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Leading
News
Justice Nayeem stripped of writ
powers
Bdnews, Dhaka
The chief justice Monday
stripped High Court judge Shah Abu Nayeem Mominur Rahman,
who handed down verdicts in a series of high-profile
cases, of his writ powers.
The HC bench consisting of Justice Nayeem and Justice
Shahidul Islam has been given the jurisdiction of hearing
the first civil appeal of more than Tk 1 lakh, revision
and rule.
Chief justice Md Ruhul Amin’s administrative order comes
as the HC bench is scheduled to hold the final hearing
from March 19 on a writ petition by barrister Masud Reza
Sobhan challenging the validity of not holding national
elections in 90 days from the dissolution of parliament.
The particular bench also gave a verdict cancelling
businessman Azam Jahangir Chowdhury’s case against former
prime minister Sheikh Hasina.
The bench also asserted that the High Court can allow bail
even to convicts in cases under emergency powers rules.
The bench passed a verdict, declaring illegal the
Anticorruption Commission’s notice seeking a wealth
statement from Hasina.
In another recent verdict, the bench ruled illegal law
secretary Kazi Habibul Awal’s appointment and observed:
"According to the constitution, the chief justice’s
opinion is not the opinion of the Supreme Court."
The bench also granted bail to former prime minister
Khaleda Zia in the GATCO corruption case.
The jurisdiction of death reference hearing of the High
Court bench of Justice Md Iman Ali and Justice AFM Abdur
Rahman has been changed and the bench has been given the
jurisdiction of hearing writ appeals.
Local and National Polls may be held simultaneously: CEC
Staff Correspondent
The Chief Election
Commissioner (CEC), ATM Shamsul Huda, on Monday said the
parliamentary election and the Upazilla election can be
held simultaneously. Talking to reporters after visiting
the election to the FBBCI governing body, the CEC said,
"The national election and the upazilla elections may be
held concurrently on a single day."
"FBCCI is holding both chamber group and association group
elections at a time. Like the FBCCI, we are also
considering holding the national and upazila polls at a
time. But no decision has been taken in this regard," said
CEC Shamsul Huda.
The EC had planned earlier to hold the local body polls
before the general election and now it had changed its
decision as most of the mainstream political parties
opposed the EC’s decision saying, ‘the main job of
election commission is to hold the national election first
and then the elected government would hold the local
government elections including upazilla elections’.
Regarding uses of transparent ballot boxes in the upcoming
general elections, The CEC said, "As FBCCI now in its
elections is using transparent ballot boxes, the EC will
collect sample ballot boxes from them and we will examine
the viability of using it in the next elections." Huda
also expressed satisfaction over the FBCCI polls.
The CEC made the comment regarding holding local
government polls and general elections simultaneously just
after a day as Sunday Speaker Barrister Jamir Uddin Sircar
said the caretaker government’s main job is to hold the
stalled general elections at first. Some of the political
parties said that the EC’s announced road map would be
thwarted if it holds the upazilla elections earlier.
Political
Reform Before Election
Staff Correspondent
Democracy and good governance will not
be established in the country if the general election is
not held in a free, fair and impartial manner which will
be free from black money, nomination business and muscle
power. "A perfunctory election will never bring about any
changes in the country’s political culture. We do not want
election for the sake of election but election for
democracy." This was said by politicians, educationalists,
civil servants and journalists expressed this view at a
seminar on "Is Election an Aim or Goal for Democracy in
Bangladesh?" organised by Society For Bangladesh
Development Studies at the National Press Club auditorium
on Monday.
They said in 37 years after independence no political
governments were respectful of democracy in the country.
Rather, they established a culture of nominating black
money holders and godfathers in the elections;
criminality, dynasty and illiteracy gripped our politics.
As a result of deterioration of the political scenario,
emergency was promulgated.
"We are surprised when we see that a state minister of BNP
held meeting at his residence with criminals to conspire
to launch grenade attack on AL Chief Sheikh Hasina, the
Communication Minister allocated a land of Railway
Department to his wife and State Minister for Home saved
the murderers in a sensational murder case in exchange for
TK 20 crore", they added.
Massive reforms in the electoral rules, political parties
and reshuffle in the administration should be ventured
first before holding the general election in a bid to
offer an effective, honest, efficient and accountable
Parliament before the nation, they suggested saying the
Caretaker Government should work to this effect.
They spoke on the need for a roadmap for democracy but not
for election as mere election will not ensure true
democracy, rule of law and good governance in the country.
Otherwise, the country will go back to the political
anarchy of pre-1/11 era. However, they said if the
Caretaker Government fails to control price hike, the
corrupt politicians will create a way to come to the power
through a so-called election. Bangladesh should learn from
those countries where people have voted corrupt persons to
power.
AL
observes Bangabandhu’s birth anniversary
Staff Correspondent
With a vow to establish an exploitation-free and
democratic Sonar Bangla, Awami League (AL), its front
organizations and different socio-cultural organisations
observed the 88th birth anniversary of Bangabandhu Sheikh
Mujibur Rahman, the father of the nation, on Monday. AL
and its front organizations marked the day amid various
programme, including placing floral wreaths at the
portrait of Sheikh Mujib at Bangabandhu Memorial Museum at
Dhanmondi in the capital and at Bangabandhu's Mazar at
Tungipara in Gopalganj, offering munajat, holding milad
mahfil and discussion meeting.
Abdur Razzaque said, "The nation achieved the hard-earned
Independence under the leadership of Bangbandhu who
earlier inspired the nation to become united against the
then widespread tyranny and misrule." "We are still
fighting for establishing democracy and rights of the
people. A free, fair and credible general election is a
must to restore democracy in Bangladesh, earlier dreamed
by the greatest son of the soil Bangabandhu," he added.
Talking to newsmen, Tofail Ahmed said, "We are Independent
indeed but the economic emancipation of common people has
not been ensured till date." Demanding exemplary
punishment for war criminals and anti-liberation forces,
he called upon the people to work together in order to
materialise the dreams of Bangabandhu Shiekh Mujibur
Rahman.
They also prayed for the early recovery of the ailing
detained AL president Sheikh Hasina –who has now been
undergoing treatment at the capital’s Square Hospital
since Tuesday last - with multiple complications in her
ears and eyes. As part of the two-day programme, AL will
organise a discussion meeting at the auditorium of the
Engineers’ Institute, Bangladesh in the capital at 3:00pm
today (Tuesday). AL acting president Zillur Rahman will
preside over the meeting.
BNP
office rejects Bangabhaban's letter
Staff Correspondent
Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) has rejected
Bangabhaban’s invitation letter to Khandoker Delwar
Hossain to attend the Independence Day function at
Bangabhaban as the letter was not properly addressed.
Sources in the BNP said, "Two emissaries of Bangabhaban on
Monday went to the BNP central party office at Naya Paltan
carrying the President’s letter to Khandoker Delwar
Hossain. But in the letter, Khandoker Delwar Hossain was
designated as the acting Secretary General of BNP and
that’s why, office bearers refused to receive the letter
asking them to come again after correcting the designation
of Khandoker Delwar Hossain."
Meanwhile on Monday, BNP Chairperson’s adviser Brig (retd)
ASM Hannan Shah held a meeting with acting office
Secretary Ruhul Kabir Rizvi Ahmed, a pro-Delwar leader, on
Monday. Sources said, during their hour-long meeting
Hannan Shah expressed his anger against Rizvi Ahmed as he
did not attend the meeting held at the residence of Hannan
Shah. In reply Rizvi said, "I could not do anything
against the party Secretary General’s stand."
After the meeting, Hannan Shah told newsmen that on
approval of the party Secretary General, we will send a
letter to the Chief Adviser requesting him to release all
the detained political leaders including Begum Khaleda Zia
and Sheikh Hasina before March 26. Hannan Shah was also
hopeful of bringing unity in the party. "I have recently
got green signal from our rival camps to reunite the
party. I hope, the unity will take place soon," Hanna Shah
said.
