who had knocked on
the door of Shahjahan's house were also policemen.

Soon after, the chairman of the local government unit, Forokkabad
Union Council, Mr. Lutfor Rahman and Acting Chairman of Birol Upazilla
Mr. Md. Anwarul Islam arrived at the scene. Lutfor immediately sent
the injured police officer, who was identified as Mr. Md. Haider Ali,
Sub Inspector of Birol police station, to Birol hospital by the
vehicle of the Upazilla chairman. The public representatives
controlled the villagers and helped the rest of the police team
comprising of Constables Md. Muzibor Rahaman (Constable ID No. 1048),
Mohammad Isreal Haque (Constable ID No. 277) and Driver cum Constable
Mohammad Rashedul Huq (Constable Number 268) to leave the village for
the Birol police station Said Mr. Lutfor Rahman, chairman of the
Forokkabad union council.

Later the same morning, at 9:15am, SI Haider Ali filed a complaint
(Case No. 7, dated 8 March 2011) with the Birol police against four
named persons and around sixty unidentified villagers under Sections
148, 341, 332, 333, 353, 307 and 34 of the Penal Code-1860. The four
persons, who were made accused in the case, are 1) Md. Anwarul Haque
Uzzal, 2) Md. Shahjahan Ali, 3) Md. Jewel Islam of Duptoil village,
and 4) Md. Mamtaz Ali of Mokhlespur village of the Birol police
station.

Meanwhile, three police vehicles carrying two platoons of riot police
led by the Assistant Superintendent of Police (ASP) of Sadar Circle
Md. Mokbul Hossain, Officer-in-Charge (OC) of Birol police station Mr.
A. K. M. Mohsin Uz Zaman Khan arrived in the village. Soon after the
Superintendent of Police of Dinajpur district Mr. Siddiquee Tanzilur
Rahman joined them.

The police tortured the people including passers-by, farmers, students
of the school and college, children, women and the elderly on their
way to the village and after arrival in the village. They also
sexually molested young girls and women during the attack on the
people. The police indiscriminately tortured the visitors in the
wedding ceremony of a Muslim family and a child feeding ceremony, as a
ritual, of a Hindu family during that period. A large number of people
of different ages including women and children have asserted that they
were brutally tortured by the police. Local human rights defenders
also found marks of injuries caused as a result of police torture on
the bodies of the victims.

Mr. Azhar Ali, an elected member of the Forokkabad union council said
to Srilanka Guardian that while returning home from his daughter's
school he saw one police van and a truck load of police approaching
Duptoil village. At one place where the road was not suitable for a
bigger vehicle the riot police were taken in a small police van and
moved inside the village. The ASP of Sadar Circle Mr. Mokbul Hossain,
whom Azhar met on the way, asked Azhar to wait in the local bazar for
a discussion with the police regarding the incident of the previous
night. Meanwhile, Azhar received information from the villagers that
the police started beating people randomly in the village.
Immediately, he informed his colleagues of the union council including
the chairman Lutfor Rahman and rushed to the scene. When he arrived at
the village he saw people running around to and fro in fear of police
torture. Three women suggested Azhar not to go inside the village
where massive torture was going on. He also witnessed that the SP and
ASP were themselves beating people with the sticks in their hands.
When he requested the police to stop torturing the people the police
turned their attention to Azhar and ill-treated him. He witnessed that
the male police were openly molesting young girls and women. Whenever
a good-looking girl was found the police molested the girl and said
rudely, "This one is for me to marry!" Later, the chairmen of the
Birol upazilla and Forokkabad union council arrived at the scene and
insisted that the police stop beating people. This was finally done
after long aggressive debates with the SP and other police officers.

Mr. Balikanto (28), a day labourer of the village, showed his injury
in his left leg, which had bruises and swollen wounds. He stated that
he was beaten by the police while he was returning home for food from
a field after finishing an irrigation job in the morning.

Mrs. Mina Begum (24), a housewife, reported that her five-year-old
daughter, Afia Farzana Tania, was confined in a police cordon and
slapped by the officers while the girl was returning home from school.
Tania begged the police to release her saying that she was hungry. In
response, the police attempted to slap her again and forced her to
stay in confinement. Tania's parents were worried about the child as
she had not returned home despite the fact that school time was
already over. They approached the school and learned that the children
left on time for their homes. Then they went to area controlled by the
police and found their daughter crying. When her father requested the
police to release his daughter they attempted to arrest him. Following
the intervention from the public representatives Tania was released
after around four hours. Tania has been in a highly nervous state and
has developed sleep disturbance and appetite loss since the incidence.

