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The government has discussed a proposition to ask two European countries to withdraw their ambassadors stationed in Dhaka.
   The discussion took place at a meeting of some top policy planners of the government on Wednesday.
   ‘The government would informally request the two countries to withdraw their ambassadors to Bangladesh as the activities of the two envoys are negatively impacting Bangladesh’s good relations with the countries,’ a source close to the policy planners concerned told New Age.
   The government has also decided to be stricter in implementing the Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations 1961, as it believes that some foreign diplomats stationed in Dhaka are frequently violating diplomatic norms and are ‘involving themselves in the internal politics of the country’, the source said. ‘We prefer not to declare the diplomats persona non grata as such declaration would have adverse impact on our relationships with the countries concerned.’
   The government is closely monitoring the activities of some diplomats and senior officials of international lending agencies in Dhaka as it finds their actions and remarks to have ‘crossed limit of tolerance’, he added.
   Multiple sources confirmed that the ‘offending’ ambassadors in question represent two European missions here.
   The prime minister, Khaleda Zia, strongly criticised foreign quarters on Tuesday for interfering with the internal affairs of Bangladesh. ‘Stop interfering in the internal affairs of our country,’ she said in her valedictory remarks on a thanksgiving motion on the president’s speech in Jatiya Sangsad.
   Top ministers, including the finance and planning minister, M Saifur Rahman, echoed the prime minister’s words on Wednesday.
   The sources said the government’s displeasure with the diplomats stem from what the government considers to be their ‘open involvement in the internal affairs of the country, especially after the grenade attack in Habiganj on January 27 that killed Awami League leader and former foreign minister SAMS Kibria.
   The ambassadors of the European Union’s diplomatic missions in Dhaka issued a joint statement on January 28. ‘The EU ambassadors are deeply concerned that the apparent failure to properly investigate previous attacks has led to a climate of impunity which encourages a continuation of such incidents,’ said the statement, issued after the envoys met Kibria’s family.
   ‘Denmark has expressed serious concern at the deterioration of the governance situation, especially in law and order, political violence…,’ Danish ambassador to Bangladesh, Niels Severin Munk, told the news agency United News of Bangladesh on March 4.
   ‘Germany is ready to enter into a dialogue with the Bangladesh authorities on how to ensure free and fair elections,’ the German ambassador, Dietrich Andreas, told UNB on March 11.
   Terming the next general elections crucial for the country, Andreas said, ‘…the climate of insecurity has caused great concerns and is detrimental to Bangladesh’s development and image abroad.’
   Munk and Andreas were two of the diplomats who attended last month’s ‘informal meeting’ of Bangladesh’s lenders in Washington, which made a critical reappraisal of the situation in Bangladesh.
   Sources in the meeting told New Age that Demark and Germany were the most vocal at the meeting in raising their concerns about the ‘situation in Bangladesh’, and pushed for tougher conditionalities for loans disbursed by Bangladesh’s development partners.
   The sources said the government is also concerned at foreign diplomats meeting political leaders and addressing the press afterwards.
   On January 1, the British high commissioner to Bangladesh, Anwar Choudhury, reportedly said, ‘A country cannot be run this way …,’ after he had met the Awami League president, Sheikh Hasina.
   Esko Kentrschynskyj, the head of the delegation of the European Commission, recently held meetings with former president AQM Badruddoza Chowdhury and some members of parliament including BNP national standing committee member Oli Ahmed.
   The Vienna Convention on Diplomatic Relations was adopted on April 14, 1961 by the United Nations Conference on Diplomatic Intercourse and Immunities held at Neue Hofburg in Vienna, Austria. The convention entered into force on April 24, 1964.
   Members of a diplomatic mission have a duty not to interfere in the internal affairs of the receiving State, said Article 41 of the convention.
   ‘The receiving State may at any time and without having to explain its decision, notify the sending State that the head of the mission or any member of the diplomatic staff of the mission is persona non grata …,’ said Article 9 of the convention.