Meanwhile, Khandoker Delwar Hossain, now taking treatment
in New York, is likely to return home before March 26, a
close associate of Delwar Hossain said.
Allegation
of deception against 64 Hajj agencies
Show-cause notice is being sent against them
Staff Correspondent
The Government is sending show-cause notices to Hajj
agencies that allegedly deceived Hajj pilgrims last year.
"Allegation of cheating against Hajj agencies has been
found and we are sending show-cause notices against them",
said Religious Affairs Adviser A F Hassan Ariff while
talking to newsmen at the Secretariat on Monday.
Meanwhile, the administrative team on Hajj management has
submitted a report of alleged deception against 64 Hajj
agencies in the Religious Affairs Ministry, sources said.
The report revealed some Hajj agencies brought Hajj
pilgrims to Makkah without renting houses there. Some
agencies have deprived the Hajj pilgrims of facilities
mentioned in their package. Ariff, who is also in charge
of Law Ministry, said if the allegation against Hajj
agencies is proved, their licenses would be cancelled. The
religion adviser also asserted that Hajj agencies would
have to bear the responsibility if the allegations are
true.
Asked whether the Government would file cases against Hajj
agencies for which fifty five pilgrims could not perform
Hajj last year even after completing all the procedures,
he said the Government cannot lodge cases against them.
"But we are considering treating Hajj agencies’ deception
as crime in the eye of law and the deceived pilgrims will
be compensated", Ariff added. Asked whether Hajj policy
would be changed, he said policy is not a problem but its
implementation adding "We are trying to implement Hajj
policy".
Back Page
Govt’s motto is to
hold credible elections by deadline: CA
UNB, London
Chief Adviser Dr Fakhruddin
Ahmed has said the main motto of his administration is to
hold free and acceptable parliamentary polls by the set
deadline as no one wants to return to the nightmarish days
before January 11, 2007.
"More than half of the voter list has been prepared,
election rules and regulations are at the final stage and
we're going to have a free, fair and credible election,"
he told a meeting with representatives of the Bangladeshi
community at Baden Powell Assembly Hall here Sunday
evening.
Dr Ahmed, now in London on a 3-day official visit after
attending the 11th summit of the OIC at Dakar, said his
government is working hard to establish sustainable
democracy, fundamental rights of the people and
coexistence of all religious faiths through various
reforms.
He said the expatriate Bangladeshis will be enlisted as
voters and assured that his administration will remove any
complicacy over having the double citizenship. On the
controversy over the National Women Development Policy,
the Chief Adviser said his government has no intention to
frame any law that will go against holy Quran and Sunnah.
About holding trial of the 1971 war criminals, he said
although he wants the trail of the war criminals but no
government in the past had done it. Because of time
constraint, he said, it will not be possible for the
incumbent government to initiate the process as too many
things still need to be done.
On the soaring prices of essentials, the Chief Adviser
admitted that the low income group people have been hit
hard by the price-hike caused by record high prices of
petroleum and food on the international market.
He said there is no alternative to boosting agriculture
production to face the situation. Realizing the fact, he
said the government has focused on smooth supply of
fertilizer and uninterrupted irrigation to enhance the
food production.
As the Chief Adviser arrived here, BNP London chapter
organized protests outside the Baden Powell Assembly Hall
and Awami Juba League outside Dorchester Hotel, where he
is staying, demanding release of Khaleda Zia and Sheikh
Hasina.
Dr Ahmed said his government is to bring to justice those
who are accused of corruption. He said a strategy paper is
being prepared to stop massive corruption in the future.
Bangladesh High Commission to London Shafi U Ahmed made
welcome remarks at the meeting. Foreign Affairs Adviser Dr
Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury was present.
The Chief Adviser praised the contributions of the
expatriate Bangladeshi community to socioeconomic and
political development in the UK as well as to Bangladesh
economy through their remittances.
He said the country eared a record amount of $ 700 million
in remittance in January this year while a record number
of Bangladeshi workers left for overseas job last year.
Dr Ahmed said the government is trying to implement the
recommendations made at the first NRB conference in Dhaka
to ensure the Non-Resident Bangladeshis' participation in
the economic development of Bangladesh.
The Chief Adviser hoped that the existing excellent
relations between Bangladesh and Britain will be further
flourished with the pro-active role to be played by the
Bangladeshi community in Britain.
During his 45-minute engagement with the Bangladeshi
community leaders, the Chief Adviser gave a resume of
reforms so far done in administrative, financial and
judicial sectors. He said a Local Government Commission
will be set up to see how to expand the financial
authority and decentralise power through the local
government bodies, which are important for strengthening
the base of democracy.
The Chief Adviser also said a Judicial Commission is going
to be set up to appoint efficient judges to the High Court
with the approval of the President to ensure justice for
the people.
Dr Ahmed also mentioned the separation of the judiciary
from the executive, reconstitution of the Public Service
Commission, University Grants Commission and forming
Regulatory Reforms Commission, Rights to Information Act
and Consumers Right Act which are also designed to make
the government accountable and transparent for sustainable
democracy and betterment of the people.
Raising income tax, diplomatic
initiatives for rice import
Economists suggests Finance Adviser
UNB, Dhaka
Economists on Monday
recommended the government to raise income tax exemption
limit, strengthen social protection in the new budget and
take more diplomatic initiatives to ensure rice import to
contain its spiraling prices.
At a pre-budget meeting with Finance Adviser Dr Mirza
Azizul Islam at his ministry, they also suggested
revisiting the subsidy as they think an unsustainable
subsidy regime has emerged now.
The other recommendations included expediting ADP
implementation, making ADP more realistic, giving more
emphasis on agriculture and SME investments, increasing
allocation for improving nutrition and setting regional
targets to remove disparities.
"We'll try to implement the recommendations practicably,"
Dr Aziz told reporters after the meeting.
Bangladesh Bank Governor Dr Salehuddin Ahmed, Finance
Secretary Dr Mohammed Tareq, senior officials, former
finance advisers, finance secretaries, economists and
academics took part in the pre-budget discussion.
"The government should boldly face it (subsidy regime)…
you (government) will have to look at the present regime,
which is just too excess," Dr Aziz quoted economists to
have told the meeting. He said the international price of
petroleum oil was US$ 62 per barrel when the domestic
price of fuel oil was last adjusted, but the international
price has now soared as high as US$ 110 per barrel.
Similarly, the price of fertilizer has marked a lot of
increase by now.
"Agriculture is one of our top priority sectors. We'll not
do anything that could affect the sector," the Finance
Adviser said, replying to a question whether revisiting
subsidy could further enhance the food prices.
He added that a bit increase in fertilizer prices is
unlikely to create a major problem as the price of cereals
also increased to a great extent, making a high-profit
margin for the producers.
The Adviser said the economists suggested increasing the
income tax exemption limit from Tk 1,50,000 to Tk 2,00,000
in the next budget considering the problem being faced by
the fixed income group people due to the price situation.
Crime
Seven to die in sensational murder case
A Correspondent, Narsingdi
A court in the district on Monday sentenced seven persons
to death for killing six people of a family, Juboraj
Villa, at Bhelanagar on 2007.
Additional District and Sessions Judge AKM Abul Kashem
also fined them Tk 10,000 each after examining the tweny
seven witnesses and relevant papers.
The convicts are Fazlul Haq, 42, Jahangir, 30, Dhud Miah,
28, Swapan Mia, 38, of Daulatkandi village in Raipura,
Akhtaruzzaman Biru, 30, Sharif Bhuiyan, 32, Shahid Mia,
35.
The case in brief is that the convicts killed Rousuddin,
55, his wife Salma Begum, 45, their son Rajib, 26, and
daughters Una, 24, Swarna, 18, and maid Urmi, 9, and
looted money after breaking in their house at the dead of
night on May 18.
