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Friday, June 17, 2011

[ALOCHONA] Top Priority!



Top Priority!

The government's priority issues include

  • August 21 grenade blast case
  • Ten truck loads of arms case
  • Alleged corruption of four-party alliance govt
  • Indian Prime Minister's visit
  • Trial of war criminals
  • BDR massacre case

by ANWAR PARVEZ HALIM

Immediately upon taking over power in January 6, 2009, the Awami League-led mahajote (grand alliance) government of Sheikh Hasina opened a Pandora's Box of sensitive issues. Top priority among these issues were the Mujib killing case; the August 21 grenade attack case; 10 truck arms case; Kibria killing case; restoration of the 1972 Constitution; the 1971 crimes against humanity case; corruption of the four-party alliance; and not providing shelter in Bangladesh to Indian insurgents.

Most of these were election commitments.

In the very second month of Awami League coming to power, the BDR massacre occurred. This immediately got conscious circles of society wondering whether Sheikh Hasina, armed with a cabinet of relatively inexperienced newcomers, should have taken up so many sensitive issues so soon. Was it too risky to handle?

There were other headaches for the government – gas, electricity, water, law and order and living costs. To top it all, there was also the people's movement against constructing an airport at Arial Beel and the share-market scandal.

This month, June, the government will have completed half of its term at the helm. Analysts have begun burning night oil, calculating the successes and failures of Hasina's rule.

From the point of view of the public, where their common interests are concerned, the government has not really achieved success. Its success lies in certain cases related to issues of national interest.

As for its top priority issues, some of the issues have been brought to the forefront and some relegated to the back burner. Some issues have aimed in importance and some have dimmed for political reasons.

The biggest success of the government is completion of the Mujib killing case.

The court has annulled parts of the Constitution's Fifth, Seventh and Thirteenth Amendments. This has given rise to a long-term controversy. Then members of the mahajote alliance Rashed Khan Menon and Hasanul Huq Inu have questioned why "Bismillah" and "Islam as the state religion" have been retained in the Constitution.

The government's decision to cancel the caretaker government system has created a furor in the political arena.

Given the prevailing situation, despite being a top priority, the Constitution apparently is not returning to its 1972 form for the time being. The court's controversial verdict has created a scar in the country's politics, experts feel.

Secular sections of society are also unhappy with the government.

At the behest of the government, the relevant quarters gave due importance to investigating the murder of former Finance Minister Shah ASM Kibria. The second charge-sheet of the case is ready. But due to objection from Kibria's widow Asma Kibria and her family members, this has not been handed over to the court as yet. The family believes that BNP leader Haris Chowdhury is involved in the killing. Unless her is included in the case, Kibria's family is unwilling to let the charge-sheet go to the court. So this case too is being delayed.

In the meantime, the government has taken strict measures to prevent Indian insurgents from taking shelter within Bangladesh territory. Several leaders of the United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA) have been arrested and handed over to the Indian authorities. India is pressuring the Hasina government to hand over ULFA leader Anup Chetia presently in jail in Bangladesh. The government is not acquiescing to this request so easily as this may give rise to human rights questions. Thus he remains in jail despite the term of sentence having completed. However, in keeping with the 50-point accord signed between Hasina and Manmohan, in all likelihood Anup Chetia will finally be handed over to India.

Various sources say that at the moment the government's top priority issues are the August 21 grenade case, the ten trucks of arms case, the corruption of the four-party alliance government, the Bangladesh visit of the Indian Prime Minister, trial of the war criminals and the BDR massacre case.

The charge-sheet for the August 21 grenade attack case has been submitted to the court, but now supplementary investigations are being carried out. Among the accused in this case are Mofazzel Hossain Kaikobad, the BNP MP from Muradnagar, Comilla; former State Minister for Home Affairs, Lutfuzzaman Babar; and BNP leader Haris Chowdhury. Investigations have reportedly revealed evidence of their involvement. The investigation report also mentions Hawa Bhaban's involvement in the case.

Investigations into the ten truck of arms case continues. There is possibility that former NSI DG Maj. Gen. (retd) Rezzakul Haider, Brig. Abdur Rahim, Major Liaqat, Shahabuddin and former State Minister for Home Affairs Lutfuzzaman Babar will be implicated in this case. The final charge-sheets of the August 21 grenade attack case and ten trucks arms case are likely to be submitted to court within a month.

With the opposition stepping up its anti-government movement, the corruption cases against the four-party alliance government are likely to dragged up to top priority again. The previous caretaker government had filed innumerable corruption cases against leaders of the various political parties. The present government has withdrawn all the cases against the Awami League leaders, but has kept the cases against the important BNP leaders pending. These are the government's political trump cards to be used against the opposition at opportune moments.

The charge-sheet of the money laundering case against BNP Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia's younger son Arafat Rahman Koko has been submitted to the court. It awaits hearing. The Zia Foundation case filed by the Fakhuruddin-Moeenuddin government is also likely to make it to the government's priority list.

