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Leading
News
'Silent famine' prevails in
country now, observes Dr Akbar
UNB, Dhaka
Regulatory Reforms
Commission chairman Dr Akbar Ali Khan on Friday made a
stark observation that the country is now passing through
a "silent famine" following intolerable price hike of
essentials and many other socio-economic crises.
"About 25-35 percent of the total population have to go
hungry as prices of essentials have increased 30-40 per
cent. Moreover, prices of specially those items that were
the only option for the poor have increased. Such a
situation is nothing but a silent famine," he said.
Dr Akbar Ali, also a former adviser of the caretaker
government, made the observations while talking to
journalists on the sidelines of a roundtable titled
'Sustainable Development in Bangladesh: to Meet the
Challenges of Future' at the National Press Club. The
country office of the United Nations Development Programme
(UNDP) and Bangladesh Institute of Development Studies
(BIDS) arranged the roundtable.
Dr Akbar Ali said income of the poor has not increased but
the commodity prices have increased manifold. "People are
living a life where there is no food, no future."
Asked about the way out from the prevailing famine-like
situation, the chairman of the RRC, a statutory body
formed by the present caretaker government for
recommending thorough legal reforms, said, "Democracy is
the best governance, which can play the desired effective
role for riddance from the present situation."
He also talked about different aspects of the long-awaited
general election and the issue of local election that
pushed the government and the political parties towards
debate and disbelief.
A plain-speaking Dr Ali said that in the past it was seen
that the then governments arranged local elections with an
evil purpose to influence the national elections.
"Moreover, we will have to be careful about the
consequences of holding the local elections in two
phases."
The government will have to keep it in mind that if they
arranged local election in two phases this time, then the
system would have to be kept unchanged in future also. "So
decision will have to be taken very thoughtfully and
considering the reality."
The noted former bureaucrat renewed his proposal for
holding the parliamentary and local government elections
simultaneously. "In many countries, including the United
States of America, polls of central and state governments
are arranged at a time. So our policymakers and political
parties can consider this option."
Asked about the upcoming budget, a second one under the
interim government of technocrats, Akbar Ali said, "Budget
should be passed by parliament according to our
constitution. So it cannot be desirable that a caretaker
government should formulate and pass a national budget."
Addressing the roundtable he said people are deluded by
the governments and other authorities about the country's
real condition in every sector.
"People and the world are being provided wrong and
distorted picture of the country. You will find in the MDG
book of the planning commission that only one percent of
the city people don't have access to pure drinking water,
which means that 99 percent have access to pure water. In
realty, most of the city residents don't have access to
pure drinking water.
"I ask those persons who have provided the government with
such wrong information to drink WASA waters for seven
days. If after this they can survive in the world, then I
will agree to the government statistics." He also gave
several other examples where government-provided
statistics are completely wrong.
"According to the latest government statistics, only 13
percent of the youth don't have employment. Is this
information (about unemployment) true? No, in reality, the
number is much higher," he said.
He suggested that the government should dig deep into the
existing problems and make immediate intervention, in view
of the real picture of the country, for a better future.
Roundup of Prices of Essentials
F. M. Masum
Just after the government
vowed to take action against responsible for price hike of
daily essentials, the price of edible oil has started
coming down slightly in the wholesale markets while the
pulses are still on the rise and the price of different
varieties of rice remain unchanged in the city markets.
But various items of coarse rice have gone up by Tk 1-2
per kg compared to that last week in the city markets
following the rice laden truck which stuck on the Indian
side of border due to its recent export restrictions.
Yesterday lentils was selling at Tk 95 per kg, up by Tk 5
just in a span of week, breaking all the record and in the
retail markets, Soyabean was selling at Tk 125 per kg on
last Saturday while it was selling at Tk 118 per kg
yesterday.
As the government previous strategy failed to curb the
rising prices of essentials Chief adviser on Tuesday
directed the advisers and agencies concerned to find out
mechanism to keep prices of essentials, especially the
edible oil, rice and pulses, under control.
The government is considering reducing the duty on edible
oil import and different agencies have been asked to
submit reports to the authorities as to whether reduction
in import duty will curb edible oil price or not, after
examining the market situation.
The sources said the caretaker government is facing
serious embracement for continuous price hike of daily
commodities and now it is weighing options including
importing edible oil through Trading Corporation
Bangladesh and Bangladesh Rifles to control the abnormal
price hike.
On Friday, coarse rice like Lata was selling between Tk 34
and Tk 35 per kg, Pari Tk 33 and TK34 per kg, fine quality
Najirshail Tk 39 and Tk. 44, miniket at Tk 38 and Tk. 44
per kg and Polao rice at Tk 68 and Tk 80 per kg. Besides,
the consumers feared that as the price monitoring is
totally abandoned, so the prices of other commodities
could go up further if the Government does not take
immediate action against the unscrupulous businessmen
responsible for the price hike.
Some consumers said, "The Government should distribute
more VGF cards to the poor to help them in the critical
juncture by providing at least two meal a day . Besides,
it also can set up more BDR shops across the country to
make the availability of rice at a lower price."
Meanwhile, Tanvir Alam, a rice whole-seller in the city's
Jatrabari, said, "The price hike of Indian rice had a
great impact on the rice price of our country. When India
decided that it would not sell rice to Bangladesh, a
certain quarter of businessmen have increased the rice
price spreading a rumor in the markets saying, there is
limited supply of rice in the markets and the rice price
also has gone up international market."
But retailers alleged that only the whole-sellers are
responsible for the rice price hike as even after having
enough supply of rice, they often create artificial crisis
by hoarding rice in their stocks.
Yesterday, Ruhi was selling at Tk 180-220 per kg, Hilsha
at Tk 340 per kg. Beef was selling at Tk 180 per kg and
chicken broiler at Tk 75 per kg. In spite of different
measures taken by the Dhaka City Corporation (DCC) to
assure the bird flu panic-stricken people that avian
influenza-attacked chicken can be eaten after proper
cooking, but as of previous week, few people were seen
buying chickens.
The price of other commodities including onion also has
gone up by Tk 2-3 per kg, green chilli remain unchanged
but the fish price are still on the rise after a severe
damage by the recent bird flu in the country's poultry
industry. Yesterday, imported onion was selling at Tk 16
per kg, local onion at Tk 24, imported lentils at Tk 95,
four at Tk 43 per kg. Potato was selling at Tk 14,
cucumber at Tk 20, tomato at Tk 18, Korola at tk 32 per
kg, bean at Tk 20 per kg.
Mystery
shrouds treatment of Hasina
Sahidul Islam Rana
Mystery shrouds the
treatment of the detained Awami League President Sheikh
Hasina - who has been undergoing treatment in capital’s
Square Hospital since Tuesday – as her personal physicians
were not allowed to see Hasina at all.
Besides, both Jail and Hospital authorities passed up the
newsmen, waiting at the hospital premises, since morning
although earlier two separate press briefings were
scheduled.
No doctors of the newly formed seven member team of the
Square Hospital led by Prof Sanwar Hossain, Director
Medical Services and Consultant Surgery, not available for
their comments.
A doctor preferring anonymity told The Bangladesh Today,
"The Jail authorities imposed a restriction on disclosing
anything about ailing Hasina’s health condition. As per
the prescriptions of her private physicians, some medical
tests including blood, urine and other gynecological tests
are being conducted."
About the health condition of Hasina, DIG Prisons Major
Shamsul Haider Siddique told this correspondent, "Sheikh
Hasina’s private physicians only advised to send her
abroad without completing any tests. As per their
prescriptions, the tests are going on. An eye specialist
saw her yesterday and an ultra-sonogram will be completed
today (Friday)."