The killers slaughtered Yuona and Swarna after rape while
strangulated four others to death.
Rousuddin of Chinispur village under sadar upazila had
been staying at the Villa owned by an expatriate living in
Italy for a long time.
Two separate cases were filed with the sadar thana, one of
dacoity and the other of rape. As sadar thana police, DB
and CID police could not make any progress in their
investigation, the Depuity Commissioner, Md Zillar Rahman
and SP Shahabuddin Khan handed the case over to ASP of
RAB-2, Babul Akter.
At last RAB-2 was able to arrest the culprits in drives
from different areas of the district and the charge sheet
was also submitted against the accused seven.
Teacher killed in bomb attack
UNB, Jessore
A college teacher who was seriously injured in a bomb
attack at Monsharpur Kumarghat Bazar in Monirampur uapzila
Sunday night died at General Hospital here Monday
afternoon.
The victim was identified as Sanjay Kumar,35, a teacher of
Moshihati College of the upazila.
Sources said some terrorists hurled a bomb when Sanjay and
Mozam, a shop owner, were returning to their Kopali
village from Monsharpur Bazar in a bicycle at about
10.30pm Sunday, leaving them seriously injured.
Hearing the blast, local people rushed to spot and sent
them to the 250-bed General Hospital where Sanjay
succumbed to his injuries at about 3pm Monday.
Sanjay is believed to have been killed following past
enmity with a local man.
Police visited the spot.
One killed, 12 injured in bloody clash
A Correspondent, Faridpur
A man was killed and 12 others were injured in a bloody
clash over a land dispute at Sondah village of Noapara
union under Madhukhali upazilla in Faridpur district on
Sunday evening.
The dead were identified as Md. Habib Mredha, 25, of the
village.
Eye witness' said, the dispute between Alauddin Mredha and
Md. Latif Mredha over a family land control existed for a
long time.
Later, supporters of both the groups attacked each other,
leaving 12 people from both sides injured.
A case filed at Madhukhali thana in the district.
Man killed by cousin
UNB, Jhalakati
A young man was killed allegedly by his cousin at
Charukhan village in Sadar upazila on Saturday.
Local people said an altercation ensued between Rakhal
Samaddar and his cousin Polash over a trifling matter and
at one stage Polash hit him with a stick on his head
leaving him critically injured.
Rakhal was rushed to the Barisal Sher-e-Bangla Medical
College Hospital where he died later at night.
Polash and his family members went into hiding soon after
the incident.
Fake RAB member held
A Correspondent, Rajshahi
The Tanore thana police in Rajshahi arrested a fake RAB
member on Monday. The arrested was identified as Rabiul
Islam, residence of Muradpur area under Nachol upazila in
Chapai Nababganj.
Police sources said that the arrested identified himself
as a RAB member and tried to snatch a motorbike from
Mizanur Rahman, a teacher of Tanore Islamia Madrasa.
Later, the teacher informed Tanore thana police. Police
rushed to the spot and arrested the fake RAB member.
A case was filed against the man with Tanore police
station on Monday.
Police produced him before the court on the same day.
Top terror held in Savar
UNB, Savar
Elite force RAB arrested a top terrorist along with his
accomplice from a hotel at Palashbari under Ashulia police
station on Sunday.
Acting on a tip off, RAB personnel raided the hotel and
arrested the notorious terrorist Tipu alias Hatkata Tipu
and his accomplice Roni.
Tipu was wanted a number murder, extortion and other
criminal cases, police said.
Another report from Shariatpur adds: Police arrested
another top terrorist Amir Hossain at Senerchar village in
Jajira upazila Saturday evening.
Police said Amir wanted in a number of cases.
A Correspondent, Rajshahi
The Rapid Action Battalion of Rajshahi arrested four
snatchers and seized a taxi-cab used in the purpose at
Puthia in Rajshahi on Sunday.
The arrested were identified as Zahidul Islam, 22, of
Shimultali village under Jaidevpur in Gazipur, Faruque
Ahmed, 27, son of Omar Ali, Baniapara village under Bagha
in Rajshahi, Zahirul Islam, 21, and Mohammed Juel of
Kolagasia village under Amtali in Barguna.
According to the RAB sources, acting on a tip-off, the law
enforcers launched the drive in the Biharipara village
under Puthia on Sunday at around 7:30 am.
Later, the RAB members arrested them in front of one
Jahangir Hossain's residence with a hijacking taxi-cab
(Dhaka Metro-PA-11-0799).
On interrogation, they admitted their offense, sources
said.
RAB handed over them to the Puthia police after filling a
case was against the four hijackers.
16 rounds of bullets recovered
A Correspondent, Rajshahi
The Rapid Action Battalion of Rajshahi recovered 16 rounds
of bullets at Katakhali bazaar area in Rajshahi on Sunday.
RAB sources said that acting on a tip-off, RAB of Railway
Colony camp launched the drive in one Mofazzal's banana
field and recovered 16 rounds of .32 bor rifle bullets.
RAB could not arrest anybody in this connection.
A case was filed with the concerned police station.
Extremist arrested, six firearms seized
UNB, Dhaka
Members of Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) arrested an
alleged extremist from Joydebpur in Gazipur and recovered
six firearms from Dhanwaghat village of Faridpur upazila
in Pabna
district early Monday.
The arrested was identified as Hares, 40, a regional
commander of Purbo Banglar Communist Party (Lal Pataka),
son of Pazu Parmanik of Balughata village in Ataikula
upazila. He was wanted in a number of cases, including
four of murders. Being tipped off by its intelligence
team, a team of RAB-1, led by Major Masud Pervez and ASP
Tanvir Arafat, arrested Hares from Joydebpur Chourastha at
about 5:30 pm Sunday.
Editorial
Debate about Famine
For
the last couple of days there is a debate going on between Dr.
Akbar Ali Khan, Chairman of the Regulatory Reforms Commission
and Dr. Mirza Azizul Islam, the Finance Adviser to the
Emergency Government. The debate is centering on the issue of
famine in Bangladesh; Dr. Akbar Ali Khan contends there is one
while Dr. Azizul Islam vehemently denies that there is any
famine in Bangladesh.
There is little doubt about food shortages in the Country;
there is even less doubt about the inability of most people to
buy their minimum requirement of food because of exorbitant
prices. So, people are forced to reduce their intake of food
of any kind - this is particularly true of poor people who
form the greater part of our population; even the middle-class
who are the major consumers of all goods and services
including food, have had to drastically cut down their food
purchases. Whether such a situation could be termed a 'famine'
is a moot question, what is important here is that we do not
have enough food to go around and whatever is available is
unaffordable. If by 'famine' we mean a situation that
prevailed in Ethiopia a few years back, then no, we do not
have that yet but if this situation does not improve
immediately, we will indeed have people starving because most
are already on a half-starvation diet. When Dr. Akbar Ali Khan
mentions that there is a 'silent famine' stalking our
countryside, he must be credited with having reflected the
realities of the situation in Bangladesh.
When the Finance Adviser says, "How can famine exist in a
country where import process and inflow of remittances are
normal?" most people will immediately react by saying: what do
import processes and remittances have to do with famine? What
the Finance Adviser really means is that the Government has
enough money to buy food from abroad and that food import is
in process but that does not really address the issue of
famine. The question of famine does not rest on whether the
Government has enough food in stock but it does rest on
peoples' abilities to buy that food or to get it free of cost
- right now we are unable to do either because we do not have
enough money to buy our minimum needs of food, nor do we have
employments which will help us in earning a living, nor yet is
our Government ready to give free food to all or even some of
our most needy people.