Meanwhile, the Dhaka City unit of BNP plays a vital role in ensuring the success of hartals (general strikes) and other political programmes. Thus the government is planning to revive the cases against Dhaka's Mayor and BNP Dhaka City's Convenor Sadeq Hossain Khoka.

While imprisoned BNP leader Salahuddin Quader Chowdhury is being interrogated about 1971 crimes against humanity, investigations are also on concerning his involvement in the ten trucks of arms case.

The war crimes tribunal is proceeding at a slow pace, in fits and starts. Five leaders of Jamaat-e-Islami are being questioned in a safe-home. No one has any idea how long this trial will continue. Then there are speculations, even among government circles, as to why Jamaat leader Mir Kasem Ali has not been arrested. Pro-government secular forces are even questioning the sincerity of the government in trying the accused war criminals. While Sheikh Hasina seems sincere enough in this regard, the role of certain important ministers is being eyed with suspicion.

Two cases have been lodged against those accused in the BDR massacre case. One is under BDR's own laws and the other under criminal law. The highest sentence under BDR law is seven years' imprisonment. There are 6000 accused persons in this case. Of these, 4000 are in Dhaka and 2000 outside of Dhaka. Trials of the cases under BDR law outside Dhaka are complete. In Dhaka there are eleven cases under the BDR law. Three of these are complete and eight are pending. These are likely to be complete within the next three months.

The hearing of the cases under criminal law has started at a tribunal set up near the central jail. Experts say it will take three months to draw up charges after the hearing and at least three years to complete the trial. So it is doubtful whether the trials of these cases can be completed during the rule of this government.

It is also believed that the persons behind the scenes of the BDR massacre will remain out of the reach of the law. The interest that the people had in this case at the outset has dwindled with time. So the case is also proceeding at a snail's pace. It will take a considerable amount of time for the criminal case to be completed.

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina visited India in the second week of February last year. Ever since then the forthcoming visit of Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has been featuring high in the priority list. Hasina's government has begun the process of granting the transit in keeping with the joint communiqué singed between the two countries. Manmohan was supposed to come in the year 2010, but that did not materialize. It is now more or less sure that he will visit Bangladesh towards the end of this year. However, before that there is a flurry of activity to finish all paperwork at a secretary and ministerial level.

Critics claim that the 50-point communiqué tilts in favour of India. If it is fully implemented, the people may hold Hasina to account, something which will be risky at election time. That is why, certain quarters allege,  the government is all hush-hush about fulfilling the accord. Come what may, Manmohan's visit remains high on the government's top priority agenda.

http://www.probenewsmagazine.com/index.php?index=2&contentId=7225



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[ALOCHONA] Bangladesh :ROUNDED UP



Bangladesh :ROUNDED UP

Surrounded by 3783 km of barbed wire fencing, is Bangladesh to be the world's largest prison?

by MM ALI, ALTAF PARVEZ, SHAMSUDDOHA SHOAIB and K MAHMUD

In Assam, if you are wearing a lungi or a beard, people say you're from Bangladesh

– TIME, February 05, 2009

The famous, or infamous, Berlin Wall used to be 140km. The wall which Israel has built around Gaza is 760km. The wall along the US-Mexico border is 1123km. But the length of the Indian barbed wire fencing along its border with Bangladesh is more than all these walls combined.

The longest border fencing in the world

While Bangladesh and India share a 4096 border which delineates the two separate countries, the people of the border regions are not always that separate. Particularly the people of West Bengal and Assam, and those this side of the border adjacent to those states, have relations or either side of the border, and in the past had thriving business relations too. In fact, the border would even pass through the middle of some houses, causing the international media to even term it as the world's most "inhuman border".

The logic put forward by the Indian politicians for constructing this fence is very much on the same lines as the Israel justification of wall along Palestine. India is also proceeding with the construction of a 1800km fence along its border with Pakistan. However, the construction of the fence around Bangladesh is proceeding at a much faster pace. This is now being acknowledged as the world's longest border fence.

Concerned government, human rights activists and the affected countries are very vocal in their protest against the border wall between Israel and Palestine and the fencing between USA and Mexico. In Bangladesh, however, this issue is being totally overlooked. Only on May 15, 2010, Abdus Sobhan Sikder, Home Secretary at the time, said, "In constructing this barbed wire fencing, India has violated international laws in at least 46 places [The Daily Star May 16, 2010]." The Home Secretary pointed out that even in the joint survey with India, at least 12 points were identified where there was violation of the international compulsions not to have any structures or construction within 150 yards from the zero point of the border demarcation.

Symbol of racism

This project went into full operation from 1989. Initially 3.7 billion rupees was allocated for this project, but this amount gradually increased and is likely to stand at 10.5 billion rupees. Not only has Indian erected this barbed wire fence, but in places has also, along the fence, constructed roads for movement of heavy military vehicles. So far about 3000 km of fencing has been completed. The fence is three metres high. Several other structures are to be constructed alongside the fencing.