"I met the AL President from 12pm to 1:30 pm yesterday and
she is quite well. Her tests are being carried out in
phases. After getting all tests’ reports, the Jail
authorities will form a medical board to take the final
decision," Major Siddiue, who left the Square Hospital
silently yesterday afternoon, told this correspondent over
phone in the evening.
"No medical board was formed regarding the treatment of
the former premier, only some physicians are now
supervising the heath condition. The media personnel will
be informed formally, if any medical board is formed," he
added.
Meanwhile, replying to a query of the newsmen, Home
Adviser M A Matin said,
"We cannot take any final decision according to suggestion
of the doctors of a certain political party as we have
some rules and regulations which must be followed. The
Government is sympathetic enough about the ailing detained
two leaders. And the necessary step would be taken as soon
as it is required," he added. About medical board, the
Adviser said, "Sheikh Hasina has been given 20 to 22
medical tests and let her carry out those check-ups first.
If the doctors express their inability about her proper
treatment, a medical board would be formed."
Squabbles
in BNP continues
Staff Correspondent
BNP's reformist faction and a section of loyalist faction
under the leadership of Hannan Shah and Goyeshwar are
tossing up ideas for holding another standing committee
meeting soon to pave the way for reuniting the two rival
factions of BNP.
According to sources, Hannan Shah has already started
communicating with the standing committee members to this
end. In the meantime standing committee members Tanveer
Ahmed Siddiqui and Khandoker Mahbub Uddin Ahmed have
visited the New DOHS residence of Hannan Shah. Mushiqur
Rahman, one of the members of BNP chairperson's advisory
council, also met Hannan Shah at his residence.
The standing committee will discuss how the party can run
in absence of Begum Khaleda Zia. "We want to hold a
standing committee meeting which will replace acting
Secretary General Maj (retd) Hafizuddin Ahmed by Khandoker
Delwar Hossain, but Saifur Rahman will remain the acting
chairman of the party," a key reformist said this while
talking to this correspondent.
Both Hannan Shah and Major (retd) Hafiz have recently
called for standing committee members to play a role in
absence of Begum Zia to defuse the stalemate in the party.
Sources in the reformists said, they want to reunite the
party before the verdict of the Begum Zia's writ is
delivered. Meanwhile, the Election Commission is
requesting the court repeatedly to give a judgment,
whatever it is, as the EC is to hold dialogue with BNP
before going for enacting any laws.
Meanwhile, Brig (retd) ASM Hannan Shah on Friday
reiterated that the unity will take place in BNP and the
conspiracy of a certain group who are working to keep the
party divided would not be successful.
Brushing asides the media report that he was planning to
keep the party Secretary General Khandoker Delwar Hossain
out of party activities, Hannan said, "I strongly protest
this. I want to say that Delwar Hossain will run the party
once he comes back to the country after treatment."
Challenges
to Sustainable Dev
Staff Correspondent
A huge amount of land tax could not be realized
due to lack of a 'land policy' in the country over the
last 36 years. This was stated at a discussion on the
"Sustainable Development in Bangladesh: To Meet the
Challenges of Future," organised by the local United
Nations Development Programme (UNDP) office at the
National Press Club in the city on Friday. Calling upon
the government to formulate a land policy to stop
unplanned and unapproved utilization of land and
increase the amount of land tax collection to a large
extent. Unplanned and unapproved use of land by a
section of people and indiscriminate implementation of
development projects are causing serious environment
pollution in the country, they observed.
The country is going through a social and economic
transformation. These rapid changes in the economic,
social and political life have enormous impact on the
country's ecosystems and resources. Works on most of the
development projects result in environment pollution and
these development projects are not sustainable. To make
the result of development works sustainable, the
development projects has to be socially acceptable,
economically efficient and environmentally sustainable,
they said.
The future sustainable development lies in the evolution
of the character of governance-the ensemble of social
ethics, public policies and institutions which structure
how government, people and the civil society interact
with the environment. The government should pursue
active economic development without further degrading
their environment and ecosystem resources, they opined.
In the midst of widespread poverty and natural resource
depletion in the country, government ought to strive to
produce a proper mix of pro-environment and
pro-development policies.
Achieving sustainable development and addressing
emerging needs and development challenges of Bangladesh
require deep and sound structural changes for inclusive
and pro-poor growth with equity and justice, solid
democratic reforms and new ways of environmental
governance in market-based economics, sustainable
natural resource management and assertive measures
towards ensuring consensus around a common goal.
Islamic
Political Parties Oppose Women Rights
Staff Correspondent
The leaders of different Islamic political parties
threatened to go for a countrywide movement if the
government does not cancel the laws against the Holy Quran
and Hadith over women rights. According to sources,
hundreds of activists of different Islamic political
parties including Law Implementation Committee of
Bangladesh, Islamic Constitution Movment, Hijbut Tahrir
and Khelafat-e-Majlis assembled at the north gate of
National Mosque after completing the Jumma prayer and
brought out a procession protesting against the
implementation of the equalization laws of male and
female. The activists started marching towards the Paltan
crossing, shouting slogans.
Several hundreds of police created a barricade at Paltan
crossing when hundreds of leaders and activists reached
there at about 3 pm. The agitated marchers and leaders
staged demonstration occupying the street and stayed there
till 3.10 pm.
The agitated leaders addressing the meeting after the
procession said that a countrywide movement will be
launched if the government does not observe the terms and
conditions of Holy Quran over women related issues. The
government in association with some controversial
officials is trying to make law repugnant to the
injunctions of the Holy Quran, they also said.
Due to the agitation programme, the traffic movement from
Gulistan to Kakrail crossing and Motijheel to Segunbagucha
via Paltan remained virtually halted for more than one and
half hours from 1:55 pm. Following the incident, a huge
contingent of police and Rapid Action Battalion were
deployed in and around the area for maintaining law and
order.
War
criminals to get benefit from convention scrapping:
Sector commanders
Bdnews24, Dhaka
The Sector Commanders Forum on Friday condemned the
government's scrapping of a March 15 convention on war
crimes and said it would simply benefit war criminals.
Former Air Force chief AK Khandker, who heads the forum,
however vowed to continue their movement to demand trials
of the war criminals. At a news conference at the National
Press Club, Khandker said they would soon announce a fresh
programme for their cause. The forum, a platform of the
commanders who led 11 sectors during the 1971 Liberation
War, had planned the convention for Saturday at
Bangladesh-China Friendship Conference Centre but the
government Thursday did not give permission for security
reasons.
The Dhaka Metropolitan Police said it feared "rioting" if
the convention went on.
Khandker, deputy chief of command during the Liberation
War, said the DMP's move was "illogical". "The government
decision has benefited the party, which has no right to do
politics in Bangladesh," he said, pointing to the
Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh. He said the forum had recently
held such convention at six divisional headquarters to
collect support for their movement but there had been no
chaos.
"Now we fail to understand why the government smells chaos
in the national convention," Khandker said. The forum
applied to authorities on Jan 3 for holding the convention
but the cancellation decision came only 36 hours before
the programme, he said. "Many freedom fighters now living
abroad came to join the convention. We are ashamed of this
cancellation decision," he said. Former army chief and
sector commander KM Shafiullah said they were shocked by
the decision. Mir Shawkat Ali, another sector commander,
warned that the government should know the difference
between its friends and foes.