So where does all this debate about famine leave us; nowhere
really till at least the next crops are harvested and we have
a short period of relative plenty but by that time the rains
will start and we will have floods. As far as the Emergency
Government is concerned, it has been able to do next to
nothing about either our food security, inflation or our
economy in recession. Now that the demands for elections, both
from the public and the political parties, are reaching a
crescendo, this Government might well decide to call it quits
by giving an election and leaving us all and the next
government in the lurch about almost everything but most of
all about our poor economic conditions.
Rise in incidents of killing
Incidents
of secret killings in the capital city have recorded a sharp
rise to 24 in February from 16 in January. While stating this
to newsmen on Sunday DMP Commissioner Naim Ahmed said he holds
a meeting with senior police officials at the Rajarbagh Police
Lines every month to review the law and order situation. It
was revealed in the latest meeting that most of the criminal
activities, specially killing and robbery, were planned and
controlled from the residential hotels, he added.
The rise in the incidents of killings in the city, specially
when the country is under emergency rule, is undoubtedly
alarming. More alarming is the situation prevailing across the
country described by many as a 'Valley of Death' where over
3000 incidents of murders on an average take place every year.
While the number of incidents of different types of serious
crimes was reported to have recorded a fall following the
imposition of emergency rule in the country, the sudden surge
in the incidents of murders in the capital is a matter of
great concern. It is really a mystery why should the incidents
of killings in the city increase while the administration is
bent on curbing crimes and most of the top terrorists and
criminals are in custody or on the run.
It is apprehended that new groups of criminals and terrorists
have come up and have been equipped with sophisticated small
arms smuggled into the country from the neighbouring states.
Besides, one of the main causes of the law and order problem
is the alleged patronage of some politicians and a section of
police personnel to the criminals and illegal arms holders.
In view of this, in order to curb crimes including murders,
the authorities concerned should launch drives against the
criminals and their godfathers and also against the arms
dealers. The people expect the government to go all out
against the 'Merchants of Deaths' in the city and elsewhere to
ensure the security of life and property of the citizens.
Analysis
All's well that Ends well
Bangladesh must succeed in creating higher,
stronger, foundations for democracy that can endure beyond the
elections.
Ripan Kumar Biswas
One
of my known persons who is a mid level army officer, was very
sad while he was talking with me as according to him and many
others including defense personnel and a large number of
civilians in Bangladesh, present military backed interim
government is trying hard to improve the country's total image
in politics, businesses, administrations and finally to
restore a stable and peaceful democratic political system in
Bangladesh, but critics both local and international, are so
harsh on the government and different law enforcement
agencies.
Although it's a part of their duty, but he further mentioned
that they are living and spending their lives in the different
camps in rural areas across the country leaving their families
at different places since January 11, 2007 as because like
others they also dream of a peaceful democratic political
system in Bangladesh.
After receiving criticism against the role of Fakhruddin's
government especially regarding human rights issues from
different groups, organizations or individuals both local and
international, government expressed its deep concern while the
US Department of State in its annual report "Human Rights
Practices 2007" on Bangladesh revealed that human rights
record worsened in the country as the state of emergency
continued to be in effect with elections remaining postponed.
In the country paper on Bangladesh, the report said the
Emergency Powers Rules of 2007 (EPR), imposed by the
government in January and effective through year's end,
suspended many fundamental rights, including freedom of press,
freedom of association, and the right to bail. The report
criticized harshly giving priorities against serious abuses,
including custodial deaths, arbitrary arrest and detention,
and harassment of journalists by the security forces although
there was a significant drop of extra-judicial killings.
In addition since last September, although the government
eased bans on indoor political gatherings in Dhaka but limited
the number of people who could attend and required parties to
seek permission from the home ministry to hold meetings, while
according to one election commissioner Brig Gen (retd) M
Sakhawat Hussain, without any decision on the state of
emergency with the hands and feet of political parties tied,
holding of polls would not be possible. Talking to the
reporters after holding a meeting with a delegation of the
newly launched Bangladesh Kalyan Party on Thursday 13, 2008,
Sakhawat felt the need for relaxing the state of emergency not
only for creating an environment conducive to elections, but
also for registration of political parties.
However in an immediate reaction to the report, Bangladesh
government expressed disappointment at the report's lack of
balance in presenting the country's ground realities as the
international communities are very much aware of the
circumstances, which led to the declaration of the state of
emergency early January 2007. According to a foreign ministry
spokesman, the report further failed to mention the
significant reform measures taken by the caretaker government
for consolidating and sustaining democracy.
The army-backed Caretaker Government has scored some credible
successes, especially in the area of law and order to address
the challenge of extremism and terrorism in Bangladesh. It has
eliminated a large number of terrorist kingpins like Bangla
Bhai. They have also revived the case on the assassination
attempt on Sheikh Hasina in which preliminary evidence shows
complicity of some BNP leaders.
Strong democracies also need sound institutions and processes.
A stable business climate needs firm foundations of
accountability. And people need to be able to trust that
public life is not manipulated by a few individuals to satisfy
selfish greed for money and power. The Caretaker Government
pointed out its achievements: an overhaul of the country's
institutions including the Election Commission, Public Service
Commission, the separation of the Judiciary that has eluded
past governments for over 35 years and a drive to combat
corruption. Government further mentioned its effort to improve
human rights situation including the progress toward the
formation of the Human Rights Commission and efforts to
improve workers' and women rights. The government which is
elected in 2008 will have a responsibility to nurture these
gains.
Using countrywide data, the US State Department report said
the Rapid Action Battalion killed 94 persons throughout the
year, although the average number of such deaths dropped from
15 per month in 2006 to approximately 8 per month during the
year, but it's still continuing. Odhikar, a Dhaka based human
rights organization, said that 87 persons died in prison and
67 died while in the custody of police and other security
forces. The report pointed its concern to the declaration a
curfew in August 2007 in response to protests on university
campuses in several major cities and unwarranted arrests of
teachers, students, and employees.
"This is the best time to get things right in Bangladesh and
there is an urgent need to strengthen democracy through free,
fair and transparent election for receiving continued US
support," said Congressman Joseph Crowley, co-chair of US
Congressional Bangladesh Caucus, on Thursday, March 13, 2008
at the Capitol Hill in Washington DC. All of them including
Congressman Sheila Jackson and Bangladesh Ambassador to the US
M Humayun Kabir, who were present at that meeting, mentioned
the vastness of change in Bangladesh while Crowley expected
that the government would follow the due process of law during
the trials of the arrested leaders.
Credible and fair elections will be vital to the success of
democratic renaissance in Bangladesh - the first and
fundamental pillar of new foundations. "Democracy is not just
about elections and installing governments after definite
intervals. It is about empowering the people and ensuring
their rights to choose their representatives without fear or
intimidation and we always remained focused in our main task
of holding a free and fair election by the end of 2008," Chief
Adviser Dr. Fakhruddin Ahmed commented while addressing the
Asia Society at New York on September 27, 2007.
As democracy is a right to enjoy the fruits of economic growth
and development and a continuous process of building and
strengthening institutions, Bangladesh must succeed in
creating higher, stronger, foundations for democracy that can
endure beyond the elections.
(Ripan Kumar Biswas is a freelance writer based in New York.
Dateline New York; March 15, 2008. E-mail: Ripan.Biswas@yahoo.com)
Policy
Clash Looms between Trade and Climate
A number of policy groups, including the Center for American
Progress, suggest climate trade restrictions should be policy
“tools of last resort.”
Toni Johnson
Canada's
ambassador sent a letter to U.S. officials in February warning
that an overly broad interpretation of the Energy Independence
and Security Act, signed into law in December 2007, could
actually prohibit the United States from importing oil. The
law prohibits the import of alternative fuels with higher
greenhouse-gas emissions than conventional petroleum sources.
Canada points out this might be read to include oil from tar
sands, which makes up the bulk of the oil Canada sends to the
United States. Canada is the largest single supplier of oil to
the United States, thanks in part to the North American Free
Trade Agreement (NAFTA).
