What the arrest of former PM means
By Sabir Mustafa
BBC Bengali service editor
Sheikh Hasina being arrested
It's not the first time the former PM has been arrested
Former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina was arrested on Monday and sent off to jail for a month. But this was not just another arrest, triggered by yet another corruption case.
When hundreds of police and elite forces descended on her home in the early hours of Monday, it was the culmination of two months of gradual tightening of the proverbial noose.
Back in May, Sheikh Hasina foiled a government attempt to send her into exile and returned to the country in a blaze of publicity. Thousands of her supporters defied a government ban and cheered her through the streets of Dhaka.
The euphoria was short-lived though, as she was placed under what amounted to house arrest almost immediately after her return.
'No accountability'
Police cordoned off all roads leading to her house in an up-market Dhaka residential area. Only a handful of party leaders and close relatives were allowed to visit her.
SHEIKH HASINA'S BIOGRAPHY
Sheikh Hasina. File photo
Born on 28 September, 1947
Her father was Bangladesh's first president and independence hero, Mujibur Rahman
During Bangladesh's war of liberation War in 1971, was imprisoned by the Pakistani army
Was abroad in August 1975 when her father, mother and three brothers were all murdered in Dhaka
Elected the president of the Awami League in 1981 while in exile
Put under house arrest several times in Bangladesh during the mid 1980s
Became prime minister after elections of 1996 but lost elections of 2001
When she tried to go to the southern port city of Chittagong last month to visit survivors of a catastrophic landslide, police stopped her from leaving the house.
Likewise, when she tried to travel to the US in late June to see her expectant daughter, the police deployed additional forces and prevented her from going to the airport.
In between all that, a number of extortion cases were registered against her in different police stations. On Monday, Sheikh Hasina was arrested in one of those extortion cases, filed over a month ago.
Earlier, she was charged in a murder case allegedly involving her Awami League party members in the death of four Islamist activists during demonstrations last October. The government is also reviving a number of corruption cases filed against her several years ago.
All the while, Sheikh Hasina has been campaigning for early elections, suggesting that the military-backed caretaker government did not have a mandate to govern for a long time.
The government has promised to hold elections before the end of 2008. But Sheikh Hasina believes that is too long in power for an unelected administration without any accountability.
'Torturing politicians'
She upped the ante in this cat-and-mouse game a week ago. While speaking to journalists, she did what has long been regarded in Bangladesh as the ''undoable'' - she publicly accused the defence intelligence agency, the DGFI, of meddling in politics.
Sheikh Hasina accused the military-run DGFI of ''arresting and torturing politicians'' and engaging in efforts to make or break political parties.
''It is not the DGFI's business to get involved in politics, to make or break political parties. What kind of intelligence activity is it, when the agency tortures people, and administers electric shocks?'' she asked.
Police in Bangladesh
Bangladesh crisis Q&A
To many observers in Dhaka, it was only a matter of time before she was arrested. Her supporters believe there is more politics than law behind her arrest.
''The government has arrested her in order to cut her off from her supporters and party workers. This arrest is politically motivated, which is unfortunate. Nobody in this country can support such an arrest'', Motia Chowdhury, a senior Awami League member told the BBC.
Sheikh Hasina herself believes the various corruption and extortion cases are being lined up to force her out of politics. Once convicted, she would be disqualified from standing in the next general elections.
According to political observers in Dhaka, her fears are not without basis.
The arrest comes at a time when the government is making behind-the-scene attempts to force major political parties to change their top leadership.
It has quietly encouraged a group of senior leaders in the Awami League to float ''reform'' proposals aimed at curbing her powers and easing her out of the leadership.
But the ''reformists'' have made little headway, except in grabbing newspaper headlines.
Awami League rank-and-file members around the country have failed to rally to their cause. While most seem to agree on the need for reforms, few want it done at the expense of Sheikh Hasina.
''There is a feeling in Dhaka that, if Hasina remains at the helm, the reformists would lose the battle,'' the newspaper editor Bazlur Rahman told the BBC.
''The government has been taking a series of steps to neutralise Sheikh Hasina by isolating her,'' he said.
Observers believe that, as long as Sheikh Hasina is able to appeal directly to her party's supporters, the "reformers" have little chance. The need to remove her from the scene, therefore, had become imperative.
War-like situation
The government says her arrest is part and parcel of a general drive against corruption launched by the military-backed interim government since 11 January.
Ministers point to a series of corruption and extortion cases filed against Sheikh Hasina, and suggest that nobody should be above the law.