The finance and planning minister, M Saifur Rahman, on Wednesday asked multilateral lending agencies and bilateral donors to either stay out of the country’s internal affairs or leave the country.
   ‘The government is not supposed to align with the development partners; they are supposed to align with the government,’ he told a seminar on the state of the economy, organised by the Economic Reporters’ Forum at the National Press Club. ‘They can leave if they find it hard to adjust with the policy and the programmes of the government.’
   Saifur said a recent Washington meeting, attended by representatives of a number of developed countries along with bilateral donors and multilateral lenders, had decided that the World Bank’s aid should be awarded to a country on the basis of the state of the economy not the state of governance.
   He, however, avoided a direct answer to a question whether the government’s attitude towards the lenders and the donors has changed following the critical observations of the prime minister, Khaleda Zia, made in the parliament. ‘It is the attitude of 14 crore people of the country.’
   Saifur insisted that neither the United Nations Development Programme nor any other development partner has the right to comment on the country’s electoral process or to seek reforms in the constitutional provision of the caretaker government. ‘It is none of their business.’
   He termed hartal suicidal and said he has always been against hartal, even when in opposition.
   Saifur also renewed his criticism of the media, saying the newspapers portray a negative image of the country whereas there are positive issues to write about.

The main opposition Awami League on Wednesday rejected the prime minister’s valedictory speech in the parliament on Tuesday where she severely criticised the opposition’s overall role.
   The deputy leader of opposition in parliament, Abdul Hamid, said the prime minister, Khaleda Zia, had ‘arrogantly’ attacked the opposition, the diplomats and the press in her speech, which what he said was inconsistent with parliamentary norms.
   ‘The remarks she made in the parliament is totally baseless, she should not talk like this,’ Hamid told reporters at a briefing in his parliament office. He described the prime minister’s call to the opposition to return to the parliament as double standard.
   ‘We are frequently denied the right to speak in the parliament, and again she [prime minister] calls on us to return to the parliament to speak out,’ Hamid said, referring to several hundred notices, submitted by his deputies, which were rejected outright by the speaker on lame excuses.
   Regarding the prime minister’s warning against the foreigners, Hamid observes it will not bring any good for the nation.
   ‘If anyone threats you or dictate you in running the state affairs, then solve it through diplomatic channels. The parliament was not the right forum to address the issue,’ Hamid, a former speaker of Jatiya Sangsad, said.
   About the opposition’s proposal form reforms in the caretaker government system, Hamid said, ‘It’s not the Awami League’s proposal, but the proposal of all the opposition parties and the people,’
   A former home minister, Mohammad Nasim, who attended the briefing, also criticised the prime minister’s speech and speeches by a number of ministers on the opposition proposal for reforms in the caretaker administration to ensure free and fair election.
   He referred to the Awami League’s demand for introduction of the caretaker administration in 1995–96 and said at that time, also then ruling BNP leaders were rigid not to accept the idea. ‘But they were compelled to do that.’
   Nasim said the prime minister skipped all the matters of public interest, including dipping law and order and increase in prices of essential commodities, and she supported the activities of the radical Islamists.
   ‘She delivered totally a misleading speech in the parliament,’ Nasim said.
   The chief whip of opposition in parliament, Abdus Shahid, said out of 22 working days, the parliament faced severe quorum crisis for 18 days.
   The bills passed in the session without quorum, therefore, are unconstitutional, he said. Shahid blamed the ruling coalition for making parliament ineffective.

