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Khaleda’s letter to EC won’t be
dispatched: DIG (prisons)
Taib Ahmed
The second letter of Begum
Khaleda Zia written to the Election Commissioner (EC)
asking it to invite Khandoker Delwar Hossain who she
appointed the party Secretary General to the EC-BNP talks
is going to face the same fate as her previous letter.
Within 18 hours of the press briefing of Khaleda Zia's
attorney where they disclosed to the media that Begum Zia
has written another letter to the CEC, Deputy Inspector
General (Prisons) Major Shamsul Haider Siddiqui on Friday
afternoon convened a press conference at the Dhaka central
jail.
"In complying with the jail code, we will not dispatch her
letter to the EC if it contains political statement,"
Haider said, adding, "Moreover, there are some norms and
conditions for a prisoner to write any letter. He/she will
have to seek writing paper and the prisoner himself will
have to write and if he/she cannot write, only then the
jail authorities will write the letter on the prisoner's
instructions."
Referring to Begum Khaleda Zia's letter to the EC, he
said, "I have come to know that Begum Zia's lawyers handed
over a letter to our officials, but I am yet to get the
letter. Even speaking of politics living in jail is a
violation of the jail code." The DIG (Prisons) was also
very critical of the role of lawyers of Begum Zia and
Sheikh Hasina for their statements before the media. "The
lawyers seek permission to meet the detainees to discuss
about legal issues, but coming out of the jail, they make
political statement before the media."
After meeting with Begum Khaleda Zia on Thursday at the
makeshift jail set up in the Parliament Complex, two
counselors of Begum Zia told the media that the BNP
Chairperson has sent a second letter to Chief Election
Commissioner requesting him to invite Khandoker Delwar
Hossain to the EC-sponsored dialogue.
Earlier on November 5, Khaleda Zia had sent the first
letter to the EC introducing Khandoker Delwar Hossain as
the party Secretary General as well as informing it that
she had expelled Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, who was the party's
Secretary General, but nobody knows what happened to the
fate of that letter.
Meanwhile, both the factions -loyalists and reformists -of
BNP have slammed the Election Commission's decision to put
BNP out of the second round of EC-sponsored dialogue on
electoral reforms saying, "no dialogue can be meaningful
without BNP."
"BNP is the largest political party in Bangladesh, so no
dialogue can be meaningful and fruitful without it," BNP
Secretary General Khandoker Delwar Hossain was quoted as
having said by Acting Office Secretary Ruhul Kabir Rizvi
Ahmed when contacted by The Bangladesh Today.
"The EC will have to finalise the electoral laws it is
formulating only after the completion of its talks with
BNP, otherwise it would not get people's acceptance,"
Rizvi quoted Delwar.
"The EC's role has already created a chink in the people's
confidence and they have started questioning whether a
credible election will be possible under the supervision
of the present election commission," Rizvi Ahmed alleged,
adding, "A conspiracy is being hatched to keep the BNP out
of the election process."
On the other hand, Acting Secretary General of the
reformist faction Major (retd) Hafizuddin Ahmed told The
Bangladesh Today that "BNP is one of the biggest political
parties in the country. The EC should wait for holding
dialogue with BNP until the court's order comes."
Hafiz strongly criticized the EC's role related to sitting
with BNP saying, "The EC should have taken steps to
expedite the High Court order. Moreover its lawyers do not
attend the court during the hearing. EC lawyer Kamal
Hossain is living in London when the court starts hearing.
The EC should appoint another regular lawyer who will be
bale to attend the court hearing."
The EC on Thursday decided to open second round of
dialogue with political parties from February 24 striking
the BNP off the dialogue list this time with an argument
that the issue is now pending in the court.
Prices of essentials still high
F.M. Masum
Unbearable sufferings of the people continue as the price
of daily commodities including rice, edible oil, pulses
still remain high and the price of fish has gone up
abnormally in the city's kitchen markets.
Besides, the price of rice has gone up by Tk 1-2 per kg
compared to that of last week and the businessmen are
apprehending that in the coming days the rice price may go
up further as the stock of rice is limited.
All efforts including OMS programme taken by the
government have proved futile to contain the price of
daily commodities. People mainly the limited income groups
across the country are struggling to cope with the soaring
prices of essentials. A consumer said it is really
difficult for the low and limited income groups cannot
have two meals a day by keeping pace with the soaring
prices.
The people of the low income groups expressed their
discontentment over the government measure as they say
that a silent famine is prevailing in the country.
Visiting different city markets on Friday , this
correspondent found that non-packed soya bean oil was
selling between Tk 100-102 per litre. Bottled soya bean
oil of different brands was selling at between Tk 105 and
Tk 108 per litre.
Besides, the rice price increased further in the city
markets on Friday as coarse rice like Lata was selling
between Tk 33-34 per kg, Pari Tk 34-35 per Kg, fine
quality najirshail Tk 38-43, miniket Tk 39-44 per kg.
Talking to The Bangladesh Today, Rahmat Jowarder , a
retailer in the Jatrabari Kitchen Market, said, " the rice
price is continuing to rise as the supply is limited and
if the government fails to ensure enough supply within
next few days, the price of this item would continue to go
up and the sufferings of the people would intensify."
Talking to this correspondent, Nahid Jubair, a consumer,
said, "the people have lost their confidence on the
government as the government has totally failed to contain
the price spiral of daily commodities."
He also blamed the businessmen for the high price of daily
commodities including the staple food rice, even after a
huge supply of rice as he says, "A certain quarter of
businessmen are also responsible for the price hike of
daily essentials.."
Besides, some consumers also urged the government to set
up more shops in the capital as well as across the country
for selling rice through OMS programme to contain the
price hike and to make it available for the low income
people.
But prices of some items including onion, green chili,
vegetables have come down as the supply of these items are
enough while price of fish has gone up abnormally. On
Friday, Ruhi was selling at Tk 180 per kg, Hilsha at Tk
300 per kg. Besides, beef was selling at Tk 180 per kg and
chicken broiler at Tk 80 per kg.
Due to the bird flu panic, only a few people were seen
buying chickens and many shops were closed as there were
no customers even after various measures taken by the
Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) to assure the bird flu panic
stricken people that avian influenza is not any threat to
public health.
Yesterday, imported onion was selling at Tk 15, local
onion at Tk 17, local lentils at Tk 84, imported lentils
at Tk 68, flour at Tk 44 per kg. Potato was selling at Tk
14, cucumber at Tk 15 and tomato at Tk 30, Korola at Tk 36
per kg, bean at Tk 16 per kg.
Acreage for exploration of mineral fuel
in the Bay of Bengal
Govt invites int’l oil companies to bid
Staff Correspondent
The government has invited the International Oil Companies
to bid for acreage for exploration of mineral fuel in the
Bay of Bengal.
Around twenty-eight offshore blocks are currently
available for oil and gas exploration by the International
Oil Companies.
The foreign oil companies, singly or in association with
other foreign companies, can bid for one or more blocks.
Agreements will be signed with the successful bidders in
line with the 'Model Production Sharing Contract-2008.'
The companies will have to submit their tenders by May 7
next.
The government has also decided to pave the way for oil
and gas exploration by International Oil Companies in
around 28 blocks in the hydrocarbon-rich Bay of Bengal.
To meet the country's increased demand for mineral fuel,
foreign oil companies will allowed to begin seismic survey
in the deep sea and offshore areas of Bangladesh for
exploration of fresh gas and oil sources, according to
sources in the Bangladesh Oil, Gas and Mineral Corporation
(Petrobangla).
The government has also decided to publish the relevant
documents in several top international newspapers and
magazines in this regard. The document has also been
posted on the website of Petrobangla.
Sources said, the successful foreign oil companies will be
allowed to send back profits to their own country from
Bangladesh.
They need not pay duty for equipment and machinery imports
for petroleum operations during gas and oil exploration,
production and development phases. Seismic program and one
well for each block exclusive of biddable work program for
Type-A blocks have been made mandatory.
Seismic only option for Type-B blocks which are below 20
degree north latitude. For Type-B, two contiguous blocks
may be allowed under a single contract. The companies will
be provided different facilities to attract them to join
the bids.
