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The government has failed to trace the origin of the largest-ever consignment of weapons in Bangladesh hauled in Chittagong on April 2, 2004 and its destinations even in a year.
   The government formed a high-powered inquiry committee to detect its source, destinations and the reasons for the smuggling of the weapons and ammunition. The committee also failed to submit its report.
   The committee chief, Omar Farooq, who served out his contractual tenure of home secretary on March 16, failed to say whether any progress has been made in the inquiry.
   Investigation of the incident is now uncertain and nobody knows whether the persons behind the smuggling and the motives would ever be traced.
   Nine accused named on the charge sheet in the case have been arrested; three of the accused have surrendered to the court.
   But none of them admitted being involved in the smuggling of the weaponry. The main accused Hafizur Rahman, Haji Abdus Sobhan and Din Mohammad are yet to be arrested.
   The state minister for home affairs, Lutfozzaman Babar, could not be contacted as he was on a trip to Singapore.
   A high official of the ministry told New Age Thursday night that the inquiry committee did nothing to investigate the incident.
   The investigation faced a setback when the Karnaphuli police officer-in-charge of the time, Ahadur Rahman, who oversaw the unloading of the consignment at the Chittagong Urea Fertiliser Limited jetty, was assigned to investigate the case.
   He was later removed on a court order that asked the authorities to sack and take action against him. He was not sacked and no action was taken against him.
   Inconsistencies and controversies surfaced in the investigation because of negligence and a hurried submission of the charge sheet by the law enforcers, without proper investigation and identification of the persons responsible.
   As the court found inconsistencies in the charge sheet, it ordered for the submission of a supplementary charge sheet. No change was, however, made in the supplementary chare sheet.
   Although law enforcers failed to make any headway in the investigation in a year, Jane’s Intelligence Review, an international defence magazine, in an investigative report on the arms haul, said the weapons had been shipped from Hong Kong and then more weapons added to the consignment in Singapore before they were brought to Bangladesh.
   According to the report of July 6, 2004, two key insurgent organisations from India’s northeast, United Liberation Front of Assam and the Isak-Muivah faction of the Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagaland, were involved in the shipment.
   It said although a reliable list of the seized weapons is yet to be made public, the shipment altogether worth an estimated $4.5 million to $7 million is known to have included around 2,000 automatic and semi-automatic weapons, 1,290 Type 56-1/Type 56-2 Kalashnikov-type assault rifles, 150T-69 rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) launchers, quantities of 40mm RPG ammunition, 25,000 hand grenades and 1.8m rounds of small-arms ammunition.
   In the latest development, the law enforcers arrested Haji Yakub Ali, an accused named on the charge sheet in the case, in Dhaka in the past week. He is now being interrogated in the joint interrogation cell.
   Interrogators said he had long been involved in smuggling fertiliser to Myanmar from Chittagong through a strong syndicate on the sea route.
   He knew everything about the people involved in arms smuggling and he said that when he was arrested in the Operation Clean Heart three years ago.
   As the government failed to find the smugglers and the masterminds, smuggling of weapons continues on both the sea and the hilly routes, sources in the law enforcing agencies in Chittagong told New Age on Thursday.
   They said the international syndicates have changed their strategies after the Chittagong haul; they are now smuggling small caches of arms and ammunition with the help of local gunrunners.

The World Bank on Thursday named Paul Wolfowitz its next president despite misgivings about the deputy US defence secretary’s ‘neoconservative’ ideology and enthusiastic promotion of the war in Iraq.
   The World Bank board, which is dominated by the United States, Europe and Japan, unanimously agreed on the controversial figure as the successor to James Wolfensohn, 71.
   Wolfowitz, 61, a former ambassador to Indonesia and state department official, vowed to uphold the bank’s ‘noble mission’ of eradicating poverty when he replaces Wolfensohn on June 1.
   But while campaigners kept up a barrage of objections over his suitability for the post, the US president, George W Bush, vowed to work with Wolfowitz.
   ‘The president looks forward to working with president-designate Wolfowitz and World Bank member countries to advance the fight against global poverty, promote development and meet the International Development Goals of the Millennium Declaration,’ said a White House statement.
   Wolfowitz said debt relief for the poorest nations was a pressing issue in his new in-tray, along with a September summit of the United Nations devoted to the so-called Millennium Development Goals.
   The UN goals, established in September 2000, aim to slash global poverty in half by 2015, step up the fight against diseases such as AIDS and tuberculosis and increase access to education.
   Wolfowitz pledged to work closely with European Union officials, having visited Brussels on Wednesday as part of a charm offensive to woo governments suspicious about his policy views and role in the war in Iraq.
   Wolfowitz was the sole candidate to serve as president of the International Monetary Fund’s sister institution. By tradition, an American leads the World Bank and a European the IMF.
   Many in Europe and beyond were aghast at the nomination of a figure whose ‘neocon’ instincts would appear to put him at odds with the value of multilateral institutions such as the World Bank.
   Wolfowitz is accused in addition of vastly underestimating Iraq’s post-war needs through a ‘neocon’ belief that the fruits of US-imposed liberal economics would be immediate.
   But EU nations overcame their objections and France is now said to be lobbying hard for Wolfowitz to choose a Frenchman as his deputy.
   ‘As I have said frequently, that mission—helping the poorest of the world to lift themselves out of poverty—is a noble mission,’ Wolfowitz added.
   ‘I believe deeply in that mission. Nothing is more gratifying than being able to help people in need and developing opportunities for all the people of the world to achieve their full potential.’
   Wolfowitz will be the bank’s 10th president, and its most controversial since Robert McNamara (1968-1981), who as US defence secretary was the architect of the Vietnam War.
   He will take over an organisation with nearly 10,000 staff that last year extended 20 billion dollars in funding for development projects around the globe.
   Through its various agencies, the bank bills itself as the largest external funder of education and HIV/AIDS programmes in the world.
   Activists were unimpressed with Wolfowitz’s pledges.
   The UN secretary general, Kofi Annan, also congratulated Paul Wolfowitz.
   ‘At a time when the world has before it far-reaching proposals for achieving the Millennium Development Goals, the secretary general looks forward to working closely with Wolfowitz in the fight against global poverty,’ a spokesman said in a statement.

