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HC ends Hasina hearing
Verdict in sight
BDNEWS24,Dhaka
The High Court ended the hearing of a writ petition filed
on behalf of former prime minister Sheikh Hasina on
Tuesday challenging the legality of her ongoing trial
under the emergency powers rules.
Justices Shah Abu Nayeem Mominur Rahman and Shahidul Islam
began deliberating on the verdict, which will continue
into Wednesday.
The court on July 30, 2007 had ordered the government to
explain why the case should not be declared illegal
following the filing of the writ petition.
Additional attorney general Salauddin Ahmed, acting for
the government, told the court on Tuesday that the
government had included the case under EPR as per the
provision in Section 3 (1) of the Emergency Powers
Ordinance.
The court questioned why the case was considered of such
public importance as to be brought under EPR.
Salauddin replied that Hasina and defence counsel could
not resent the fact that the case was considered of public
importance.
The court however pointed out that as the case was brought
under EPR it deprived her right to get bail.
Salauddin pointed out in return that the case was brought
under the EPR for a quick resolution and that the EPR
provision is not unconstitutional.
The additional attorney general also claimed in court that
the lawyers who had made their statements as amicus curiae
were not neutral.
Additional attorney general Monsur Habib presented
documents in court regarding why the case was considered
of public importance. The High Court had asked the
prosecution lawyers on Jan 31 to present such documents to
the court. Examining the documents, the court said the
case was thought to have public importance for the social
status of Hasina, not for the severity of corruption or
crime. Hasina's counsel barrister Rafiq-ul-Huq said that
there was no specific guideline in the EPR to consider any
case of public importance. If there is no guideline for
public importance in the law, a move to take a case under
emergency rule on the grounds of Hasina's public
importance breaches a constitutional principle of
equality, the lawyer argued.
Businessman Azam J Chowdhury filed the case with Gulshan
Police Station against the former prime minister and her
cousin Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim for extorting Tk 3 crore
on June 13 last year. Hasina was arrested on July 16. The
next day the case was taken under emergency rule and she
was shown arrested.
On July 24, a chargesheet was submitted to the court
accusing Hasina, her sister Sheikh Rehana and Sheikh Selim.
Titas staffers submit illegal wealth documents
136 unscrupulous Titas staffers submit illegal wealth
documents worth Tk 400 crore
UNB, Dhaka
The current anti-corruption purge attained new heights
as a big band of 136 employees of the state-owned Titas
Gas Transmission and Distribution Company Ltd on Tuesday
submitted documents of their ill-gotten wealth worth about
Tk 400 crore to the army-led taskforce.
This happens to be the maiden case of expropriation of
illegally acquired asset of government employees under the
ongoing countrywide drive, launched under the interim
regime, against what appears to be pandemic corruption
that had earned Bangladesh an unmerited bad repute in the
past. Taskforce sources said 136 unscrupulous members of
the staff of Titas, including 13 officers, "voluntarily"
dropped their documents of assets amassed by illegal means
to the complaint box of the taskforce camped on the
company-office premises.
"We’re now checking these documents dropped by them. After
checking, all the illegal assets will be deposited into
government coffers from the day after tomorrow (from
Thursday) as the corrupt staffers pledged that they want
to return their illegal wealth to the government," one
taskforce member told UNB. Earlier in November last year,
the taskforce members asked all the Titas officials to
submit their wealth statement. They complied. On
investigation, the taskforce members found illegal wealth
worth about Tk 400 crore of these 136 persons. Based on
the findings, the taskforce troops disclosed on January 8
this year the list of this group of 136, who are said to
be among a lot more who have also allegedly plundered the
nation’s newfound wealth in natural gas. Later, the
unscrupulous Titas men agreed to return their unearned
treasures to government treasury. "We want to return the
people’s wealth to the government," they were quoted as
telling the force.
The taskforce members set up their temporary office on the
2nd floor of the Titas bhaban in the first week of
November 2006 to monitor function of the suspects. Under
the drive, the taskforce personnel have also camped in
some other public utilities and organizations to dig up
institutional corruption as part of the nationwide purge
launched under the state of emergency following the past
political crisis over election issues. The hunt has, in
the meantime, landed many top politicians, bureaucrats and
business tycoons in jail.
Bangladesh gas worker ‘took 145 million dollars
in bribes’
AFP, Dhaka
An employee of Bangladesh’s biggest state-owned gas
company who earned a mere 100 dollars a month used his
position to pocket a colossal 145 million dollars in
bribes over 12 years, an official said Tuesday.
Authorities here described the deception as one of the
country’s biggest corruption scandals, with countless
workers using the company to siphon millions out of public
coffers. "It is a theft of unimaginable scale," said the
head of the government’s anti-corruption body, Colonel
Hasan.
He identified the culprit as Abdul Kader Mollah, a former
sales assistant with the Titas Gas Distribution Company
who was paid a mere 100 dollars a month but who made
illicit cash by undercharging thousandars—was revealed
after the military-backed government launched an
investigation into the company last year as part of a
nationwide anti-graft drive. But Mollah, who is still
under investigation and has not yet been arrested, hit
back at the allegations by taking out a quarter-page
advertisement Tuesday in at least 11 top newspapers. He
insisted he was only worth 66 million dollars, and that he
made the money through hard work—including setting up
textile plants after leaving the gas business in 1997.
Last week authorities said at least 80 percent of Titas’
2,800 workers had made millions of dollars by
under-charging in exchange for bribes, although 127
workers have so far agreed to hand back case to the state.
Titas is the country’s largest state-owned gas distributor
with an 80 percent market share in Bangladesh, ranked as
one of the poorest and most corrupt nations on earth.
Last year the company made a net profit of 37 million
dollars on sales of 557 million dollars.
Investigators, however, said they were "astonished" by the
scale of internal profiteering in a country where 40
percent of the 144 million population live with less than
a dollar. "Almost everyone in the company is a
millionaire. They made millions by depriving the country’s
millions of poor people," Hasan said. The Ittefaq
newspaper meanwhile ran a front page story on three more
multi-millionaire gas workers—including a former
receptionist who now allegedly owns an apartment complex
and plots of land in posh Dhaka districts.
Bangladesh’s government, which came to power in January
2007 following months of political instability, has
detained more than 150 politicians, including former
ministers accused of accepting bribes for official duties.
In October it widened the drive to state-owned companies.
Lift ban on indoor politics: CEC
Staff Correspondent
The Election Commission has asked the Chief Adviser,
Fakhruddin Ahmed, to lift the ban on indoor politics
across the country and to withdraw or to relax the state
of emergency in four cities and in seven municipalities by
next month.
"During our sitting with the Chief Adviser on Monday, we
have requested him to create a congenial atmosphere for
holding elections to the four city corporations and asked
him to lift the ban on indoor politics across the country
aiming at allowing the political parties to hold
conventions or councils to bring changes in their
respective party constitutions in line with the EC’s
guideline for being registered with the commission," the
Chief Election Commissioner, ATM Shamsul Huda, told
newsmen at a press briefing at the EC Secretariat on
Tuesday.
Responding to a question exactly when the ban on indoor
politics is to go and when the emergency is to be
withdrawn or to be relaxed, Huda said, "as the political
parties will have to be registered with the EC by June
next, they need to change their party constitutions by
holding meetings and conventions before that and to
facilitate their task, we have asked the Chief Adviser to
lift the ban on indoor politics across the country towards
the beginning of March. On the other hand, the state of
emergency will have to be either withdrawn or relaxed
towards the end of March in places where there will be
local elections so that the candidates can conduct their
election campaign, as the four City Corporation (Rajshahi,
Khulna, Barisal and Sylhet) polls are going to be held in
April." "In reply to our request, the chief adviser
assured us of taking necessary steps at the quickest
possible time," he added.