These include: minimum work obligation in each of the
exploration periods, maximum 55 percent cost recovery per
calendar year, discount on gas sale, energy discovery and
production bonuses and Annual Contract Service Fees.
However, local marketing of gas and export of gas in the
form of liquid natural gas (LNG) are subject to
government's first right of refusal.
Country to face severe power crisis
Slow progress in implementation of
pending power plants
UNB, Dhaka
The
progress in implementation of the pending power plant
projects is very slow despite repeated pushes from the
highest policymakers, indicating that there is little
chance for the country to avoid a looming power crisis.
Experts apprehend that the unusual delay may also push up
the implementation cost of the pending projects
abnormally.
According to official sources, at least 6 power plant
projects remained pending at different stages of the
implementation process.
The projects are 100 MW Shikalbaha plant, Sylhet 100 MW
plant, 300 MW Shiddhirganj peaking plant (150x2), 150 MW
Sirajganj power plant and 150 MW Khulna power plant and
150 MW Chandpur plant.
After a long delay, the Power Development Board (PDB)
recently issued the notification of award (NOA) to the
contractors for implementation of the projects while that
of 100MW Sylhet plant is being reprocessed to place it
before the Cabinet Purchase Committee for its approval.
Sources said only a consultant has been appointed for the
300MW Shiddhirganj plant for which the World Bank made a
commitment to provide financial assistance for its
implementation.
Recently, a financing agreement has been signed between
the government and the Asian Development Bank for
implementing the 150MW Sirajganj power plant project.
After a long exercise of tendering process, the government
cancelled the tender process of the Chandpur power plant
at the final stage on the plea of high price.
But, according to the government plan, all the proposed
power plants were supposed to be implemented by 2007 and
come into operation as their implementation process was
initiated 3-5 years back.
"But, bureaucratic 'redtapism', frequent changes in the
decisions, repeated cancellations of tenders and above all
fund constraints have caused them to fall far behind the
schedule," said an industry insider.
He said after the 1/11 changeover, it was assumed that the
implementation process of the projects would get a
momentum. "But, the progress in the last one year was
virtually very slow, even you can say frustrating," he
told UNB wishing anonymity.
He said the international bidders are losing interest in
participating in the tendering process due to the unusual
delay in the decision making process and repeated
cancellations of tenders.
Another industry insider said the booming economies like
Brazil, Russia, India and China, and some other African
and Middle-East countries have driven a huge demand for
power plants, pushing up the prices of power plant
equipment, particularly the gas turbine price.
Besides, the global rise in the steel products has
contributed to the soaring prices of power plant
equipment, he added.
He said famous power plant manufacturers like GE,
Mitsubishi, Alstom and BHEL are not taking further orders
for the near future, as they have already been booked
until 2009 to supply equipment.
The country's demand for power is increasing by 8-10
percent per year, widening the gap between the demand and
supply, which now stands at more than 1,500 MW with the
country generating 3500 MW of electricity against the
demand for more than 5000 MW.
5 die as microbus sinks in Padma
BDNEWS24, Rajbari
Five members
of a family, including children, drowned in the river
Padma early on Friday after a microbus carrying them slid
into the waters off a ferry at Doulatdia terminal because
of apparent brakes failure, police said.
Fire Service and Civil Defence divers arriving from Dhaka
in the morning retrieved the dead. Police handed the
bodies to their relatives.
Another four passengers-all from the same family-survived,
as they got down from the vehicle at Doulatdia to drink
tea from a wayside shop.
The deputy commissioner and the superintendent of police
for Rajbari visited the accident spot in the morning.
Police said the microbus transporting the family ran into
the accident after its brakes failed while boarding the
ferry around 1:45am.
The dead are Jhumur Ali's wife Mamtaz, son Nayan, sister
Swapna, brother-in-law Tagar and sister-in-law Laltu.
The vehicle was bound for Dhaka to receive Mamtaz's
husband returning home from Kuwait, police said. Jhumur
Ali was scheduled to arrive at Zia International Airport
at 8:30am Friday.
Nasim Khan, Goalando police chief, said Fire Service and
Civil Defence rescuers from Rajbari and another
five-member rescue team including divers from Dhaka
reached Doulatdia and launched the rescue operation.
They were backed up by Konika, a salvage ship.
Back Page
Minors engaged in
drug trafficking
Ainul Haque Royal
Children from different
parts of country are thronging metropolitan cities and
towns including capital Dhaka for their survival as they
have been facing serious difficulties caused by their
broken families, natural catastrophe, river erosion and
famine are taking shelter on the streets.
This correspondent on Friday, while visiting different
points, saw a painful scenario of the street children for
their food, shelter medicare, and torture by the
traffickers, drug peddlers and sex abusers and many of
whom are being addicted alarmingly. Even many of them
don't know the whereabouts of their parents.
Talking to this correspondent group of streets children
said vested quarters are using them for drug trading, sex
business and making pornography films.
"Many street teenaged girls are being forced into sex
business and some of them are being used to make "blue"
films and such movies are available in CDs and sold openly
at specific areas in the city," they said.
They also said their mental and physical growth is also
being hampered by a host of negative factors.
Besides, some criminals with the help of these minor
street boys are running their illegal drug business and
committing crimes like snatching, mugging and pick
pocketing in and around the capital.
Around one lakh parentless boys are living in city's
different bus, train, truck and launch terminals. Of them
around 75 percent are directly or indirectly involved in
drug trafficking and different sorts of crimes while the
rests are beggars, according to sources.
"We know nothing about our parents and homes. But we know
that the street is our house and destination," a group of
minor street boys at Kamalapur railway terminal told while
talking to this correspondent.
When asked, sources in Detective Branch of police said
around 100 minor boys of the Kamlapur terminal are
involved in drug trafficking and they are well-trained in
this business, they know about the routes and whereabouts
of the traders, but they never disclose anything regarding
drug trafficking. In Dhaka city, the drug dealers are
selling their items at around 70 spots including Kamalapur
Railway station, Tejgaon Truck Stand, Mohakhali Crossing,
Farmgate Crossing, Ashadgate, Polashi , Kawran Bazar,
Gabtoli Inter-district Bus Terminal and Sadarghat,
according to sources. The dealers sell their items using
the streets boys under the very nose of police, sources
said.
Heroin or brown sugar and other drugs like phensidyl,
cannabis, tidigesic injections, pathedine, diazepam,
clobazam, seduxin and unoctin tablets are being sold at
these spots.
The ring leaders and traders of the mafia gangs remain
untouched as they are well organised and equipped with
fire arms to protect themselves.
Criminals flood SW region
Staff Correspondent
Braving massive drives against crime and hardened
criminals, terrorists, robbers, members of outlawed
parties and their accomplices equipped with firearms and
ammunition are now reorganising in the southwestern region
as well as throughout the country, according to reliable
sources.
In the name of an armed movement, the members of extremist
parties under the banners of Purba Bangla Communist Party,
Gano Fouz Biplobi Communist Party, Sramajibi Mukti Andolon
and Sonar Bangla Communist Party are again engaged in
killings, extortions and robberies in 16 districts in the
southwestern region including Jessore, Kushtia, Khulna,
Satkhira, Bagerhat, Rajbari, Jhenidah, Magura, Narail,
Meherpur, Chuadanga, Rajshahi and Naogaon. Of the most
wanted members of outlawed parties and criminals, some
died in crossfire; some were arrested and in the face of
massive hunt in the big cities, some had gone into hiding
in remote areas or villages across the country to avoid
arrest. A large number of them have even crossed the
border. But recently they are now returning to their
respective localities and committing crimes, sources
apprehend.
Latest police count revealed that the law and order has
shown very little or no sign of improvement and that
rather, various crimes including murder, rape, abduction,
mugging, robbery and extortion had registered a steady
rise specially in the southwestern region.
Political violence and social crimes recorded a surge
before January 11, 2008, and the trend continued until the
army-led joint forces operation. During the drive hundreds
of persons including many of the Awami League and BNP
parties allegedly involved in various criminal activities
were netted and sent to the jail.
