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Civil society leaders on Friday blasted the World Trade Organisation, saying it has not only failed to deliver on its promises but also furthered the deprivation of the least developed countries in the name of free trade.
   They were speaking at a gathering of several thousand women workers at Muktangan in the capital. Karmajibi Nari, a women’s rights organisation, organised the rally to press home two major demands in the context of the December 13-18 WTO ministerial conference in Hong Kong – market access for goods and labour movement from the least developed countries.
   Karmajibi Nari also came up with a declaration to safeguard the interests of the least developed countries.
   Tofail Ahmed, a former commerce minister and presidium member of the opposition Awami League, said there were specific provisions to safeguard the interest of the least developed countries within the trade organisation. ‘It is clearly stipulated that the developed countries will grant full and free market access to products of the poor countries if they fail to cope with free trade.’
   Although the developed and advanced developing countries have reaped the benefit of free trade, they deny the poorer countries their share of trade, he said. ‘Although the United States granted free market access to a number of sub-Saharan African and Caribbean countries, they did not extend the same benefit to us because Bangladesh has the most export potential among the poor countries.’
   Nurul Islam, national coordinator of the World Social Forum, said foreign products and capital flooded the poor countries due to an increasing liberalisation of international trade. ‘But our workers are not allowed to travel abroad to work there, nor are our goods allowed free access that has been a consistent demand.’
   He said the upcoming ministerial conference would be another attempt of the rich countries to further liberalise trade in their interest. ‘Any compromising deal at the trade forum would be absolutely unacceptable.’
   Hasanul Haq Inu, president of his faction of Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal, echoed Nurul Islam and said that although goods and capital are allowed free movement, labour was not. ‘The WTO talks about “free trade” but not “fair trade”, which is exactly what we need.’
   Pledging his solidarity with the declaration he urged for the enactment of a law regarding minimum wage of workers.
   Mahfuz Ullah, chairman of the Centre for Sustainable Development, a non-governmental organisation, said the multilateral trade forum had not given the poor countries anything that had been promised. ‘It is time to unite and raise our voices; otherwise, the situation will worsen further.’
   It has been a concern that the share of poor countries in global has been consistently decreasing. It currently stands below half a per cent of global trade, he added.
   Nasrin Awal Mintoo, president of the Women Entrepreneurs’ Association, said subsidies were imperative to sustain domestic industries and ensure employment of thousands of workers. She also advocated for a gender audit in the World Trade Organisation.
   Shahjahan Khan, a member of the parliamentary standing committee on the labour and employment ministry, and Khushi Kabir, coordinator of Nijera Kori, pledged their solidarity with the workers and urged them to raise their voices so that their demands could be taken forward to the ministerial conference.
   Amir Khosru Mahmud Chowdhury, a former commerce minister and a lawmaker of the ruling BNP, in a message agreed with the two basic demands of the rally. ‘The two demands must be fulfilled if the global prosperity, that the trade forum harps on, is to materialise.’
   Shirin Akhter, president of Karmajibi Nari, said that, given the global trade forum’s failure to deliver on its promises in the ten years of its existence, her organisation tried to bring forth two basic demands of the poor countries.
   The rally was organised in association with the Make Trade Fair Alliance, of which Karmojibi Nari is a partner. The rally was followed by a procession.

Karmajibi Nari, a women’s rights organisation, issued a declaration at a rally of several thousand women workers at Muktangan in the capital on Friday, deploring the World Trade Organisation’s role to furthering the interest of the developed countries at the expense of the least developed nations.
   The rally was organised to press home two major demands in the context of the upcoming WTO ministerial conference, to be held in Hong Kong from December 13 to 19.
   The declaration notes with grave concern that although the current round of negotiations is dubbed as a ‘development’ round, there is hardly any attention to the developmental aspects of the poor countries at the multilateral trade forum.
   The markets of the least developed countries are, more often than not, more liberal than those of the developing countries, it says.
   However, the developed or the developing countries have not yet granted the poor countries any effective market access, reads its preamble. ‘Whatever market access is given is merely on paper. It is often blocked by several types of tariff as well as non-tariff barriers.’
   The declaration deplores the WTO attempt to ignore genuine concerns of the poor countries and also for outright discrimination against them.