The forum announced observance of one minute "blackout" at
one minute past midnight on March 25 demanding trial of
the war criminals. Liberation War sector commanders
retired major general KM Shafiullah, retired major general
CR Dutta, retired lieutenant colonel Abu Osman Chowdhury
and the forum coordinator retired lieutenant general Harun-or-Rashid
and journalist Fayez Ahmed also attended the news briefing
along with scores of freedom fighters.
Back Page
RMG Sector
Garment Unrest
Govt to take legal action
against the
mid-level management
Rabiul Islam
The Government would take
legal action against employees of the mid-level management
in garment factories for misbehaviour with workers. "We
have warned the representatives of the mid-level
management of the garment factories of legal action if
they don't change hostile behaviour with the workers",
said a Labour and Employment Ministry official. The
ministry held a meeting with the representatives of the
mid-level management with the labour Secretary in the
chair at the Secretariat on Wednesday. The workers in the
RMG sector create unrest due to hostile behabiour of the
employees of the mid-level management, the meeting
observed.
The representatives of the mid-level management at the
meeting said the workers sometimes create unrest for delay
in paying workers' wages, the officials said. They
informed the Government officials that the workers now
demand hike of their wages due to soaring prices of
essentials. Some NGOs train up workers about their rights
and these NGOs at first teach them that the garment owners
exploit the workers as much as they can. Unrest in the
garment factories can be checked if the owners train the
workers and make them aware of their rights and labour
laws, the employees of the mid-level management suggest
the Government officials who attended the meeting. The
labour adviser asked all factory owners to pay the workers
in time to check the unrest in the garment sector. He also
instructed the authorities concerned to constitute a
welfare committee comprising of five to ten members to
address the problems of the workers. He suggested that the
factory owners should sit with the workers at least once a
month to know about the problems of workers as it would
improve the relationship between the workers and the
factory owners.
Water-Crisis in Capital
Staff Correspondent
Ahead of the World Water Day
on March 22, residents in different areas of the capital
are facing serious water crisis due to frequent load
shedding, drastic fall in ground water level, faulty
distribution pipelines, and illegal connections. "The deep
tubewells and water treatment plants some times become
inoperative when electricity goes off. As a result the
city dwellers have to face water crisis. On the other
hand, following the indiscriminate construction of high
rise and multi-storied buildings and population increase
in the capital, it is becoming very difficult for WASA to
meet the growing demand of water," sources in the Dhaka
Water and Sewerage Authority (WASA) told The Bangladesh
Today on Friday.
"As the Sayedabad Water Treatment Plant produce 22 crore
liters of water, the WASA has set up a generator for the
plant. So the city people would not have to suffer water
crisis," talking to this correspondent an official of WASA
said. Replying to a query, he said as the work on water
pump is going on at Rampura, the residence of that area,
are facing water crisis.
But PDB sources said to free the capital from load
shedding, the authorities had directed the PDB to supply
power from other areas of the country. Another source in
the WASA said the main reason for the water crisis is the
corruption and malpractices resorted to by a section of
WASA employees engaged in underhand dealing with consumers
and mismanagement. On the other hand, most of the deep
tube wells of WASA are equipped with generators, so power
supply is not a problem, he added.
Girls outclass boys in secondary edn
UNB, Dhaka
Stipend
programmes at the secondary level need to be reformed
immediately as the spectacular growth in female secondary
education has put boys at a distinct disadvantage, making
the national goal to achieve gender equality a far cry.
A World Bank report, 'Whispers to Voices: Gender and
Social Transformation in Bangladesh', revealed the
findings.
The report, released here Thursday, said the government
needs to be cognizant of this new challenge without any
further delay and scholarship programmes at the secondary
level should to be redesigned to make it more equitable.
It found that boys enrollment at all levels is lower than
that of girls except when they get to grade 11 and the
incentives of the Female Secondary School Stipend
Programme (FSSSP), which provides cash support to girls
from grades 6-10, no longer applies.
The WB report described the newly emerged problem as "one
of major issues confronting policymakers and practitioners
in Bangladesh today is the "boys left behind" phenomenon.
It said some recent studies have addressed this issue and
hypothesised that the causes for this lie in the direct
and indirect effects of the FSSSP.
"Adolescent boys are less likely to remain in school and
more likely to do wage work following the introduction of
the stipend scheme. Thus parents may have decided to send
adolescent girls to school and adolescent boys to work in
response to the financial incentives created by the
stipend programme," the report said.
It said the relative fall in enrolment of boys in
coeducational schools suggest that the FSSSP aided the
process of closing gender gap not solely by raising female
enrolment, but also in an unintended way by cutting back
on the participation of boys in secondary schools.
Quoting some other studies, the WB report said
discrimination against women in the labour market may also
play a part. Thus if a daughter's job prospects are lower
than son's and the FSSSP is providing a monetary incentive
to families to keep girls in school, families would choose
to keep the daughter in school and send the son to work.
Education researchers described such emerging concerns as
strong barriers to the path of achieving balanced
development of gender equality.
"In such a situation where boys' attendance to schools is
decreasing, the government and other concerned agencies
should redesign the development programmes without delay,"
said Sheikh Shahbaz Riad, who is working for the
development of secondary education.
He said there are thousands of boys in the country who are
too poor to go to school. "Without ensuring their
enrollment, we cannot expect a balanced, sustainable
development. The government can arrange stipend programmes
for such poor boys too," he said.
Crime Watch
One killed in city
Staff Correspondent
One young man was killed in a gun attack by a gang of
miscreants at north Jatrabari in the capital on Thursday
night.
The deceased was identified as Masud Rana alias Babu, 28,
expatriate of Kuwait and son of Hashem Ali of Manik Nagar
area.
According to police, a gang of four to five criminals
equipped with firearms swooped on Babu while he was
returning home on foot alongside the Manwara Hospital at
about 8:30 pm. The gang started firing indiscriminately
and managed to flee the spot leaving him critically
injured. Soon after the information, family members rushed
to the spot and sent him to the Dhaka Medical College
Hospital where the attending physician declared him dead.
Family sources said, Babu had left the house at about 2 pm
but did not come back.
A case was lodged but police could neither arrest anyone
nor find out any clue behind the murder till the filing of
the report last night.
Robbers-lynched
UNB, Gazipur
Two suspected robbers were beaten to death and two others
injured critically by angry mob in river Sitalakkhya in
Sreepur upazila here Thursday night.
Local people said a gang of robbers came by a trawler to
Singhasree area on the bank of the river under Kapasia
upazila at midnight and tried to commit robbery there.
As the locals started shouting, hundreds of nearby people
came to the spot and chased the robbers. Sensing danger
when the bandits were trying to flee by the trawler the
chasing people caught four of them.
They later gave them a mass beating leaving two of them
dead and two others seriously injured. On information,
Sreepur thana police recovered the bodies. The identities
of the deceased and injured robbers could not be known
immediately.
Husband hacks wife to death
UNB, Noakhali
A man hacked his wife to death at Chhoto Khanpur village
in Begumganj upazila Thursday midnight.
The deceased was identified as Rehana Akhter Lovely, 28,
wife of Abul Khayer.
Police quoted neighbours as saying that Khayer hacked his
pregnant wife, a mother of a child, indiscriminately on
Thursday midnight, killing her on the spot.
Police recovered the body and arrested Khayer Friday
morning.
During interrogation, Khayer confessed his guilt, but did
not disclose the reason behind the killing, police said.
Four arrested on extortion charge
UNB, Pirojpur
Four people, including a police constable, were arrested
while demanding extortion from a man at Tiarkhali village
in Mathbaria upazila Thursday.