Demonstrators rallied outside the World Bank’s headquarters in Washington DC on Thursday protesting against the ‘one-horse race’ for the top job at the bank as its board confirmed the nomination of the US deputy defence secretary, Paul D Wolfowitz.
   The protestors faulted the selection process and said it illustrated the undemocratic way the bank’s president is appointed.
   Non-governmental organisations and activists belonging to the anti globalisation movement were quick to condemn the appointment.
   They called for stronger opposition to the World Bank’s policies and protests later this month when the lending agency and its sister institution the International Monetary Fund are scheduled to hold their spring meetings between April 15 and April 17.
   The protestors apprehend that by placing a right-wing hawk at the head of the World Bank, the US president George W Bush may be moving to demolish internationalism at a time when the world community needs to come together to tackle the debt crisis, HIV/AIDS, access to clean water, affordable education and healthcare, reasonable wages and a clean environment.
   The activists said Wolfowitz, an architect of the US-led Iraq invasion, has been contemptuous of international law and human rights.
   Making Wolfowitz the bank president has grave implications, said said Emira Woods, co-director of Foreign Policy in Focus. ‘The move jeopardises the health and well-being of poor people, marginalised communities, and much of the developing world.’
   A part of the opposition to Wolfowitz’ appointment stems from his ill reputation as a major player behind the post-invasion mismanagement of Iraqi reconstruction aid.
   ‘And so now the developing world has to live with Wolfowitz, a man with no relevant experience but for his oversight of the reconstruction of Iraq — a project beset with corruption, cronyism and incompetence. The programme has failed miserably at delivering water, health, security and other basic services promised to the Iraqi people,’ said Robert Weissman, director of Essential Action.
   Wolfowitz has shown a penchant for militarism and strong leanings towards a global US hegemony.
   In 2002, he was one of the primary authors of the Bush administration’s National Security Strategy, in which he advocated invading Iraq. The paper called for US economic and military supremacy in different parts of the world and upheld the idea of pre-emptive attacks on countries opposed to US policies.
   ‘This nomination is an aggressive move by the Bush administration to use international development policy, and the money of the World Bank, to impose its will on developing countries, just as it has used its military to impose its will on Iraq and Afghanistan,’ said Leslie Cagan, the national coordinator of United for Peace and Justice, a prominent anti-war group.
   John Cavanagh, director of the Institute for Policy Studies, expressed his concern over Wolfowitz’ record as the US ambassador in Indonesia in the 1980s.
   ‘All those arguing that Paul Wolfowitz will effectively use the World Bank to promote democracy need to explain how he could testify before Congress in 1997 that the brutal Indonesian dictator Suharto was a “strong and responsible leader”,’ said Cavanagh.
   Others criticised his lack of experience in the development field.
   ‘Under his presidency, we expect the bank to accelerate the weakening of its own social and environmental standards,’ said Peter Bosshard, policy director of the California-based International Rivers Network. ‘Sadly we can expect more failed privatisations, more corporate welfare, more subsidies for big dams and oil pipelines.’
   Much of the concern over Wolfowitz’ appointment has also to do with the closed-door selection process behind.
   ‘The confirmation of Paul Wolfowitz marks a day of shame for the World Bank and the governments that control it,’ said Bosshard. ‘It is disgraceful that the governments have chosen to fill this important post by backdoor horse-trading, rather than a transparent selection process.’
   The United States government and other major World Bank shareholders have been sharply critical of the lack of transparency and accountability in many developing countries. According to quarters concerned it demonstrates the double standard of the international organisations.
   ‘In this context, this secretive leadership selection process is breathtakingly hypocritical,’ said Atila Roque, executive director of ActionAid International USA.
   Wolfowitz replaces James Wolfensohn, whose second five-year term ends on May 30.
   ‘I want to thank the board for their vote of confidence,’ Wolfowitz said in a statement sent out by the lending agency. ‘It is humbling to be entrusted with the leadership of this critically important international institution.’
   Several top US officials, including the president Bush and treasury secretary John Snow, welcomed the decision. Wolfensohn also congratulated Wolfowitz.
   The nomination was cleared after European countries ended their reluctance to back the US nominee, apparently anticipating US endorsement for the French candidate vying for the leadership of another key international institution. Pascal Lamy, the European trade commissioner is contending for the post of the director general of the World Trade Organisation.