   The declaration brings out four points that have not been considered or focused upon during the discussions leading up to the forthcoming ministerial conference.
   These include duty and quota-free market access of products from least development countries, which according to the proposed draft text is still ‘under scrutiny’ at the committee on trade and development in special session.
   As regards similar market access for agricultural produce from poor countries, there are no clear indications in the draft text for agriculture.
   It has been a consistent demand of the poor countries that their labour should be allowed free movement to rich countries.
   In this regard they have demanded that the International Standard Classification of Occupation 88 or ISCO 88, a globally accepted standard, should be used as the basis for division of ‘professional services’.
   The current list of such services, recognised by the WTO, only includes highly skilled, ‘white collar’ jobs that naturally do not benefit the poor countries.
   But the proposed draft text for services does not mention anything of the sort, implying that the classification of professional services will continue to exclude less skilled labour, which is in abundant supply in the poor countries.
   While the current negotiations hinge upon agricultural subsidies and market access for industrial goods, both of interest to large economies, there has been virtually no progress in ‘special and differential treatment’ for least developed countries.
   The declaration notes that a number of developing countries are opposed to granting preferential treatment to their poorest trading partners.
   ‘Although the least developed countries have joined hands with the developing countries on a number issues in their fight with the developed countries, the developing countries have not been sympathetic to the least developed countries at all,’ concludes the declaration.
   ‘We once again remind the negotiators of the least developed, developing and the developed countries of our demands — market access for our industrial products and free movement of our labour.’

A sizeable section of the top- and mid-level BNP leadership fears that the expulsion of Abu Hena MP could open up a Pandora’s box and cause more embarrassment for the government and the ruling party.
   The leaders are also unhappy with the way the Rajshahi-3 lawmaker, renowned as a qualified, capable and articulate person, has been expelled from the party.
   ‘His statement and subsequent expulsion will stir fresh problems for the party and the government at home and abroad,’ a senior minister, who is on the kitchen cabinet of the prime minister, told New Age Friday morning.
   The prime minister and BNP chairperson, Khaleda Zia, on Thursday revoked Abu Hena’s primary membership for ‘for violating party discipline, damaging its image and indecent behaviour’.
   The expulsion followed Abu Hena’s statement to the press about ‘the rise of Islamic militants under the patronisation of some ministers and BNP lawmakers’.
   Abu Hena told reporters on Thursday that the BNP had expelled him at the instruction of Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh and Islami Oikya Jote. ‘My expulsion shows that the entire government is involved in [encouraging] the rise of religious extremism in Bangladesh.’
   The senior minister, who is a key BNP policymaker, fears that the expulsion, coupled with such remarks from the expelled leader, will not only damage ‘the image of the country and the government abroad’ but also ‘strain the relations between the BNP and its Islamist allies at home’.
   Khaleda hardly consulted with the party stalwarts, especially those who might have tried to save Abu Hena, before issuing the expulsion order, said sources in the BNP.
   A few leaders who were consulted did not take a stand for him because they were ‘not sure about his future moves’, said the sources.
   ‘In fact, we did not consider Hena as our man although he was qualified, experienced, articulated and talented,’ said a state minister, who represents a northwestern constituency in the parliament. ‘The problem is he was not an out-and-out political person.’
   Some other BNP leaders attributed Abu Hena’s ‘outburst’ against the government over the rise of militancy to ‘personal grievance’.
   ‘He was neither included in the jumbo-sized cabinet, although some “inferior” persons had become ministers overnight, nor was he made chairman of any of some 50 parliamentary standing committees,’ said another member of the prime minister’s kitchen cabinet and key BNP policymaker.
   ‘He was not even consulted about the formation of the grassroots committees of the party and its front organisations at Bagmara and Mohonganj, which fall under his constituency,’ he added. ‘What was worse, some of his rivals were made leaders of those committees.’
   Abu Hena’s expulsion has, meanwhile, raised questions about the government’s stand on Islamist militancy among most BNP leaders.
   ‘The prime minister expelled Hena, who had spoken out against militant activities across the country, when her government is conducting covert and overt operations against militancy,’ said a frontline leader of the Dhaka city BNP Thursday evening.