The outgoing home secretary, Muhammad Omar Farooq, who heads an inquiry committee to probe the biggest-ever arms and ammunition haul in Chittagong, has failed to submit its report even in a year.
   Sources in the ministry said Omar, whose contractual service expired Wednesday, had hardly conducted any investigation other than visiting the spot after the seizure. ‘In fact, he leaves the investigation uncertain,’ a top home ministry official told New Age.
   Omar, however, claimed that the investigation was on but declined to say whether he had been able to trace the smugglers and their masterminds.
   ‘I will not say anything in this regard,’ he told journalists on Wednesday. ‘Today is my last day at office but you will have time to know about it.’ Omar said his tenure as the home secretary was over but there was no ending of the ministry. ‘I am hopeful that everything will go on.’
   He also refused to comment on what stage the investigation was on and told the journalists to contact his successor.
   The government formed the inquiry committee to detect the source, destination and reasons behind the smuggling attempt after 10 trucks laden with arms and ammunition had been seized at the Karnaphuli fertiliser factory on April 2, 2004.
   The seizure included 4,930 firearms, 27,020 hand grenades, 840 rockets, 300 accessories of rocket launchers, 2000 launching grenade tubes, 6329 magazines and 11, 40520 bullets stuffed in wooded boxes.
   Meanwhile, inconsistencies and controversies surfaced in the investigation to negligence and hurriedly submission of charge sheet by law enforcers without proper investigation and identification of the persons involved in the incident.
   The Criminal Investigation Department’s assistant superintendent of Chittagong zone, AKM Kabiruddin, who was made the investigation officer of the case following removal of the first investigation officer, submitted charge sheet on June 11 last year.
   The metropolitan session judge, Fazlul Karim, who conducted the first hearing of the case on July 15 found huge discrepancies in the investigation process and observed that the mode of examination of both the investigating officers were questionable.
   The court ordered for a detailed investigation and submission of a supplementary report on the charge sheet. But the second investigation officer was replaced by Nawsher Ali, now the Sylhet Zone assistant superintendent of Criminal Investigation Department.
   He submitted a supplementary report to the court on August 26 without making any change in the earlier one. He put the same number of accused 43 and implicated 114 persons in the charge sheet.
   Both the charge sheet and supplementary report accused Hafizur Rahman, Haji Abdus Sobhan and Din Mohammad as the principal suspects.
   In the latest development, three persons shown accused in the charge sheet surrendered to the court in Chittagong on March 9. They are Ataur Rahman, Fazlul Ahmed Chowdhury and Mohammad Akbar Ali. The court rejected their bail petitions and sent them to jail. With this, the number persons sent to jail rose to 11 while 14 others had been enlarged on bail. The rest of the 43 accused, including the three principal ones, had gone into hiding.

The outgoing home secretary, Muhammad Omar Farooq, whose contractual service expired Wednesday, is likely to be replaced by the secretary of the Planning Division, Akhter Hossain Khan.
   Sources in the government said the Prime Minister’s Office had already given approval for Akhter and the establishment ministry is likely to issue an order today about his appointment as new home secretary.
   They said several candidates had lobbied for the post but the policymakers finally tipped Akhter as the most suitable person for the post.
   The government did not consider extension of Omar’s contract as he made himself controversial due to his reported connection to the Jamaat-e-Islami, Bangladesh.
   Controversies are also there that Omar was biased toward taking actions against leaders and activists of the Jamaat and its front organisations during anti-crime drives in the past, the official sources said.
   Meanwhile, Omar passed a busy day at his office for the last time Wednesday attending various meetings. The home ministry officials and employees arranged a programme at the ministry in the afternoon to bid him farewell.

Petrobangla may have to spend Tk 64 lakh on a planned visit to the United States and Canada by eight members of a parliamentary committee ‘to know more about the power, energy and mineral resources sector’, said sources in the energy and mineral resources division.
   In February the members of the parliamentary standing committee on the power, energy and mineral resources ministry — both from the ruling BNP and the opposition Awami League — sought to visit some energy establishments in Bangladesh, Canada, Malaysia, Norway, the United Kingdom and the US.
   Subsequently, at the instruction of the Energy and Mineral Resources Division, Petrobangla prepared a summary proposal for the visit, scheduled for April 11-24.
   The proposal will be sent to the prime minister, Khaleda Zia, for approval in a day or two, the sources said.
   If approved, Petrobangla will release about Tk 64 lakh from its training and travel fund for officials and experts. Travel and accommodation cost for each lawmaker has been estimated to be $12,695 or Tk 7,99,785.
   The lawmakers on the planned ‘knowledge mission’ are M Shahidul Islam (chairman of the committee), Sardar Sakhawat Hossain Bakul, M Shamsuzzoha Khan, M Nazimuddin Alam, M Ilias Ali and M Habibul Islam Habib of the BNP, and Sheikh Fazlul Karim Selim and Syed Abul Hossain of the Awami League.
   The parliamentary standing committee also proposed inclusion of the state minister for energy and mineral resources, AKM Mosharraf Hossain, and the state minister for power, Iqbal Hasan Mahmood, in the visit but their names were left out later, the sources said.
   The sources said one of the committee members was insisting on inclusion of his personal assistant in the visit. Besides, the energy and mineral resources division has also proposed a mid-level official.
   Mosharraf told New Age that the members had proposed for the visit as they wanted to develop their knowledge on energy sector.
   He said the summery of the proposal might be sent to the prime minister on Saturday. ‘The visit of the members depends on her approval.’
   Morshed dismissed the claim that nearly Tk 7 lakh be spent on each member of the committee for the visit. ‘It should not be more than Tk 70,000.’
   He also said Petrobangla would not bear the cost as the money would come from the training fund, specified in production-sharing contracts with international oil companies.
   Mosharraf also justified spending money from the experts’ training fund. ‘As they deal with the affairs of the power, energy and mineral resources divisions, they also need to develop expertise on the issue to formulate better policies.’
   ‘Besides, members of other parliamentary committee go overseas to develop their knowledge on issues they deal with,’ he claimed.
   ‘I believe the standing committee members will be able to play a dynamic role in formulating policies and guidelines on issues relating to power, energy and mineral resources.’
   According to the draft itinerary, the members will leave Dhaka on April 11 and visit different gas and oil establishments in Calgary till April 16 with assistance from Environment Canada.
   They will also visit gas processing, transmission and CNG establishments in Dallas, Huston, Atlanta and New York between April 17 and 23 with assistance from Unocal Corporation.