Economists on Friday expressed their concerns about the next president of the World Bank, Paul Wolfowitz, who will take over the 184-member lending agency from June 1 for the next five years.
   Wolfowitz, 61, the US deputy defence secretary, will take joint charge with the current bank chief and former US president Bill Clinton appointee, James Wolfensohn, before singly taking over the reins of the bank.
   The agency’s 24-member board on Thursday approved Wolfowitz’ nomination. Wolfowitz is known as an architect of the Iraq invasion. The US president, George Bush, nominated him on March 16 in a message to the world that he intends to integrate, what he claims to be, development policy with the neo-conservative philosophy that guides his foreign policy.
   Wolfowitz, is widely seen as one of the most hawkish members of the Bush administration.
   Qazi Kholiquzzaman, president of the Bangladesh Economic Association also the chairman of Bangladesh Unnayan Parishad, pointed out that Wolfowitz is a neo-conservative and is a firm believer in globalisation and free market.
   ‘The ongoing trend towards a free market economy and globalisation increases disparity between the poor and the rich countries, and also between the poor and rich in individual countries,’ he said.
   Kholiquzzaman said, ‘If he pursues the current process without serious attention to poverty alleviation and strive towards the millennium development goals, then I see serious problem.’
   Abul Barakat, general secretary of Bangladesh Economic Association said, ‘Wolfowitz is not from a development field so there is a little possibility that he would be successful.’
   Barakat said, ‘Also being one of the architects of the Iraq invasion, there is a doubt over his success as the head of the World Bank.’
   MM Akash said, ‘The outgoing president of the lending agency had differed with the nomination of the United States. But Wolfowitz is very much a hardliner.’
   ‘By appointing him the United States has signalled that they want to implement their interests in the third world countries more directly than ever before,’ he said.
   The Bush administration said it looked forward to working with Wolfowitz, who has promised member countries that he would not impose US policies on the bank.

Bangladesh is set to ratify the UN Convention on the Conservation of Migratory Species of Wild Animals, which was signed 26 years ago in Bonn to conserve terrestrial, marine and avian migratory species.
   The cabinet approved a proposal for ratification of the convention during its weekly meeting on Monday, presided over by the prime minister, Khaleda Zia.
   Once the parliament endorses the proposal, Bangladesh will become the 90th signatory country to have ratified the Bonn convention. Eritrea ratified the convention in February to become the 89th signatory country to have done so.
   ‘Bangladesh is a destination for a large number of birds that migrate every year to escape the cold in winter,’ the chief conservator of forest, M Anwarul Islam, told New Age.
   ‘Besides, wild elephant from Myanmar and India, tigers from India migrate seasonally into the country.’
   He said wildlife conservation ‘is increasingly getting importance in Bangladesh’.
   Other official sources said dozens of species of migratory bird are endangered as many of them are falling prey to poachers. Trappers catch the birds and sell them open in markets, and also over-fishing in the coastal areas threatened the birds’ migration to Bangladesh.
   ‘There are laws to protect the wild animals, but it is practically difficult to apply them in the remote areas,’ said an official of the wildlife conservation department.
   He said it is better to make the people aware of the importance of the wildlife conservation.
   Most of the migratory birds take shelter in Sundarban while wild elephants cross the border to Bangladesh in the Chittagong Hill Tracts and north-eastern Sylhet region, said an official. Tigers come from Indian part of Sundarban during summer.

Authorities of the Bangladesh Telegraph and Telephone Board and private cell phone companies are in a serious discord over tariff sharing casting a shadow on interconnectivity of the telephone board’s mobile phones with other mobile operators.
   Authorities of the state-owned mobile phone company Teletalk Bangladesh blamed the private operators for not ensuring interconnectivity.
   On Thursday, the first day of distributing mobile subscription forms, customers at different city booths expressed their anger as they would have no access to communicate mobiles of other network providers.
   An official of the board’s mobile project on Friday said interconnectivity with other operators is yet to be confirmed as private mobile companies are not cooperating with the board initiative. The private operators rather made unreasonable demands, which could not even be considered, he said.
   The private operators, he said, demanded Tk 0.90 per minute from the telephone board for each call from telephone board’s mobiles and land phones to their cell phones. But if, he said, their proposal is considered, the government would have to pay a subsidy of over Tk 3 per call or increase tariff.
   Teletalk urged the private operators to keep their charge within Tk 0.15 per minute. The Teletalk authorities also demanded that several operational facilities provided by the telephone board be made free for the mobile operation.
   Intekhab Mahmud, senior vice president (marketing) of the Pacific Bangladesh Telecom Limited — operator of CityCell — said, ‘As we have the same agreement with other cell phones and land phone operators, the board or Teletalk should have similar agreements.’