Expressing satisfaction over the progress of the voter
listing, he said, "some people are asking us for holding
the general election earlier but we do not know how we can
expedite further our task? Although the progress of the
EC’s tasks was thwarted due to some unwanted complexities,
we are confident that the EC will be able to hold
elections in accordance with the announced road map." "We
will announce the election schedule one month before the
date of the general election," the CEC disclosed.
About the EC’s pending dialogue with BNP, the CEC said,
"the EC has been suffering since last two months over the
issue. We are hopeful of completing the dialogue with the
political parties within this month as the High Court will
give its verdict on February 12 on the BNP issue. And then
we will be able to finalize our electoral reforms through
promulgating ordinance by next month."
In reply to a question about the independence of the EC
Secretariat, he said, "there is no problem and loopholes
in EC’s independence. We have got what we wanted. The EC
Secretariat will not be under any ministry or department.
There is only a technical problem and we have talked of
the issue to the Chief Adviser and the Law Adviser to
resolve the problem soon."
Earlier, Major General Shafique handed over to the CEC a
few token copies of the draft voters list of four City
Corporations and seven municipalities. Brig Gen (retd)
Sakhawat Hossain was present on the occasion.
Sakhawat said, "it is a first step of making a milestone
in the history of Bangladesh as well as of the Election
Commission of preparing the voter list with photographs
plus national ID card."
BCL-JCD cadres ransack Sibir rooms at SMBC
A Correspondent, Barisal
BCL and JCD
cadres jointly on Monday ransacked thirty-three rooms of a
male hostel of Islamic Chhatra Shibir supporters at
Barisal Sher-e-Bangla Medical College in dispute over
ragging of a Shibir supporter.
Authorities formed a five-member inquiry committee on the
very day headed by child specialist Dr. Zahid Hossain to
investigate the matter and a report is to be submitted
within next three days.
Members of the college academic council visited the
ransacked rooms and police was deployed. Till writing this
report, RAB was patrolling in the campus as tensions still
prevailing there.
Students sources said Redowan Ahmed Shamim, a Shibir
supporter, a first year student of room hostel-1 on Sunday
night was called by a second year students, Sohag Muhin
and Sohel, cadres of BCL and JCD, to room 114. Shamim was
allegedly forced to smoke cigarettes mixed with ganja,
made naked and sexually abused and photographed by mobile
phones by the alleged students. After, one and half hours
of physical and mental torture, Shamim was released. On
Sunday morning he described his humiliation to his
classmates and failed to perform better in cricket match
with the final year students at the campus field due to
mental shock. He even did not take lunch as humiliating
story spread al over the campus.
A group of senior students tried to minimize and
compromise the matter by negotiation on Sunday night. As a
consequence to create panic and a forceful solution a
group of 50/60 BCL and JCD cadres on hostel 1 and 3 armed
with lethal weapons on Monday jointly started ransacking
rooms of Shibir supporters in hostel-2.
The attackers on their one-hour long operations ransacked
at least thirty-three rooms numbering 301-318 on second
floor and other 15 rooms on first floor of the hostel-2.
Panicked gripped the college campus and hospital campuses
during these atrocities. Dr. Aziz Rahim, the principal,
Dr. Habibur Rahman and Dr. Sk.Abdul Hamid, hostel supers
asked for deployment of police in the campus to control
the situation at 2:00 am on Monday.
Hayatul Islam, assistant commissioner of Barisal
Metropolitan Police and Dr. Aziz Rahim, principal SBMC
acknowledging the facts said the situation was created
from immoral activities of students patronized by
political parties. College academic council will take
strict actions against the real culprits with the help of
law enforcing agencies according to the report of the
inquiry committee, the principal assured.
Back Page
High-level team
to report back from KSA
UNB, Dhaka
Foreign Adviser Dr Iftekhar
Ahmed Chowdhury on Tuesday said a high-level delegation
from Bangladesh would visit Saudi Arabia shortly to
examine reports that have appeared in a section of the
media about the predicaments of some Bangladeshis there.
Speaking to the media at his office, Iftekhar, also
in-charge of the Expatiate Welfare and Overseas Employment
Ministry, said: "I've asked the secretary concerned to
lead the delegation and report to me with regard to the
situation with recommendations." He added: "I've also
discussed the matter on telephone with our Ambassador who
has been contacting Saudi authorities so that Bangladeshis
are not unnecessarily harassed."
The Foreign Adviser said: "We see Saudi Arabia as one of
our closest friends. His Majesty King Abdullah has donated
huge amounts to post-flood and Sidr relief and
rehabilitation. The Saudis have great affection for
Bangladeshis. I am sure if there are any problems, these
can be amicably resolved."
Pourashabhas set up on political grounds to be phased
out
BDNEWS24, Dhaka
The caretaker administration is seeking to abolish all
municipalities that were created without meeting the
necessary conditions, LGRD adviser Md Anwarul Iqbal told
bdnews24.com on Sunday
A decision has already been taken in principle to cancel
Moksedpur Municipality in Gopalganj, although the move
will not be finalised until vetting by the law ministry.
Deputy Commissioners will also be consulted prior to
abolishing seven other municipalities.
The eight municipalities under review were formed during
the tenure of the last BNP-led government.
Iqbal said "There are specific rules to follow when
creating a municipality. It has been discovered these
rules were not followed in many cases,"
"Reports are being taken from the deputy commissioners
concerned. We will decide how to go about abolishing the
municipalities on the basis of those reports," he added.
The adviser said a new ordinance on municipalities,
recommended by a committee tasked to strengthen local
government bodies, will be completed after necessary
scrutiny.
"After the ordinance is promulgated, municipalities which
do not meet the specified condition will be cancelled,"
Iqbal said.
The Shawkat Committee was formed by the caretaker
administration and states that municipalities which fail
to meet conditions specified in the 1977 Municipality
Ordinance will be considered defunct following their
discovery.
The immediate-past BNP-led administration established 61
municipalities. There are 309 municipalities in the
country.
According to the ordinance, the government will not
declare any rural area an urban area unless three-fourths
of the adult male population is mainly employed in the
areas other than agriculture.
Such areas must have no less than 15,000 population, with
per square mile home to no less than 2,000 residents,
according to the ordinance.
Price hike of MS rods
Ship breakers mainly responsible
Staff Correspondent
Ship breakers association along with a section of
businessmen are mainly responsible for the recent price
hike of MS rods across the country.
At present MS rod (60 grades) is being sold at Tk 68000
per ton, up by Tk 5000 compared to that of last week.
Speaking at a press conference in the Jatiya Press Club
jointly organized by Bangladesh Re-Rolling Mills
Association and Bangladesh Still Mill Owners Association,
the leaders of both organizations also urged the
government to take immediate steps to keep the price of MS
rods at the tolerable limit so that the construction
industry does not face any setback. They alleged that a
section of businessmen are hoarding the MS rods to gain
extra profit by creating artificial crisis in the market.
Bangladesh Re-rolling Mills Association general secretary
Sheikh Masudul Alam said the government should cut the
duty imposed on importing raw materials of MS products
immediately to contain price and it should also ensure all
time power supply to the re-rolling industries.
Replying to a question, secretary General of Bangladesh
Still Mill Owners Association Fazlur Rahman Bokul said the
price hike of construction materials mainly MS rod has
posed a serious threat to the country's real estate
industry. They gave some proposals to the government to
contain the price of MS rods including reducing the duty
imposed on chemicals import from 10 percent to 5 percent.
Besides, they also demanded of the government to allow
more PSI companies to operate in the country.
Govt subsidy on fuel, fertiliser, food
UNB, Dhaka
The government is likely to cut Annual Development
Programme (ADP) substantially due to enhanced revenue
expenditure on diesel and fertilizer subsidy.