The government is likely to enact a comprehensive law on contempt of court, repealing the Contempt of Court Act 1926 which has become obsolete and contains no definition of the word ‘contempt’.
   According to sources in the Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs, the ministry has already prepared a draft bill of the proposed act.
   The ministry, however, may finalise the draft of the Contempt of Court Bill after consultation with concerned people, including media people and jurists, and other institutions before placing the bill for approval of the cabinet, said sources.
   The bill, if approved by the cabinet, may be tabled in the Jatiya Sangsad for enactment in its next session.
   The proposed act will be a comprehensive one since it will have a more or less clear definition of ‘contempt of court’ and will codify the offences in detail, sources claimed.
   The draft bill proposes that no court will adjudicate a contempt of court case, in which the rule is issued by the same court that has initiated the proceeding.
   At present the courts adjudicate the cases in which the same courts issued the rule initiating the contempt proceeding, and also those cases in which the judges, who issue the rule, are involved personally.
   The draft bill details the matters that can constitute an offence of contempt of court and also details the matters that do not, sources said.
   According to sources, any innocent and fair criticism of judgements pronounced by any court, publishing any fair comment on the merits of any case which has been heard and finally decided, publication of a substantially accurate account of what has transpired in a court, or of legal proceedings, fair and accurate report of legal proceedings held in public, published contemporaneously and in good faith, will not constitute an offence of contempt of court.
   A true statement regarding the conduct of a judge in a matter not connected with the performance of his judicial functions will also not constitute contempt of court, said sources.
   The slander or libel of a court and personal criticism of a judge while holding office will, however, constitute contempt of court, says the draft bill.
   It also says that no person will be guilty of contempt of court for making any statement, or publishing any statement, pertaining to any matter which forms the subject of pending proceedings, if he was
   not aware of the pendency thereof.
   According to sources, the bill proposes that no court may require a person to disclose, nor is any person guilty of contempt of court for refusing to disclose, the source of information contained in a publication for which he is responsible, unless it is established to the satisfaction of the court that disclosure is necessary in the interest of justice or national security or for the prevention of disorder or crime.
   According to the draft bill, criminal contempt means the doing of anything with intent to, or having the effect of, obstructing the administration of justice, and civil contempt means wilful disobedience of any judgement, decree, direction, order, writ or other process of a court, or wilful breach of an undertaking given to a court.
   A publication, which creates a substantial risk that the course of justice in the proceedings in question will be seriously impeded or prejudiced, will also constitute contempt of court.
   According to sources, it is also a contempt of court to obtain, disclose, or solicit any particulars of statements made, opinions expressed, arguments advanced or votes cast by members of a jury in the course of their deliberations in any legal proceedings.
   The bill also details the procedure of contempt cases and punishment of different offences of contempt of court.