Two months after Nepal’s king Gyanendra sacked his government, seized power and imposed a state of emergency, cracks are already appearing in the world’s response, observers say.
   India, the United States and Britain have demanded democracy be restored, but Washington has not yet decided whether to follow Delhi and London in suspending military assistance.
   Pakistan has offered to supply arms if India refuses, and also sent a junior minister this week to offer development loans. Indeed, foreign economic aid continues to pour in.
   None of Nepal’s main allies are prepared to walk away completely if it means opening the doors to the Maoist rebels fighting a nine-year war to impose a communist republic.
   ‘It is not our intention to do anything that will undermine the ability of the state to defend itself against the Maoists,’ said one Western diplomat.
   ‘There is the scope for a lot of brinkmanship,’ he added, expressing what he described as a personal opinion. ‘To a certain extent, it is a question of who will blink first... but I do not think we can force the king to back down completely.’
   Gyanendra has vowed to restore democracy within three years. And he has promised Washington details of his plans within 100 days of seizing power on February 1. But he may already be sensing a weakening of the international resolve, observers say.
   ‘My reading is that there are some waverings in the international coalition,’ said Sukh Deo Muni, a professor at Jawaharlal Nehru University in New Delhi.
   ‘India is generally firm...but American priorities are terrorism first and democracy later,’ he said. ‘Meanwhile, the king is playing his games with both Pakistan and China.’
   In Kathmandu, the press has been muzzled and politicians locked up under the state of emergency. In the countryside, dirt-poor Nepalis live in fear of both sides—of uncompromising Maoist rebels and at times equally brutal soldiers.
   The United Nations and bilateral donors have warned Nepal is being pushed ‘towards the abyss of a humanitarian crisis’.
   In Geneva, the annual gathering of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights is considering a proposal to issue a firm resolution condemning abuses by both sides in Nepal’s dirty civil war, which has killed more than 11,000 people since 1996.
   Campaigners have thrown down the gauntlet to the UN body.
   ‘Nepal is a test case to measure the commission’s willingness and ability to tackle human rights crises,’ the Amnesty International secretary general, Irene Khan, said on Wednesday.
   Tej Thapa of Human Rights Watch is optimistic the UN commission will agree on a strongly worded resolution on Nepal, appoint a special rapporteur and establish a UN human rights monitoring mission with offices around the country.
   Meanwhile, former Nepal prime minister, Girija Prasad Koirala, and 284 other activists detained since king Gyanendra seized power two months ago have been released, the police said Friday. Koirala, leader of the Nepali Congress party, was among 83 people freed Friday in Kathmandu, said a senior police official.
   The 284 other activists were released from various parts of the country, other NC officials said.
   The 82-year-old Koirala had been held since
February 1.

The activists of the ruling BNP and the main opposition Awami League distributed sweetmeats at Jaldhaka upazila in Nilphamari following newspaper reports on the alleged tampering of passport by a local lawmaker.
   The Danish embassy in Dhaka refused to grant visas to Mizanur Rahman Chowdhury, lawmaker of the Jamaat-e-Islami from Nilphamari-3, and his family members, and seized their diplomatic passports for alleged tampering.
   The BNP Jaldhaka unit president, Anwarul Kabir Chowdhury, said the ugly face of the Jamaat-e-Islami has been exposed through the incident. ‘The party was spreading falsehood in the name of Islam.’
   Golam Mostafa, a local leader of the Awami League, told New Age that misdeed of the Jamaat lawmaker has tarnished the image of the country. He demanded exemplary punishment for the lawmaker for tampering with his passport, and issuing false statement that his passport was lost.
   But the leaders and activists of the Jamaat-e-Islami termed the matter a part of conspiracy to tarnish the image of their party and the lawmaker as well. They claimed his passport was lost a long time ago.
   The lawmaker told newsmen that he applied for fresh passport through the parliament secretariat. But he denied that he applied for visa to the Danish embassy.
   He also alleged that someone out of ill motive might have submitted the lost passports to the Danish embassy to embarrass him.