The concerns raised by the Canadian embassy highlight a
looming clash between climate change policy and U.S.
commitments to free trade. After years in which the United
States declined to take part in the multilateral approach to
climate policy, symbolized by the Kyoto Protocol, U.S.
lawmakers appear ready to push through climate change
legislation. But lawmakers worry about U.S. competitiveness.
They want to discourage industries from relocating abroad to
avoid climate regulation. They also want to ensure foreign
producers don't get a "free ride" on greenhouse-gas
regulations when U.S. industries are forced to comply. Under
pending proposals , U.S. lawmakers are weighing several
options that would penalize foreign trading partners if they
do not take steps to reduce emissions during the production of
commodities for the U.S. market. But the import taxes,
labeling specifications, and requirements to purchase
emissions permits being proposed are in conflict with the
notion of free trade, say some experts. The European Union, in
particular, is considering such measures (EurActiv), many of
them directed at producers in the United States.
U.S. lawmakers and environmental advocates believe these
measures would fall within World Trade Organization (WTO)
rules covering environmental standards. But some experts
disagree. Although the WTO allows discriminatory actions by
members for environmental concerns, such measures must be
proved not to be arbitrary, overly onerous, or merely using
the environment as a means to erect covert trade barriers.
International trade lawyer Bernd G. Janzen says that to date,
the WTO's rulings on these issues offer little in the way of
guidelines for U.S. or other policymakers. A report from the
National Foreign Trade Council, a U.S.-based trade advocacy
group, points to a 1994 WTO ruling that prevented the United
States from imposing an auto import tax on based on fuel
efficiency standards.
Gary Clyde Hufbauer, an economist at the Peterson Institute
for International Economics, told U.S. lawmakers earlier this
month that almost all environmentally based trade restrictions
stand a good chance of a WTO challenge. He says such
restrictions could spark retaliation on U.S. exports.
Sebastian Mallaby, director of CFR's Center for Geoeconomic
Studies, says the potential destabilizing force of green
tariffs on existing international trade deals should be
assessed before finishing a new round of global trade talks.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, a powerful proponent of free
trade, suggests a better climate policy solution would be
liberalizing the trade of clean energy technologies . The Bush
administration and European Union are both pushing for an end
to clean-technology tariffs currently imposed by other
countries. The administration has also warned against imposing
the type of tariffs being proposed in Congress and the
European Union.
A number of policy groups, including the Center for American
Progress, suggest climate trade restrictions should be policy
"tools of last resort." Instead they suggest engaging
countries in multilateral or bilateral climate agreements. A
2008 World Bank report notes that many climate measures focus
on production methods and processes , which it suggests could
be crucial to finding a regime that can pass WTO muster. The
WTO recently upheld a U.S. ban on imported shrimp trawled
without protective measures for sea turtles. In that ruling,
the WTO noted that the disputants were all signatories of the
same endangered species treaty. Such reasoning, the report
says, could be applied to climate and trade policy clashes
between nations.
(Toni Johnson is a Staff Writer for the Council on Foreign
Relations. Source:
www.crf.org)
Iraq:
Never-Ending Misery and Rising Economic Costs
The war has had only two winners: Oil companies and
defense contractors. The stock price of Halliburton, Vice
President Dick Cheney's old company, has soared.
Joseph Stiglitz
With
March 20 marking the fifth anniversary of the United
States-led invasion of Iraq, it's time to take stock of what
has happened. In our new book "The Three Trillion Dollar War",
Harvard's Linda Bilmes and I conservatively estimate the
economic cost of the war to the US to be $3 trillion, and the
costs to the rest of the world to be another $3 trillion - far
higher than the Bush administration's estimates before the
war. The Bush team not only misled the world about the war's
possible costs, but has also sought to obscure the costs as
the war has gone on.
This is not surprising. After all, the Bush administration
lied about everything else, from Saddam Hussein's weapons of
mass destruction to his supposed link with Al-Qaeda. Indeed,
only after the US-led invasion did Iraq become a breeding
ground for terrorists.
The Bush administration said the war would cost $50 billion.
The US now spends that amount in Iraq every three months. To
put that number in context: For one-sixth of the cost of the
war, the US could put its social security system on a sound
footing for more than a half-century, without cutting benefits
or raising contributions.
Moreover, the Bush administration cut taxes for the rich as it
went to war, despite running a budget deficit. As a result, it
has had to use deficit spending - much of it financed from
abroad - to pay for the war. This is the first war in American
history that has not demanded some sacrifice from citizens
through higher taxes; instead, the entire cost is being passed
onto future generations. Unless things change, the US national
debt - which was $5.7 trillion when Bush became president -
will be $2 trillion higher because of the war (in addition to
the $800 billion increase under Bush before the war).
Was this incompetence or dishonesty? Almost surely both. Cash
accounting meant that the Bush administration focused on
today's costs, not future costs, including disability and
health care for returning veterans. Only years after the war
began did the administration order the specially armored
vehicles that would have saved the lives of many killed by
roadside bombs. Not wanting to reintroduce a draft, and
finding it difficult to recruit for an unpopular war, troops
have been forced into two, three, or four stress-filled
deployments.
The administration has tried to keep the war's costs from the
American public. Veterans groups have used the freedom of
information act to discover the total number of injured - 15
times the number of fatalities. Already, 52,000 returning
veterans have been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress
syndrome. America will need to provide disability compensation
to an estimated 40 percent of the 1.65 million troops that
have already been deployed. And, of course, the bleeding will
continue as long as the war continues, with the healthcare and
disability bill amounting to more than $600 billion (in
present-value terms).
Ideology and profiteering have also played a role in driving
up the war's costs. America has relied on private contractors,
which have not come cheap. A Blackwater security guard can
cost more than $1,000 per day, not including disability and
life insurance, which is paid for by the government. When
unemployment rates in Iraq soared to 60 percent, hiring Iraqis
would have made sense; but the contractors preferred to import
cheap labor from Nepal, Philippines, and other countries. The
war has had only two winners: Oil companies and defense
contractors. The stock price of Halliburton, Vice President
Dick Cheney's old company, has soared. But even as the
government turned increasingly to contractors, it reduced its
oversight.
The largest cost of this mismanaged war has been borne by
Iraq. Half of Iraq's doctors have been killed or have left the
country, unemployment stands at 25 percent, and, five years
after the war's start, Baghdad still has less than eight hours
of electricity a day. Out of Iraq's total population of around
28 million, 4 million are displaced and 2 million have fled
the country.
The thousands of violent deaths have inured most Westerners to
what is going on: A bomb blast that kills 25 hardly seems
newsworthy anymore. But statistical studies of death rates
before and after the invasion tell some of the grim reality.
They suggest additional deaths from a low of around 450,000 in
the first 40 months of the war (150,000 of them violent
deaths) to 600,000. With so many people in Iraq suffering so
much in so many ways, it may seem callous to discuss the
economic costs. And it may seem particularly self-absorbed to
focus on the economic costs to America, which embarked on this
war in violation of international law. But the economic costs
are enormous, and they go well beyond budgetary outlays.
Americans like to say that there is no such thing as a free
lunch. Nor is there such a thing as a free war. The US - and
the world - will be paying the price for decades to come.
Source:
www.arabnews.com
Viewpoints
Justice in Conflict: The ICC and Peace Processes
While impunity for people who have committed
the gravest acts of inhumanity is morally repugnant, sometimes
doing a deal with perpetrators is unavoidable and necessary to
prevent further conflict and suffering.
Nick Grono
Introduction
The International Criminal Court (ICC) is now investigating or
prosecuting individuals involved in three of the most
devastating conflicts in Africa - Darfur, northern Uganda and
the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). In each case, the ICC
has been forced to confront the challenges inherent in
pursuing peace and justice simultaneously. What happens - and
what should happen - when efforts to prosecute perpetrators of
mass atrocities coincide with a peace process? What is the
best approach when the price of a peace deal may be a degree
of impunity for those most responsible for such abuses? One
common and convenient response is to hide behind truisms and
make general statements of principle to the effect that no
trade-off is required because peace and justice are
inextricably linked. Clearly peace and justice are
complementary in that justice can deter abuses and can help
make peace sustainable by addressing grievances non-violently.