Seventy-eight women and children, who were trafficked from Narail and Faridpur in June 2004, are set to return home today.
   The governments of Bangladesh and India have completed all the procedures for their repatriation. The Bangladesh National Women Lawyers’ Association has been coordinating the process.
   As the 78 women and children were trafficked at a time, it was easier to trace their addresses, said officials of the association.
   Meanwhile, four adolescent boys — Arfullah, Manoj Das, Tuhin and Apu — are facing problems in returning home as their addresses could not be traced.
   They are now staying in a shelter home of the Kolkata-based NGO Prajjak. Sixteen children, who were earlier trafficked and stayed with the four, reached home in January 2005.
   Arfullah, 10, was trafficked in 2004 from his home district Cox’s Bazar. He can remember that he, along with two girls, was taken off by a young man named Suna Mia and the night before crossing the border, they were kept in a room, stuffed with different goods.
   When he began crying after reaching India, the traffickers released him and he was arrested by the police.
   Manoj, 12, says he comes
   from Gharipur, Hadkata in Sylhet but the association failed to find the address given by him. He was trafficked in March 1999.
   Tuhin, 14, could say he was trafficked from Khulna and her two sisters are Rebecca and Masuma. Apu was trafficked in 2002 from the Dhaka Cantonment area. The police rescued him from Mumbai.
   The association’s deputy programme manger of the anti-trafficking cell, Shirin Nahar, said most of the time these poor children forget their addresses and they also forget their language after they are trafficked.
   She said as a number of them are floating and migrant people for which it becomes difficult to trace their families. Shirin said bureaucratic tangles on the Indian government and court hinder smooth repatriation of women and children who have long been waiting to come back home.
   The complicated process of releasing such people does not allow mother to receive children as a guardian.
   The authorities also hesitate to release such people who are also witness to other trafficking incidents. Shirin said traffickers are hardly penalised, but a number of children are put in jail or shelter homes for four to five years.
   Ripa Mandal, a 12-year-old girl, was trafficked form Satkhira, but her mother was found in Jessore.
   The ministries of home and foreign affairs in Bangladesh gave residence certificates to her.
   The Indian government hesitated to release her as the address she could tell did not match with the one her mother stays at.
   When Ripa was shown her mother’s picture she began crying. Ripa is now waiting to come back home under an arrangement of the women lawyers’ association.
   Shirin said more than a hundred women and children are now waiting in Kolkata jails or shelter homes to be repatriated.

The head of a powerful Naga rebel group in the turbulent northeast threatened on Wednesday to end a seven-year ceasefire if long-running talks with the Indian government make no progress.
   The general secretary of the National Socialist Council of Nagaland, Thuingaleng Muivah, told Reuters in an interview that Naga tribals will not give up their decades-old demand for an independent homeland.
   The tough talk by Muivah signalled that negotiations between the rebels and New Delhi to end the more than 50-year revolt in the Christian-dominated Nagaland state had made little headway.
   ‘Yes, that cannot be ruled out,’ Muivah said when asked if the NSCN (I-M) would once again take up arms if there was no progress in talks.
   ‘If important issues are not solved we will be compelled to take our own decision again and no one can stop it,’ he said. ‘We can come as far as we can come. Beyond that, we will pack up and go back.’
   Nagas make up barely three million of India’s billion plus, mainly Hindu population.
   A ceasefire agreed between NSCN (I-M) and Indian soldiers has held since 1997 in the mountainous Nagaland, one of the seven states in the region. The revolt killed more than 20,000 people before the truce.
   But a peace deal has proved elusive due to New Delhi’s refusal to accept the NSCN (I-M)’s demand to unite all Naga-dominated areas, including districts in neighbouring states, in a ‘Greater Nagaland’.
   Muivah and NSCN chairman Isak Chishi Swu, who live in Thailand, began a new round of talks with New Delhi in December. But the two sides have been tightlipped over any progress.
   Muivah said the Naga grouse arose from the division of Naga areas by British colonial rulers and subsequently India which included Naga-dominated areas in the neighbouring states of Manipur, Assam and Arunachal Pradesh.
   Muivah, however, said the Nagas were only asking for their rightful territory as all Nagas wanted to live together.