A study by researchers of Columbia University in New York suggested that Bangladesh and Nepal are some of the world’s most vulnerable countries as far as natural disasters are concerned.
   They found that the world’s most vulnerable countries, including Bangladesh, Nepal, Burundi, Haiti and Taiwan, have more than 90 percent of their people at a ‘high risk’ of death for two or more types of disasters.
   Although many of these areas were already known to be in danger, the report provides a more sophisticated method to compare risks across countries and regions, allowing governments and aid agencies to prioritise their resources, said Maryvonne Plessis-Fraissard, director for transport and urban development of the World Bank. ‘Before, we did not have the big picture.’
   The lending agency plans to use its hotspot map to identify countries in most need and help them implement a preventive, rather than a reactive, mechanism to disasters. According to the Nature magazine, the team led by Maxx Dilley of the World Bank broke down most of the globe into 8 million grid cells of about 25 square kilometres each.
   They then mapped the risks of human and economic damage from six types of disaster, such as cyclones and landslides, in each of the grids and built a picture of the world’s high risk areas.
   Monday’s earthquake off Indonesia painfully illustrated that natural disasters often strike the same place repeatedly. Researchers have now ascertained areas that are most at risk, in a study that could help countries and aid agencies plan for future catastrophes.
   But past data alone cannot predict future disasters. And these simple data sets do not reflect different countries’ population densities and wealth, which affect their vulnerability, said Maxx Dilley of Columbia University, the lead author of the study.
   Much of the damage and death that disasters cause is preventable by building earthquake-proof structures. But repeated hits lock many of the world’s developing countries into a cycle that makes it difficult to fund changes, especially because much of the available aid goes into immediate relief efforts.
   The World Bank also intends to encourage governments to invest in measures such as flood embankments and cyclone shelters with loans to countries planning for better disaster management.

Pope John Paul II hovered near death Friday, fully conscious and serenely awaiting his fate according to officials, as thousands of pilgrims gathered in prayer and cardinals prepared Catholics around the world for his demise.
   The Vatican said the pope’s condition was ‘very serious’ following a heart attack, septic shock and a urinary tract infection, and although by midday he was reported to be stable, a senior cardinal said he was ‘abandoned to the will of God.’
   As the 84-year-old head of the Roman Catholic Church lay inside his apartment overlooking St Peter’s Square, pilgrims congregated outside to pray through what many believe to be his final hours.
   Across the world, from his native Poland to Indonesia via the Middle East, thousands of faithful also prayed for the health of a pontiff who has led the world’s 1.1 billion Catholics for more than a quarter of a century.
   Vatican spokesman, Joaquin Navarro-Valls, told a news conference at 12:30pm that John Paul II had earlier seen his closest advisers in separate meetings at his bedside.
   Navarro-Valls, who has been the spokesman for John Paul II since late 1984, was visibly moved when asked for his personal feelings.
   ‘It’s an image which I had never before seen in 26 years ... the pope lucid and extraordinarily serene, with the expected breathing difficulties,’ he said in a voice broken by emotion.
   Cardinal Camillo Ruini, the Vicar of Rome who is traditionally charged with breaking news of a papal death, painted a picture of a pope serenely awaiting his end.
   Earlier, one of the leaders of the Polish community in Rome, Father Konrad Hejmo, told reporters the Polish-born pope was ‘ready’ to die.
   The health of the pope, who suffers from Parkinson’s disease and has long been confined to a wheelchair and has respiratory and throat problems, suddenly deteriorated Thursday evening.

The minister for finance and planning, Saifur Rahman, has expressed his disappointment at the developed countries for not keeping their commitments under the Kyoto Protocol to help the poor countries such as Bangladesh to protect their environment.
   ‘They did not fulfil their commitments. As a result, the poor countries have to destroy their natural resources for their survival,’ he told reporters at Zia International Airport Thursday night after joining a four-day conference on Green Growth Initiative at Seoul in South Korea.
   Saifur said the ministerial conference, mainly of environment ministers, urged nations not to destroy their natural resources for the sake of their future generations.
   Few finance and planning ministers, including the Bangladesh minister, were also invited to the Seoul meet as they pursue development plans.
   Saifur said the poor nations could have been less dependent on their natural resources if the developed countries had fulfilled their commitments to provide the poor nations with 0.7 per cent of their total GDP in assistance.
   He noted with dissatisfaction that the developed countries rather gobbled up the resources of the poor countries keeping their resources intact, especially after the two world wars.
   Saifur urged the developed countries to provide the poor nations with more resources so that they can preserve their natural resources.
   Turning to Bangladesh perspectives, the minister said he had to give subsidy for fertiliser, knowing full well that it would affect the environment and fishery resources. ‘But how can Bangladesh feed its teeming millions unless it takes measures to increase food production?’
   He, however, recognised that construction of excessive roads in rural areas causes land degradation and affects the natural resources.
   The minister also had a bilateral meeting with his Korean counterpart who informed him that the investment climate in Bangladesh is congenial and the Korean investors were interested in investing invest more in Bangladesh.