Meanwhile, Special Forces have been put on alert for
possible movement into the regions. Earlier, several
rounds of talks were held among government high-ups, who
felt that law and order started deteriorating again due to
increasing crimes including murders, robberies and
firearms trading by the members of outlawed parties,
sources said.
The law enforcers have targeted divisions, districts,
police stations and the crime prone areas of southwestern
regions to combat the crimes. Meanwhile, the joint
operation by BDR, RAB, Police, Armed Police and Ansars may
be launched any time against the out laws in Khulna,
Jessore, Bagerhat and Satkhira district.
Early coal policy needed
UNB, Dhaka
Bangladesh needs to finalize
its coal policy at the earliest as the existing gas
reserve would start getting exhausted from 2015, experts
said in Dhaka on Friday.
They said the country would have to create alternative
sources of fuel before complete exhaustion of the gas
reserve. Bangladesh can find an alternative source of
energy by mining coal.
"The country will start feeling a crisis of gas from 2011
and it'll take a severe turn in 2015. Though it'll take
30-40 years more to finish the entire gas reserve, but we
need to go for mining coal quickly to avert the possible
crisis," CA's special assistant for Energy and Power Prof.
M Tamim told reporters.
Dr Tamim made the remarks on the sidelines of a workshop
organized for North Bengal Mineral Resources Reporters
Forum by Weekly Economic Times at the Press Institute of
Bangladesh (PIB).
Coal experts Eng Mainul Hasan, Eng Kamrul Islam, eminent
journalists Ataus Samad and Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury, among
others, addressed the inaugural session of the workshop
with Economic Times Editor Shawkat Mahmud in the chair.
Referring to debate on under what system the underlying
coal will be extracted, Dr Tamim said had Bangladesh
thought about its huge coal resources before intervention
of foreign companies, there would have been no controversy
or debate.
"It's unfortunate that we start thinking about one thing
after foreigners intervene in it. We couldn't collect coal
from Fulbari coal mine due to debate about how it'll be
extracted. Had we thought about the necessity of
alternative fuel before, we could have reached a consensus
about the coal mining method," he said.
Dr Tamim said the day is not far way when there will be no
gas to use, then what will happen to our industries and
households. "We must realize the necessity of coal as an
alternative source of fuel."
Asked when the pending coal policy will be finalized, he
said the government is now studying the draft of the coal
policy. "It's very difficult to say about the timeframe of
its finalization, but I hope it'll be finalized during
this caretaker's time."
India offers Pakistan for joint naval
exercises
AFP, New Delhi
India, which recently staged its first military exercises
with China, is ready to carry out naval manoeuvres with
arch-rival Pakistan, the navy chief has said.
Admiral Sureesh Mehta made the offer late Thursday on the
sidelines of the inaugural Indian Ocean Naval Symposium
(IONS) in New Delhi.
"It would have followed as a matter of course if they
(Pakistan) were here," he replied to questions on the
possibility of a joint naval manoeuvre with Pakistan,
which has fought three wars with India since partition in
1947.
However, a first exercise with Pakistan may not happen in
Indian waters, the admiral said.
"But now I suppose it (exercise) may happen in a third
country," Mehta said.
Twenty-six navies have sent senior representatives
including Australia, Egypt and France to the forum, seen
by experts as an effort by New Delhi to assert its
strategic presence.
Crime Watch
RAB nabs 10 VIP gamblers
A Correspondent, Barisal
A team of Rapid Action Battalion in a sudden raid arrested
ten VIP gamblers from the city on early Thursday night.
Lieutenant Commander Mamunur Rashid and Flight Lieutenant
Anisur Rahman leading a special raid at Barisal Mohammedan
Sporting Club succeeded by arresting ten VIP gamblers
including government service holders, businessmen,
contractors and recovered cash Tk 51 thousand, 12 mobile
phone sets and different types of gambling equipments. The
arrestees were Kazi Nazmul Hasan, Rezaul Karim, Golam
Mustafa, Fakrul Islam, Humaun Kabir, Mojibor Rahman,
Manirul Islam, Abdul Majid Fakir, Shafikul Islam and
Mizanur Rahman.
The arrestees were produced before the Barisal chief
judicial magistrate court on Thursday morning and
Mainuddin Islam, the CJM, rejecting the bail prayers
ordered gamblers to send jail.
Trial of serial blast cases begins
UNB, Satkhira
Trial of five cases relating to serial blasts began at
Additional District and Sessions Judge court here Thursday
after two and half years of the incident.
Eleven, out of 19 charged-sheeted accused, were in the
dock.
They were identified as Nasir Uddin Dafadar, Nur Ali
Member, Monwar Hossain Uzzal, Anisur Rahman Khokon, Gius
Uddin, Mahbubur Rahman Liton, Billal Hossain, Asadul Haque,
Moniruzzaman, Munna and Rakib Hasan Russel.
Of the accused, five remained absconding while names of
three others, JMB chief Shaikh Abdur Rahman, Bangla Bhai
and Ataur Rahman Sunny, were dropped as they were executed
earlier.
JMB members blasted seven bombs at five places in the town
on August 17, 2005. Sub Inspector of Sadar thana Jasim
Uddin later filed separate cases against 19 people.
1 gets life-term
A Correspondent, Sirajganj
The court in Sirajganj sentenced life-term to a man with
rigorous imprisonment (RI) in a murder case on Thursday.
The court also fined the convict Tk. 5,000, in default,
another six month RI.
The convict is Md. Abdus Salam, 30, son of Solaiman
Hossain, of village Sat-Paika in Dhunut upazila under
Bogra.
ABM Nizamul Hoque, the additional district and session
judge-2, pronounced the verdict.
According to the prosecution, the convict poisoned his
pregnant wife, Rokeya Begum, 24, daughter of late Eusuf
Uddin, of village Bhanudaga in Kazipur upazila of the
district while she visited her parental home on 17
February 1995.
Later, the locals admitted her into Kazipur Upazila Health
Complex where she declared as dead. However, Kazipur
police recorded a case in this matter.
Cobra venom worth Tk 30 cr seized
UNB, Pabna
Rapid Action Battalion recovered illegal Cobra venom worth
about Tk 30 crore from Bonwarinagar in Faridpur upazila on
Thursday and arrested four people in this connection.
Acting on a tip-off, a team of RAB 12, in the guise of
buyer of venom, contacted the smugglers at a house in
Tiapara village at noon.
During the negotiation with the anti-crime force in
disguise, the smugglers agreed to sale the venom of a
French company at Tk 35 crore, the RAB sources said.
The RAB troops then cordoned off the smugglers and
recovered 12 pounds venom from their possessions.
They also arrested Sakhwat Hossain of Sirajganj and Aziz
Pramanik, Shafiqul Islam and Sirajul Islam of Pabna.
Woman held
A Correspondent, Comilla
A woman was arrested along with hemp at Darmanagar village
in Burichang upazila on Friday morning.
The arrested was identified as Kadija Begum (34) wife of
Zahir Miah of the village. Police said, on secret
information tip-off a team raided the Zahir Miah house at
about 6.00 am arrested one woman and recovered 13 kgs of
hemp from her possession. A case was filed with the
Burichang police station in this regard.
Joint forces recover govt land
BSS, Lakhipur
Joint forces recovered the land of Pashchim Mandari
Government Primary School from the grabbers on Thursday.
All illegal shops were eliminated from the government
primary school land. The value of recovered land is about
Tk 40 lakh, the joint forces sources said. The land of the
primary school was illegally grabbed by some local people
last month.
Housewife killed for dowry
UNB, Brahmanbaria
A young housewife was tortured to death allegedly by her
husband and mother-in-law for dowry in Bhadughar area of
the district town on Tuesday.
The deceased was identified as Aklima Begum (22), mother
of two children and wife of Shah Alam of the area.
Local people said Shah Alam married Aklima four years back
and since then he along with his family members used to
torture her for dowry. They said failing to bear the
inhuman torture she went to her parents' house recently.
Later, after a village a village arbitration she was taken
back to her husband's residence on Monday night. But the
victim was again beaten up mercilessly on that night.