Today is the 86th anniversary of birth of the first president of the country, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
   Mujib, one of the founders of the Awami League, was born on March 17, 1920 at Tungipara under Gopalganj district.
   The main opposition party, Awami League, and its front organisations will observe the day as National Children Day marking the birth anniversary of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
   On the occasion, the Awami League will hoist national and party flags at party offices across the country at 6 am and place wreaths at the portrait of Mujib at Bangabandhu Memorial Museum in the city at 7 am.
   The party will also arrange milad mahfil, discussion meeting and cultural programmes.
   An Awami League delegation from the city will visit Tungipara, ancestral home of Mujib, to pay homage to the late leader by placing wreath on his grave there today.
   The acting AL general secretary, Obaidul Kader, has requested all party activists to make all-out efforts to make the day’s programme a success.
   In a message on the occasion, the party president, Sheikh Hasina, said Sheikh Mujibur Rahman was the supreme leader of the independence of the country.
   She called upon the people to launch a united movement to force the present government to step down and establish a Sogan Bangla according to the dream of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.
    The AL chief, in her message, also urged the people to build a united resistance to repression and human rights violation perpetrated by the BNP-Jamaat led alliance government.

The High Court on Wednesday ruled that placing Asadullah Al Ghalib, a suspected top militant, on repeated police remand was not illegal.
   The law of the land allows placing an accused on police remand repeatedly for interrogation, not more than 15 days at a time, the court observed disposing of a petition filed for Ghalib, chief of the Ahle Hadith Movement Bangladesh and top leader of the now-banned Jamaatul Mujaheedin.
   A High Court bench of Justice AK Badrul Huq and Justice M Fazlur Rahman, however, directed the government to ensure access of Ghalib to lawyers of his choice and his family members.
   Ghalib has been taken on repeated remand incommunicado for 10 days twice, with a gap of three days, since his arrest on February 23.
   A good number of Ghalib’s followers were seen at the courtroom.
   Ghalib’s son, Ahmed Abdullah Sakib, filed the petition on March 13 for quashing his interrogation by the joint interrogation cell.

The amended constitutional provision for reserved seats for women in parliament and the law enacted for indirect election to those seats are nothing but a breach of the government’s pledge to the people, particularly women, and, also, detrimental to democracy.
   M Zahir made this observation Wednesday while pleading for the writ petitions challenging the constitutional provisions made by the 14th amendment to the constitution and the Jatiya Sangsad (Reserved Seats for Women) Election Act 2004.
   In the election manifesto, the government had pledged direct election to the reserved seats for women, but it has broken its promise by only making provisions for indirect elections, argued the counsel.
   According to his contention, in democratic system, the parliament means an institution of elected representatives of the people. The 14th amendment and the election law have made the provision of participation of 45 women in the parliament session, who are not peoples’ representatives.
   ‘They may be the representatives of the members of parliament or of the political parties’, he said.
   The people elect their representatives to the parliament. But, in the new system, their representatives will now have to elect 45 more lawmakers, argued the counsel and said, ‘The power the people give to a lawmaker cannot be delegated’.
   Questioning the concept of proportional representation, introduced by the laws under challenge, Zahir claimed that the concept was quoted wrongly.
   The concept of proportional representation is a popular vote, but here the government used the concept as to introduce an indirect vote by the MPs and that cannot be accepted as popular vote, he argued.
   The hearing remained inconclusive for the third day before the High Court bench of Justice MA Matin and Justice AFM Abdur Rahman.
   M Zahir with Sigma Huda, Tania Amir and Asaduzzaman moved the case for the petitioners, and the assistant attorney general, Rajik-Al-Jalil, appeared for the government.