The arrested were identified as constable Chandra Shekhar
of district police lines and Rubel, 32, Mozibar, 28, and
Liton, 30, of the village.
Witnesses said Chandra Shekhar and his colleague Javed
came to the village in the morning and introduced
themselves as members of joint forces to the villagers.
Later, the two policemen entered Amir Hossain's house with
the help of three local youths -- Rubel, Mojibar and Liton
and charged that he had stockpiled ganja in his house.
At one stage, they beat up Amir Hossain and his family
members and demanded Tk 10,000 as tolls.
Hearing screams, neighbours rushed in and caught
red-handed constable Chandra Shekhar and the three youths
and handed over them to police. Constable Javed, however,
managed to flee the scene.
When produced a local court sent them to jail hajat
rejecting their bail prayers.
Two held, fake notes seized
UNB, Dinajpur
Police arrested two people along with fake notes of Tk
25,000 from Gazipur village in Nababganj upazila Thursday.
The arrested were identified as Laisur Rahman, 40, and
Wahedur Rahman, 38.
Police said acting on a secret information they
intercepted Laisur and Wahedur and recovered 55 notes of
Tk 100 and 39 notes of Tk 500 denominations after
searching their bodies. A case was filed.
Prisoner dies in jail
UNB, Dinajpur
A prisoner died of cardiac arrest at district jail here
Thursday, jail sources said. Jail authority said Dulal
Chakravarty fell unconscious while taking bath in a pond
in the jail compound. He was taken to jail hospital
immediately.
Later, he was rushed to Dinajpur Medical College Hospital
where the attending doctors declared him dead.
Dulal hailed from Rajbati Gunjobari area of Sadar upazila.
He was arrested seven days ago under Narcotics Control
Act.
Family sources claimed that Dulal died due to torture in
the jail.
Phensidyl, ganja recovered
BSS, Joypurhat
Members of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) of Joypurhat
camp recovered 1,240 bottles of Indian phensidyl, 19 kg
ganja and other smuggled goods.
The RAB sources said that 12 persons were arrested in
those connection.
The RAB seized the items as part of the anti-smuggling
drive and side by side anti-drug drive from March 6 to 12.
During the week long drive, the RAB also recovered
different kinds of Indian goods including jute seeds, silk
saris and sun glasses.
BSS from Satkhira adds: Members of Bangladesh Rifles (BDR)
and Police in separate drives at Devhata upazila of the
district recovered 970 bottles of phensidyl on Thursday.
The police also arrested one person in a pre-dawn swoop
from Komorepur frontier area on Thursday with three-carton
phensidyl containing 520 bottle.
The arrested was identified as Shafiqul Islam, 22.
Police constable suspended
A Correspondent, Rangpur
A Police constable of Gangachara police station was
suspended for his alleged involvement in taking bribe from
an acid victim, on Tuesday.
Police and the witness said, Ismot Ara (28) resident of
Uttam Hazirhat Bonikpara under sadar upazilla of the
district was victimized as acid was hurled in her last
September by one Alefuddin and his associate, Azizul
Islam, residents of the same area for her refusal to their
marriage advances.
The victim filed case against the miscreants with the
Kotowali police station and bribed the police constable,
Mansur Ali taka two thousands so that the accused could
not get rid off and would receive exemplary punishment.
Later, the alleged law enforcing personnel deleted the
accused names from the charge sheet.
Ismot Ara found the police constable on Monday at court
squire and asked for the money she paid him.
Being informed the DB Police held them both. Later the
complainant, Ismot Ara was released. The district police
administration suspended the accused police constable,
Mansur Ali who was recently transferred to Gongachara
upazilla from Kotowali.
The investigative officer, Ajijul Islam, of the case said
he investigated into the case and found it false.
He also has submitted the final investigation report
recommending the removal of the case.
Paritosh Ghosh, Additional Police super of the district
admitted the fact.
65 persons arrested
BSS, Rangpur
Police arrested a total of 65 persons including notorious
criminals on different charges from various places of all
eight upazilas in the district during the past 48 hours
till this noon.
Police said the arrested persons included listed
terrorists, drug traders and smugglers, addicts, gamblers,
absconding accused persons in different cases, rapists,
drug-peddlers, muggers, thieves, extortionists and other
anti-social elements.
Editorial
Human Rights in Bangladesh
In
the last few months Bangladesh came under considerable
scrutiny for its widespread violations and abuses of human
rights: in January 2008 the Secretary General of Amnesty
International came to Bangladesh to express her concerns about
abuses of human rights prevailing in the Country; in February
2008, the Human Rights Watch World Report castigated
Bangladesh for its continuous and increasing disregard of
human rights and now in March, the US State Department’s
Country Human Rights Report 2007 on Bangladesh has again
brought to the fore the issue of human rights. All of these
have received widespread media attention in Bangladesh clearly
pointing to the fact that government measures, both past and
present, even laws perpetuate abuses of human rights. These
reports and numerous studies on this subject indicate the
following reasons for violations of human rights:
(1) Tortures result from abuse of power & authority by
government officials, politicians and police while corruption,
burdensome bureaucracy and ineffective judiciary facilitate
abuses of power rather than accountability.
(2) Administrative detention laws and new laws to combat the
so called “law and order” situation have enabled law
enforcement agencies to abuse human rights with impunity and
create new victims. Some law-enforcement officers often arrest
and torture people for money or connive in the torture of
people in return for a bribe.
(3) Victims and their families are apprehensive of filing
complaints because when they do, they and their families are
subjected to further bouts of harassments and tortures by
police, local politicians or goons employed by politicians.
(4) Police and other law-enforcers accused of human right
violations are rarely investigated and even more rarely
charged or convicted because the police often falsify evidence
in connivance with the lower judiciary and local politicians
or local influential persons.
(5) The poor have always been the least protected against
human rights abuses and people with “connections” to
successive governments or regimes have been the most protected
against human rights abuses.
What does not catch media attention is the fact that as a
society we are violence prone and as a people we are no great
respecters of human rights. As a matter of fact more human
rights abuses are perpetrated by the people in general than by
law-enforcement agencies. Consider, for example, the
following:
l
We regularly abuse, verbally and physically, our household
help, sometimes to an extent that such abuses result in deaths
and severe injuries.
l
Mafias in our society regularly kidnap women and children and
sell them off as sex slaves or as bonded labor, often
trafficking them abroad.
l
Women and girls are regularly subjected to physical and mental
tortures in one form or another in most urban and rural
households; they are burned, hanged, chopped to death and have
acids thrown at them.
l
Thousand of our children are kidnapped, drugged, often maimed
and to set to begging in every street of every city of our
Country.
l
We severely discriminate against mentally and physically
handicapped person refusing them the basic rights to
education, health and employment.
l
Mobs in public spaces beat to death those suspected or caught
in criminal activities of various types and magnitudes.
Therefore we see that a whole culture of impunity in favor of
violators of human rights has developed in Bangladesh. This
has been possible because politicians make laws which
facilitate violations of human rights and governments are more
interested in enforcing those laws rather than the ones which
protect the rights of their own citizens. Human right
organizations, both at home and abroad, rarely pay attention
to the social dimensions of human rights violations preferring
to concentrate on more visible and media-saleable aspects of
it. Unless we can challenge the deep-rooted malice afflicting
our society in general, the propensity of human rights
violations will increase and no amount of reporting is going
to bring about a reduction in such violations.
Analysis
Will the world economy
collapse?
Will the world economy collapse? The rational
economic answer is – unlikely but not impossible. However,
politics can be irrational and therein lays the danger.