A meeting of the Resource Committee and Budget Monitoring
at Finance Ministry on Tuesday took the initial decision
to downsize the ADP to a level between Tk 22,000 crore and
Tk 23,000 crore from the original allocation of Tk 26,500
crore for the current fiscal year.
Bangladesh Bank Governor Dr Salehuddin Ahmed, secretaries
of Finance, Planning, ERD and IMED, NBR chairman and IRD
secretary Mohammed Abdul Mazid, and senior officials
concerned were present at the meeting presided over by
Finance Adviser Dr Mirza Azizul Islam.
"It still needs some more analyses to take a decision
about the extent of scaling down the ADP," the Adviser
told reporters after the meeting.
He said revenue collection has so far been satisfactory
while foreign aid disbursement has been very good. But the
problem is that the revenue expenditure has increased
substantially due to enhanced subsidy on irrigation
diesel, fertilizer and food.
These are new areas of subsidy in addition to subsidy to
Bangladesh Petroleum Corporation (BPC), he added.
"As a result,The (overall) budget deficit would increase
from 4.2 percent to 4.7 percent of GDP," said the Finance
Adviser.
The budget 2007-08 envisaged an overall deficit (excluding
grants and subsidy to BPC) of Tk 29,836 crore or 4.2
percent of the GDP.
Dr Aziz said that it is unrealistic to set a big ADP
target, which would not be possible to implement. "We want
to set a realistic target, which would be possible to
implement optimally." Only 21 percent of the ADP was
implemented during the July-December period of the current
fiscal year.
Crime Watch
RAB arrests 14
Staff Correspondent
RAB arrested 14 people and recovered a huge amount of
spurious medicine and narcotic items from their possession
from different parts of the capital on Tuesday.
Acting on a tip-off, a patrol team of RAB-3 raided a house
no-48/8 at Malibagh Chowdhuripara at about 12:30 am and
arrested seven alleged drug traders including Mirza
Mohammad Khalid Apu, son of Mirza Sultan Raja, a former AL
MP of Chuadanga-2. Around 520 bottles of phensidyl, five
mobile phone sets and Tk 59 thousand in cash were
recovered from their possession.
Earlier, on the basis of secret information, a team of
RAB-3 raided a house at about 10:30 pm and arrested Mahfuj,
Riad and Khorshed Alam, the members of an organised drug
trading gang. RAB recovered a total of 198 yaba tablets
after searching the house.
In another drive, a team of RAB-1 led by major Saiful
Islam raided a house at Tongi area at about 11:30 am and
arrested Masud Mia, 20, a spurious medicine trader. A huge
amount of medicines and medicine manufacturing equipment
worth about Tk 50 lakh were recovered from his possession.
Besides, a special team of RAB-1 also raided a house at
Ashkona under Uttarkhan police station and arrested Selim,
Nurul Islam and Rabiul Islam. Around 418 bottles of
phensidyl were recovered.
Cases were lodged.
Shiplu on 3-day remand
BDNEWS24, Dhaka
A Dhaka court Tuesday remanded the suspect known as Shiplu
for three days to allow police to question him over the
theft of Rabindranath Tagore's Nobel Prize medal.
Dhaka Magistrate Abdullah Al Mamun of Chief Metropolitan
Magistrate's Court ordered the remand for Shiplu to be
quizzed over his connection to jailed Indian national
Jiban Singh.
Police officers at the remand appeal said they would also
interrogate the suspect over possible connections to
smuggling archaeological artefacts and drug dealing.
CID officer Shyamol Chowdhury initially sought seven days
remand on Feb 2, following Shiplu's arrest from a house in
Lalbagh on Jan 31.
The suspect's lawyer Imaul Haque Imon appealed for bail
and a cancellation of the remand order.
2 fertiliser dealers beaten for cheating
BSS, Sirajganj
Two fertiliser dealers were beaten by the enraged people
as they cheat them in weight while selling fertiliser at
Shialkol Bazar in Sadar upazila of the district on
Monday.
The dealers were identified as Ranju and Rafiqul Islam
Helal.
Local agriculture office sources said they were selling
the 50 kg bags of Urea fertiliser which were infect eight
to 10 kg less than the actual weight.
Deputy Director of Department of Agriculture Extension
issued show cause notices against the accused dealers and
they did not give satisfactory replies.
Later, their dealership were suspended.
44 persons nabbed
BSS, Rajshahi
Police arrested 44 persons including two alleged
drug-peddlers on various charges from different areas in
city and nine upazilas of the district on Monday.
Of them, 23 were rounded up from different areas in the
metropolis while 21 others from nine upazilas of the
district, police sources said.
Police rounded up the drug-peddlers identified as Dulal
Hossain (25), Nurul Islam Bulbul (37), and seized 144
bottles of phensidyl and 400 grams of ganja during raids
at different places in the city red-handed.
The arrested persons along with the seized goods were sent
to the court after recording separate cases in these
connections.
Traffic police lodged 52 cases under the motor vehicles
ordinance and seized three motorbikes without registration
during the period.
Absconding convicts arrested
BSS, Rangpur
Police arrested two absconding convicts from different
places in Panchagarh and Kurigram districts on Sunday,
police said.
Acting on secret information, a special squad of police
from Debiganj thana raided the house of absconding convict
Saleha Begum in Bengjari village under Debiganj upazila of
Panchagarh district and arrested her.
A district court earlier sentenced her to seven years
rigorous imprisonment, in absentia, in connection with an
acid attack case.
Rajarhat police arrested absconding convict Haider Ali
from his Gokula village in Rajarhat Upazila of Kurigram
district on the day.
The arrested convicts were produced before the concerned
Panchagarh and Kurigram courts from where they were sent
to the jails, police said.
Phensidyl seized
BSS, Jessore
Members of Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) in a drive on
Sunday night seized 519 bottles of phensidyl and arrested
a drug dealer from bordering Mohishdanga village near
Benapole in the district.
The arrested person was identified as Kismat Ali of the
same village.
RAB sources said a team of the elite force in guise of
phensidyl buyer at Mohishdanga village and arrested the
drug dealer along with the bottles of phensidyl.
The arrested person admitted that he used to trafficked
phensidyl from India and sell it to various places.
Firearms recovered
UNB, Chandpur
Members of Rapid Action Battalion and Coast Guard, in a
joint drive, recovered two firearms and two rounds of
bullet from Eashanbala village in Haimchar upazila on
Sunday afternoon.
Acting on a tip-off, the team launched a drive in the
village and recovered a sack from a pond, which contained
two shutter guns, some bullets and other sharp weapons.
None was arrested in this connection. A case was filed.
Heroin recovered
BSS, Chapainawabganj
Members of Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) recovered 800 grams of
heroin from Polladanga frontier under Alatuli union of
sadar upazila on Saturday.
Adjutant of 39 Rifle Battalion in Chapainawabganj Captain
Hasan said, acting on a tip off, BDR of Polladanga border
out post (BOP) conducted a raid in the area and seized the
heroin.
The smugglers, however, managed to escape the place.
BDR seizes Indian clothes
BSS, Comilla
Members of Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) in a drive on Saturday
seized clothes worth about Tk 45.54 lakh from Suagazi area
of Sadar Dakkhin thana of the district.
Acting on a tip-off, a BDR patrol team conducted the drive
in the area and recovered 926 Indian sarees, 150 three
pieces and 1,083 meters of loose cloth.
BDR sources said the seized clothes were deposited with
the local customs authorities.
Clash lives one dead, 5 injured
UNB,Shariatpur
A man was killed and five others were injured in a rivalry
clash at Japsa Mir Kandapara village in Naria upazila on
Tuesday.
The deceased was identified as Sobhan Madbar, 38, son of
Abul Kashem Madbar of the village.
Police said Nurul Haq Madbar and Baten Madbar of the
village locked into altercation with their neighbour
Samsul Haq Madbar at about 4pm when he refused to give the
documents of their paternal land, which were kept to him.