Protest in Bangladesh in 2006
It's not yet clear whether the arrest will generate more street protests
But senior Awami League leaders feel there was no need to arrest her, as she was already under close police observation. Other political party leaders point to the manner of her arrest as disturbing.
''The way she was arrested, with all those hundreds of police and other forces, did not seem a pleasant sight. It appeared almost as if we are going through a war-like situation. I don't think this will create a positive impression,'' said Rashed Khan Menon, leader of the leftist Workers Party.
The arrest of Sheikh Hasina represents a significant event in Bangladesh. The caretaker government has now delivered a clear signal to the Awami League that it wants to see a wholesale change in the party's leadership before the next general elections.
The big question is: which way will the Awami League - the party which led Bangladesh to independence in 1971 and which celebrates its 60th anniversary next year - go now?
Will it give in to government pressure and accept Sheikh Hasina's ''dismissal'' from politics? Or will it regroup its forces and launch yet another long, violent round of protests?
The people of Bangladesh may not have the desire for any more political agitation. But early indications suggest that protests and agitation are very much on the cards.
Thursday, 19 July 2007
No reforms in AL until Hasina is free: Zillur
No reforms in AL until Hasina is free: Zillur
Relatives wait near a security fencing, seeking approval to see Sheikh Hasina in the special jail Thursday. Photo: Qamruzzaman
Awami League acting president Zillur Rahman Thursday said there would be no reform in the party before Sheikh Hasina was free. "Why reform keeping the leader in jail? All misunderstandings among us have been removed. The leaders and workers of the party at all levels are now united to free the leader," he told reporters at his Gulshan home. Zillur, also a former general secretary, said if indoor politics was reintroduced and if reforms were to take place, only in presence of Hasina would they be carried out.
SOURCE>BDNEWS24.COM
Relatives wait near a security fencing, seeking approval to see Sheikh Hasina in the special jail Thursday. Photo: Qamruzzaman
Awami League acting president Zillur Rahman Thursday said there would be no reform in the party before Sheikh Hasina was free. "Why reform keeping the leader in jail? All misunderstandings among us have been removed. The leaders and workers of the party at all levels are now united to free the leader," he told reporters at his Gulshan home. Zillur, also a former general secretary, said if indoor politics was reintroduced and if reforms were to take place, only in presence of Hasina would they be carried out.
SOURCE>BDNEWS24.COM
Hasina’s fears are not without reason
Hasina’s fears are not without reason
Editorial By New Age ,Dhaka,July 17
Although the interim government has claimed that the most recent restrictions imposed on the movements of former prime minister and Awami League president Sheikh Hasina, who was barred from going to Chittagong on Thursday to visit the victims of the recent landslides and then forced to postpone a private trip to the United States on Friday, are for the sake of proper investigation into the two extortion cases that were filed against her on June 13, Hasina herself has expressed an apprehension that the cases against her have been filed to keep her out of the next general elections and thereby to force her out of the political process. This paper, which believes in the rule of law that necessitates equal rights for all and the equal application of the law for all citizens, has consistently maintained that all corruption suspects, be they civil servants or former heads of government, should be prosecuted by the state through the due process of law and duly punished if found guilty of such charges. Hence, if after proper investigations the state wishes to pursue the cases against Sheikh Hasina, and if she is found, through proper trials, guilty of the crimes that she has been accused of, this paper will unfailingly support, for the sake of upholding the rule of law, the implementation of any punishment that is handed down to her by the courts.
However, given this military-backed government’s earlier attempts at keeping Hasina outside the country and of trying to send another former prime minister and Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairperson Khaleda Zia into exile, thus expelling the country’s two top political leaders from national politics, we have reason to find substance in Hasina’s apprehension. This anxiety, on our part, is made worse by the government’s visible enthusiasm for introducing a political order that would leave both Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia out of the equation. While we feel that the democratisation of the political parties in this country is absolutely imperative, we also believe that democratic reforms within the parties must be initiated and carried out by the parties themselves. It is absolutely vital that the members and activists of the Awami League and the BNP are allowed to select their leaders and drive their own reform agendas, rather than such decisions being taken and then forced upon the parties by an unelected government of non-politicians. Any imposition of external decisions and programmes relating to reforms on the parties, we feel, will not only fail to result in their much talkedabout and much desired democratisation, but will rather aggravate the existing chaos within the parties and create a political vacuum in the country, neither of which can have any positive impact on the flourishing of democracy within the parties and in society.