The education ministry will seek Tk 50 lakh more from the Ministry of Finance to bear the cost of the legal battle in a Dutch court which in its verdict asked Bangladesh to pay Tk 31 crore in fine for a ‘breach of contract.’
   The decision was made at an inter-ministerial meeting on Wednesday at the Ministry of Education. The minister for education, M Osman Farruk, was in the chair, the ministry officials said.
   The finance ministry has so far given an allocation of Tk 1.21 crore, of which Tk 80 lakh has been spent on the appeal prosecution that began in August 2004 after Dhaka had challenged the judgement of the court in the Netherlands.
   The court fined Bangladesh with about Tk 31 crore and asked it to pay compensation for cancelling the deal with the Dutch firm, Tulip Computers, for supplying 10,388 computers for an education ministry project.
   The case may continue for a longer period and the Bangladesh embassy in the Netherlands made a request to pay 48,000 euros in arrears as bill for the legal adviser in February, the officials said. In November 2004, the government sent 30,000 euros to the Bangladesh mission in the Hague to bear the cost of the lawsuit.
   The court gave the ruling in March 2004 and Bangladesh also lost a chance to make an appeal within eight weeks after the verdict as it did not pay heed to the court order. After the court order, the Dutch authorities threatened to confiscate airliners and ships carrying the Bangladeshi flag anywhere in the European Union unless compensation was paid by the Bangladesh government.
   Sources said the Economic Relations Division made am agreement with the Tulip Computers on June 30, 2001 for the supply of 10,388 computers.
   After signing the agreement, the education ministry decided against the purchase, saying that the prices were too high.
   After the government of Bangladesh had decided not to buy the computers, an attorney of the Netherlands, on behalf of the Tulip Computers, in a letter issued on July 30, 2002 informed the Bangladesh finance ministry that they would file a case against Bangladesh if it did not go by the agreement within August 16, 2002.
   Bangladesh was supposed to receive Tk 49.95 crore in grant from the Netherlands for introducing computer courses to secondary and higher secondary levels under the project. The grant was withheld after the education ministry had breached the agreement.

Tension in some border areas, caused by the recent gun battle between the Bangladesh Rifles and the Border Security Force of India over barbed-wire fencing, has apparently been defused as New Delhi agreed not to continue erecting the fence at disputed places in a high-level meeting at Agartala in Tripura.
   ‘There is no tension on the border points today,’ a BDR official told New Age on Wednesday, referring to a decision of the three-day Agartala meet that ends today.
   He said the Indian side had agreed at the meeting that they would not erect the fence at the controversial points until the two governments settle the matter politically and diplomatically.
   The eight-member BDR delegation led by its deputy director general, Brigadier General SM Golam Rabbani, strongly protested against unilateral installation of the border fence by India at many places within the 150 yards of the zero line. The Bangladesh side requested its counterpart to stop the erection of fence forthwith.
   Although the BSF claimed that they were erecting the border fence in line with the 1975 border guidelines signed by Bangladesh and India, they agreed to stop fence erection in controversial spots. The inspector general of the BSF Tripura-Mizoram-Meghalaya-Nagaland frontier, SC Srivastuva, led a
   14-member delegation at the meeting.
   The meeting also discussed border security, stopping of smuggling of narcotic substances, arms and explosives, pushing in Bangla-speaking Indian citizens, obstruction of development works in the Bangladesh side by the BSF, and stopping of illegal trespassing of Indian citizens. These issues were raised by the BDR.
   The Indian side alleged that wanted criminals were still using Bangladesh territory for their operations in India, especially in the north-eastern states. Bangladesh denied the allegation, said a BDR source.
   Meanwhile, the Indian High Commission in Dhaka expressed concern, in a statement, over ‘exaggerated and inaccurate’ accounts reported by the Bangladesh media on construction of the fence along the India-Bangladesh border.
   ‘All activities relating to the building of the fence are being carried out entirely on the Indian side of the border. For the most part, the fence is located at or beyond 150 yards from the zero line,’ said the statement.
   ‘However, in specific areas, due mainly to the existence of villages, or as necessitated by terrain conditions, the fence has to be built within 150 yards of the line,’ said the statement, adding that the government of India has formally informed the Bangladesh government of details of villages, houses and population falling within 150 yards of the zero line.
   The statement further said that in carrying out this ‘legitimate’ activity of building a fence, the BSF has been experiencing resistance from the Bangladesh side. ‘This has led to occasional tensions caused by unprovoked firing by the BDR along the border,’ it said.
   Our Panchagarh correspondent reports, following a flag meeting between the BDR and BSF, the Indian border guards conditionally allowed BSF to continue construction of embankment beside the river Nagar in the northern frontier.
   As per the meeting decision, the BDR would resume construction works from March 20, after two weeks of tension in the bordering areas. Incidents of gunfire continued for several days in the Panchagarh border as BSF forcibly stopped the construction work.