Editorial
Out-of-Dhaka Cabinet Meetings
It
is indeed good that the Emergency Government had decided to
hold a cabinet meeting out of Dhaka in Rangpur; that provided
a much needed opportunity to the Advisers to see the realities
of Bangladesh, even if cursorily. Various governments in the
past had also carried out such “show case” meetings with
little practical utility or output but we hope that the
Emergency Government had brought back some “lessons” from this
brief tour which they would sincerely and determinedly
implement.
One aspect, brought out and spoken about by the Chief Adviser,
is that of the overriding importance of agriculture to our
economy. We, alongwith the entire Country have been
emphasizing on this issue ever since this Government took
office but somehow a misplaced sense of priorities put more
weight on industries, trading and business until the floods
and the cyclone devastated agriculture bringing in its wake a
situation of near-famine in the country-side and food
shortages and high prices in the urban areas. Such an adverse
situation seems to have shaken the Emergency Government to
wake up to the realities of Bangladesh before it was too late
and the people actually revolted.
Nonetheless, serious impediments remain in revitalizing the
rural-agriculture economy which has been in rapid decline ever
since the 1980s when Gen H. M. Ershad and his corrupt regime
decided to ignore agriculture in favour of semi-processing
industries spearheaded by ready-made garments’ manufacturers.
Consequently once flourishing industries with a base in
agricultural raw materials such as jute, sugar, dairy etc
declined alongwith a decline of cereal production causing
massive dislocations to the economy, the society and politics
and immense suffering to the people. Now that we are short of
food and have to pay exorbitant prices for procuring the
essential commodities we are beginning to realise the
devastating blunder we and our governments have done.
The CA was speaking about increasing food/rice production by a
more intensive cultivation of the land because as he said,
“...acreage of land is squeezing due to urbanization,
industrialization and infrastructure development”. This is of
course no new insight but a re-statement of a truism, a mere
cliché. What the CA and his government have to do, is to go
beyond the cliché and work out policies, perhaps even laws
which will prevent encroachments into agriculture by the now
invalid excuses of “urbanization, industrialization and
infrastructure development”. True, the Emergency Government
does not have much time on its hands, but it has enough time
to think out and formulate policies and laws pertinent to the
protection and progress of agriculture; it has arguably enough
time to see to the start of the implementation of those
policies and laws, if it but focuses on it.
As for more intensive cultivation of land, every farmer and
his son knows that the productivity of land has an optimum
limit beyond which the laws of “diminishing return” applies;
he did not have to study economics or work for the World Bank
to find that out, nature and experience taught him that.
Therefore, instead of talking about more intensive cultivation
to increase productivity, one has to work to re-claim more
land for agriculture. In a recent series of TV programs in
“Channel i”, Sheikh Siraj has documented the huge tract of
agricultural land laid fallow and unproductive in Khulna and
Barisal by the artificial salinization of land for the
so-called farming of “prawns”. Now in these land neither prawn
nor rice can be farmed. It is such devastations which must be
prevented by policies and laws and it is these thousands upon
thousands hectares of land, which must be re-juvinated and
re-distributed among peasants and farmers – then and only then
will we have the food and the prosperity that we so
desperately need and seek.
Analysis
Feasibility of Metro Rail for
Dhaka
The effect would be visible when metro will be
in operation - no congestion, no emission, integrated
security, and special amenities with better aesthetic.
Engr. Shafiqul Alam
The
platform should be set before starting a mega project like
underground metro rail that means the feasibility study should
be carried out. Now question arises what is the meaning of the
term ‘feasibility’ and when is this study undertaken.
Feasibility of a project like underground subway means:(a) to
find the best option out of the possible alternatives (b) cost
of the complete set-up (c) Passengers catering capacity (d)
affordability (e) coverage of the metro network (f) effect on
traffic congestion after introducing metro (g) return of money
and no subsidy from Government (h) environmental impact (i)
sustainability of such a project (j) future expansion (k)
effect on the city after the project (l) methodology of
construction and its significance considering the economy (m)
economic gain after such a project (n) is it feasible in the
other countries or is it a test case?
To find out the possible alternatives, first we had to find
why does traffic congestion exist and the causes are: (1) Most
densely populated mega city. (2)Lack of roads, which is far
below the international standard. (3) Mixed traffic. Then the
case of alternative came and the alternatives were: mass
transit & elevated expressway. Mass transit is of two types
one is the heavy metro (underground metro) and the other one
is the light metro (LRT: sky train/mono rail)
Considering the population and growth rate we had to focus on
the passengers catering capacity and speed, those are much
higher in case of underground metro than LRT.
Elevated Expressway for BRT was also an alternative but speed
& passengers catering capacity is about 5-6 times less than
metro rail. Again we can never make roads 25-30% from present
7% by constructing expressway above all the roads. That’s why
underground metro is the most feasible one.
The metro fare is kept just like bus fare considering the
economic condition of the people. People of all class will be
able to use metro. For expressways one has to pay additional
toll with fare, this is a burden. Normally expressways are
used for the highway buses to move from one end of the city to
the other end. 80% city dwellers would get a metro station
within one km or less walking distance & all the city entry
points are connected in this network and all the busiest areas
are considered. Here existing traffic flow pattern is also
given preference. Once metro is introduced the traffic
congestion would be drastically reduced and traffic load would
be diverted to the underground. Then people will travel
anywhere to anywhere in the DMP area by subway without using
other transport.
Environmental impact is a matter of great concern because
present transport system is liable for heavy pollution
(emissions from the mechanized vehicles like CO2, CO, Pb etc.
has made the environment toxic, hot & humid). In contrast to
this underground metro is totally free from emission. Hence
the environment will become human friendly day by day.
Sustainability & future expansion are two important points:
Considering the earthquake, cyclone etc underground metro is
most feasible solution to mitigate traffic congestion because
subway tunnels can withstand vibration in the magnitude of
Richter scale 9.2 due to sand cushioning.
Future expansion is possible here as we have seen that 6 metro
lines have crossed a single station at Paris, London and more
than one station in many cities all over the world, which is
absolutely impossible for mono rail, sky train or expressways.
Internal Rate of Return (IRR) is calculated and that is above
the standard value for private infrastructure project, hence
no subsidy is required from Government, where as IRR is
negative for mono, sky & expressways.
Both Cut & Cover and Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) methods are
used for the construction of tunnel. TBM is very slow & costly
(4-5 times of cut & cover) than Cut & Cover method. If we use
TBM, we have to use cut & cover for the stations that is
another drawback of TBM. On the other hand the selection of
construction process depends on the soil condition, economic
condition and depth. As there is always a chance for future
expansion, we must use the shallow depth keeping the provision
for future expansion. India has used Cut & Cover method and
they will use TBM for going beneath Ganga. Our soil is
suitable for Cut & Cover method.
Underground Metro Rail has a proven track record of 150 years
and most of the densely populated cities are using this
environment friendly transport whenever the first network
above the surface becomes saturated, they are going beneath
the first one and so on. When there is no chance of further
going underground, then the space above the surface can be
used.
The effect would be visible when metro will be in operation -
no congestion, no emission, integrated security, and special
amenities with better aesthetic.
Feasibility study reports are considered before tender by the
concerned authority responsible for tender. In a private
infrastructure project the investor studies the feasibility of
the project before participating in the bidding. And the
investor would complete the final portion at their own cost
after the LOI.
In this regard we can look at voter ID - during the tenure of
last two government the experts told that the total process
would take a long time with huge cost but Bangladesh Army have
proved that this is a simple job and the work is nearly
complete before the projected time. Another point is to be
noted that Dr. J R Chowdhury was interested there but his cost
approximation & time period was not acceptable by this
government. And Army have proved that “too many cook spoil the
food”
Finally a request to all - please don’t compare Dhaka with New
York because of the economy, percentage of roads and moreover
they are a developed city for many years; we can compare our
condition with that of Calcutta’s.