   ‘The expulsion does look contradictory to the day-to-day claims of success by the state minister for home affairs, Lutfozzaman Babar, in the countrywide operation against militancy,’ he added.
   Some BNP leaders were unsure about the fallout of Abu Hena’s expulsion.
   ‘Many of us contacted each other after reading the statement of the speaker, Jamir Uddin Sircar, that Abu Hena would continue to be a member of parliament,’ said a BNP lawmaker. ‘We are confused as we used to believe that expulsion from a party that nominates a person for elections means cancellation of parliamentary membership.’
   Sircar told the press Thursday evening that Abu Hena would not lose his membership of the parliament although the party had expelled him. ‘He will be an independent MP.’
   Hena, elected from the Rajshahi-3 constituency that covers Bagmara and Mohonpur upazilas on a BNP ticket in the 2001 elections, ‘will be more harmful now that he is a free man and now that he can say whatever he wishes’, said the BNP lawmaker.
   Abu Hena said his expulsion from the party was an injustice.
   ‘I only held a minister responsible for the rise of the militancy, not the entire government, as I believed the party would take action against him,’ Hena told reporters on the lobby of the Sonargaon Hotel Friday morning. ‘Unfortunately, the party expelled me.’
   Some BNP leaders, however, believe that Hena deserved it as he had violated the party’s discipline.
   ‘He never discussed his allegations about the patronisation of militant activities with me although he talked about other issues,’ said a senior minister.

If there were any ambiguities left before Thursday, now there are none. The messages sent out by the BNP supremo and prime minister Khaleda Zia in unilaterally expelling dissenting lawmaker Abu Hena from the party were heard loud and clear across the land and beyond.
   No amount of yelling at the top of their voices by the opposition could establish as fact what one silent stroke of the pen did: that the BNP is an undemocratic party that practises zero-tolerance when it comes to criticism from within; that the policies and priorities the BNP abides by are set exclusively by its right-wing hardliners; and that there remains, despite numerous assurances otherwise, a plenty of scopes to question the BNP’s sincerity in fighting Islamist militancy — the issue that was at the centre of Hena’s expulsion saga.
   Hena’s own instant reaction to the expulsion order highlighted the first point — that the decision was taken by Khaleda without even a pretence of consultation with senior party leaders, let alone the standing committee or the parliamentary committee.
   That, however, surprised nobody given the tradition of unabashed top-down policymaking practised by both mainstream political parties of the country. (How much the nation can expect by way of progressing democracy from two parties that are basically glorified fiefdoms themselves is another question altogether.)
   What did take at least some by surprise was the speed with which Khaleda brought the guillotine down on someone who had questioned the party’s handling of Islamist militancy — his words more self-reflective than dissenting.
   In the swiftness of her actions, perhaps the BNP chairperson did not have time to consider that Hena’s expulsion directly brings to question her own credibility. Only the day before she had called on the nation to help her government catch the militants. But here she was, punishing a ‘whistleblower’ for ‘breaking discipline’, while those who have really earned the party disrepute through their dubious links with militant leaders have been left alone.
   When it comes to breaking discipline, at least, Hena holds the moral high ground. His allegations of certain elements within the BNP patronising militant leaders at the infancy of their operations have been proven much more real than anecdotal — there have been report after report in the media, observations along those lines by the intelligence agencies, and even statements by the alleged patrons themselves all but proclaiming their ‘godfather’ role.
   By expelling Hena, and not the people who maintain links with militants, Khaleda has laid bare where her party’s priorities lie — to protect and propagate the interests of the right-wingers who are brazenly on a mission to align the party with Islamist elements.
   What’s worse, the action also makes it seem like the BNP as a party is increasingly dancing to the tune of its principal alliance partner, Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh.
   Hena has claimed that the suggestion (read: demand) of expelling him must have come from Jamaat. Not an unlikely scenario given that the Jamaat bore the brunt of what he had to say about the party’s links with militants.
   This, if nothing else, is an ominous sign. The bomb attacks on judges at Jhalakati on November 14, at a time when the country was apparently on ‘orange alert’, only proved that Islamist militancy is not to be tackled militarily alone. And if it is to fight the menace politically, the government cannot ignore the telltale signs that all but prove Jamaat’s active involvement in the rise of militancy.