Editorial By New Age ,Dhaka,July 17
Although the interim government has claimed that the most recent restrictions imposed on the movements of former prime minister and Awami League president Sheikh Hasina, who was barred from going to Chittagong on Thursday to visit the victims of the recent landslides and then forced to postpone a private trip to the United States on Friday, are for the sake of proper investigation into the two extortion cases that were filed against her on June 13, Hasina herself has expressed an apprehension that the cases against her have been filed to keep her out of the next general elections and thereby to force her out of the political process. This paper, which believes in the rule of law that necessitates equal rights for all and the equal application of the law for all citizens, has consistently maintained that all corruption suspects, be they civil servants or former heads of government, should be prosecuted by the state through the due process of law and duly punished if found guilty of such charges. Hence, if after proper investigations the state wishes to pursue the cases against Sheikh Hasina, and if she is found, through proper trials, guilty of the crimes that she has been accused of, this paper will unfailingly support, for the sake of upholding the rule of law, the implementation of any punishment that is handed down to her by the courts.
However, given this military-backed government’s earlier attempts at keeping Hasina outside the country and of trying to send another former prime minister and Bangladesh Nationalist Party chairperson Khaleda Zia into exile, thus expelling the country’s two top political leaders from national politics, we have reason to find substance in Hasina’s apprehension. This anxiety, on our part, is made worse by the government’s visible enthusiasm for introducing a political order that would leave both Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia out of the equation. While we feel that the democratisation of the political parties in this country is absolutely imperative, we also believe that democratic reforms within the parties must be initiated and carried out by the parties themselves. It is absolutely vital that the members and activists of the Awami League and the BNP are allowed to select their leaders and drive their own reform agendas, rather than such decisions being taken and then forced upon the parties by an unelected government of non-politicians. Any imposition of external decisions and programmes relating to reforms on the parties, we feel, will not only fail to result in their much talkedabout and much desired democratisation, but will rather aggravate the existing chaos within the parties and create a political vacuum in the country, neither of which can have any positive impact on the flourishing of democracy within the parties and in society.
Update By Sajeeb Wazed Joy
Update
My mother is being detained under the Emergency Powers Rule, 2007, not under the criminal code of Bangladesh. There is no due process under the emergency powers. Right to bail and right to appeal are denied and the detention can be extended indefinitely even without a trial. Trials are conducted by special tribunals in camera (only the judge is present, there is no jury and the proceedings are closed to outside scrutiny) and summarily (normal procedures such as conducting discovery are not allowed.) This is a violation of international human rights laws, in particular Article 9 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
No one is being allowed to visit her, not even relatives. She has no access to telephone or any other means of communication.
Over 200,000 individuals remain arrested for up to six months now under these Emergency Powers. Of these, only a dozen or so cases have gone to trial. One former minister has been sentenced by a special tribunal to 12 years imprisonment for possessing 21 bottles of alcohol in his home without paying import duties on them. No other charges were brought against him.
This is not justice. This arrest itself is illegal and a violation of all human rights.
My mother is being detained under the Emergency Powers Rule, 2007, not under the criminal code of Bangladesh. There is no due process under the emergency powers. Right to bail and right to appeal are denied and the detention can be extended indefinitely even without a trial. Trials are conducted by special tribunals in camera (only the judge is present, there is no jury and the proceedings are closed to outside scrutiny) and summarily (normal procedures such as conducting discovery are not allowed.) This is a violation of international human rights laws, in particular Article 9 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
No one is being allowed to visit her, not even relatives. She has no access to telephone or any other means of communication.
Over 200,000 individuals remain arrested for up to six months now under these Emergency Powers. Of these, only a dozen or so cases have gone to trial. One former minister has been sentenced by a special tribunal to 12 years imprisonment for possessing 21 bottles of alcohol in his home without paying import duties on them. No other charges were brought against him.
This is not justice. This arrest itself is illegal and a violation of all human rights.
My Mother's Arrest
Tuesday, July 17, 2007
My Mother's Arrest
By Sajeeb Wazed
My mother was arrested in a dawn raid (5:00am Bangladesh time) from her house on Monday 16th July. Approximately 1,000 members of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), the army and the police surrounded her house in Dhaka and searched the premises without a warrant. They then took my mother to court where she was denied bail and ordered detained under authority of the indefinite state of emergency being maintained in the country.
After she was taken away, the armed forces confined all members of the household in a single room and proceeded to search the house without a warrant. They have since seized her personal belongings including her laptop, her mobile phone, her car and CDs.
The cases that were filed against her months ago have not yet gone to trial. Her arrest comes just one week after she exposed attempts by the military’s intelligence wing, Directorate General Forces Intelligence (DGFI) to break up the two major political parties and create a new party of handpicked leaders with dubious track records.