Later, next morning following a quarrel she was again
tortured by the cruel husband and her mother-in-law and at
one stage they poured hot water on her body leaving her
critically injured.
Neighbors hearing the hue and cry rushed to the spot and
sent her to Sadar hospital. Later, she died on way to
Dhaka in the afternoon.
Local people caught Shah Alam and his mother Shahara
Khatun while they were trying to flee and handed them over
to the police. A case was filed.
5 held with phensidyl
BSS, Dinajpur
Members of Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) in two anti drug drives
in the bordering areas of Birampur upazila arrested five
drug smugglers and seized 290 bottles of phensidyl from
their possession on Thursday.
BDR sources said that members of the border guards
conducted a drive at Rail Ghunti at Birampur in the early
hours of Thursday and arrested three women on suspicion.
After searching their body they recovered 150 bottles of
phensidyl.
Editorial
Electoral Rolls Rules
Its
surprising how things get done in Bangladesh. The EC, pushed
for time and under public pressure, has gone ahead with the
preparation of electoral rolls alongwith ID cards while the
Emergency Government is sitting on the Rules which are
supposed to provide legal backing to the EC's activities of
preparing and publishing voter rolls or lists. Ultimately, two
commissioners took the initiative of approaching the Adviser
for Law and Parliamentary Affairs to persuade him to finalize
and release the essential Electoral Rolls Rules.
As to why the Government has been holding on to these Rules is
difficult to understand but what is not difficult to
understand is that all efforts by the EC in preparing the
electoral rolls or voters' lists would have been stymied and
come under immediate challenge without the backup and support
of these Rules. The Government had sufficient time to study
the Rules, discuss them with the EC and then publish them;
delay in doing so once again raises the questions of
efficiency of our Government and of its intentions of holding
the polls in time before the year 2008 is over.
Political parties, the civil society and even foreigners with
an interest in Bangladesh are getting concerned about the
prospects of elections and about when and how they would be
held. While the Government is procrastinating in various ways,
demands for elections are becoming increasingly strident
particularly from the political parties, the media and the
civil society, who now once again see an elected political
government as the only one capable of tackling the economic
and social woes of Bangladesh as well as mobilizing public
opinion and taking the common people alongwith them.
Increasingly diverse opinions of diverse interest groups are
coalescing into one single demand - hold elections as soon as
the voter listing is complete. Perhaps the Emergency
Government would like to disregard this change in public
opinion and tendency but it can do so only at its peril as
many other past governments have found out to their great
dismay and cost.
Soaring Prices Soaring
Anger
Once
again, for the hundredth time within the last one year, prices
of all food commodities are on a steep rise. This has happened
because of a shortage of supply and increasing demands of one
single commodity - our staple food of rice. Prices of rice
have a snowballing effect on all other food commodities. The
Government has failed to ensure supply of adequate quantities
of rice or to control its prices in the market.
Prices of food commodities started rising during the floods
last year and had assumed galloping proportions after the
cyclone. The Government at first ignored the issue, then it
denied that there were any shortages or that prices were
soaring and then it flooded the media with promises and
assurances of hundreds of thousands of tons of rice being
imported but to date little if anything has materialized
except for some outlets maintained by the BDR who can cater to
a miniscule portion of the population in major urban centers.
The Government is saying that the food situation will improve
as soon as the Boro crops are harvested and in the meantime
enough of rice would be imported to supply the needs of
everyone at affordable prices but within this current week
alone the coarsest quality of rice has hit Tk. 32 per Kilogram
amidst claims by wholesellers and retailers that there is a
severe shortage of rice in the urban markets; in rural areas
conditions are even worse where nobody has any surplus rice to
sell or money to buy rice. Poultry and poultry products are
destroyed by avian flu, beef and mutton are only for the rich,
cultivation and supply of vegetables are limited and fish is
beyond the reach of the poor. This chain of events and
circumstances have triggered widespread hardships, worry,
frustrations and discontents among the people across the
entire Country. People are beginning to express their anger
and frustrations in various ways and are demanding immediate
actions.
Promises and assurances cannot satisfy the hunger of people or
fill their stomachs with food. People will accept assurances
so long as they have not reached the physical and mental
limits of their privations, after that they will demand
immediate results and if that is not forthcoming they will
revolt against systems which callously pushes them into such
privations.
Analysis
Vested Property Act
Unfortunately we have been unable to invalidate
such a law which is called the Vested and Non-Resident
Property (Administration) Act, 1974. Because of this black
law, many of us have lost their lawfully earned properties.
M. Abdus Salam
As
the citizens of an independent and sovereign state, we have
the authority to make our own laws. We also have the authority
to nullify any law which we think is against our interests.
Unfortunately we have been unable to invalidate such a law
which is called the Vested and Non-Resident Property
(Administration) Act, 1974. Because of this black law, many of
us have lost their lawfully earned properties. Their only
fault was that their property was owned by a Hindu during the
period of 1965-1969. Now is the time to get rid of this black
law.
On 6 September 1965, Pakistan proclaimed a state of emergency
under the Defense of Pakistan Ordinance at the outbreak of war
with India. In exercise of the powers conferred by the
Ordinance, the Central Government of Pakistan promulgated on
the same day the Defense of Pakistan Rules. Under the rules,
the Governor of East Pakistan passed an Order on 3 December
1965 regarding enemy property by which the property of the
minorities was declared "Enemy Property".
After independence from Pakistan, the President of Bangladesh,
in Order No. 29 of 1972, changed the nomenclature of the law
from the Enemy Properties Act (EPA) to the Vested Property
Act. (VPA) Clause 2 of the Order further stated: "Nothing
contained in this Order shall be called in [to] question in
any court". The Order of the President was subsequently not
subject to judicial review.
The circular of 23 May 1977 on the Ministry of Lands of the
Government of Bangladesh empowered the Tehsildars to find out
the lands suitable for enlisting as enemy property. Since
there was a provision for rewarding the successful tehsildars
they felt encouraged to bring many undisputed properties of
the Hindus under this list. Hindu peasants were thus left with
no alternative but to migrate, as they could not expect any
remedy from the additional deputy commissioner, the
sub-divisional officer, or the circle officer who, like the
tehsildar, were similarly entrusted with the responsibility
and similarly promised reward. Many Hindus sold their lands to
Muslims after 1970 as usual. In many cases the tehsildars
enlisted any land as vested property only if, it was owned by
a Hindu during the period of 1965-1969 even if that owner
never left East Pakistan or Bangladesh and even if that land
was owned by a Muslim at the time of enlistment. Thus a large
number of Muslims have lost their legally purchased land and
could not find any legal way to get it back.
The Sayem government cancelled the provision for selling
vested properties by the sub-divisional committee. The
government of President Ershad passed an order for selling the
vested properties (land and buildings), 'the dilapidated and
kutcha houses' not required by the government, to the existing
lessees and if the lessees were unwilling or unable to
purchase, through public auction. Subsequently, President
Ershad passed on order for selling all vested properties by
December 1983 but on an appeal made to him by a conference of
the representatives of the Hindu community on 31 July 1984,
General Ershad scrapped the order and also the enlisting of
new vested properties. He further offered that vested
properties would be governed according to the Hindu law of
inheritance. The policy of the government of Begum Khaleda Zia
was to sell vested properties to those occupants who could pay
10 per cent higher than the prevailing market price and not
sell any vested property below the market price. Moreover, the
government of Begum Khaleda Zia passed an order for the
release of vested property in land up to eight bighas outside
the 'Pourasabha'
Abul Barkat and Shafiquzzaman, of Bangladesher Grameen Samaje
Arpito Sampattite Ainer Probhab: Ekti Anusandhan, in their
report to the National Seminar of Association for Land Reform
And Development, 13 April 1996, pp-7, said: "On the
devastating effects of the vested property Act on the material
and psychological conditions of the Hindus it was calculated
that from 1964 each day on an average 538 Hindus have
'vanished'. The basis of calculation was the uniformity of the
death rate for all religious communities in Bangladesh, the
birth rate among the Hindus which has been 13 per cent less
than that of the Muslims, and the difference between the
migration figures coupled with total Hindu population and the
figures of the census. Thus, had there been no migration, the
Hindu population in Bangladesh would have been 16,500,000
instead of the census figure of 11,200,000. The same report
calculated that the vanishing rate has not been uniform over
periods; in 1964-71 it averaged 703 per day, between 1971 and
1981 it was 537, and in 1981-91 the figure stood at 439. The
report further said: "The sample survey, on the basis of which
the report was prepared, showed that out of the 161
dispossessed, 13 per cent were near landless, whereas 40 per
cent became landless through dispossession, and 15 per cent of
the surveyed persons were rich before dispossession but the
figure came down to 6 per cent later.