The government has accepted almost all the conditions of the Asian Development Bank to obtain $215 million in loans from the lending agency.
   A visiting delegation of lending agency outlined the conditions for the loans to be spent on seven projects in the gas sector at a meeting with the officials of the energy and mineral resources division on March 13.
   In its reply, the government chose to ignore the ADB demand to separate the Production Sharing Contract Department from Petrobangla, but agreed to go by most others.
   The conditions included curtailing Petrobangla’s authority by separating the contract unit and giving full autonomy to its subsidiary companies, and strengthening the Energy Regulatory Commission.
   Sources in the division said the reply, which accepted almost all the conditions, was sent to the agency headquarters in Manila last week.
   The conditions also required that a market-based energy pricing regime be established. The agency required that the Energy Regulatory Commission be given the authority to fix gas and power tariff.
   The government would also have to formulate an immediate action plan for land acquisition for pipeline and rehabilitation of the owners, and form of high-powered monitoring body to oversee the projects.
   The agency asked the division to reply by March 26 for the $215 million loans mostly to set up gas transmission lines in Rajshahi and Khulna.
   The government will provide the remaining $198 millions of $413 million, to implement the projects.
   The projects also cover three-dimensional seismic surveys — one at the Sylhet Gas Field. The other two surveys at the Bangladesh Gas Field will be conducted by the state-run Bangladesh Petroleum Exploration and Production Company.
   In its reply the division told the agency that the government would strengthen the regulatory commission as stipulated by the ERC Act and has already begun the process.
   Regarding land acquisition, the division said the government would acquire land following the Land Act and there was no option to go beyond that.
   It said that the companies under Petrobangla, including the Gas Transmission Company, have already been given full autonomy as those were established under the Company Act. The government has no problems in forming monitoring units for the projects, it said.
   The division remained silent about curtailing Petrobangla’s authority by separating the unit that deals with gas purchase and sales agreements with international oil companies.
   Sources in the division said the government chose ignore the issue since it was one of the common conditions that the lending agency insists upon but never takes seriously.
   The bank has long been pressing the government to downsize Petrobangla and separating the contracts unit.
   ‘Petrobangla’s authority would eventually be reduced once the regulatory commission comes into full force. There is no need for hurried restructuring,’ said a source.
   After evaluation of the energy division’s reply, two teams of the lending agency are likely to visit on April 11 and April 25 to discuss about fund, he said.
   Credit negotiations are likely to take place between May 23 and May 26.
   ‘If everything goes well, the proposal will be placed before the agency’s board on June 29. Following its approval, loan disbursement will begin within three months,’ he said.

Dr Kamal Hossain, an author of the country’s constitution and leader of the Gano Forum, on Friday spelt out a set of urgent measures to ensure true independence of the Election Commission and non-partisanship of the caretaker government.
   ‘People are seriously concerned that free and fair elections cannot be ensured unless certain urgent measures are taken to make the Election Commission truly independent and effective, and the non-partisan caretaker government truly non-partisan and impartial,’ he said, suggesting some solutions that would not require constitutional changes.
   Elaborating on his proposals, Kamal said, ‘It is necessary that appointment of the chief election commissioner and other commissioners is made through a process of effective consultations of the government with the opposition parties so that their impartiality and independence remains above controversy.’
   Replying to a question, he said, ‘Unilateral appointment by the government without consultation tends to generate controversies and undermine the confidence in the Election Commission.’
   ‘The commission must have its own separate budget, and its staff will not be dependent on the government. It must also be able to ensure independence of the returning officers, presiding officers and others who conduct elections.’
   The Election Commission must have power to monitor violation of electoral laws and adjudicate to take penal actions against the transgressors, he noted.
   ‘To protect the election process from the destructive impact of black money, candidates must make public declaration of their assets and their dependants,’ he said and added that the political parties and others must be made financially accountable through public disclosures.
   Asked about the opposition plea for reform of caretaker government, he said, ‘The caretaker government must be headed by a person who is above controversies and whose non-partisanship cannot be questioned.’
   He said the existing constitutional process has to be interpreted and applied in the light of the aforesaid fundamental objective.
   Asked if he thinks an amendment would be needed to ensure the non-partisan character of the caretaker government, he replied in the negative. ‘If this fundamental objective is kept in view, the problem can be resolved without constitutional amendment.’
   In the constitution, there is a provision for appointing chief adviser of the caretaker government from among other eligible citizens under certain circumstances.
   Article 58C (5) of the 13th amendment says, ‘If no retired judge of the Appellate Division is available or willing to hold the office of chief adviser, the president shall, after consultation, as far as practicable, with the major political parties, appoint the chief adviser from among the citizens of Bangladesh who are qualified to be appointed as advisers under this article.’
   Asked if he seeks early elections in view of the prevailing political situation, Kamal said, ‘I see from various reports and particularly from the activities of the government that an election may be called before the end of the fifth year of its term.’