(Engr. Shafiqul Alam, Dhaka.
E-mail: shafiqul0032@yahoo.com)
A
wealth of paradoxes
Peace is
not the absence of old hatreds; it is the presence of new
desires.
Mj Akbar
I
JUST may have discovered the solution to communal conflict.
Greed. For a long while - make that a couple of decades of
reporting violence - I was under the illusion that peace was a
logical human need. Conflict never made any sense, good,
special or common. But when has good sense been the decisive
criteria of human behaviour? The instinct of hatred needs a
far more powerful antidote. It could have found its answer in
greed.
One of the more remarkable facts of the last 15 years is that
there have been only two major communal riots in this period,
the violence that followed the destruction of the Babri
mosque; and the carnage in Gujarat after the Godhra incident.
There have been minor incidents, but nothing horrific. The
eighties were an endless litany of sorrow: Moradabad, Meerut,
Bhagalpur, Delhi, to cite but a few cities from the top end of
memory. Ahmedabad and Hyderabad were centres of endemic
violence, not just one conflagration of slash-and-burn, but a
daily drip of dagger and poison that ate into flesh and nerve.
The transformation could not have come because Indians on some
magical day suddenly grew angelic wings under their armpits.
The answer could lie in the new culture spawned by economic
reforms that were put into play by PV Narasimha Rao and Dr
Manmohan Singh a decade and a half ago. Dr Singh might be a
doctor in economics, but Rao was a master in politics: he
persuaded a "socialist-protectionist" Indian elite to
appreciate the virtues of entrepreneurship and self-help
wealth.
An industrialist friend was remembering the Mumbai of the
sixties and the seventies. No one discussed bank accounts.
That was considered crass and vulgar. Status had other
attributes. These days, it seems the principal job of every
public relations agency is to advertise the personal value of
its client. If you are not among the billions, leave the high
table. Mumbai always had a stock exchange, but it was never
quite the shock exchange that it has become today. Companies
made profits, and money offered a reasonable return in the old
dharma. The stock exchange has now become a rocket on
steroids; it must continue to defy the law of gravity and
never come down. It is a lottery with no losers as long as you
have managed to get a ticket.
The moral of the story, or maybe the amoral of the story:
Mumbai can either have communal riots or it can have a steroid
stock exchange. It can't have both. Violence means a huge net
loss. The movers and shakers of the city cannot afford
violence anymore, which is extremely good news. Peace is not
the absence of old hatreds; it is the presence of new desires.
Long live money. Enjoy it while it lasts.
Is Gujarat an exception to this rule? Not really. Narendra
Modi realises that he cannot get investment if Gujarat lives
constantly on the edge, threatening to descend into bloodshed
every month. Communal riots were not born in Gujarat six years
ago. For a decade in the eighties, when the Congress was the
only star in the political firmament, Ahmedabad suffered
chronic, daily spells of rioting. It was a disease whose
tentacles were wider than the breadth of the city. Violence is
not a partner of profit.
It is a question worth investigating: has economic reform
created a new mindset that can eliminate the noxious effects
of India's worst curse?
There comes a moment in any investigation when one must argue
against oneself. Every part of India is not booming in the
manner of Mumbai and Gujarat. Why have communal riots come
down elsewhere?
First, the exception: Bengal. The CPI-M did not need economic
reforms to learn the virtues of communal peace. Its ideology
was secular. Bengal, a partition state with a history of
communal conflict far worse than Punjab's, has been peaceful
ever since the Marxists came to power. There are those who
still remember how the present head of the state CPI-M, Biman
Bose, personally stood at Kolkata's street corners, along with
his cadres, during the vicious pogroms of 1964, to prevent
Congress thugs from setting Muslim localities to torch. The
performance of the Left Front in Bengal is evidence that if a
government wants to, it can always prevent communal tension
from boiling over into a riot.
The mother of all paradoxes, of course, is that economic
reform brought a hint of communal tension to Bengal in 2007,
rather than reverse it. Being conscientious the Marxists have
begun to implement a radical educational-cum-economic
programme for minorities, crafted by Prakash Karat and the
Bengal party. This virtual manifesto could be the most
important benefit that Bengal's Muslims have got since
independence. In political terms: last year the Marxists in
Bengal could not have escaped defeat. Elections this year will
be a different story.
What of the great Hindi heartland, battlefield of a thousand
complexes and indeed complexions?
The easy answer is that the Yadav-Muslim alliance created by
Mulayam Singh Yadav and Laloo Prasad Yadav ensured the peace
that had disappeared during the previous decades of Congress
rule. This is only partially true. What is certain is that
these Yadav leaders honoured the compact with Muslims by
ensuring their security. The Congress in UP and Bihar took
Muslim support for granted and then, without the least tremor
of conscience, betrayed the community. But the Muslim vote has
shifted partially, to Mayawati in Uttar Pradesh and Nitish
Kumar in Bihar, and the old plague has not returned.
Mayawati and Nitish Kumar are not in the Congress, so they
maintain the tradition of amity set by their predecessors. But
the real answer may be in the behaviour of people rather in
the predilections of politicians.
The agenda of the Indian voter has changed. He, and more
importantly she, is no longer easily swayed by emotional
appeals to crude forms of identity, whether it is religion or
caste. Caste and religion peaked with Mandal and Masjid
between 1990 and 1992; fifteen years later, there are signs
that both volcanoes are finally still. Narendra Modi did not
promise a temple at Ayodhya to win in Gujarat, and his attacks
on Muslims were comparatively muted. He swept ahead on good
governance. The Mandal maestros, Laloo and Mulayam Yadav, have
been defeated. If Mulayam Singh Yadav is reviving in Uttar
Pradesh it is because Mayawati is slipping on governance. If
Laloo Yadav is still in the dumps, it is because Nitish Kumar
is delivering on governance. Obviously this is not a uniform
reality. India is too complicated a polity for one formulation
to cover all electoral nuances. But good governance is the
expanding motivator. The traditional talisman is dead. The
voter now keeps a balance sheet in front of him. When he hears
that the Indian economy has grown by nine per cent he wants to
know if an extra nine rupees has gone into his pocket for
every hundred that existed.
Tough question. But you can't get the right answer without the
right question.
The poor may not want an insurrection against the daily
millionaires of the stock exchange, but they are not going to
be minused from wealth creation, or remain content with that
infamous trickle that the World Bank has allotted to them, and
which India's World Bank clients in the present government
think is sufficient for the poor.
Wealth is like knowledge. If you do not share it, it
disappears.
Source:www.khaleejtimes.com
Comment
Internet: A wake-up call
FOR all practical
purposes, the ongoing crisis caused by the damaged undersea
Internet cables needs to be taken as a wake-up call by all
concerned. The extent to which modern life depends on the
information superhighway means we can ill afford to be
deprived of such an essential component without so much as a
warning. For the last few days, global communications have
been seriously disrupted throughout the Middle East and parts
of South Asia. It is a sign of the times and a reflection of
how the global village is rapidly emerging on the horizon that
those affected by the disruption include people and firms
right across the planet. When the stock exchange in Dubai, one
of the world's major financial centres, goes offline, or
software and customer call centres in India with assignments
from business houses in the West experience interruption of
communication the consequences are colossal. It is no wonder
that as many as 75 million people were affected by the first
wave of disruption alone that involved two cables that were
damaged off the Egyptian coast. Another went off near Dubai,
and, as if there was not enough trouble already, a fourth
cable linking Qatar to the United Arab Emirates was damaged on
Sunday, leading to yet more outages.