Prof. Abul Barkat of Dhaka University opined in an article
that 50 lakh people of the Hindu community, meanwhile, have
lost 20 lakh acres of land under Enemy/Vested Property tussle.
The present day value of those property would be one lakh
ninety thousand crore Taka. (Prothom Alo, 4 November 04).
According to a report of the Land Ministry in October,
2004,submitted to a parliamentary standing committee "445,726
acres of vested property out of 643,140 acres ended up in
encroachment across the country. "Grabbers gabbled up more
than two thirds of vested property as the government lost
control over the lands as the custodian and its long-line
dithering blocked anti-encroachment efforts," the report said.
(The Daily Star, 15 October, 2004). It may be recalled that
"Transfer of Property Act" is ignored in case of the Hindus by
keeping the Enemy Property Act as The Vested Property Act. So
the property based crisis deepened and disturbed society at
the root. Justice Debesh Bhattacharjya (1914-2004) was the
founder President of Bangladesh Enemy Property Act Repeal
Committee and some of his verdicts have been historically
precedent setting judgments.
Earlier Justice Abdur Rahman Choudhury and Justice A.T.
M.Afzal in their judgment (31 DLR, p 343) opined: "Such high
handedness, if over looked and allowed to go unchecked, might
undermine confidence of the citizens in the administration and
bring a slur on the fair name of the Government." Former Chief
Justice Syed Kamal Uddin Hossain also opined: "The laws on
abandoned property, non-resident's property and the like
although enacted as temporary laws to meet peculiar and
emergency situations had been continuing for indefinite time
in one form or another causing untold sufferings to honest
citizens and burdening the courts with unnecessary cases."
Here are two judgments of the High Court:
(1) Custodian of enemy property treating a property as being a
vested property without lawful basis for treating it as vested
property and leasing out the same to another is unauthorized
and illegal. [31 D L R (HR) 359].
(2)It appears from order sheet of vested Property
Miscellaneous Case that even before the property in question
was declared as vested property, the third party applied for
lease and succeeded in obtaining a favorable report from local
tahsilder. Thereafter it was apparent from the records that
the Tahsilder and the interested party acted in collusion with
each other in securing the impugned order and throwing the
real owner out of their possession. It is our considered
opinion; it would be just to award exemplary cost against the
Tahsilder and Sona Meah, who are responsible for harassing a
helpless widow and her son and depriving them of their lawful
right to enjoy their own property.[31 D L R (HR) 343].
Here is an another Judgment of the Appellate Division (civil)
dated 14th August 2004 on Saju Hossain Vs Bangladesh (58DLR
(AD) (2006) Enemy Property (continuance of Emergency
Provisions) Ordinance (1of1969) Section 2 " Since the law of
enemy property itself died with the repeal Ordinance No. 1 of
1969 on 23 March 1974 no further vested property case can be
started thereafter on the basis of the law which is already
dead." So, we need not to produce more evidences. It is
needless to say that Vested Property Act is a law against the
spirit of the Constitution of Bangladesh. The Act has violated
the fundamental rights of the people guaranteed in the
Constitution of Bangladesh.
'This is a man-made problem contrary to the spirit of
humanity. We have to get rid of this uncivilized state of
affairs to establish a civilized society. Otherwise, we have
to face a bigger historic catastrophe,' Professor Abdul Barkat,
who teaches economics, insists in his research paper,
'Deprivation of affected million families: Living with Vested
Property in Bangladesh'. Some 12 lakh or 44 per cent of the 27
lakh Hindu households in the country were affected by the
Enemy Property Act 1965 and its post-independence version, the
Vested Property Act 1974. Barkat points out that 53 per cent
of the family displacement and 74 per cent of the land
grabbing occurred before the country's independence in 1971
after the then Pakistan government, following the
India-Pakistan War in 1965, introduced the Enemy Property
(Custody and Registration) Order II, which was widely
criticized as a tool for appropriating the lands of the
minority population.
The Sheikh Hasina led Awami League government annulled this
Act in 2001. It wanted to return the 'vested' property to
their original Hindu owners. The move was criticized as a
'political tokenism' aimed to appease minority voters prior to
the general elections.
But in reality, as Professor Barkat study shows the Hasina
largesse did not benefit the Hindu minority, who owned land at
the time of partition. In fact, it ended up displacing most of
them from their ancestral land.
Political elements, locally influential people in
collaboration with the land administration, trickery by land
officials and employees themselves, use of force and
crookedness, fake documentation, contracted farmers and death
or exile of original owners have contributed to the
phenomenon, according to Professor Barkat's study covering 6
districts across the country. The Professor doesn't think the
land grab was a problem of 'Hindu versus Muslim' polarization.
"Criminals do not bother whether a piece of land is owned by a
Hindu, a Muslim or a Santal and they simply loot property. The
problem highlights the 'inability' and 'weakness' of the
majority people to raise protests though they are
non-communal". (The NewAge, the daily Janakantha, the daily
Manabzamin, 27 May.07).
(M. Abdus Salam. House- 31, Road- 13, Block- kha, Pisiculture
Housing, Mohammadpur, Dhaka- 1207.Email: karnafuli@myway.com)
Moscow Diary: President Putin Speaking
Because of stability, Putin is placed above his processor and
former President Boris Yeltsin and famed M. Gorbachev.
Dr. Abdul Ruff Colachal
In
2008, Russia might undergo a transfer of power unlike any in
its history. Russian President Vladimir Putin has named his
first deputy prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev, 42, as his chosen
successor. The vote will take place on 2 March. Russia's
presidential election campaign will officially begin shortly,
with Medvedev the clear favorite to win. He is way ahead of
his main rivals in the opinion polls, the closest being
Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov, who has failed to
mount a serious challenge since the mid-1990s. The veteran
nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky is also running - but his
tough talk is unlikely to translate into much more than a
tenth of the vote, our correspondent says. Andrei Bogdanov is
the fourth and final candidate. He leads Russia's tiny
Democratic Party and is only polling around 1% and is
insignificant. If Medvedev wins, which no one doubts, Putin is
expected to become prime minister, as suggested by Medvedev.
On the streets of the country's towns and cities, everything
looks more stable and comfortable than at any time in the
post-Soviet period. Because of stability, Putin is placed
above his processor and former President Boris Yeltsin and
famed M. Gorbachev. "The tsars and the general secretaries of
the Communist Party died while in office, and Yeltsin and
Gorbachev retired with zero ratings, says a political analyst
with close ties to the Kremlin. Now Putin might retire with a
rating of closer to 80%. It's unprecedented. However, the
comparative stability Russia has enjoyed under President Putin
has made people wary of change.
Thanks to Putin's strenuous efforts, Russia is on the rise
again as a global power - keen to win respect and support for
its views on issues such as the future of Kosovo and the
Iranian nuclear program. This new sense of strength is founded
on the wealth which has come with soaring prices for the
natural resources which Russia has in abundance. As demand for
oil and gas continues to grow, many in the West are looking
warily eastwards, wondering whether Russia is a reliable
partner. The quandary of what to do with a popular Russian
leader still in the land of the living continues to perplex.