Mr. Shudhangsu Chandra Roy (30), an agricultural labour, was caught by
the police from the field where he was working. The police beat him
and confined in their cordoned area for hours. When he claimed that he
had not engaged in any kind of violence the police threatened to shoot
him dead. Shudhangsu remained silent in the custody of the police
until he was released in the afternoon, again due to the intervention
by the public representatives.

Mr. Niranjan Chandra Roy (16), an agricultural labourer, was also
caught from the field by the police. He was beaten about his legs and
confined for hours. He sustained bruising to his left knee and leg due
to the torture by the police.

Mrs. Basonti Rani Roy (21), a housewife, told that her family arranged
the ritual of feeding a child according to the Hindu religion on 8
March 2011. A number of relatives, neighbours and friends were
visiting her house as invited guests. Her brother and nephew, who came
to participate in the ritual in her house, were arrested by the
police. Hearing about this news her husband Hemonto Kumar Roy went to
the police, who released the two relatives but tortured and confined
Hemonto himself. Hemonto's father Sotin Chandra Roy went to the police
to requesting them to release his son so that he could attend the
guests at his house. Hemonto's father was also brutally beaten and
confined as well. Basonti and all of her relatives then went to the
police and demanded the release of her husband and father-in-law and
asked why the police tortured and confined them. The police saw
Basonti's niece, a beautiful 17-year-old girl, and said, "We will not
let this girl to get married elsewhere. This one is for some of us to
marry." The male police officers improperly touched various parts of
her body despite repeated protests by the girl and the relatives.

Mr. Hemonto Kumar Roy (28), a village doctor, who had a ritual of
feeding his child at home, said that the police went to the Muslim
neighbourhood first, and then later went to the Hindu neighbourhood.
As soon as he told them that he was an inhabitant of the same village
they started beating him and then arrested him. The police confined
and publically molested a young girl, who was a daughter of his
in-laws. The girl was only released when her relatives asked the
police to talk to a senior police officer, who happened to be an uncle
of the girl.

Mr. Sotin Chandra Roy (55), the father of Hemonto, (mentioned earlier)
told that when he learned that the police had arrested his son,
Hemonto, he went to request the police to ask them to release his son.
Instead, the police tortured him, beating him with sticks all over his
body. Sotin showed his the bruises and swollen injuries to legs,
thighs, back and right hand. He demanded justice for the humiliation
of him in front of his relatives.

Mr. Abdul Wahab (56), a farmer of Duptoil village, told that on the
way to his irrigation farm the police stopped him and asked him to
describe the incident of the previous night. Wahab told that he heard
hue and cry among the villagers shouting: "Robber! Robber!" And later,
went to sleep when the sounds disappeared instead of participating in
anything as he is an elderly man. He told the police that when he went
to offer his early morning prayer he learned from his neighbours that
police were beaten the previous night as suspected robbers. The police
then took Wahad to another place and started beating him with sticks
on his legs and hands. He appealed to the police not to beat him but
they police pushed him into a police van, which was driven a few
kilometers. Later, in the afternoon, due to intervention by the public
representatives he was released from the van and threatened not to
disclose to anyone else about what happened to him. Showing the signs
of bruising and the swollen areas of his legs and hands Wahab told
that he lost his memory after the torture, which was unimaginable at
this old age.

Mrs. Shahida Banu (35), wife of Mohammad Shahjahan whose door was
knocked on by the police in the previous night, told that the police
blamed her family for the attack on the police as it was a suspected
robbery. The police searched for her husband and son who were not at
home at that time. The police ordered Shahida from her shop, which is
adjacent to her house, and tortured her by the order of the SP. The
police also tortured Shahida's uncle-in-law, an elderly man, for
terming the police as robbers the previous night. The police raided
Shahida's house and took away a motorbike. She was confined for hours
in the police van and was only released in the afternoon as a result
of intervention from the local government representatives.

Mr. Srimonto Chandra Roy (23), a shopkeeper, was stopped by the police
when he was driving his motorbike to go to his shop. They beat him
with sticks on the legs and back indiscriminately. Due to intervention
by the local government leaders he was released but, the police warned
that there will be further consequences if the story of torture is
shared with anyone else in future.

Mr. Selim Ahmed (17), a college student, stated that he was stopped by
the police when he was going to his private tutor's home in the
Dinajpur town. The police beat him on the legs and confined him in the
police cordon. Later, another policeman allowed him to go considering
him a student. Selim showed bruises and marks of police torture when
he was interviewed.

Mr. Sumon (27), a farmer of Duptoil village, told that the police
called all of the farmers and labourers who were at work in the
fields. They asked Sumon and others about the incident of the previous
night. As Sumon replied that he did not know anything about the
incident the policemen brutally beat him causing bruises and swollen
injuries to his legs.