It has been no secret that the goal of this regime is to remove my mother from politics. To that end they first tried to intimidate her with trumped up charges when she was outside the country, but she would not be intimidated and declared she would return to face them. Next the tried to exile her, but were forced to back down and let her return. Then they placed her under virtual house arrest, even though they continued to claim there were no restrictions on her. Her arrest comes as no surprise.
It is also no secret that this regime has been trying to form a handpicked political party. They are attempting to do this with some very familiar faces within the two major parties. These are the same people against whom we have repeatedly heard allegations of corruption. Yet, while vowing to clean up corruption, this regime has actively participated with these corrupt and opportunistic politicians in trying to create divisions within the two parties.
The grassroots of the Awami League are completely united behind Sheikh Hasina. Due to this the regime’s attempt at creating a division within the Awami League was failing. This is the real reason my mother has been arrested. This was the only way they could silence her.
Police had to resort to teargas and rubber bullets outside of the court when my mother was ordered detained because of the large crowd that had gathered there to protest her arrest. On the route to the sub-jail the convoy was confronted at several points by crowds of supporters. Demonstrations and rioting have been breaking out throughout Bangladesh for the last two days, despite the state of emergency. For a short while the Dhaka-Chittagong highway was shut down because of rioting. A three day strike is in effect at all educational institutions throughout the country.
Demonstrations are ongoing in front of Bangladeshi embassies and consulates throughout the world. This includes Washington, DC, New York and Los Angeles in the US, UK, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Australia, Japan and the Saudi Arabia just to name a few.
We will not be silenced. We will not let the generals and a few sycophants take over power through the backdoor by destroying democracy under the guise of reforms, as they have done in the past.
I urge all Bengali’s around the world to stand with us at this critical hour. I urge our troops in our armed forces to look at what is happening. This is going to set our nation back 30 years. Our nation’s future is at stake.
My Mother's Arrest
By Sajeeb Wazed
My mother was arrested in a dawn raid (5:00am Bangladesh time) from her house on Monday 16th July. Approximately 1,000 members of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), the army and the police surrounded her house in Dhaka and searched the premises without a warrant. They then took my mother to court where she was denied bail and ordered detained under authority of the indefinite state of emergency being maintained in the country.
After she was taken away, the armed forces confined all members of the household in a single room and proceeded to search the house without a warrant. They have since seized her personal belongings including her laptop, her mobile phone, her car and CDs.
The cases that were filed against her months ago have not yet gone to trial. Her arrest comes just one week after she exposed attempts by the military’s intelligence wing, Directorate General Forces Intelligence (DGFI) to break up the two major political parties and create a new party of handpicked leaders with dubious track records.
It has been no secret that the goal of this regime is to remove my mother from politics. To that end they first tried to intimidate her with trumped up charges when she was outside the country, but she would not be intimidated and declared she would return to face them. Next the tried to exile her, but were forced to back down and let her return. Then they placed her under virtual house arrest, even though they continued to claim there were no restrictions on her. Her arrest comes as no surprise.
It is also no secret that this regime has been trying to form a handpicked political party. They are attempting to do this with some very familiar faces within the two major parties. These are the same people against whom we have repeatedly heard allegations of corruption. Yet, while vowing to clean up corruption, this regime has actively participated with these corrupt and opportunistic politicians in trying to create divisions within the two parties.
The grassroots of the Awami League are completely united behind Sheikh Hasina. Due to this the regime’s attempt at creating a division within the Awami League was failing. This is the real reason my mother has been arrested. This was the only way they could silence her.
Police had to resort to teargas and rubber bullets outside of the court when my mother was ordered detained because of the large crowd that had gathered there to protest her arrest. On the route to the sub-jail the convoy was confronted at several points by crowds of supporters. Demonstrations and rioting have been breaking out throughout Bangladesh for the last two days, despite the state of emergency. For a short while the Dhaka-Chittagong highway was shut down because of rioting. A three day strike is in effect at all educational institutions throughout the country.
Demonstrations are ongoing in front of Bangladeshi embassies and consulates throughout the world. This includes Washington, DC, New York and Los Angeles in the US, UK, France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Australia, Japan and the Saudi Arabia just to name a few.
We will not be silenced. We will not let the generals and a few sycophants take over power through the backdoor by destroying democracy under the guise of reforms, as they have done in the past.
I urge all Bengali’s around the world to stand with us at this critical hour. I urge our troops in our armed forces to look at what is happening. This is going to set our nation back 30 years. Our nation’s future is at stake.
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