Putin remains a strong force not just in Kremlin, but in the
Russian psyche and in the mind-set of many Russians. He is
main force against US-led unipolarity and NATO's
unilateralism. His leaving the international scene could wreck
the Russian mind. But if he becomes premier of Russia, Russian
presidency would suffer. "There may be a weaker president if
Putin stays on the scene," concedes one source close to the
administration. "Putin knows this and probably has something
in mind." It is an issue not just inside Russia, but around
the world. The year 2008 will also answer the question: "What
next for Russia's most popular politician?" Medvedev has
offered Putin the prime minister's job. Until his acceptance,
Putin seems to have kept even Kremlin insiders in the dark.
Numerous other options were talked about. It was suggested,
for example, that Putin could become head of Russia's national
Security Council - a role which is not clearly defined, and
which he could therefore make his own.
Putin's fight against nepotism and corruption and his efforts
to streamline Russian politics and economic growth endeared
him to Russians and also made him hated by wealthy classes in
Russia. Some of the oligarchs who acquired great wealth and
power in the 1990s have fled the country, fearing prosecution.
Mikhail Khodorkovsky stayed. He sits in a Siberian prison
cell, convicted of fraud and tax evasion. Putin's popularity
is such that Medvedev, who also runs the state gas giant
Gazprom, is almost sure to win. Interest is focusing on how
much of Putin's popularity Medvedev can inherit at the ballot
box - and how much power Putin will retain. Medvedev's main
responsibility under President Putin has been overseeing
Russia's national projects - programs to fix the faults in the
country's infrastructure. If Putin has finally made up his
mind to make him the next President, Medvedev will have a cake
walk in the poll.
Western powers expect and their media want Putin to retire.
But the big one trillion dollar question is: will Vladimir
Putin disappoint the majority Russians, who still consider him
as the top most priority for next presidency as well, by
quitting the Kremlin once for all now or even by taking up a
smaller responsibility at the Kremlin soon? Answer lies in the
Kremlin itself.
(Dr. Abdul Ruff Colachal is a Research scholar, School of
International Studies, Jawaharlal University, Delhi 110067)
Viewpoints
Pakistan's New
Generation of Terrorists
Leadership elements of al-Qaeda and the Afghan Taliban, along
with other terrorist groups, have made Pakistan's tribal areas
(the semi-autonomous region along the Afghan border) their
home.
Jayshree Bajoria
Introduction
Pakistani authorities have long had ties to militant groups
based on their soil. They have supported some organizations
fighting Indian forces in Kashmir and played a pivotal role in
supporting the Afghan resistance against the Soviets
throughout the 1980s. In the 1990s, Pakistan's government
supported the Taliban's rise in Afghanistan in the hope of
having a friendly government in Kabul. But with Pakistan
joining the United States as an ally in its war against
Islamic extremists since 9/11, experts say Islamabad has seen
harsh blowback on its policy of backing militants operating
abroad. Leadership elements of al-Qaeda and the Afghan
Taliban, along with other terrorist groups, have made
Pakistan's tribal areas (the semi-autonomous region along the
Afghan border) their home. Pakistan's deployment of troops in
the tribal areas has generated resentment among tribal leaders
and others who sympathized with the Taliban. In recent years,
many new terrorist groups have emerged in Pakistan, several
existing groups have reconstituted themselves, and a new crop
of militants have taken control, more violent and less
conducive to political solutions than their predecessors.
Terrorist Groups
Many experts say it is difficult to determine how many
terrorist groups are operating out of Pakistan. Most of these
groups tend to fall into one of the five distinct categories
laid out by Ashley J. Tellis, a senior associate at Carnegie
Endowment for International Peace, in January 16, 2008,
testimony before a U.S. House Foreign Affairs subcommittee:
Sectarian: Groups such as the Sunni Sipah-e-Sahaba and the
Shia Tehrik-e-Jafria, which are engaged in violence within
Pakistan;
Anti-Indian: Terrorist groups that operate with the alleged
support of the Pakistani military and the intelligence agency
Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), such as the Lashkar-e-Taiba
(LeT), the Jaish-e-Muhammad (JeM), and the Harakat
ul-Mujahedeen (HuM). This Backgrounder profiles these
organizations which have been active in Kashmir;
Afghan Taliban: The original Taliban movement and especially
its Kandahari leadership centered around Mullah Mohammad Omar,
believed to be now living in Quetta;
Al-Qaeda and its affiliates: The organization led by Osama bin
Laden and other non-South Asian terrorists believed to be
ensconced in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA).
Rohan Gunaratna of the International Centre for Political
Violence and Terrorism Research in Singapore says other
foreign militant groups such as the Islamic Movement of
Uzbekistan, Islamic Jihad group, the Libyan Islamic Fighters
Group and the Eastern Turkistan Islamic Movement are also
located in FATA;
The Pakistani "Taliban": Groups consisting of extremist
outfits in the FATA, led by individuals such as Baitullah
Mehsud, the chieftain of the Mehsud tribe in South Waziristan,
Maulana Faqir Muhammad and Maulana Qazi Fazlullah of the
Tehrik-e-Nafaz-e-Shariat-e-Mohammadi (TSNM), and Mangal Bagh
Afridi of the Lashkar-e-Islami in the Khyber Agency.
The Pakistani Taliban
Supporters of the Afghan Taliban in the tribal areas
transitioned into a mainstream Taliban force of their own as a
reaction to the Pakistani army's incursion into the tribal
areas, which began in 2002, to hunt down the militants. This
Pakistani Taliban is organizationally distinct from the Afghan
Taliban. Gunaratna says it is clear that Afghan Taliban only
fights in Afghanistan, emphasizing it is the Pakistani Taliban
that is operating in Pakistan against the state. Analysts say
it is this arrangement with the Pakistani authorities that
keeps members of the Afghan Taliban safe from arrest or
transfer to U.S. or NATO forces based in Afghanistan. But
Pakistani authorities have repeatedly denied any involvement
with the Taliban and have often said the problem lies within
Afghanistan, saying Taliban sympathizers from Afghanistan slip
across the border to recruit in refugee camps in Pakistan.
Experts say most adult men in Pakistan's tribal areas grew up
carrying arms but it is only in the last few years that they
have begun to organize themselves around a Taliban-style
Islamic ideology pursuing an agenda much similar to that of
the Afghan Taliban in Afghanistan. The people of Pakistan's
North West Frontier Province (NWFP) and FATA, as well as the
adjacent eastern regions of Afghanistan, are overwhelmingly
Pashtun and share ethnic and linguistic links. Hassan Abbas, a
research fellow at Harvard University's Kennedy School of
Government, writes in a January 2008 paper that the Pakistani
Taliban have effectively established themselves as an
alternative to the traditional tribal elders. Abbas adds that
the Taliban killed approximately 200 of the tribal leaders and
these indigenous Taliban groups coalesced in December 2007
under the umbrella of Tehrik-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). He
writes that a shura (consultative council) of more than 40
senior Taliban leaders established the TTP under the militant
commander Baitullah Mehsud from South Waziristan.
TTP not only has representation from all of FATA's seven
agencies but also from several settled districts of the NWFP.
According to some estimates, the Pakistani Taliban
collectively have around 30,000 to 35,000 members. Among their
other objectives, the TTP has announced a defensive jihad
against the Pakistani army, enforcement of sharia, and a plan
to unite against NATO forces in Afghanistan. Pakistani
authorities accused the group's leader, Mehsud, of
assassinating former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto in December
2007.
Analysts say it may be too early to say how successful the TTP
will be in unifying the disparate militant groups across
diverse tribal regions, or how loyal the tribes will be to
Mehsud's leadership.
Changing Face of Terrorism
The new Taliban are fiercer, younger and impatient for
results, say experts. Steve Coll, president of the New America
Foundation, a Washington-based think tank, tells CFR.org the
Afghan-oriented Taliban of the 1990s had a sort of a political
cover in Pakistan. But what's happening now, he says, is that
those traditional intermediaries between the Taliban and the
establishment are being displaced by "a younger generation of
more violent radical leaders who are in a hurry and have no
patience with compromise with the state." Coll adds: "These
are like hard-core breakaway children militias of the sort you
encounter in failed states in Africa and elsewhere," running
roadblocks, moving around in bands on highways in the tribal
areas, and operating under some notion of political control
under this Tehrik-i-Taliban set-up. "But they are the law and
that is real change."