The trouser exporters are facing tough competition from low-cost Chinese manufacturers, whose sales to the United States increased sharply in the quota-free market, according to the statistics of the US import department.
   Trousers export from Bangladesh dropped by more than 11 per cent in January, the first quota-free month, while Chinese exports increased by more than 1,000 per cent and those from Vietnam increased by 126 per cent.
   In 2004, trousers export from Bangladesh had a 29 per cent increase over the previous year.
   Apparel exporters expressed their concerns but said it is too early to figure out the real trend.
   ‘We are concerned over the drop of trouser exports to the United States,’ said Ghulam Faruq, vice president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association.
   US apparel market analysts said abnormal decline in Chinese trousers prices has brought about the decrease in Bangladeshi exports.
   In January, Bangladesh exported 4,09,026 dozens of trousers to the United States, 11.35 per cent less than the volume exported in January 2003 while earnings dropped by 8 per cent to $247 million, according to information.
   Market share of Bangladeshi trousers in the United States declined to 2.92 per cent in January from last year’s average of 3.3 per cent.
   At the same time, China’s share in US trousers market jumped to 9.35 per cent from 1.09 per cent a year ago.
   Average value of Chinese trousers exported to the United States plunged by 52 per cent to $58.48 per dozen.
   Prices of Bangladeshi trousers per dozen is at $70.28, showing almost four per cent increase over the prices in January 2004.
   Price of Vietnamese trousers is lower than that of Bangladesh despite a 6 per cent increase to $61.40 per dozen. Vietnam’s market share in the United States has also increased to 5.48 per cent from 2.65 per cent in January 2004.
   In January 2005, US imports of trousers from Pakistan rose by 3.32 per cent, Jordan by 59 and Kenya by 57 per cent while shipments from India decreased by 50 per cent.
   In a sharp contrast imports from Sri Lanka surged 29 per cent, after a remarkable increase by 42 per cent in 2004.

The Workers Party of Bangladesh general secretary, Bimal Biswas, has taken the charge of the coordinator of the 11-Party Alliance on Friday.
   He replaced Ganatanri Party presidium member Mohammad Nurul Islam for tenure of three months.

The Ministry of Education plans to stop the monthly pay orders (government portion of salaries) of the teachers and employees of those intermediate level colleges that do not have the required number of students, sources in the ministry told New Age.
   As per the government rules, the required number of students for any intermediate level college is 33, but according to an official document, 884 colleges fail to meet the minimum requirement.
   The number of government and non-government colleges under seven general education boards is 2,999, according to a source in the ministry.
   Of the total, 1,095 colleges are under Rajshahi Education Board, 681 under Dhaka Board, 434 under Jessore Board, 270 under Comilla Board, 234 under Barisal Board, 161 under Chittagong Board, and 124 colleges under Sylhet Education Board.
   But four hundred and sixty-four colleges under Rajshahi Board do not have required number of students. The number of such colleges under Dhaka Board is 122, under Jessore Board 59, under Comilla Board 83, under Barisal Board 48, under Chittagong Board 56, and under Sylhet Board 52.
   Twenty-three thousand teachers and employees are engaged in these colleges, an official said. ‘The fate of the teachers and employees will be decided at the end of the current month.’
   The government gives 90 per cent salaries of the teachers and employees of non-government colleges.
   ‘The ministry, however, has not decided what kind of action will be taken against the government colleges which do not have required number of students,’ a high official in the ministry said.

Politicians in South Asian countries, including those in Bangladesh, should make some hard decisions to foster economic growth in the peoples’ interests.
   ‘Political trade-offs should be made by politicians to accelerate economic growth for people’s well-being,’ said the World Bank South Asia chief economist Shantayanan Devarajan on Thursday in Washington DC.
   Devarajan, a Sri Lankan-born economist, commended Bangladesh for its progress in some significant sectors despite continuous political turmoil.
   ‘Bangladesh is a classic example of somehow getting the job done, even when faced with odds including political trouble,’ he said while exchanging views with a group of journalists from Bangladesh, India and Pakistan at the bank headquarters.
   ‘Bangladesh has made tremendous progress compared to other South Asian countries especially in health, education and micro credit,’ he said.
   Replying to a question on sharing gas through pipelines, he said, ‘Politically, it is a charged issue for Bangladesh to have its gas network connected with India’s.’
   ‘Political trade offs should be made by politicians as they have to face the music in the elections,’ he said.
   The South Asian region has had consistent economic growth, although not widely shared in India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Pakistan, he said. Devarajan said there was a need for accelerated growth to reduce poverty substantially.
   ‘The human development indicators seem to be working in South Asia, especially in Bangladesh.’
   But human development indicators in Pakistan are stagnant, while in India, economic growth is uneven in different states, he said. ‘In India, political interests play a role to foster growth in some states while in some other states the same interests inhibit growth.’
   In Pakistan, he said Punjab has a remarkable growth rate but the other provinces lag behind.
   Devarajan said policy, politics, and structure matters in South Asia.
   Expressing his concern about the Indian fiscal deficit of 10 per cent of its GDP in the last 10 years, he said ‘It is not a comfortable situation. It is a silent crisis of investment and long term growth. We might not see it now, but we will in future.’
   ‘I am concerned about the management of the existing infrastructure of India,’ he added.
   Bangladesh is the ‘poster child’ for micro credit success, he said. Devarajan pointed out that India has not scaled up its micro finance like Bangladesh. ‘Bangladesh provides stipends to girls creating competitiveness and strengthening the consumers.’
   ‘India needs deep set of reforms in education and health sectors to forge a way forward,’ he added.