Mr. Lutfor Rahman, chairman of the Forokkabad union council, described
the background and the story of torture and sexual violence by the
police against the inhabitants of the village in details. He asserted
that he witnessed the police beating people and molesting the girls
and women. He also told that the SP of Dinajpur district police and
the ASP of the Sadar Circle of Dinajpur directly participated in
torturing the people randomly, which was also testified to by the
victims before the Deputy Inspector General (DIG) of police of the
Rajshahi Range on the following day.

While communicated with the high police officials regarding the matter
, police officials denied to talk regarding this matter saying that
the matter is under investigation.

Human Rights activist Dipal Barua urged to the authorities of
Bangladesh to launch a thorough investigation into the matter asking
them to identify the alleged perpetrators and prosecute them for the
crime and the blatant misuse of police authority. He also said the
victims must be protected from any further attacks or harassment by
the police and any fabricated cases by the officers.

Human Rights watchdog Asian Human Right Commission (AHRC) has already
written separate letters to the UN Special Rapporteurs on Torture and
Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Punishment or Treatment and Violence
Against Women calling for their intervention into this matter.


------------------------------------

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[ALOCHONA] Bangladesh:War crimes and misdemeanours



Bangladesh:War crimes and misdemeanours

Justice, reconciliation—or score-settling?

Mar 24th 2011  DHAKA
http://media.economist.com/images/images-magazine/2011/03/26/AS/20110326_ASP004.jpg

The price of collaboration, then

IT IS almost 40 years since Bangladesh's independence and a year since a war-crimes tribunal set out to try those accused of committing atrocities during the bloodstained conflict that led to it. The tribunal is due to lay formal charges this month or soon after. Dozens of suspects live under travel bans. Even so, the country remains haunted by the terrible memories of war. The tribunal seems unlikely to achieve either justice for the victims or reconciliation for the country.

Bangladesh has said that as many as 3m people died in the conflict, though others put the figure lower. What is certain is that many thousands of civilians were killed in cold blood by members of what was then the West Pakistan army (which later became Pakistan's army). Bangladesh is seeking to put in the dock not the main perpetrators of the genocide but their local collaborators, who helped identify victims and took part in the killings. Notable among those accused of collaboration are members of an Islamist party, Jamaat-e-Islami, which formed part of a coalition government with the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) in 2001-06.

During the war, Jamaat's student wing organised a militia, called Al Badr, to support the West Pakistan army. The party denies any part in the war crimes and its leaders say they were not members of Al Badr. But last August the war-crimes tribunal issued arrest warrants for five party leaders, including two former ministers. They have not been charged with war crimes (they are being held in jail on other counts) and are due to appear before the tribunal next month. Also in the clink and awaiting possible future war-crimes charges is a senior leader of Khaleda Zia's BNP, now the main opposition. Officials say at least six more Jamaat leaders will be arrested on war-crimes charges, including the 89-year-old Gholam Azom, who led the party in 1971.

Partly because of the political implications, the war-crimes trials have run into trouble before they have even started. Emboldened by an unexpectedly good showing in municipal polls in January, the BNP has stepped up a programme of hartals (protest strikes) against the government. The timing is propitious: for separate reasons, one of the government's main allies, Mohammad Ershad (a former dictator), has threatened to quit the ruling coalition.

Everyone believes the opposition would scrap the trials if it were to win the next election, which is due in 2013. And if history is any guide, it probably will win: no democratic government in Bangladesh has ever secured a second term. That gives the government less than two years to complete the trials. A formidable task.

The trials have a tiny budget of 100m taka ($1.4m). They are being held under a 1973 law which does not comply with international norms. The local prosecutors are widely seen as weak and inexperienced. In contrast, the defence team includes the counsel for the former Yugoslav president, Slobodan Milosevic, and a defence lawyer from the Special Court for Sierra Leone (which is trying Charles Taylor, Liberia's former president). The authorities have also denied entry to an American-based lawyer for one of the accused, the BNP's Salauddin Quader Chowdhury, an adviser to Mrs Zia. His family says he has been tortured while in detention, which the government denies. The tribunal has yet to determine whether foreign lawyers may even appear to plead before it.