But good things don't always go together, and to present peace
and justice as invariably mutually reinforcing is misleading
and unhelpful when the difficult reality of peacemaking often
proves otherwise. We review below arguments surrounding the
ICC's impact on prospects for peace in Uganda and go on to
offer some general considerations that international
policymakers should heed when seeking to balance peace and
justice demands.
Doing deals with perpetrators
The potential clash between peace and justice objectives can
sometimes be circumvented by pursuing a sequential approach -
for example, by getting a peace agreement now, then dealing
with justice many years later. This is what has been happening
in Latin America a decade or two after transitions to
democracy. However, most of those transitions explicitly
granted amnesty to enable handovers of power, and it is only
many years down the track that those amnesties are being wound
back.
A further response is to acknowledge the tensions between
peace and justice and to recognize that pragmatism and recent
history indicate that justice cannot always claim primacy.
While impunity for people who have committed the gravest acts
of inhumanity is morally repugnant, sometimes doing a deal
with perpetrators is unavoidable and necessary to prevent
further conflict and suffering. This is partly because the
reality of conflict is such that multiple warring parties are
likely to have committed atrocities. Unless one party has been
utterly vanquished, peace negotiations will often assemble
parties responsible for grave abuses and a deal will depend on
their agreeing to end the conflict. Because perpetrators are
unlikely to want a prison cell as a reward for their hard-won
peace agreement, mediators have frequently used amnesties as
an incentive.
Recent agreements backed by the United States and the European
Union, for example, have involved deals between serial abusers
and either implicitly or explicitly provided impunity: the
2001 Bonn Agreement that set up a new government in
Afghanistan; Sun City and related agreements that formally
ended the DRC conflict in 2003; and Sudan's 2005 Comprehensive
Peace Agreement (CPA) as well as the Darfur Peace Agreement in
2006. While none of these agreements features explicit
amnesties (unlike the Lomé Agreement in Sierra Leone) and some
of them have token transitional justice provisions, they are
largely silent on accountability for past atrocities, despite
the fact that some of the biggest rights abusers are party to
these agreements, or were put into power by them.
More than four million people have died during the DRC's civil
war and its aftermath. Conflict in Sierra Leone cost hundreds
of thousands of lives. The toll in Darfur is increasing daily.
It is tempting and understandable to take a righteous stance
and say that deals should not be done with those responsible
for atrocities. However, it is difficult to tell victims of
these conflicts that the prosecution of a small number of
people should take precedence over a peace deal that may end
the appalling conditions they endure and the daily risks they
face.
On the other hand, there is the issue of the role of
prosecutions in preventing future atrocities. While mediators
are inclined to insist that conflict resolution necessitates
that all options, including full amnesty, must be on the
table, this insistence ignores the very important deterrence
impact of international prosecutions, let alone fundamental
moral considerations. By discounting this deterrence dimension
we miss a potentially valuable way of reducing the prospect of
atrocities in years to come. The conflict in northern Uganda
and the current peace process provide a case study in which
all of these difficult issues are in play.
Northern Uganda
For the last 20 years, the people of northern Uganda have
suffered at the hands of the vicious Lord's Resistance Army (LRA),
and have been penned in by the brutal response of the Ugandan
government. The LRA's leaders, headed by the mystic Joseph
Kony, claimed to be on a spiritual mission to cleanse northern
Uganda and to rule the country according to the Ten
Commandments, but have recently tried to recast themselves as
freedom fighters for the politically and economically
marginalized region. Regardless of their motivations, the LRA
has unleashed a reign of terror primarily on the people of
northern Uganda, abducting tens of thousands of children and
adults, turning them into rebel soldiers, porters and sex
slaves, and killing or mutilating indiscriminately.
Unfortunately, the Ugandan government's response has been
little better than the problem it purports to address. The
government herded over a million of the north's inhabitants
(predominantly Acholi) into squalid, insecure camps -
condemning them to a life removed from their fertile land,
with little hope for a productive future. Every week,
according to the government's own statistics, a thousand
people on average die from conflict-related disease and
malnutrition.
For the first time in around a decade, a sustained peace
process is taking place between the LRA and the Ugandan
government. The talks are occurring in Juba, Southern Sudan,
mediated by the Government of Southern Sudan. One complicating
factor in the negotiations is that the ICC is prosecuting the
leadership of the LRA. The ICC has come under intense
criticism in northern Uganda since the announcement in January
2004 that the Ugandan government had made the first state
party referral to the ICC. The Court has been condemned by a
wide range of international NGOs, academics, mediators and
northern Ugandans. These critics argued that the threat of
international prosecutions would undermine fragile local peace
initiatives; would prolong the conflict by obliterating the
LRA's incentive to negotiate; and would make displaced
northern Ugandans even more vulnerable to LRA attacks. In
addition to criticizing the timing of the ICC's investigation,
some observers asserted that the Court's brand of retributive
punishment was fundamentally at odds with local values,
enshrined culturally in traditional reconciliation ceremonies
and legally in Uganda's Amnesty Act of 2000. The ICC's
intervention, opponents argued, would ultimately perpetuate
rather than prevent conflict.
Some three years later, the exact opposite has happened. We
are in the midst of the most promising peace initiative in the
last 20 years; one that has dramatically improved the security
and humanitarian situation in northern Uganda. A landmark
cessation of hostilities agreement removed most LRA combatants
from Uganda, allowing hundreds of thousands of war-weary
civilians to begin the process of resettlement and
redevelopment. The elusive and erratic LRA has tentatively
begun to open up, building lines of communication with both
northern Ugandans and the government. These emerging signs of
trust and confidence help to promote reconciliation and to
pave the way home for displaced populations. Rather than
driving the LRA back into the bush, the rebels have been drawn
in to negotiations. Rather than making civilians more
vulnerable, northern Uganda is safer and life is slowly
improving.
How did we get here? We need to be careful about placing too
much credit at the feet of the ICC. An array of political and
military developments in the region - most notably the signing
of Sudan's CPA and improved performance by the Ugandan army -
has increased the costs of continued conflict for the LRA.
These shifts have cut off the rebels' room for tactical and
strategic maneuver and have compelled the LRA leadership to
explore a negotiated settlement more vigorously than in the
past.
We would argue that the ICC's investigations played an active,
positive role in encouraging and reinforcing these regional
trends for the following four reasons.
First, the threat of prosecution clearly rattled the LRA
military leadership, pushing them to the negotiating table.
Joseph Kony and the LRA commanders are acutely aware that the
ICC hangs as a sword over their heads. The issuance of arrest
warrants in particular created an incentive to reach a
settlement. It may be that the LRA's decision to pull most of
its troops out of northern Uganda and to issue standing orders
not to attack anyone in the area is in part due to deterrence
by the ICC. The LRA continues to attack civilians in Southern
Sudan, perhaps in the belief that it is beyond the geographic
limits of the referral.
Second, the ICC's investigation made it more difficult for the
LRA to enjoy continued support from its key foreign ally,
Sudan. Beginning in 1994, Khartoum provided an umbilical cord
to Kony in the form of a steady stream of weapons, training
and transportation. For Khartoum, the ICC's case increased the
stakes for supporting the LRA and prompted the Government of
Sudan to sign a 2005 memorandum of understanding with the
Court to cooperate with arrest warrants issued against LRA
commanders. Regardless of whether Khartoum actually fell
within the orbit of the ICC's criminal investigation, the
threat had a deterrent impact.