Sundeep Waslekar
I
don’t spend much time in blogosphere. It was purely by
accident that I came across The Big Picture blog, where Chris
Laudani has posted interesting predictions by the world’s
leading economists in the 1920s.
John Maynard Keynes said in 1927. “We will not have any
crashes in our time.” Dr Irving Fisher, another distinguished
economist, said on October 17, 1929. “Stock prices have
reached what looks like a permanently high plateau.” US
Treasury Secretary and Harvard Economic Society, among others,
publicly shared their confidence.
They were reflecting on the state of the economy that was
booming. It was a time when drivers and window cleaners
eves-dropped on the conversations of their patrons to collect
tips on shares. The DJ Index doubled from little less than 200
when Keynes made his prediction to almost 400 when Dr Fisher
announced the high plateau of the state of the market. Within
two weeks of Dr Fisher’s forecast, it had crashed by over 40%
to reach 200 again. All those who had invested their savings
from 1927 to 1929 were impoverished overnight. Several of them
committed suicide. By 1933, the DJ Index lost 90% of its value
from the day of Dr Fisher’s ‘high plateau’ proclamation to
reach 40. Industrial production declined by two-thirds. The
prices of farm land collapsed to nothing. The United States
imposed high trade barriers, inviting retaliation by 25 other
countries. Since Europe was dependent on exports to pay its
World War I debts and Japan to be able to import the most
basic necessities of life, high trade barriers devastated
their economies. The Germans elected Hitler, a failed artist,
to lead them. In Japan, too, nationalist extremism grew at a
fast pace. The World War II followed from 1939 to 1945.
Why should one recall those dreadful days when the US economy
has been growing at 3.5-4% almost since the beginning of this
decade? Moreover aren’t these boom times in Asia, with China
and India growing at 9%? Finally Germany and Japan are also on
the recovery path. There is a big party going on. The bars of
Pudong, Ginza and Colaba are packed with young people high on
martinis. Housemaids in Asia and taxi drivers in Europe and
North America can be seen soliciting stock market tips from
their patrons. Housing prices are moving up, up and up. If Dr
Fisher were alive, he would proclaim this time that the stock
markets all over the world have not yet reached their plateau.
There are miles to climb before they reach their peak.
The problem is that much of US recovery is made possible by
high consumer spending, financed by debt, except in Q2 of 2007
when exports contributed significantly to growth. The US
public debt has increased from $5.5 trillion at the time of
President Bush’s first election to $9 trillion now and perhaps
$10-11 trillion by the time he leaves. The US currency has
been depreciated by 0.9 at the end of 2000 to almost 1.40 by
the end of 2007 against Euro. If the US current account
balance and external debt continue to expand, at some stage
the fall of dollar, rise in interest rates and recession may
prove to be difficult to avoid. The critical question is if
the dollar will fall below 1.5 against Euro, and if it does,
at what rate of dollar the creditors will press the panic
button.
If the President who succeeds George Bush in January 2009
accords top priority to restoring order in trade and current
account balances in well-coordinated steps with main trading
partners and Fed holds the interest rates at the current
level, it should be possible for the United States to
restructure its economy slowly. It will be in the interest of
China, Japan, India, Europe and main oil exporters to
cooperate with the US to protect dollar and their export
prospects in the long run. We can expect them to provide a
rational response.
However, if the new President gets too trapped in a war to
sort the economy out, the dollar can collapse in an
unpredictable and violent manner. As most central banks have
two third of their foreign exchange reserves in dollars– and
the Chinese have already lost $300 billion for this sin – they
will have no option but to switch from dollar holdings to
other currencies or gold. This will create a run on the
dollar, forcing individuals around the world with dollar
holdings to lose their savings, leaving Federal Reserve with
no option but to hike interest rates, inviting collapse of
thousands of banks and recession in the United States. The
failure of Doha talks is a clear indication that a strong
recession in the United States (with reduction in demand for
Chinese and European exports) will lead to a trade war.
China’s fragile banking system may come under pressure,
creating a spate of bankruptcies in that country. At such a
time, if the leaders of Iran, Russia, and Venezuela decide not
to quote oil contracts in dollars, there will be a complete
collapse of the American economy also causing a severe damage
to European and Asian economies.
Will the world economy collapse? The rational economic answer
is – unlikely but not impossible. However, politics can be
irrational and therein lays the danger. There is no consensus
among economists about why the crash of 1927 took place. So,
we may not have strong economic lessons to learn from that
experience. However, lessons from politics that preceded and
followed the crash are clear. If we want to avert a crash in
the next decade or half, which can have several times more
horrendous consequences than the one in the last century, we
will need to get both our politics and economics right.
(Sundeep Waslekar is the President of the Strategic Foresight
Group.
Source: www.strategicforesight.com)
Beyond
Cities
Large scale migration within countries, bringing people from
rural areas to urban centers with greater economic options,
has been the chief forces leading to the growth of megacities.
Ilmas Futehally
The
21st Century has been described as the century of the cities.
For the first time in history, more people live in cities
today than those that do not. To say that cities are growing
is to state the obvious- one can see it from our own windows.
However the rate of growth is frightening. Fifty years ago,
about 30% of the world’s population lived in an urban
environment. In a decade from now it will cross 60%.
At present there are about 440 cities with a population of
more than one million people. However, many of these are more
than cities. Indeed a special name has been coined for them-
Megacities. Megacities are defined as cities that have over a
10 million or residents. In 1950, there were 4 megacities
worldwide. By 1980, this number had increased to 28, by 2002
to 39. It is estimated that by 2015 there will be more than 59
megacities. Most of these are and will be in the developing
world.
Large scale migration within countries, bringing people from
rural areas to urban centers with greater economic options,
has been the chief forces leading to the growth of megacities.
Chinese government figures indicate that at least 210 million
rural laborers have migrated to urban areas in 2006. In the
first six months of 2007, the number of migrant workers
increased by 8.6 million, a year-on-year growth of 8.1
percent. The phenomenon has been described as the biggest
internal migration in the history of the world. As China’s
urban centers boom they are gobbling up farmland at a
voracious rate. A total of 16 million acres (6,475,000
hectares) have gone in the last 20 years creating a vicious
cycle that fuels the growth of megacities.
The vicious cycle is further reinforced by push factors such
as unemployment in rural areas, low agricultural productivity,
lack of educational facilities and opportunities. The economic
possibilities, attractive job prospects in cities act as pull
factors. But how long can this growth go on? In megacities
worldwide, we see infrastructure and basic utilities stretched
to the breaking point- roads, electricity and water are the
prime sufferers. A common sight that binds megacities of the
world are poor quality housing for new migrants (slums in
India, China, the Philippines, South Africa and Brazil),
protests from the “original residents” to the growing numbers
entering their cities on a daily basis and never ending
traffic jams.
The most dangerous trend in the manner that our megacities are
growing is the increasing gap between the rich and the poor.
In most cities, the five star hotels are a mere stone throw
away from the squalid living areas of large numbers of people.
If this disparity continues to grow, it will not be long
before the rising discontent in the overpopulated slums will
cause a real threat to the people living in ivory towers.
The biggest challenge that faces our urban policy makers and
planners is to manage the development of our cities in a
sustainable way, and to incorporate into their planning the
aspirations of the majority of the population- which in some
cities doubles every 10 to 15 years. It is debatable whether
technological fixes like wind turbines, new types of mass
transit systems, rooftop panels for solar energy and new
materials for the building industry will be able to deal with
the challenges that growing megacities will throw up in the
future. The only way to deal with the challenges of our cities
is to stop the migration into them by creating opportunities
in the rural areas –a real prosperity in the periphery-
creating an incentive for the rural people to live in dignity
in their own homes. If this does not happen, we will have to
seriously look at shifting to another planet.