The chances that the trials will win international recognition appear slim. Initial enthusiasm for them among foreign governments has worn off. Many Western diplomats think the government has taken to using the courts to pursue rivals and enemies—as many say it did when it insisted recently that Muhammad Yunus, a Nobel laureate, should retire as head of Grameen Bank, a microcredit institution. The war-crimes process was supposed to produce a measure of truth and reconciliation. It has taken an inauspicious turn.

http://www.economist.com/node/18446875?story_id=18446875&fsrc=rss


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[ALOCHONA] Bangladesh’s mercenary army and the stock market crash



Bangladesh's mercenary army and the stock market crash

 

 

It seems a serious calamity has finally befallen Bangladesh and only those who live in caves or in the jungle with the wild animals have not noticed. For many indeed, the stock market crashing, not just once but repeatedly, is a veritable nightmare akin to a rollercoaster ride going badly wrong like in one of the sequels to the lucrative film franchise Final Destination in which the passengers of such a horrifying ride all eventually get decapitated or sliced into many bloody pieces. While the average investor in Bangladesh probably feels the harsh and painful sting of having lost his/her entire savings it would appear the vast majority of those in the armed forces have also been badly affected.

 

Things have become so bad that apparently there are `rumours of whispers' within the armed forces that the `people' should be motivated to push the government out of power. Note that it is the `people' who are being urged to do this dirty deed (such a move could be laudable if based on principle rather than pure self-interest) on behalf of the newly impoverished members of the armed forces. It seems that the stock market crashing has for the military the same equivalence of the sky falling or a biblical swarm of locust's devastating and ravishing the countryside and ruining the entire food stock or even of a Tsunami washing away huge swathes of the coastal regions of Bangladesh.

 

Should we feel sorry for the army officers and soldiers who have lost their shirts (if not their uniforms) in the stock market crash? The answer should of course be a loud and resounding no! One may reasonably wonder if army officers actually have the time to dabble in the stock market and if they do then it should be concluded that they clearly are not doing their real jobs of protecting Bangladesh. If then they lose everything when a bearish sentiment hits the market then their financial losses have logically and solely been caused by their own insane cupidity (i.e. greed) and utter foolishness (i.e. moota budhi othoba hathuri budhi). Did no one in the armed forces learn the lesson of 1996?

 

In the face of such idiocy it should now become official government policy that any serving army officer will not be permitted to invest in the share market. It could, however, be convincingly argued that in a capitalist system such a restriction is perverse and irrational. It is my argument that the involvement of armed forces personnel in the share bazaar is a threat to national security and also the discipline of the military as a cohesive and efficiently functioning force. This would be unique to Bangladesh but the role of army officers in the share market has become almost obsessive and similar to an addiction. If a drug addict can be thrown out of the army then why not a share addict?

 

It would be a mistake to blame the share market bubble for having made army officers into mindless money grubbing drones. The malaise within the armed forces actually set in with the United Nations peace keeping missions. Now the sole objective for any self-respecting army officer is to be included on one of these missions. National security and the protection of the country's territorial integrity have become secondary or even tertiary considerations to these lucrative peace keeping operations as if the role of the army is to make peace. In other words, military officers have now become diplomats and even worse businessmen while they are still in service rather than the protectors of our sovereignty and a force opposing external enemies and other such threats to our national security.

 

It was Professor Mahbubullah of Dhaka University who aptly described the present mindset of the military officers and many soldiers as mercenary. It seems that the armed forces can be bought and sold at a whim (and a price). If in fact the armed forces had any moral integrity then they would not have become involved in the fiasco called 1/11. At least in midstream they could have replaced the incompetent and greedy Gen. Moin U. Ahmed with someone more able and patriotic. Unfortunately there are few if any such types in the armed forces today. Looking at the veteran officers who were involved in 1/11 many are now multi-millionaires in dollar terms and a few are allegedly involved in money laundering in the Middle East for powerful persons in Bangladesh and their contacts overseas. Even more shameful than any of this is that military officers disgruntled by the share market debacle have now become active opponents of the government but they could not find the courage to lift a finger when their fellow officers were butchered and slaughtered in Pilkhana like the victims of the gruesome SAW movies. Comically they expect the `people' to rise up now that the share market has crashed rather then doing anything themselves. Such an opportunity has, however, long gone and would probably be undesirable considering the mentality of the officers serving today. Bangladesh will have to wait for a real people's revolution based on principle and the interests of the country rather than the pauperized imagination of a few army officers.   



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Re: [ALOCHONA] Skit # 1 -- Collaborator (Rajakar)



Bingo!!

She is smarter than most adults in BD.



-----Original Message-----
From: Shorna Sharmin <shorna.sharmin@yahoo.com>
To: alochona <alochona@yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Thu, Mar 24, 2011 3:10 pm
Subject: [ALOCHONA] Skit # 1 -- Collaborator (Rajakar)

 
 

7-yr old : Who is a Pakistani Rajakar?
Parent    : A Bangladeshi who sides with Pakistan rather than with Bangladesh .
 
Trying to prove that she is smart,
 
The 7-Yr old said: Okay, okay, I know, I know, an Indian Rajakar
                            is a Bangladeshi who sides with ...
 



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