This new generation of terrorists is also more willing to
engage in suicide attacks; there were more than fifty in 2007,
compared to no more than twenty between 2001 and 2007.
Gunaratna attributes this to the influence of al-Qaeda. He
says bin Laden's group is training most of the terrorist
groups in FATA. "Al-Qaeda considers itself as the vanguard of
the Islamic movement," Gunaratna says, and has introduced its
practice of suicide bombings to both the Afghan and the
Pakistani Taliban.
Pakistan's tribal areas are also experiencing growing
extremism. Like their Taliban predecessors in Afghanistan, the
younger militants consider music, TV, and luxuries like
massage parlors un-Islamic and wage war against them. Local
Taliban leaders in the tribal agencies tell men to keep beards
and women to wear the veil. In a January 2008 article in the
New York Times magazine, writer Nicholas Schmidle quotes
Maulana Fazlur Rehman, chief of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (F), a
pro-Taliban religious party: "When the jihad in Afghanistan
started, the maliks [tribal leaders] and the old tribal system
in Afghanistan ended; a new leadership arose, based on jihad.
Similar is the case here in the tribal areas."
Terrorist Breeding Ground
Pakistan's tribal areas, which have long been torn by ethnic
and tribal rivalries, became radicalized during the 1980s when
the Pakistani state supported the Afghan jihad against the
Soviets. To escape the post-9/11 U.S.-led war in Afghanistan,
most militants, including those in al-Qaeda, fled eastwards
into western Pakistan, further destabilizing the tribal areas.
Having served as the logistical route for weapons to the
mujahideen, experts say, the area is awash with small weapons
and the current population of more than a million men under
the age of twenty-five grew up carrying weapons. As this
backgrounder on the troubled Pakistan-Afghanistan border
explains, the tribal areas also became critical to the illicit
drug trade and criminalized economies of the region.
Counter-terrorism experts say these traditional smuggling and
criminal activities continue to fund the militants.
Pakistan's tribal region is governed under the colonial-era
Frontier Crimes Regulations (FCR) Act by a political agent in
each of the seven tribal agencies. Experts say the tribes have
long struggled with each other over economic or territorial
issues. Coll says what has happened in FATA during the last
twenty years is "almost like painting a coat of Islamist
radicalization over this complicated structure of smuggling
and competition" among the tribes. He says "by painting this
coat of Islamist ideology over certain areas of FATA, it's
changed the dynamic of competition in ways that are really
complicated and very hard for us to understand on the
outside."
Counterterrorism Challenges
Pakistani authorities are struggling to confront the changing
dynamics in the region. There is growing criticism both within
and outside Pakistan that the army does not have the capacity
to fight insurgency within its borders. Militants increasingly
target the army with suicide attacks and in August 2007, the
kidnapping of around 250 soldiers by Baitullah Mehsud in
FATA's South Waziristan posed a huge embarrassment for
Pakistan. These soldiers were only released when the
government released twenty-five militants associated with
Mehsud. The army faces a tough fight not only in the tribal
areas but increasingly the settled areas of NWFP, which are
being targeted by militants. In 2007, the militant group TSNM
led by Maulana Fazlullah took control of large areas in the
Swat valley, previously a tourist destination. The army, after
a long fight, reclaimed it but experts say hundreds of
militants continue to operate there.
Coll questions the will of the Pakistani military to confront
the new Taliban groups. He writes in the New Yorker that there
was evidence to suggest that "some current and former
Pakistani military and intelligence officers sympathize with
the Islamist insurgents with whom they are notionally at war."
U.S.officials have made similar allegations but Pakistani
officials have pointed to the death of about a thousand
Pakistani soldiers fighting the war on terror and several
attempts made by the militants on President Musharraf's life
as proof that such allegations are not true.
One approach taken by Islamabad is to deploy the Frontier
Corps, Pakistan 's paramilitary organization that operates in
the FATA and has played an important part because of their
local language skills and familiarity with the local terrain.
But numerous defections and refusals to fight and follow
orders have taken place within the Frontier Corps. Rand
Corporation expert Christine C. Fair, in January 2008
testimony to a U.S. House Foreign Affairs subcommittee, says
while its officers are seconded from the Pakistan army, its
cadres are drawn from the local Pashtun population. According
to Fair, the Corps is "inadequately trained and equipped and
has been ill-prepared for counter-insurgency operations in
FATA." Fair also says the Corps "was used to train the Taliban
in the 1990s and many are suspected of having ties to that
organization." Yet many experts believe that Frontier Corps
has a much better chance than the Pakistani army in securing
the tribal areas. Washington plans a significant increase in
current military assistance to the Frontier Corps. Its effort
to secure the tribal belt includes a proposal by U.S. Special
Operations Command to train and arm tribal leaders to fight
al-Qaeda and Taliban and a $750 million aid package for the
border area over the next five years.
Another approach taken by the Pakistani government in the
tribal areas was to sign some peace agreements with the tribal
leaders but most of them have failed so far and critics,
including many in Washington, said they only ended up
strengthening the militants. In January 2008, news reports
saying the United States was considering sending U.S. troops
to Pakistan's tribal areas drew angry reactions from Pakistani
authorities and analysts said it would further destabilize the
country. Imran Khan, chairman of the opposition party
Tehreek-e-Insaf in Pakistan, says political negotiations are
the only way to deal with terrorism. Gunaratna, too, says a
military solution is not the answer. A "strategy to manage the
threat of terrorism is to co-opt the groups that are in the
margins, in the periphery," he says, "and draw them to
mainstream politics to create opportunities for them."
(Jayshree Bajoria is a Staff Writer for the Council for
Foreign Relations. Source: www.cfr.org)
A Monumental Challenge to America
In seven short years,
President George W. Bush turned the world's hope and optimism
into deep disillusionment.
Alon Ben-Meir
The
collapse of the Soviet Union at the beginning of the last decade
of the 20th century, leaving the United States as the sole
superpower, led to the century being dubbed, "The American
Century." The world looked forward to enlightened leadership,
visionary policies, and a multilateral approach in the conduct
of American diplomacy. President Bill Clinton was, though
tainted by the Lewinsky affair, widely respected in the global
community. It was hoped the new president would follow, if not
the same policies, an enlightened path. But in seven short
years, President George W. Bush turned the world's hope and
optimism into deep disillusionment. Many in the Middle East,
looking back, wonder how a single president could have committed
so many blunders that so tarnished America's global standing and
moral leadership.
Ironically, although Bush's Middle East policy was prompted by
national security and strategic considerations championed by the
neoconservatives, everything he touched had the opposite effect
than intended. Bush's Middle East adventures underscore the
enormity of his foreign policy failures, from which it may take
America years to recover. But for such a recovery to occur, we
must first understand what went wrong and the underlying
assumptions supporting such disastrous policies. The short
answer is that the failures stem from a complete lack of
understanding of the historical background, cultural
orientation, religious extremism, and social and political
schisms in every country where the administration intervened. As
examples: no central government or conqueror has ever tamed,
subdued, or governed the tribal areas in Afghanistan, and the
enmity and distrust between the Shiite, Sunnis, and the Kurds in
Iraq, has existed for hundreds of years - thus no elections
could possibly engender their amity. Yet the administration
plunged into these countries with an attitude of "we know best
what is good for you" - a recipe of arrogance mixed with
ignorance that has proved toxic.
It was initially sound policy to invade Afghanistan to oust the
Taliban and destroy al-Qaida's base and infrastructure, and that
is why the international community fully supported the war. It
was, however, tragically mistaken to not fully consolidate the
coalition's presence, pursue al-Qaida to the bitter end, and
invest all necessary resources and military power to prevent the
Taliban from resurfacing and al-Qaida from restructuring again
as they both now have.
Instead of focusing on these ends, Bush decided, in the name of
the war on terror, to wage, at astronomical cost, both
financially and in terms of human sacrifice, a war of choice in
Iraq, against a presumed enemy that posed no immanent danger and
had neither connection to al-Qaida nor weapons of mass
destruction. The war unleashed a tragic civil war between the
Sunnis and the Shiites, causing untold destruction and sowing
the seeds for a divided Iraq, a divided region, and ominous
discord between radical Muslims and the West. Iraq has now
become the training ground for terrorists poised to terrorize
the entire region.