(Ilmas Futehally is a researcher and correspondent for the
Strategic Foresight Group. Source: www.strategicforesight.com)
Vilifying
Arabs
Some Israelis and a large section of the
American Jewish community are uncomfortable about the
likelihood of the junior senator from Illinois becoming the
next president.
George S. Hishmeh
The
most exhilarating idea emerging from the ongoing and fiercely
competitive US primary election has been the likelihood of the
Democratic party's frontrunners - Hillary Clinton and Barack
Obama - running jointly as members of a "dream ticket" in the
upcoming national elections, regardless of who will be
president or vice president.
The point to emphasise here is that the pair, each very
popular but with a different segment of the population, will
mark the first opportunity for a white woman and a black man
to run for the country's two top positions, something unheard
of previously because of the ubiquitous racism and sexism in
the United States.
Whether this will be the case will depend on many significant
factors, not least of all the ongoing racist slurs that are
hurled at Obama, the tenderfoot senator from Illinois whose
father was a Kenyan Muslim who died in an automobile accident
and whose mother, a white American, passed away from cancer.
Despite his assertion that he is a practising Christian, he is
often suspected by various groups here and overseas that he is
a Muslim like his father, pointing that his middle name is
Hussein.
A prominent Israeli paper, Maariv, carried a disgusting
cartoon showing Obama painting the White House black. Some
Israelis and a large section of the American Jewish community
are uncomfortable about the likelihood of the junior senator
from Illinois becoming the next president.
Sadly, racism and sexism are still prevalent in the American
society. I recall when I came with my mother to the United
States to attend my brother's wedding in St. Louis, Mo., the
immigration officer in New York corrected my colour on the
immigration form to read "olive" rather than "white", which at
the time I disregarded, blaming my suntan acquired on Beirut's
glorious beaches.
Jack Shaheen, a Lebanese-American professor emeritus of mass
communication at Southern Illinois University, has just
published a new book titled "Guilty: Hollywood's Verdict on
Arabs after 9/11", in which he once again lambasts the
American movie industry for continuously smearing Arabs and
Muslims.
The prominent media critic, described as a "one-man
anti-defamation league", is the author of an earlier
pace-setting tome, "Reel Bad Arabs: How Hollywood Vilifies a
People", in which he documents and castigates Hollywood's
negative stereotyping of Arabs and Muslims.
"As long as no one contests our nation's Islamophobia and
Arabophobia," Shaheen told this writer, "the myth, Arab -
Muslim - terrorist, will continue to poison our hearts and
minds."
He went on: "Obamaphobia will cease only when courageous
movers and shakers begin saying repeatedly and including clear
voices: "There's nothing wrong and everything right about
having an American Muslim seeking the presidency of the United
States."
He added: "Vote for Osama Hussein Arafat! When this happens,
we Americans will really have come a long way."
In his new and inspiring book, Shaheen observes that Arabs
remain "the most maligned group" in the history of Hollywood.
"Malevolent stereotypes equalling Islam and Arabs with
violence have endured for more than a century. Sweeping
mischaracterisations and omissions continue to impact us all."
His bottom line, which Arab-Americans and the Arab world
should recognise, is that "the historical and ongoing
connection between fiction film, public opinion and public
policies is real".
Despite his shocking revelation that the majority of
post-September 11 films continue, as they did in the past, to
"vilify" the Arab people, he said he was "somewhat encouraged"
that he has seen displayed "at times" on the silver screens
"more complex, even-handed Arab portraits than I have seen in
the past". He singled out "Babel", "Syriana" and "Yes".
(I would add "Rendition" which I saw last weekend).
Besides Hollywood, Shaheen equally castigates television
producers.
Although the majority of the three million Arab Americans are
Christians (and "four of five were born in the US) "TV
programmes present us as evil Muslims and link the Islamic
faith, a religion of peace, with violence".
Some recent TV producers, however, have eliminated these
"devastating" stereotypes. And here Shaheen notes that these
positive steps "reflect the wisdom of Senator Hillary Clinton
who, early on, stressed the importance of making Arab-American
contributions visible".
He recalled her remarks at a 1986 White House prayer breakfast
where she said: "The vast majority of Arabs and Muslims in the
United States are loyal citizens. ]Their] daily lives revolve
around work, family and community.... It's not fair to apply a
negative stereotype to all [Arabs and] Muslims."
As a way to do that, Shaheen proposes holding a major US-Arab
Entertainment Summit designed "to recognise, contest, and
correct images" so as to erase these negative portrayals and
humanise Arabs, as has been the case with the Germans and
Russians in yesteryears.
Shaheen single handedly took the admirable step of starting a
scholarship programme for Arab-American students "to major and
excel in media studies" - a step that ought to be duplicated
here and in the Arab world.
Source: jordantimes.com
Viewpoints
Quiet Continuity for
U.S.-India Relations
India’s relations with Iran have already shown
a capacity to raise hackles throughout Washington.
Daniel Markey
More
than anything else, the next president of the United States is
likely to pursue a steady, incremental policy of engagement
with India. No rollback, no fast track, just a workmanlike
consolidation of the new relationship that the Bush
administration forged with two Indian governments. This news
may be a letdown for fans of a stronger U.S.-India
partnership, since we are not likely to see the sorts of
breakthrough deals and high-stakes negotiations that have
characterized the recent past.
It is hard to find evidence that any one of the major U.S.
presidential contenders plans to place India at the center of
his (or her) foreign policy agenda. But it is nearly
impossible to identify one who would intentionally veer from
the new India-friendly status quo. In itself, this
transformation is significant. In American politics today,
India’s democratic institutions, rapid growth, and strategic
location make it an easy country to support.
Under Bush, the relationship – at least on the U.S. side – has
just about managed to escape the chains of the
nonproliferation debate and fly into a stable orbit at a
higher altitude. If the nuclear deal finally goes through, the
stage would be set for new and ambitious bilateral
initiatives. But there are reasons to suspect that “ambition”
may not be the defining characteristic of Washington’s India
policy over the next several years.
Given her status as the co-founder of the Senate India Caucus,
Hillary Clinton might appear the most ambitious of the field
when it comes to expanding and deepening the U.S.-India
partnership. That said, had it been her choice, Clinton
probably would have refrained from Bush’s go-for-broke nuclear
negotiations and would have placed a higher value on
non-proliferation norms and regimes. Because of this abiding
preference for building and sustaining international
institutions, we should expect any Democratic president to
emphasize working with India in the context of multilateral
institutions rather than investing Bush-like quantities of
political capital on bilateral U.S.-India relations.
For their own reasons, leading Republicans also appear to be
looking for ways to weave India into a wider multilateral web
of one sort or another. Giuliani has, for instance, suggested
expanding NATO to include India, and McCain advocates focusing
more attention on the U.S.-India-Japan-Australia quadrilateral
of Asia-Pacific democracies. Given the magnitude of immediate
foreign policy challenges that any new president will face –
Iraq, Afghanistan, North Korea, Iran, and Israel/Palestine, to
name a few – it would not be surprising that he or she might
be tempted to buttonhole New Delhi into a broader multilateral
agenda, lumping India into other regional or functional
groupings rather than treating it on its own terms.
If the past is any indication, taking the U.S.-India
relationship into the multilateral arena is a recipe for slow
progress at best, frustration and stalemate at worst. The very
complexity of multilateral diplomacy tends to impede action.