Using the Right to Information Act, on 30 December, 2009, local Indian citizens obligated their government to reveal detailed information about the border fencing. It was then revealed that till date a total of 5205.43 rupees had been spent and the decision had been to raise 3436.59km of barbed wire border fencing. Later Indian sources revealed that actually 3783km of fencing would be raised. According to a statement made by the then Indian Home Secretary in the Lok Sabha, in the 2004-5 financial year, already a sum of 2404.70 rupees has been spent on the fencing. In some places of Assam the barbed wire fence has even been electrified.

When the US had decided to construct a wall/fencing along its border with Mexico, at least two laws had been drawn up in two phases. Finally the Secure Fence Act 2006 was adopted for the task. This came into effect from September 13, 2006. In the case of India, no such law was adopted. It was simply by administrative decision that the plan to surround Bangladesh was taken up for execution.

The justification made by the US for its border wall was that narcotics were being smuggled in from Mexico. As for Israel, they reasoned that the wall along the West Bank was a security measure against alleged Palestinian terrorist attacks. India faced neither threat from Bangladesh. On the contrary, it is from India that Phensydyl and other narcotic substances as well as arms and ammunition enter Bangladesh, posing as a security threat to this side of the border. Despite all this, Bangladesh never demanded any kind of anti-humanitarian sort of infrastructure. Interestingly, all the issues which India has highlighted in justifying this border fencing, exist in the case of Nepal too, but it has made no move for any such wall with Nepal.

Perhaps it is because of their diplomacy and failure to fall into the trap of ethnic hatred that Bangladesh's policymakers have maintained a strange silence about this fencing, while standing fully in favour of handing over transit or corridor facilities to India. Yet this construction of the fence and road around the border is even a violation of the Mujib-Indira treaty signed in 1974. Even though this treaty expired in 1997, it is still considered to be the guiding force behind Bangladesh- India relations.

According to the Mujib-Indira treaty, neither of the country could construct any infrastructure that would be harmful to the other country. In constructing this border fencing, India has completely moved away from the treaty. Along various parts of its border, India is using ground sensor technology imported from Israel. In a recent issue of the Kolkata daily Bartaman (June 5, 2011), Ashok Kumar, Acting DG of BSF's Cooch Bihar sector, is quoted to have said that they are using such sophisticated thermal imagers that even in the night they can observe activities a few kilometers within Bangladesh. Previously, on October 15, 2006, Zee News sources revealed that just for the Bangladesh border alone, India had procured 900 hand-held imagers, each set costing 28 lac rupees. The equipment uses its body heat to detect its object. Additionally, BSF has procured for the border Israel-made LORROS (Long-Range Recce and Observation System) which enables them to carry out intensive observation for 40 miles along the border. They have procured at least 27 sets of such radar-based technology, each set costing two crore rupees.

It is not in technology alone, but in its entire border management that India has forgotten the spirit of the Mujib-Indira Treaty. The very first paragraph speaks of long-term peace and friendship, peaceful co-existence, and not having any discriminatory attitudes towards one another. But having a thousands of miles long barbed wire fence surrounding Bangladesh hardly speaks of friendship. On the contrary to speaks of a sort of ethnic hatred. The US has a similar attitude towards Mexico.

Threat to biodiversity

All the elements for which the human rights activists of the world opposed the Israel-Palestine and the US-Mexico border walls/fencing, exist in the case of India and Bangladesh too. The ethnic groups living along the US-Mexican border are being cut off from each other's kith and kin because of the border wall. The fencing between Bangladesh and India has similar broken up thousands of families. Since time immemorial people on either side of the border have become related to each other through marriage. They could never imagine a wall separating people of the same language and ethnicity. These families are now split. This has also hit them hard economically.

This longest border fencing in the world is also going to divide the world largest mangrove forest, the Sundarbans. This has created concern among environmentalists at an international level. Roads and other infrastructure will have to be constructed in the Sundarbans too for them to set up this wire fencing. The wire fencing and the roads will certainly harm Sundarbans' biodiversity. Tigers and other animals on the verge of extinction will lose their natural habitat. Biodiversity will vanish in no time if the fencing is electrified.

A military mindset

Needless to say, the source of such a short-sighted anti-humanitarian project is the military and bureaucratic mindset. It is noted that the three countries constructing these controversial border divides have strong military mindsets and also share links of cooperation among each other. Most of the agreements of cooperation among these countries are of the military ilk. The right wing media aids and assists in placing public opinion in the military mould. It is the smaller neighbours like Bangladesh who have to bear the brunt of such attitudes. And yet for the "security" which India is apparently seeking through its barbed wire fencing, the best alternative would be for it to grow strong ties of friendship and trust with Bangladesh.

http://www.probenewsmagazine.com/index.php?index=2&contentId=7220



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[ALOCHONA] Bilderberg 2011: The Rockefeller World Order and the "High Priests of Globalization"



Bilderberg 2011: The Rockefeller World Order and the "High Priests of Globalization"



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