Though it was initially suspected that the damage was caused
by ships that had been diverted off their usual route because
of bad weather, or by certain ships dragging their anchors,
such surmises have now been ruled out by the Egyptian
government's footage recorded by onshore video cameras that
show no maritime traffic in the area when the cables were
damaged. As it is, the area is also marked on maps as a no-go
zone for maritime traffic. The denial, issued by Egypt's
communications ministry, has thrown open a big debate: what
caused such a serious breakdown? This uncertainty has led to
websites and blogs jumping to conclusions about how and why
the United States could have had a hand in the whole affair.
They may make for interesting reading - and in this era of
phenomenal confusion, nothing can be discarded out of hand -
but one has to take into account the fact that the Internet
has no gatekeepers and their contents have to be taken with
the proverbial pinch of salt. The lesson in the whole episode
is that the world needs to spend more time, energy and
resources to ensure that critical communications are
adequately protected - whether from disaster, conspiracy or
terrorist strike. Inventing is only part of great technology;
the real test lies in protecting it and keeping it
functional.
Source:
www.dawn.com
Viewpoints
Independent
Judiciary, in what sense?
There are several reasons to pay serious attention to the
rising phenomenon of Islamic centrist parties.
Khalil Al-Anani
Cairo
- For more than three decades, fundamentalist religious
organizations across the Arab world – such as the Islamic
Group in Egypt, the Armed Islamic Group in Algeria, and Al
Qaeda – have monopolized global attention. Meanwhile, moderate
currents faced – and continue to face – difficulty expressing
themselves at the international level, even though they
represent the mainstream essence of Islam.
Now, violent waves of extremism have waned one after the
other, as is evident from the receding popularity of such
organizations, the disintegration of the central command of Al
Qaeda, and its transformation from a hierarchal system to a
state of mind. It seems that the Arab public has meanwhile
become more amenable to “centrist” political ideologies, which
call for tolerance, moderation and communication with the
“other”.
This comes as a result of the suffering that Arab societies
have witnessed due to the prevalence of extremist violence,
and wariness towards martyrdom overtures which inflict death
and destruction upon innocent civilians. However, shifting
this paradigm requires that moderate political Islamic groups
be allowed the opportunity to participate in the political
arena.
Moving away from traditional political movements such as the
Muslim Brotherhood, centrist Islamic activists and parties
have gradually established their political presence over the
past 20 years. Examples include the Nahda (Awakening) Party in
Tunisia, which was established in 1981, and the Justice and
Development Party in Morocco, which combines the Popular
Constitutional Democratic Movement established in 1967 with
members of the more religious Moroccan Reform and Renewal
Movement. Other centrist parties include the Jordanian Islamic
Centre Party, which was established in 2001, the Sudanese
Middle Party, established in 2006, and the New Middle Party in
Egypt, whose members have been struggling for the past ten
years to obtain a legal license for political activity.
There are several reasons to pay serious attention to the
rising phenomenon of Islamic centrist parties.
Such parties appear to exhibit an advanced level of “Islamic”
political awareness that has been missing in the political
arena since the emergence of the Arab nation-state over half a
century ago. Such nuanced understanding of the relationship
between Islam and politics has been sidelined largely by the
strife between the state and extremist religious groups that
have come into existence since the 1970s. These continuing
clashes have hurt the chances for successful centrist Islamic
political participation.
These centrist parties represent a departure from the
traditional political currents of Islam – which range from the
moderate all the way to the violent extremist – instead
measuring their success on the basis of political efficiency.
These parties have the ability to absorb the concepts of
democracy and civil service, and deal with them independently
of religion. Such parties believe Islam can provide a moral
framework for political action by adhering to basic universal
– and Islamic – values like justice, freedom, equality and
citizenry. They respect, for instance, the concept of
political plurality and do not oppose the emergence of secular
or communist parties.
Furthermore, they realize the rights of all non-Muslim
minorities. That they are labeled “Islamic” implies that they
emanate from a value system, as does the liberal or social
frame of reference. These parties have the ability to absorb
the concepts of democracy and civil service in a manner that
is consistent with the outlook of mainstream Islam without
falling prey to the restrictions of some narrower
interpretations.
For example, centrist parties reject any discrimination among
citizens assuming public posts on the basis of gender, color,
religion or ethnicity, whereas groups like the Muslim
Brotherhood place restrictions on who could attain the
presidency in Egypt.
These imposed limitations for developing an effective
political model have haunted political Islamic philosophy
throughout the past century. Other more extremist parties are
entrenched within the confines of their own religious
rhetoric, unable to move beyond perceived restrictions, which
inevitably leads to their political and intellectual inertness
and reduces the likelihood of being successfully championed by
civil society.
These parties also provide a prominent example of the nature
of the relationship between the state and society. They do
not, for instance, impose a specific type of governance, such
as shari’a (Islamic law), but leave society to select the
appropriate model. With these principles, they have succeeded
in resolving the historic dilemma of how to combine religion
with politics in public life that has long plagued all Islamic
political currents.
Islam assumes a central position in these centrist political
parties, a pre-requisite for credibility with a mainstream
audience and a safeguard against those who may attack them for
turning away from religion. In its genuine commitment to both
the principles of Islam and cultural identity on the one hand,
and to meeting the challenge of modern political life on the
other, centrist Islamic politics are the only credible way
forward for many countries in the Arab world.
(Khalil Al-Anani is an Egyptian specialist in political
Islamic affairs. He is also deputy editor-in-chief of
International Politics Journal, Al Ahram. Source: Common
Ground News Service. Copyright permission is granted for
publication.)
Russia: victim of narco-aggression
The
U.S.-led NATO forces have not only failed to eliminate the
terrorist threat from the Taliban but have also presided over
a spectacular rise in opium production in Afghanistan.
Vladimir
Radyuhin
The
U.S.-led NATO forces have not only failed to eliminate the
terrorist threat from the Taliban but have also presided over a
spectacular rise in opium production in Afghanistan.
Afghanistan's narcotics have struck Russia like a tsunami
threatening to decimate its already shrinking population. In a
country of 142 million people, there are about 6 million
drug-users - a 20-fold increase since the collapse of the Soviet
Union. Overwhelmed by a flood of drugs from Afghanistan, Russia
says it has fallen victim to "narco-aggression."
The illegal drug turnover in Russia is estimated to be between
$10 billion and $15 billion, discounting transit trafficking.
The Federal Drug Control Service said earlier this month that as
many as 30 million to 40 million people in Russia may have tried
drugs at least once. Annually, some 80,000 Russians die of
drug-related causes. One in five crimes committed in Russia is
related to drugs.
Narcotics have become an integral part of the youth subculture.
In Moscow alone, narcotics are sold at about 100 discothèques
and cafes frequented by the young, the city drug control service
reported last month. About 45 per cent of Russian university
students use drugs, according to Russian Minister for Education
and Science Andrei Fursenko. He described the situation as
"critical." The Moscow city government plans to introduce
mandatory drug tests for all students in the Russian capital
this year. Schoolchildren may be next in line for screening:
some surveys indicate that four out of five young Russians are
familiar with drugs. The Russian Parliament is planning to
discuss a law to allow compulsory treatment of drug and alcohol
addicts.
President Vladimir Putin has described the drug abuse problem in
Russia as a "national calamity." The catastrophic rise in drug
addiction in Russia has been spurred by the painful transition
from socialism to capitalism that Russia has been going through
since 1991. But external factors have played a crucial role.
Last year, Mr. Putin bluntly stated that Russia and Europe faced
"narco-aggression."
The disintegration of the Soviet Union in December 1991 threw
open the floodgates of drug trafficking from Afghanistan across
Central Asia to Russia and further west to Europe. Overnight,
Russia lost control over nearly 5,000 km of former Soviet
borders in Central Asia and the Caucasus. At the same time,
nearly 8,000 km of what used to be internal nominal boundaries
between ex-Soviet republics became Russia's new state borders.