Some caution is necessary here. Other factors may have been
more significant than the ICC in influencing Khartoum's
calculations and decision to desist from supporting the LRA to
the same extent as in the past. Pursuant to the CPA, for
example, the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) pulled out of
Southern Sudan, cutting off the LRA's supply lines and
depriving the rebels of bases of sanctuary.
Third, the ICC's investigation raised awareness and focused
the attention of the international community, which in turn
provided a crucial broad base of regional and international
support for the fledgling peace process. One of the key
problems of previous peace initiatives was weak external
support. Now, in Juba, the international community has stepped
up its engagement, and the UN and a number of countries are
providing significant support for the talks.
Fourth, the ICC's attempt to hold the LRA leadership
criminally liable for its atrocities in northern Uganda has
embedded accountability and victims' interests in the
structure and vocabulary of the peace process. The third point
on the five point negotiating agenda is devoted to
reconciliation and accountability. The parties to the talks
have accepted, in principle, that robust accountability (in
the form of a special chamber of the High Court and
community-based rituals) is inevitable - although we should
remain very skeptical of the LRA's commitment to this
principle. Whether sincere on not, the LRA is being pushed
towards accountability on multiple fronts by multiple actors.
Consultation with the victims will play a crucial role in
attempting to devise robust local accountability mechanisms.
The ICC's impact is apparent insofar as this has never
happened in previous initiatives with the LRA or any of the
other myriad rebel groups that have emerged in Uganda since
President Museveni came to power in 1986.
Some policy considerations
While the ICC's overall contribution to the prospects for
peace in Uganda has been positive, the tension between peace
and justice comes into sharpest relief when the detailed
provisions of a peace deal are being negotiated. Foremost
among the obstacles to a Juba agreement (let alone the
implementation of such a deal), is the conflict between the
ICC prosecutions and the desire of the LRA's leaders for full
or substantial impunity. Kony and his commanders state that
they will not do a deal unless and until the ICC prosecutions
are dropped. Fear of arrest means that they avoid Juba and
issue instructions by satellite phone.
As the ICC Prosecutor continues to investigate participants in
ongoing, or recently ended, conflicts, the international
community will increasingly confront these peace and justice
dilemmas. How should it balance the range of competing, and
often conflicting, public policy goals in such situations?
There are no clear-cut answers to these problems. Instead, we
set out below some of the key considerations that policymakers
should take into account when confronted with such issues.
Prosecution by the ICC is one of the few credible threats
faced by leaders of warring parties
One of the main challenges for international policymakers in
their efforts to resolve conflicts is that they often lack
incentives or sanctions of sufficient credibility to influence
the calculations of the warring parties. To take Sudan as an
example, the threat of prosecution has been practically the
only credible threat applied to the Khartoum government over
the last few years - largely because the UN Security Council
has itself been unwilling to take the tough decisions, and has
instead been happy to outsource the 'bad cop' role to the ICC.
The threat of prosecution - and the examples of Slobodan
Milosevic, Charles Taylor, Hissène Habré and others - can have
a salutary effect on those contemplating state-sponsored
atrocities, but only if there is a real likelihood that they
may face the consequences of their policies. Unfortunately,
this is a stick that loses much of its deterrent power when
actually applied to those still in office. Government
officials who are the subject of ICC prosecution have a strong
incentive to cling to power at all costs so as to avoid
arrest. This will be President Bashir's tactic in Sudan.
Zimbabwe's President Mugabe has made it clear to associates
that the key motivation for his staying in power - and why he
will do so until he dies or is removed - is the fear of facing
an international tribunal in the future.
The ICC must secure convictions
The ICC needs to secure convictions to ensure its credibility
as a deterrent to future perpetrators. This is going to be a
challenge. In Darfur and Uganda the Court is going to find it
extremely difficult to get hold of those it is prosecuting.
And there will always be the risk of its prosecutions being
trumped by peace processes.
In Uganda, the Ugandan army has failed to defeat the LRA for
more than 20 years. While the Ugandan forces have recently
improved their capabilities, the LRA has been able to take
refuge in neighboring countries. The lack of a coordinated
response by those countries and the broader international
community has ensured that the rebel group has been able to
continue its attacks. It also means that the ICC cannot arrest
those it wishes to prosecute. If the peace talks fail to
achieve a satisfactory outcome, international efforts will
have to be redoubled to arrest the indictees.
In Darfur, the Prosecutor will not get any cooperation from
Khartoum. After the Prosecutor applied for warrants, President
Bashir declared that 'the government will not hand over any
citizen for trial outside the country. That being the case,
the ICC will need strong international support to progress
with the Darfur prosecutions. To date, however, the
international community has displayed an acute lack of
political will in dealing with Khartoum. One hopes, without
much optimism, that if and when prosecutions commence, the
international community will be shamed into providing more
substantive assistance and pressure.
Impunity should always be a last resort
The crux of the whole 'peace versus justice' debate is what
should be done when a warring party (or parties) insists that
a prospective peace deal is conditional on a halt to
international criminal prosecutions. In these circumstances,
the overriding policy issue is whether the important but
uncertain prospect of deterring future perpetrators and
reducing future conflicts takes precedence over more certain
benefits of an immediate end to an ongoing conflict. The first
point that needs to be acknowledged is that peace deals that
sacrifice justice often fail to produce peace. Failed amnesty
agreements brokered with the likes of Foday Sankoh in Sierra
Leone and Jonas Savimbi in Angola, and their violent
aftermath, demonstrates the potential costs of impunity.
In other contexts, however, past deals that have offered
limited or full immunity from prosecution have helped bring an
end to conflict and instability. One obvious example is the
deal with Charles Taylor to get him out of Liberia and to
bring an end to the conflict there. In South Africa, outgoing
leaders were given amnesty as part of a truth and
reconciliation process in an effort to end 34 years of
apartheid. The likely alternative was many more years of
conflict. In Mozambique, after 16 years of civil war ended in
1992, the Parliament adopted a general amnesty for all
fighters pursuant to which reconciliation processes took clear
precedence over accountability. The country has been largely
at peace since.
The Rome Statute that governs the ICC offers ways to reach a
peace deal by including robust accountability mechanisms. Such
mechanisms should aim to combine traditional reconciliation
ceremonies and formal legal processes in a way that satisfies
both the victims' needs for justice and meets the Rome
Statute's standards for accountability. Whether or not they
meet the Statute's standards would be assessed under Article
17, which requires the ICC, under the principle of
complementarity, to defer to a genuine investigation or
prosecution by Uganda - if such proceedings were to take
place. The Security Council also has the option under Article
16 to suspend an ICC investigation for renewable one-year
increments if it considers this to be in the interests of
international peace and stability. Such a decision could be
taken if there were a peace deal with adequate accountability
measures, even if they did not meet the complementarity
requirements.
We also need to bear in mind that the ICC may be less of a
deterrent to rebel groups than state actors, at least until
the late stages of their rebellion, by which time it is too
late for them to ameliorate their conduct to escape
prosecution. Most rebellions fail, and most rebels embarking
on their challenge to the central government are unlikely to
be concerned that they may later be prosecuted for their
atrocities. For these individuals, survival and success are
probably much more immediate concerns. All of this means that,
in the Uganda situation, the prosecution of Kony and his
fellow leaders - however meritorious and warranted - may have
to be justified on grounds other than its deterrent impact on
potential future rebel leaders.
Different considerations apply in the case of Darfur. When it
comes to the calculations of government officials, prosecution
is a threat to something they already have - power - and thus
may have greater deterrent impact. If a credible threat of
prosecution for future atrocities exists in the minds of a
regime's leaders, then they have something tangible to lose
and arguably will weigh that risk when deciding how to respond
to a challenge to their authority. The successful prosecution
of Sudanese officials responsible for the state's campaign of
atrocities would send a powerful message around the world, and
may go some way to preventing Darfur-like situations in the
future. We know that the Milosevic, Taylor and Habré examples
have resonated among leaders responsible for atrocities
elsewhere. Also, it is certain that any Darfur peace deal that
left the Khartoum regime in power would not prevent its
restarting the conflict if and when it suited its purposes -
as it is currently doing in central Sudan in breach of the
CPA. Hence, when dealing with Khartoum, the likely outcome is
no peace and no justice.