International Federation of Journalists on Friday protested the imposition of imprisonment and fines in contempt of court proceedings on journalists in Bangladesh.
   ‘Contempt of court and criminal defamation must not be used as instruments to silence journalists from exposing the truth,’ said the federation president, Christopher Warren.
   The federation in a press release said on March 22, the High Court convicted seven journalists on the charge of contempt of court for exposing the alleged fake qualifications of a High Court judge. One journalist was sentenced to prison, and six others were fined.
   The contempt case was prompted by front page articles published on the daily Bangla newspapers, Prothom Alo and Bhorer Kagaj on October 30, 2004 that an additional judge of the High Court, Faisal Mohammad Faizee, allegedly tampered with his LL.B mark-sheet and that he did not actually pass the law examination before enrolling himself as an advocate with the Bar Council.
   ‘We extend our solidarity to our colleagues in their struggle for press freedom and there is an urgent need for reform in defamation and contempt of court laws so that the judiciary is also held accountable,’ said Warren.
   He also said, ‘The failure of the government to bring the perpetrators to justice and allowing violence against the press to go unpunished heightens the crisis in the media in Bangladesh.’

At least 12 people were injured in clashes between the activists of Bangladesh Nationalist Party and Awami League, and police baton charges in Belkuchi upazila in Sirajganj on Friday.
   The police and said the clashes ensued when BNP activists attacked an AL procession that was heading towards attending a rally at Adachaki.
   During the clashes, a number of activists of both the parties received injuries.
   At one stage, the police went to the spot and charged batons to disperse the feuding groups leaving a more people injured.

The law enforcers Friday night rescued Nithil, a two-year-old boy of an expatriate, from New Eskaton in the capital 48 hours after his abduction.
   The police also arrested the main suspected abductor, Halim, from the spot.
   Omar Faruk, officer-in-charge of the Kotwali police station, told newsmen that as per confession of the arrested a contingent of the Kotwali police rescued Nithil at around 8:32pm from a under construction building at New Eskaton.
   The boy was picked up from his residence at Chankharpul in the Dhaka city Wednesday night.
   His family members said one of their distant relatives, Anwar Hossain Anu, along with his friend Halim, visited them at about 8:30pm on Wednesday and took Nithil, son of Helal Ahmed, who lives in Japan, for buying him chocolate.
   Nithil’s grandfather Mokbul Hossain Thursday morning received a ransom note of Tk 10 lakh.
   The Kotwali police arrested Jalil and Rahim, who are brothers of Halim, at Matuail on Thursday in this connection. Halim went into hiding.
   The police on Friday produced them in chief metropolitan magistrates court, seeking them to be placed on a 10-day remand. The court granted a remand for three days.
   The police said, ‘Investigation officer Amir Hossain went to Bhairab to arrest Halim and rescue Nithil.’
   ‘We also sent several teams outside the city based on the statement of the arrested. We picked up two others in Munshiganj and two more in Kishoreganj for interrogation,’ the duty officer said.
   Mokbul on Thursday filed a case with the Kotwali police, accusing Anu, Halim, Rahim, and Sohel.
   In the first information report, he said Anu and Halim used to visit their house occasionally.

Seven members of ethnic minorities were kidnapped allegedly by the activists of United Peoples Democratic Front from Barkal and Langadu on Friday, six days after the kidnapping of 14 tribal people in Naniarchar.
   Four of them were picked up from Barunachhari in Barkal in the morning and three others from Ukchhari in Langadu in the early hours, the local people said.
   They claimed a group of UPDF activists numbering between 10 and 15 kidnapped Ritesh Chakma, 25, Jamini Kanta Chakma, 55, Proti Kumar Chakma, 28, and Alak Priya Chakma, 26 — on their way to Shuvalong Bazar in an engine boat.
   Another group of activists of the UPDF, which has been opposing the Chittagong Hill Tracts peace treaty, abducted Liton Chakma, 24, Kironta Ranjan Chakma, 35, and Niranjan Chakma, 30, from their respective residences at Ukchhari, the local people also claimed.
   The police have acknowledged the incidents, but failed to provide the press with the political identify, if there is any, of the abductors.
   On March 26, 14 indigenous people were kidnapped from four villages in Naniarchar allegedly by the activists of the Parbatya Chattagram Jana Sanghati Samiti. They were not released till Friday evening.
   The UPDF, however, has consistently been denying the allegations.

A mob lynched an alleged snatcher and wounded three others at Laliyarhat under Hathazari upazila in Chittagong Thursday night.
   The police said local people caught four snatchers when they were fleeing along with valuables and cash snatched from a fish trader, Badiul Alam, on his way to residence from a local market at around 10:00pm.
   The mob beat the snatchers, leaving one of the snatchers dead on the spot.
   The police visited the spot and rescued the snatchers.