And at present, there are no existing institutional settings
that stand out as venues for meeting the highest priority
needs of both Washington and New Delhi. To fill this gap, new
institutions must be built or existing ones expanded, never a
straightforward process. Where the United States and India
already meet in international settings, like the United
Nations or the World Trade Organization, they tend to part
ways as often as they join forces.
Should U.S.-India engagement lose momentum, past points of
discord between Washington and New Delhi are more likely to
attract attention in the White House or on the Hill.
Differences over Burma will continue to rankle. Trade
disputes, including the politically charged subject of
“outsourcing,” could regain prominence. If the nuclear deal
remains in limbo, it is hard to imagine the next president
shepherding a new nuclear deal though Congress with anything
approaching Bush’s zeal. And India’s relations with Iran have
already shown a capacity to raise hackles throughout
Washington.
That said, whatever visions (or lack of vision) U.S.
presidential candidates now have of India might be disrupted
by unforeseen events over the next five years. Just as 9/11
and Iraq distracted the Bush administration from its initial
concentration on Asia, great power politics, and high-tech
military transformation, a new crisis or shifting
circumstances could dramatically raise India’s profile.
Obvious triggers for change include Pakistan’s worrisome
fragility and China’s unrivalled growth.
Finally, New Delhi will play an enormous part in shaping the
next president’s view of India. Recall the Vajpayee
government’s surprisingly positive reception of Bush’s missile
defense policy, or Prime Minister Singh’s unanticipated desire
to press boldly ahead with nuclear negotiations. In each
instance, India’s leaders chose to make themselves more
relevant to Washington. So in order to avoid benign but
back-burner treatment by the new White House occupant, New
Delhi may need to take the first move.
(Daniel Markey is Senior Fellow for India, Pakistan, and South
Asia at the Council on Foreign Relations. He served on the US
State Department’s Policy Planning Staff from 2003 to 2007.
Source: www.cfr.org)
Big Bang vs. Chaos: Israel's Escalation of Violence?
Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak wanted to demonstrate to
the Israeli public that he was “doing something” about the
regular launching of rockets from Gaza.
Ramzy Baroud
Why
did Israel attack Gaza with such brutality? Did Israeli
officials think, even for a fleeting moment, that their
army's attacks could halt, as opposed to intensify,
Palestinian rockets or retaliatory violence? Indeed, was
Palestinian violence at all relevant to the Israeli
action? Was the Israeli bloodletting in Gaza solely
relevant to the Gaza-Hamas context, or is there a regional
dimension that is largely being overlooked?
In an Al-Jazeera English TV discussion, Israeli journalist
Gideon Levy and Al-Quds Al-Arabi editor-in-chief Abd Al-Bari
Atwan, attempted to decipher Israel's actions in Gaza
which have, since Feb. 27, killed more than 120
Palestinians in six days. These brutal attacks were
followed by incursions and further violence, including an
attack on a Jewish seminary school in Jerusalem.
Levy explained that Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak
wanted to demonstrate to the Israeli public that he was
"doing something" about the regular launching of rockets
from Gaza. Although Levy wasn't justifying the Israeli
government's inhumane and misguided logic, he disagreed
with Atwan over the use of terminology. The latter (who is
also an outstanding journalist) had asserted that the
killings in Gaza represented a form of "genocide" and
"ethnic cleansing." Arab intellectuals, often wary of the
use of certain terminology -- since Western sensibilities
don't accept associating Israel with genocide and ethnic
cleansing -- became less hesitant after Israeli Deputy
Defense Minister Matan Vilnai warned Palestinians in a
radio interview to expect a "bigger Holocaust."
But terminology aside, are we to really believe that the
wanton killing in Gaza-- a major violation of
international and humanitarian laws -- was meant to send a
message to the Israeli public, or to carry out genocide
for its own sake?
In my view, historically, Israel's behavior is always
politically motivated, and it never fails to keep a
regional picture in mind.
There are two lines of military logic that Israel resorts
to. One is motivated by the Chaos Theory, the idea that
seemingly minor events accumulate to have complex and
massive effects on dynamic natural systems. For example,
Gaza might have been attacked with the hope of provoking a
streak of suicide bombings that would eventually be blamed
on Syrian planning and Iranian financing -- thus provoking
a major showdown in Lebanon. The history of Israeli-Arab
conflicts demonstrates how many major invasions are
justified by seemingly irrelevant events, such as the 1982
Lebanon War.
But is Israel capable of sustaining another conflict in
Lebanon after its miserable failure in July-August 2006?
That's when the US becomes even more relevant. Just as
Israeli attacks occupied major headlines around the world,
the USS Cole and two additional ships -- including one
amphibious assault vessel - were quietly making their way
to the shores of Lebanon. The ships were dispatched as a
"show of support for regional stability," according to
Navy officials.
With the Gung-ho Bush administration's time in office
coming to an end and waning public enthusiasm for war
against Iran, Israel cannot afford allowing the regional
setup to be stacked in the following way: Hezbollah
dominating South Lebanon, Hamas dominating Gaza and Iran
becoming an increasingly formidable regional power.
This leads to the other line of Israeli military logic,
the Big Bang theory. The self-explanatory logic of this
theory is applicable in the sense that a regional war --
accompanied by mini civil wars in Palestine and Lebanon,
along with other attempts at destabilizing Iran and Syria
-- could work in Israel's favor. Under no condition would
the US be able stay out of such a conflict (considering
its regional interests, allies and own war in Iraq).
Vanity Fair's April issue, which revealed the sinister
role played by the Bush administration in organizing and
provoking a civil war amongst Palestinians, shows the
extent to which Bush is willing to go to achieve Israel's
objectives. More, it shows the willingness of various Arab
and Palestinian players to readily participate in the
bloody and costly US-Israeli ventures.
With all due respect to Levy and Atwan, I think Israel's
main aim was neither to send a message to its public nor
to commit genocide - though these are not unreasonable
possibilities. Indeed, the majority of the Israeli public,
according to a Tel Aviv University poll, wished that their
government would negotiate a cease-fire with Hamas, as
bombs were falling atop the hapless Gaza residents. The
facts --- as demonstrated by the US-Israeli role in the
turmoil in Lebanon, the consistent attempt to arraign
Iran, and the Israeli provocations and bombings in Syria
-- all indicate that Israel's plans are regional, with
Gaza being a testing ground, and the least costly target
to isolate and brutalize. Already a massive concentration
camp with a largely starving population, Gaza has provided
Israel with a perfect opportunity to start sending stern
messages to the other players in the region.
Source: www.arabnews.com
The stage is set for the polls
The Left now wants to have a meeting with the
UPA by using the coordination panel mechanism and sparks may
fly. On its part, the Congress is expected to re-assure the
Left parties.
Pankoj Vohra
The Indo-US nuclear
agreement which had been put in abeyance for some time and the
Rs 60,000 crore farm loan waiver dominated all political
activities last week. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who is
making every effort to evolve a consensus on the nuclear deal,
once again made a fervent appeal to the senior leaders to come
together for the future of the country. He appealed specially
to former Prime Minister and senior BJP leader A.B. Vajpayee
to act like a statesman and persuade his party to fall in
line.
If Singh succeeds, the Vajpayee factor will silence the
critics in the BJP and, therefore, change the support
structure for the treaty in Parliament. It is true that the
Parliament's endorsement for the treaty is not mandatory but
if the BJP backs the deal then there will be little doubt left
as to what was the sense of both Houses of Parliament. The
BJP's support for the deal if it comes, however, cannot be
seen as the end of ideological and political differences
between the Congress and the saffron brigade. It has to be
understood by everyone that the two parties can never be the
same, even though some recent responses of the UPA on several
issues are similar to those of the NDA in its last stages.