In 1993, Russian border guards returned to Tajikistan in an
effort to contain the flow of drugs from opium-producing
Afghanistan. In 2002 alone, they intercepted 6.7 tonnes of
drugs, half of them heroin. However in 2005, Tajik President
Imomali Rakhmon, hoping to win financial aid from the U.S.,
asked the Russian border guards to leave, saying Tajikistan had
recovered enough from a 1992-97 Civil War to shoulder the task.
Within months of the Russian withdrawal, cross-border drug
trafficking increased manifold.
Turkmenistan, another major opium route from Afghanistan, threw
out Russian border guards in 1999. Since 2000, it has reported
no drug seizures to international organisations. President
Saparmurat Niyazov who died last year claimed his country had no
drug problem. However, independent surveys indicate that up to
half of Turkmenistan's male population uses drugs. In 2002, the
country's Prosecutor-General Kurbanbibi Atadzhanova was arrested
for operating a drug trafficking ring.
Seventeen years after the break-up of the Soviet Union, borders
between the newly independent states are still porous and travel
is visa-free. Air passengers arriving from Central Asia are
routinely screened for drugs in Russian airports but if drugs
are shipped by land, there is only a remote chance of their
getting intercepted.
According to the Federal Drug Control Service, 90 per cent of
the heroin sold in Russia comes from Afghanistan. In 2000, the
Taliban banned poppy plantations and the next year opium
production dipped to an all-time low level of 185 tonnes.
However, since the U.S.-led invasion, the poppy fields have
mushroomed again. According to the United Nations authority on
drugs and crime, last year Afghanistan produced 8,200 tonnes of
opium, enough to make a stunning 93 per cent of the world's
heroin.
When Russia backed the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan to crush
the Taliban and the Al-Qaeda in the post-9/11 scenario, it least
expected drug trafficking from Afghanistan to assume gargantuan
proportions under the U.S. military. The U.S.-led NATO forces
have not only failed to eliminate the terrorist threat from the
Taliban but have also presided over a spectacular rise in opium
production. Russia's Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said
Afghanistan was tottering on the brink of becoming a "narco
state."
Narco business has emerged as virtually the only economy of
Afghanistan valued at some $10 billion a year. Opium trade is
estimated by the U.N. to be equivalent to 53 per cent of the
country's official economy, and it is helping to finance the
Taliban.
"Unfortunately, they (NATO) are doing nothing to reduce the
narcotic threat from Afghanistan even a tiny bit," Mr. Putin
angrily remarked three years ago. He accused the coalition
forces of "sitting back and watching caravans haul drugs across
Afghanistan to the former Soviet Union and Europe."
'Waste of money'
As time went by, Russian suspicions regarding the
$1-billion-a-year U.S. counter-narcotics effort in Afghanistan
grew deeper. U.S. former ambassador to the U.N., Richard
Holbrooke, described it as "the single most ineffective program
in the history of American foreign policy."
"It's not just a waste of money. It actually strengthens the
Taliban and al-Qaida, as well as criminal elements within
Afghanistan," Mr. Holbrooke wrote in the Washington Post earlier
this month. In December, Russian Ambassador to Afghanistan Zamir
Kabulov told the Vesti 24-hour news channel that according to
unconfirmed reports the U.S. military transport aviation is used
for the delivery of drugs from Afghanistan to the American
airbases, Ganci in Kyrgyzstan and Incirlik in Turkey. "If such
actions do take place, they cannot be undertaken without contact
with Afghans, and if one Afghan man knows this, at least half of
Afghanistan will know about this sooner or later," Ambassador
Kabulov said. "That is why I think this is possible but cannot
prove it."
The Pentagon set up the Ganci Air Force base at the Manas
international airport in Kyrgyzstan in late 2001 as a staging
post for military operations in Afghanistan. The Kyrgyz
government threatened to close the base after neighbouring
Uzbekistan shut down a similar U.S. airbase on its territory but
relented after Washington agreed to a one-off payment of $150
million in the form of an assistance package, and to pay $15
million a year for the use of the base.
It has been reported earlier that the CIA is involved in
Afghanistan's opium production, or is at least protecting it.
But it is for the first time that Russia has directly accused
the U.S. military of involvement in heroin traffic from
Afghanistan to Europe.
One of the best-informed Russian journalists on Central Asia,
Arkady Dubnov, quoted anonymous Afghan sources as saying that
"85 per cent of all drugs produced in southern and southeastern
provinces are shipped abroad by U.S. aviation." Well-informed
sources in Afghanistan's security services told the Russian
journalist that the American military acquired drugs through
local Afghan officials who dealt with field commanders in-charge
of drug production.
Writing in the Vremya Novostei daily last month, Mr. Dubnov
claimed that the pro-Western administration of President Hamid
Karzai, including his two brothers, Kajum Karzai and Akhmed Vali
Karzai, are head-to-heels involved in the narcotics trade. The
article quoted a leading U.S. expert on Afghanistan, Barnett
Rubin, as telling an anti-narcotics conference in Kabul last
October that "drug dealers had infiltrated Afghani state
structures to the extent where they could easily paralyse the
work of the government if [a] decision to arrest one of them was
ever made."
Open question
It is an open question whether Russian charges of U.S.
complicity in drug trafficking are based on hard evidence or
have been prompted by Moscow's frustration at Washington's
failure to address the opium problem in Afghanistan. But it is a
fact that the U.S. and NATO have stonewalled numerous offers of
cooperation from the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) and
the Moscow-led Collective Security Treaty Organisation (CSTO), a
defence pact of six former Soviet republics.
CSTO Secretary-General Nikolai Bordyuzha quoted a Pentagon
general as telling him: "We are not fighting narcotics because
this is not our task in Afghanistan." Instead of joining hands
with the SCO and the CSTO in combating the narcotics threat, the
CSTO chief said, the U.S. was working to set up rival security
structures in the region. Washington was working to "drive a
geopolitical wedge between Central Asian countries and Russia
and to reorient the region towards the U.S.," Mr. Bordyuzha said
last year.
With the U.S. and NATO rebuffing their cooperation offers,
Russia, China and the Central Asian states have to rely on their
own forces in combating the narcotics threat from Afghanistan.
Last year, the SCO and the CSTO signed a cooperation protocol
aimed, above all, at curbing drug trafficking. At its summit in
Bishkek last August, the SCO also decided to set up jointly with
the CSTO an "anti-narcotics belt" around Afghanistan.
Source: www.hindu.com
International
14 killed in Sri
Lanka bombings, president says winning war
AFP, Colombo
At least 14 people were killed in two
roadside bombings in Sri Lanka on Monday, as the island's
president marked independence day by insisting he was
winning the war against Tamil Tiger rebels.
A bomb in the northeast of the ethnically-divided island
killed 13 bus passengers and wounded 16 others, including
children, the military said, adding that among the dead
were two women and two off-duty soldiers.
A similar blast in the south against a military vehicle
killed one soldier. Three other soldiers escaped with
injuries, police said.
The attacks, both blamed on the Tamil Tigers, came hours
after an annual military parade at Colombo's seaside Galle
Face promenade to mark Sri Lanka's 60th anniversary of
independence from Britain.
In an address to the nation, President Mahinda Rajapakse
said the "challenge bestowed upon us by history is the
defeat of terrorism," and said government forces had
cornered the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) in
the north.
"We faced this challenge squarely without avoiding it. Our
security forces are today achieving victories against
terrorism unprecedented in history," he said.
"Terrorism is receiving an unprecedented defeat," said
Rajapakse, whose government last month pulled out of a
tattered truce with the rebels, who are fighting for an
independent ethnic homeland in the Sinhalese-majority
island.
According to the defence ministry, the rebels have lost at
least 908 fighters since the beginning of the year,
compared to just 37 government soldiers killed.
Scores of civilians have also died during the same period,
according to both sides.