Conclusion
An assessment of the ICC's impact on the Uganda conflict, and
of considerations arising from other conflicts such as that in
Darfur, cannot provide a straightforward answer to the
question of how best to resolve competing justice and peace
goals. On the one hand, ICC prosecution has, arguably, been
successful where other attempts have failed in forcing Kony to
the negotiating table, and providing him with incentives to
explore seriously the option of a peace agreement. Yet, as the
peace talks progress, it is clear that the ICC remains a very
real obstacle to achieving an end to the conflict.
Much can be done to accommodate the need for peace with the
demands of justice, particularly through the mechanism of
Uganda's own justice system. In the end, however, difficult
choices have to be made about how to balance the need for
peace with the acute importance of accountability, deterrence
and the strengthening of the institution of the ICC.
These are not easy decisions, and often the choices that have
to be made are distasteful - but we don't do any favors to the
causes of peace or justice by pretending that such decisions
don't have to be made when it comes to ending a conflict.
Let's just hope that we make the right choices when we have
the option.
(Nick Grono is the Vice President for Advocacy and
Operations at the International Crisis Group. Source:
www.crisisgroup.org)
International
Newly elected
parliament of Pakistan meets
AFP, Islamabad
Pakistan's new parliament met for the first time on
Monday, with opponents of US-backed President Pervez
Musharraf vowing to end his "dictatorship" after beating
his allies in elections.
Slain opposition leader Benazir Bhutto's party will head a
hostile coalition government after winning the most seats
in the February 18 vote, with the grouping of former
premier Nawaz Sharif as its junior partner.
Nine years after ousting Sharif in a military coup,
Musharraf now faces a fight for his political survival as
well as public anger over rising Islamist bloodshed and a
host of economic problems.
"This is the last day of dictatorship," Bhutto's widower
and de facto Pakistan People's Party chief Asif Ali
Zardari told reporters after meeting Sharif in the
heavily-guarded parliament building.
"This is our first step. We have conveyed a message to the
world community to support democracy, which defeats
dictatorship," Zardari said.
Sharif said the coalition's strategy was "very clear-our
agenda is democracy versus dictatorship. It has to end, it
has to be defeated."
Security was tight for Monday's inauguration, following a
bombing targeting foreigners at an Islamabad restaurant on
Saturday that left a Turkish woman dead and several
western diplomats hurt.
The session began with a recitation from the Koran, the
Muslim holy book, after which members of the 342-seat
national assembly were sworn in, AFP reporters said.
Mourning prayers were also held for Bhutto, assassinated
in a suicide attack at an election rally on December 27.
The biggest threat facing Musharraf from the Bhutto and
Sharif parties is their pledge to pass legislation within
30 days to restore some 60 judges whom Musharraf sacked in
November under a state of emergency.
Musharraf deposed his arch-foe, chief justice Iftikhar
Muhammad Chaudhry, and the other judges to ward off legal
challenges to his re-election as president by the outgoing
loyalist parliament in October.
If the judges are restored, the Supreme Court could
overturn Musharraf's re-election.
Ahsan Iqbal, spokesman for Sharif's Pakistan Muslim
League-N party, told parliament the election win showed
the "people of Pakistan have rejected the step taken on
October 12, 1999"-referring to the coup that brought
Musharraf to power.
Neither Zardari nor Sharif actually has seats in the
assembly, and both had to watch the ceremony from the
gallery, seated side-by-side.
An announcement on the country's new prime minister is
expected later this week. Zardari is slated to take the
post but will need to contest a by-election to become
eligible.
The parliament is meeting with Musharraf's popularity at
an all-time low, and with his power already weakened by
his resignation as army chief in November. His successor
has vowed to keep the army out of politics.
But analysts say the former commando, who is central to
Washington's "war on terror" against Al-Qaeda and the
Taliban, appears to be ready to battle for his position.
China warns Tibetan protesters to surrender
AFP, Beijing
China on Monday warned Tibetans involved in anti-Chinese
protests to quickly surrender, but insisted it had not
used deadly force in quelling the unrest and blamed
rioters for murdering 13 people.
"They either burned or hacked to death 13 innocent
civilians," Tibet government chairman Qiangba Puncog said
in Beijing as he gave the first detailed official account
of the protests in the region's capital, Lhasa.
Amid international calls for China to show restraint, and
reported threats from some athletes that they may boycott
the Beijing Olympics over the unrest, Qiangba sought to
portray the Chinese response as reserved.
"Throughout the process (security forces) did not carry or
use any lethal weapons," he said.
"I can tell you as a responsible official that guns were
absolutely not fired. The PLA (People's Liberation Army)
was not involved at all in dealing with the incident."
His comments contradicted many eyewitness accounts from
local Chinese residents and foreign tourists in Lhasa that
they saw and heard repeated gunfire in the city on Friday,
the biggest day of protests, and the weekend.
Tibet's government-in-exile said that 80 Tibetans were
confirmed killed and possibly more than 100. Witnesses,
residents and Hong Kong television reported a massive
security force in Lhasa.
The protests began early last week to coincide with the
anniversary of a failed 1959 uprising against Chinese rule
that began when troops were sent in to "liberate" the vast
Himalayan region nine years earlier.
Tibetan spiritual leader the Dalai Lama, who fled his
homeland after the 1959 uprising, spoke out on Sunday from
his base of exile in India against what he termed China's
"rule of terror" in Tibet.
"They simply rely on using force in order to simulate
peace, a peace brought by force using a rule of terror,"
the 1989 Nobel Peace Prize winner said.
China has virtually sealed Lhasa off from foreign
journalists and kicked out most of the tourists, making it
virtually impossible to determine exactly what happened
and report accurately on current events.
The new Iraq at risk of sectarian rupture
AFP, Baghdad
The United States launched its war on Iraq saying it
wanted to free the people from the tyranny of Saddam
Hussein and bring on a new dawn of democracy. But five
years on, ethnic and religious tensions threaten to tear
the country apart.
The rival factions which make up this diverse state,
founded at the crossroads of the Arab, Persian and Ottoman
worlds, lie at the roots of the violence that has plagued
Iraq since Saddam's downfall, experts say.
"The American intervention has removed the lid on what
Iraq is as a diverse country," author and Middle East
specialist Adel Darwish told AFP.
"But then the Americans did not have a plan. Had they had
a plan they would have worked with these powers" among
Iraq's neighbours.
The fall of the regime in April 2003 sparked a new sense
of hope among Iraq's Kurdish and Shiite populations, who
suffered persecution under Saddam's brutal Sunni Arab-led
reign.
After Iraq's 1958 revolution, the country was on the path
to becoming a secular and republican state. When the
Baathists took power in 1968, the regime began focusing on
Arab nationalism and socialism.
After Saddam took power in 1979, the dominant ideology
became one of purely Iraqi nationalism and he handed
control of key state institutions to a small circle of
trusted party faithful and his family members.
Baathism ultimately became a tool to control society
rather than an ideology of progress while fear of the
regime quickly became the cement which bound together this
ethnically and religiously diverse country.
"Baathism and secularism was a levelling sword. To be used
against everybody equally," Darwish said. From the very
beginning of his reign, Saddam unleashed a campaign of
brutal violence against anyone who dared challenge his
authority, with the Kurdish and Shiite communities bearing
the brunt.
Sunni Arabs were not spared, but suffered less as they
were more closely linked to the state apparatus formed
under the Ottoman empire and left in place by the British
and the monarchy. With the fall of the Baathist regime,
the minority religious and ethnic groups took centre stage
in the construction of the new Iraq.
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