The report of the probe committee on the January 27 Habiganj blast, which was submitted to the Ministry of Home on Wednesday, has been sent to the Prime Minister’s Office for scrutiny.
   Tight-lipped about the report, the ministry officials failed to say whether it would be made public.
   ‘The PMO will examine it and decide whether or not it will be made public,’ a top official of the ministry told New Age.
   Earlier, outgoing home secretary, Muhammad Omar Farooq, told reporters in the afternoon that they had got the report and were examining it.
   Asked whether the report would be made public or remain shelved like others, he said, ‘I cannot say whether it will be made public or not.’
   The five-member committee formed to investigate into the grenade attack in Habiganj that killed former finance minister Shah AMS Kibria and four others also declined to say anything about their findings.
   It was, however, known from different sources that the committee had been able to detect the culprits and their motive.
   The police have so far held 15 persons in connection with the grenade attack, and six of them, including a vice president of Habiganj BNP, Abdul Quayum, were later shown arrested.
   The five others are president of the Laskarpur union BNP, M Jamir Ali, Habiganj unit leaders of Zia Smriti O Gobeshana Parishad Joynal Abedin Jalal, Sayed Ali and Joynal Abedin Monim and Tajul Islam, the driver of the microbus used to carry out the attack.

The Shaheed Zia Smriti O Gabeshana Parishad president, AKM Abdul Qayuum, and another leader of the organisation were on Wednesday taken on fresh police remands for grilling on the murder of Awami League lawmaker Shah AMS Kibria.
   Qayuum, also vice-president of the district BNP, arrested in connection with the killing, was granted for a four-day remand. General secretary of the Habiganj unit of the parishad Shahed Ali was taken on a four-day remand.

At least 29 people died Wednesday after the plane they were in crashed and caught fire as it attempted to land in Russia’s Far North, the emergencies ministry said.
   ‘According to the information that we have so far, 29 people have died and 23 are alive,’ a spokesman said.
   Ten of the injured were in critical condition, the official said.
   Two helicopters with rescuers and medical personnel have arrived at the scene of the crash, on the coast of the Barents Sea, he said, and another plane was due to land shortly.
   The An-24 plane, which was carrying oil industry workers, crashed around 1100 GMT near the village of Varandei, in the Nenetsk autonomous region above the polar circle, news agencies reported.
   Authorities have begun an investigation into the cause of the crash, news agencies reported.
   The plane belonged to the Regional Airlines company and took off from Ufa, in Bashkortostan, and made stops in the cities of Perm and Usinsk before heading for Varandei, a town on the coast of the Barents Sea.
   It was carrying employees of Naryan-Marneftegaz, a subsidiary of Russia’s largest oil company Lukoil.

The Transparency International in its Global Corruption Report 2005 hailed the procurement regulations act made by the government aiming at promoting transparency and accountability, although it raised question about keeping the military spending outside of it.
   ‘New procurement regulations that promote transparency and accountability were introduced at the ministry of planning, but, significantly, exceptions are allowed on matters of state security, including military spending,’ the report said.

Israel on Wednesday handed over to the Palestinian Authority limited security control of Jericho but continued to control the northern and southern approaches into the West Bank city.
   After weeks of stalemate, soldiers dismantled the Ein ad-Duyuk checkpoint on the main road west to Ramallah—the seat of the Palestinian Authority—allowing free movement between the two cities.

The police on early Wednesday detained 37 tribal persons, mostly leaders and activists of Pahari Chhatra Parishad and Pahari Juba Forum, from a community centre in Sholoshahar under the Panchlaish police station.
   The PCP and PJF men gathered at the community centre named ‘Biye Bari’ to take part in a five-day political programme, said police and party sources.
   The detainees were later released.

All the personnel of the Rapid Action Battalion were withdrawn on Wednesday from Chuadanga in the wake of the arrest of two of its members on charge of extortion.
   The two were arrested Tuesday night while demanding toll of Tk 1 lakh from the thieves on charges of stealing public trees.
   The arrested are Havilder Zakaria and SI Salam.