Also, instead of capitalizing on the progress made in the Camp
David negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians in the
summer of 2000, Bush left the combatants to slug it out by
themselves, which allowed Hamas to become a political force that
must be reckoned with. Bush's convening an international peace
conference in Annapolis at the 11th hour of his presidency was
simply cynical theatrics. Few of those with credibility believe
the announced goal to reach an Israeli-Palestinian agreement by
the end of 2008 is anything but an illusion.
Refusing to negotiate with Iran to end its nuclear ambitions and
insisting rather on regime change in Tehran was another failed
policy that only pushed Iran to accelerate its nuclear program.
Further emboldened by the debacle in Iraq and swimming in oil
money, Tehran defied both America and the international
community without fear of real reprisal. Today, Iran poses a
greater regional threat than ever, and it will become doubly
menacing with nuclear weapons.
And what of the administration's obsession to marginalize and
isolate Syria? It pushed Damascus steadily into Iran's belly, a
result that should have been obvious. Refusing to be ignored and
threatened with regime change, Syria spared no effort to become
the regional spoiler. It has allowed Hezbollah to arm to the
teeth, provided political support and facilitated financial
assistance to Hamas coming from Iran, while turning a blind eye
to the infiltration of insurgents and weapons into Iraq. The
2006 summer war between Hezbollah and Israel was just another
unhappy consequence of Bush shortsighted Syrian policy.
Finally, Bush's push for political reform and democracy has
backfired wherever elections have occurred: In Egypt, elections
strengthened the Muslim Brotherhood, in the Palestinian
territories, they brought Hamas to power, in Lebanon, they
created dangerous political instability, in Iraq, they
precipitated civil war, and in Pakistan, they created neither
peace nor stability. Without understanding the socio-economic
and political conditions unique to each county, allowing
democratic institutions to develop, permitting liberal parties
to compete, without a free press and a fair judiciary, and a
serious commitment to sustainable development projects to lift
millions of Arabs from abject poverty, it should have been
obvious that Islamic groups, better organized and financed, and
with extensive social networks and services, would be the
ultimate beneficiaries.
The administration's mishaps in the Middle East have not been
unique. Its recklessness in dealing with the environment, in
denying fundamental human rights in the name of national
security, in bullying and alienating many allies, in its
addiction to oil and the oil interests, and in its
unilateralism, have come back to haunt it. Bush is either
unwilling or unable to change before his departure. The question
is will the next president rise to this monumental challenge now
facing America?.
Source: www.middleeasttimes.com
International
India struggles to
keep food cheap for poor as prices soar
AFP, New Delhi
Anand's restaurant has served flat bread,
lentils and vegetables to loyal customers every day for
four decades but for the past year he's been on the
receiving end of almost non-stop complaints.
"They argue because we've raised prices. But we had to
increase them because everything-wheat, butter and
vegetables-has gone up," says Sanjay Anand,
second-generation owner of the restaurant in New Delhi's
Connaught Place.
Small restaurants like his, as well as hundreds of
millions of people across India have been hit by a huge
surge in demand and prices for food worldwide.
The price hikes have triggered government anxiety over
whether it can continue to ensure supply of affordable
food for the country's 1.1 billion people.
Analysts say India-which produces most of its own food,
exports surplus items such as sugar and heavily subsidises
supplies for the poor-has so far managed to avoid severe
price shocks.
But it is facing the same mix of factors as other nations
that are grappling with rising food prices-higher incomes
are boosting demand for protein, surging demand for energy
is pressuring oil prices, and diversion of agricultural
land to urbanisation and industrialisation, as well as
grain production for biofuels, is pushing land values sky
high.
"Of course India is impacted by global events," said
Saumitra Chaudhuri, economic advisor at Indian credit
rating agency ICRA.
"The question is whether there'll be a supply response.
Better yielding seeds, irrigation, technology and more
efficient distribution can and probably will have a major
impact.
"But it will take a little time and we're likely to see no
slack in demand or costs soon."
The price of wheat on the Chicago Board of Trade more than
doubled in the past year to a record high above 10.60
dollars a bushel for March delivery.
That means India's government will have to boost the
subsidies it pays to wheat farmers-and those extra costs
have to be passed on to customers in restaurants like
Anand's.
His price for one roti, or flat bread, has risen 33
percent to three rupees (one US cent) in the past year.
For the Indian government, subsidies to feed the poor have
more than doubled in the past five years to seven billion
dollars.
Along with other efforts such as selling transport fuel
below market rates to stem inflation, India now spends
more than 15 percent of its budget attempting to control
food prices.
"The government would never scrap food and fuel subsidies.
It's politically impossible and as we've seen can lead to
strikes and protests," Chaudhuri said.
"It's also not sustainable beyond a point and if costs
such as wages and other inputs keep going up, other things
will fall by the wayside, like roads, power and other
infrastructure which just aggravate the problem."
Musharraf vows free and fair elections
AFP, Islamabad
Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf pledged Thursday that
next week's general elections will be free and fair, but
warned that any opposition protests against the result
would be crushed.
His warning came as the widower of slain former premier
Benazir Bhutto urged thousands of supporters to "besiege"
polling stations to prevent rigging and threatened mass
agitation if fraud denies his party victory.
Musharraf said the success of the "mother of all
elections" was crucial for international efforts to
stabilise the militancy-hit, nuclear-armed nation, a key
ally in the US-led "war on terror."
"Despite all the insinuation and apprehensions, the
elections will be free, fair, transparent and peaceful. It
is my pledge to the nation," Musharraf said at a special
government conference shown live on state television.
"No disruption or violence will be allowed. If people
think they can come on streets after the elections,
nothing of that sort will be allowed," added Musharraf,
who seized power in a coup in 1999.
Pakistan was convulsed by violent demonstrations after
Bhutto's assassination at an election rally in December.
Her killing forced the postponement of the vote by six
weeks. Opposition parties have accused Musharraf's regime
of trying to rig the polls as his enemies could seek his
impeachment if they win a two-thirds majority in
parliament next week.
Musharraf dismissed a series of opinion polls showing his
popularity in freefall. The latest, commissioned by the
BBC, showed nearly two-thirds of people regard him as an
obstacle to stability and three-quarters want him to quit.
Shortly after the president spoke, Bhutto's husband Asif
Ali Zardari addressed at least 20,000 Pakistan People's
Party supporters amid heavy security at a rally in the
industrial city of Faisalabad.
"We are not afraid of them. We will besiege the polling
stations till the election results are announced in the
presence of the party's polling agents," Zardari told the
cheering crowd from behind a bulletproof screen.
Zardari earlier warned in an interview with AFP that he
may call for civil disobedience if "pre-rigging" by the
authorities robs his party of victory.
"We will call for all the political forces to get
together, and together we shall decide how to take the
people to the streets, how to do political agitation
enough to get our point of view across," he said late
Wednesday.
Hezbollah declares ‘open war’ on Israel
AFP, Gaza City
Lebanon's
Hezbollah opposition chief declared "open war" on Israel
on Thursday as hundreds of thousands of government
supporters filled central Beirut to remember slain
ex-premier Rafiq Hariri.
In Washington meanwhile, US President George W. Bush
called for an end to foreign influence in the country.
"Zionists, if you want this kind of open war, then let the
whole world listen: Let this war be open," Hassan
Nasrallah said at the funeral of top Hezbollah commander
Imad Mughnieh, killed in Damascus on Tuesday by a car
bombing blamed on Israel.
"The blood of Imad Mughnieh will contribute to the
disappearance of the Jewish state," said Nasrallah, whose
fighters claimed victory in the devastating July-August
2006 war against Israel.
"You killed him outside our natural battleground. Our
battleground with you is on Lebanese territory and you
have overstepped the border."
Israel has welcomed Mughnieh's killing but denied any
involvement. Military radio there desaid Nasrallah was
openly threatening Israeli targets abroad, and the
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