US sees little change in 'highly partisan politics' in Bangladesh Despite hopes that the new government would reject the highly partisan politics of the past, it soon became clear little had changed, said the US State Department in its latest addition to Bangladesh's background note. "Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and opposition leader Khaleda Zia attacked one another over matters substantive and petty. The opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party boycotted Parliament over the chamber's seating chart and launched demonstrations over Awami League efforts to force Khaleda Zia out of her Dhaka cantonment home," it said. The State Department also said the (ruling) Awami League failed to make good on promises to enact into legislation democratic-reform ordinances approved by the caretaker government. "The ruling party rejected caretaker government measures to decentralise government and to clearly separate judicial functions from the executive branch. Parliament did enact, however, caretaker government measures to fight terrorism and money laundering that received strong support from the US government and other countries that provide Bangladesh counter-terrorism assistance." The government was rocked by a mutiny by border guards on February 25-26, 2009 in which more than 50 army officers were murdered, said the State Department. It observed that Sheikh Hasina faced strong opposition within the military for not ordering an immediate attack on the mutinous guards. The political situation appeared to have stabilised several weeks after the mutiny, and the US Federal Bureau of Investigation sent teams to Dhaka to provide technical assistance to Bangladesh authorities responsible for the probe into the incident, said the addition to background note. |
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