The Congress and the BJP can never be allies. As stated in
this column several times before, the BJP (from the Jana Sangh
days) and the CPI(M) have shared a close political association
with each other. This was evident in 1967, '77 and '89. The
relationship of the Congress with the Left parties (read: the
CPM) is purely tactical and they got together on the
anti-communalism plank after the 2004 verdict. It is another
matter that the honeymoon did not last long because the Left
started accusing the Congress of deviating from the Common
Minimum Programme. Despite the strained relations, the UPA
(led by the Congress) and Left have carried on with each other
for nearly four years. But as things stand today, the parting
looks inevitable even though the timing will be determined by
the operationalisation of the deal. Unfortunately, the nuclear
deal is being linked to the alleged hatred of the minorities
for the US in general and President George Bush in particular.
This is not true because the average Indian including the
minorities is more concerned about their day-to-day lives
rather than the US or Bush.
And if this feeling has gained some currency, it is because of
the failure of the UPA and the Congress to explain the issues
to the people. This is unfortunate and could also be an
indication of the casual attitude of some of the UPA and
Congress leaders, which could come under greater scrutiny when
the polls take place. From their perspective, the CPI(M) is on
the right path and General Secretary Prakash Karat has
conveyed it to the Congress leadership time and again that the
signing of the deal would mean the end of this government.
The Left now wants to have a meeting with the UPA by using the
coordination panel mechanism and sparks may fly. On its part,
the Congress is expected to re-assure the Left parties. But
this re-assurance may be deceptive since the ruling party is
waiting for the right opportunity to go ahead with the nuclear
agreement. This will perhaps happen sometime after the Budget
is passed in Parliament but certainly not before that.
The problem is the ambiguity, intrigue and deception that
surround the deal. Everyone knows that the agreement will help
us to strengthen our energy resources and also help in
building up our infrastructure. Scientific progress cannot be
held to ransom by ideological considerations and signing of
the deal does not in anyway compromise our sovereignty. India
is not a banana republic and no government including the US
can challenge our sovereignty. But the dangerous fact is that
the politics being played around it is bound to harm the
interests of the country and may lead to a period of
uncertainty when regional parties and smaller groups would
have a field day at the cost of the integrity of the Indian
nation. By this, I don't mean that regional parties are
anti-national but their shortsighted approach is perhaps not
good for the overall interests of the country. It could lead
to lopsided views.
Source: www.hindustantimes.com
International
Pakistan protests
after US strike kills four civilians
AFP, Islamabad
Pakistan lodged a protest with coalition forces in
Afghanistan on Thursday after two Pakistani women and two
children were killed by US fire from across the border,
the army said.
The US-led coalition, which helped to topple Afghanistan's
Taliban regime in late 2001, confirmed that it had
launched a "precision guided" strike on Pakistani
territory but said it targeted a militant compound.
The issue of foreign military intervention in Pakistan is
sensitive, with President Pervez Musharraf, a key US ally,
saying earlier this year that unauthorised actions would
be treated as an invasion. Chief Pakistani military
spokesman Major General Athar Abbas said coalition
artillery fire destroyed the victims' house in the
troubled tribal region of North Waziristan, an alleged
haven for Al-Qaeda and Taliban militants.
"The coalition forces were firing at a group of militants
when five shells landed in Pakistan, destroying a house
and killing two women and two children," Abbas told AFP.
"We have lodged a very strong protest with the coalition
forces across the border," he said.
Local officials said the house in the town of Lwara Mundi,
a hotbed of militancy on the frontier where there have
been frequent clashes between security forces and
militants, belonged to a local tribesman. In Kabul, a
spokesman for the US-led coalition said it could not
comment directly on the Pakistani account but confirmed it
had launched a strike on the other side of the porous
1,500-mile (2,500-kilometre) frontier.
"We can confirm a precision-guided ammunition strike on
March 12 on a compound connected with Haqqani network 1.5
kilometres (about a mile) across the border in Pakistan,"
coalition spokesman Major Chris Belcher told AFP.
The Haqqani network refers to Islamist militants led by
Taliban commander Sirajuddin Haqqani, who is allegedly
based in Miranshah, the main town in North Waziristan.
"I do not have any information on any casualties that may
have occurred," the spokesman said.
Belcher said that, "The information I have is that the
government of Pakistan was notified immediately following
the strike.
"It is not the first time that they (coalition forces)
have had to respond to an imminent threat across the
border in Pakistan. Every time we do, we clear that with
Pakistani authorities."
Several previous missile strikes in the region have been
attributed to the United States, including one that killed
senior Al-Qaeda commander Abu Laith al-Libi in North
Waziristan in January.
The border between the two countries has been wracked by
fighting since US-led forces invaded Afghanistan in late
2001 to oust the hardline Taliban regime following the
September 11 attacks on the United States.
Separately on Thursday, more than 1,000 tribesmen
protested against the killing of eight civilians by
Pakistani forces this week in the lawless Bajaur tribal
region, witnesses said.
"There will be a popular uprising if the security forces
do not stop killing innocent people," hardline
Jamaat-e-Islami party leader Haroon-ur Rasheed told the
gathering as tribesmen chanted, "Stop being stooges of the
US army."
World’s top polluters gather in Japan
AFP, Makuhari
The world's
top 20 polluters gathered here Friday for a meeting that
host Japan hopes will set a positive tone for negotiations
on a successor to the Kyoto Protocol.
Former British prime minister Tony Blair, who launched the
so-called Group of 20 (G20) initiative on global warming
in 2005, is due to address the two-day conference when it
gets underway in suburban Tokyo on Saturday.
Japanese Environment Minister Ichiro Kamoshita hoped the
meeting would ensure progress at July's summit of the
Group of Eight major industrial nations, which will take
place in the northern Japanese mountain resort of Toyako.
"I will work hard so that the meeting will set an overall
tone of discussions that will lead to the Toyako summit in
July," Kamoshita told reporters.
He said the G20 meeting will share ideas on "a reasonable
solution to create a (post-Kyoto) framework in which all
countries can participate."
It will be attended by senior officials from the Group of
Eight-Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan,
Russia and the United States-and emerging economies such
as Brazil, China and India.
Blair initiated the G20 dialogue on the environment as a
way of bringing together the United States, the main
opponent of the Kyoto Protocol, as well as developing
countries that have no obligations under the treaty.
But the United States and developing countries all agreed
at a December meeting in Bali to take part in negotiations
on drafting a successor to Kyoto, whose obligations end in
2012.
The G20 meeting comes ahead of the next round of
negotiations on a post-Kyoto deal to be held at the end of
the month in Bangkok.
US President George W. Bush argues that Kyoto is unfair as
it makes no demands of fast-growing developing countries.
Japan wants the talks here to focus in part on ways to
share with emerging economies technology to improve energy
efficiency.
"Delays in measures to tackle climate change in developing
countries could become a major hurdle to sustainable
development," said a report by a Japanese government panel
to be issued at the G20.
Warplanes, rockets end Gaza lull
AFP, Gaza City
Israeli warplanes hit Hamas-run Gaza on Thursday after
militants rattled the Jewish state with rocket fire,
ending a five-day lull and threatening efforts to push
forward Middle East peace talks.
The violence flared within hours of an Israeli operation
on Wednesday in the West Bank town of Bethlehem, where
undercover special forces killed four Palestinian
militants, including two senior commanders.
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