A mass funeral was conducted Monday for five students and
their baseball coach killed in a suicide bomb attack at a
train terminal here on the eve of the independence day
celebrations.
The coffins of two more students killed in the same blast
were to be taken to their school later Monday. The
government ordered all schools in the capital to shut for
a week.
However, Monday's freedom day celebrations went ahead
despite threats from the LTTE, and following two weekend
bomb attacks that killed 34 civilians and wounded nearly
200 others.
Two more blasts just outside the capital earlier Monday
did not cause any casualties, but an electricity
transformer was destroyed in one of the attacks, police
said.
Ringed by tight security, Rajapakse also brushed off
threats of foreign aid cuts due to the worsening ethnic
conflict and human rights situation.
The president said Sri Lanka had "established new
relations with our neighbouring states, Arab states and
Buddhist states."
"Our neighbouring states trust us. Our problems and issues
are also problems and issues of our neighbouring states,"
he said.
Gaza-Egypt border sealed completely
AFP, Gaza Strip
Egyptian and Hamas forces on Monday completely sealed the
Gaza-Egypt border, closing the last passage through which
people were allowed to return home, an AFP correspondent
saw.
Clashes erupted in the late afternoon, when dozens of
Palestinian youths threw stones at the Egyptian security
forces across the now-sealed border, an AFP correspondent
saw.
The helmeted Egyptian forces retaliated by firing shots
into the air and tear-gas and also by throwing rocks back
at the Palestinians. There were no immediate reports of
injuries.
Some 2,000 Palestinians had gathered at the border prior
to the clashes, hoping in vain to be able to cross to the
other side.
Egyptian security forces and Hamas gunmen closed the
border between Gaza and Egypt on Sunday after reportedly
agreeing on restoring control over the frontier that Gaza
militants blew open nearly two weeks ago amid a punishing
Israeli blockade.
Since explosions brought down sections of the border
barriers in Rafah early on January 23, hundreds of
thousands of Palestinians are estimated to have crossed
back and forth into Egypt, most of them to stock up on
supplies. After several days of talks in Cairo last week,
Hamas official Mahmud Zahar announced on Saturday that the
Islamists had reached a deal with Egypt on restoring
control over the frontier.
15 Qaeda suspects killed in raids: US
AFP, Baghdad
Fifteen
suspected militants were killed in raids by US forces on
the possible hideout of a senior Al-Qaeda in Iraq leader
in the restive province of Diyala on Monday, the US
military said.
The killings occurred during an operation targeting Al-Qaeda
suspects near the town of Khalis, about 60 kilometres (35
miles) north of Baghdad, the military said in a statement.
Firefights broke out as troops moved in on an area
believed to be a meeting place of Al-Qaeda fighters "and
possible bed down location for a senior leader of the
network," the statement said.
Three militants were killed in the initial clashes while a
fourth detonated a suicide vest as US troops closed in on
another building.
Another militant moved between two buildings and was
killed by "enemy personnel from inside the building", the
statement said.
Ground forces called for air support, which killed another
four suspected militants while further fighting left
another six dead. During the engagements, the statement
said, eight suspected militants were detained and five
buildings were destroyed "to prevent further use for
terrorist activity".
US evacuates embassy in Chad
UNSC slams rebel assault
AFP, United Nations
The United States said
Monday that it has evacuated its embassy in N'Djamena but
ambassador Louis Nigro remained at Chad airport to
supervise the departure of Americans who want to leave the
country.
"All the embassy staff has been moved out of the airport,"
State Department spokesman Sean McCormack told reporters.
"We are working very closely with the French government.
Their flights have been coming and going and a number of
American citizens, including the embassy personal, have
flown these flights," he said.
As rebels seized control of N'Djamena on Saturday,
Washington advised US citizens not to travel to or leave
Chad and the embassy ordered the evacuation of staff
families and selected employees in the central African
country.
On Monday, there remained no more than the US ambassador
and three embassy staff on Chadian territory, McCormack
said.
"We are continuing to be in contact with other American
citizens who are not at the aiport and we are still
talking to some of them who would like to come to the
airport and transit out," the spokesman said.
"We plan to make it very clear that it is US government
territorial soil and that the embassy compound, if it has
been entered, should immediately be exited and certainly
they should not attempt to enter the chancery or the
embassy," he said.
"We are trying to pass that message (to the rebels)
through various channels," he added.
The wife and daughter of an employee of the Saudi embassy
were killed Saturday in a bombing at the ambassador's
residence in N'Djamena.
The French military said a little under 300 foreign
nationals were awaiting evacuation from N'Djamena, where
some 839 people have been flown to Gabon.
Meanwhile, the UN Security Council on Monday unanimously
condemned the rebel attacks in Chad and urged member
states to back the wobbly Ndjamena government as the
insurgents threatened a new offensive against the Chadian
capital.
A French-drafted statement "strongly condemns these
attacks and all attempts at destabilization by force" and
calls on member states "to provide support in conformity
with the United Nations Charter as requested by the
government of Chad."
The non-binding text, read out by the council chair for
this month-Ambassador Ricardo Alberto Arias of Panama-was
adopted after Russia lifted objections it had raised
during an emergency session of the 15-member council
Sunday. The decision came as thousands of civilians fled
the Chadian capital and rebels threatened a fresh
offensive to oust French-backed President Idriss Deby
after two days of heavy fighting saw them pull out of the
city.
Sunday, in a letter to Arias, Chad's UN Ambassador Mahamat
Adoum asked all member states "to provide it with all the
assistance necessary to help it end this aggression."
France's UN Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert, whose country
is the former colonial ruler of Chad, welcomed the
council's prompt adoption of the statement.
"It is essential that in this very difficult moment,
President Deby get all the help he needs to end" the rebel
onslaught, he noted.
Ripert made it clear that France was not involved in
military activity in Chad but that it cooperated with Deby,
whom he described as "the legal authority in Chad."
McCain backs long-term US presence in Iraq
AFP, Boston
Republican White House hopeful John McCain insisted Monday
the United States must maintain a long-term presence in
Iraq and accused Democratic rivals of caving in to the
forces of "evil."
But asked whether he would establish permanent bases in
Iraq, the Arizona senator, tipped to take a grip on the
nomination in Tuesday's nationwide nominating contests,
said such a decision should be left to the government in
Baghdad.
"We'll have arrangements with Iraq-the same kind we've
made with a number of countries," he told reporters
following a rally in Boston.
"Some countries, such as Saudi Arabia, we left. There are
other countries, because of our relationship, like Turkey,
we stayed. It's agreements between countries, we all know
that."
McCain, who had previously said the US presence in Iraq
could last 100 years, said voters understood "America as a
world superpower has to have power around the world."
He also attacked Democrats Hillary Clinton and Barack
Obama for advocating a timetable for withdrawal from Iraq
which he said showed "their fundamental lack of experience
and judgment about national security issues."
"What Americans are frustrated, sad and angry about is the
mishandling of this war which caused so much unnecessary
sacrifice," he said.
"It's a false argument to say how long we're going to
stay, because they don't understand warfare.
"Warfare has got to do with victory or defeat. They want
to declare defeat; I want us to continue to have this
victory."
Clinton and Obama, potential general election opponents
for McCain, have taken to casting doubt on whether the US
public backs prolonging the Iraq war.
The former first lady says she would start withdrawing
troops within 60 days of becoming president. Obama says he
would have all US combat brigades out of Iraq within 16
months.
Defense Secretary Robert Gates said last month that a
planned military agreement with Iraq would not include any
permanent US military bases there.
But Democrats are calling for any pact with Iraq on future
deployments to be brought before Congress for approval.
Putin visits military bases in turbulent Caucasus
AFP, Moscow
Russia's President Vladimir Putin made a rare visit Monday
to military bases dotted through the turbulent North
Caucasus mountains near Chechnya.
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