   At a time when calls for tackling the Islamists politically rings out loudest, the BNP’s rising tendency to align itself with Islamist elements instead is a telling sign indeed.

The chief of the banned Islamist organisation Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh, Shaikh Abdur Rahman, has ducked a couple of attempts by the security forces to arrest him in the past few days, sources in the intelligence agencies told New Age on Thursday.
   The sources insisted though that the investigators remained firm on his trail and the militant leader could be arrested ‘any time’.
   The intelligence wing of the Rapid Action Battalion closed in on him early Saturday at Banasri, Rampura, in the capital but Abdur Rahman slipped through their dragnet. The battalion suspects he may have been forewarned.
   A home ministry high official said his arrest ‘is now a matter of time’. ‘He may have slipped through the RAB dragnet once but remains very much within the reach of the investigators,’ he told New Age on Thursday.
   On Monday, the state minister for home affairs, Lutfozzaman Babar, said the world of the JMB chief was shrinking gradually and he should be arrested within a short period of time.
   Several RAB teams are carrying out raids in the capital city and on its outskirts to arrest Abdur Rahman, his brother Ataur Rahman and his operations commander Siddiqul Islam alias Bangla Bhai.
   The teams are maintaining secrecy about the operations so that Abdur Rahman and his men, who are believed to have orchestrated the countrywide series of blasts on August 17, cannot be forewarned and cannot escape once again.
   The drive to arrest them has intensified since two judges were bombed to death in Jhalakati on November 14.
   The government fears more such bomb attacks since threats to attack judges and courts continued in the name of the Islamist outfit.
   Intelligence officials have, meanwhile, expressed their doubts whether Abdur Rahman could be arrested alive since the law enforcer are desperate to nab him at any cost and without further delay.
   The authorities, on the other hand, are bracing for the pressure that might come from different quarters after his arrest.

Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladsh has a little more than 1,500 members working to establish Islamic laws, said Abdul Awal, one of the top five leaders of the outfit, to the members of the task force for interrogation, sources close to the investigation said.
   The inspector general of police, Abdul Quyyum, recently told the press that about 10,000 militants had been on the prowl.
   All the members of the banned Islamist outfit contribute a monthly fee to run the organisation, the sources quoted Awal as saying.
   Declining to disclose sources for funds, Awal said it remained with the chief, Shaikh Abdur Rahman, also father-in-law of Awal.
   The investigators, after interrogation of a number of activists and reading the documents seized in several cases, suspected that the outfit had a large fund to run its activities.
   The Thakurgaon police arrested Awal from a Dinajpur-bound bus from Panchagarh on November 18.
   Based on his statement, the law enforcers raided a house at Banashree in Dhaka early November 19, but failed to arrest Abdur Rahman.
   The law enforcers, however, arrested the landlady who was sent to jail based on her statement in court on Wednesday.
   A team of law enforcers is on its way to Rangpur to go through the documents seized in a raid at a major Mujahideen base early Wednesday.
   The law enforcers seized a large quantity of bomb-making materials and documents, including Mujahideen’s blueprint for the bomb blasts on August 17 and October 3. Some bank cheque books were also recovered.
   The August 17 countrywide series of blasts killed three and injured more than 150 people.
   In their continued hunt, the law enforcers on Friday arrested eight more Mujahideen activists, including a college teacher and a computer science engineer, from Bhola, Tangail and Rajshahi in possession of documents of the outfit.
   Six of them, including Abdul Majid, a teacher of agriculture of the Charfasson College and the computer science engineer Abdullah Al Mamun alias Faruq were held in Bhola and the police recovered some bomb-making materials from their possession. They were placed on a five-day remand for interrogation.
   In Tangail, the police arrested Monwar Hossain, 17, at Kazibari, Kalihati early Friday. The police said Monwar had planted bombs at Paltan in Dhaka on August 17.
   In Rajshahi, the police arrested Zakaria Hossan, a suspected member of Mujahideen, and recovered more than 100 books on jihad.
   In Noakhali, five suspected Mujahideen militants, arrested from Hatiya, were placed on a three-day demand on Thursday.
   In Narayanganj, Mujahideen activist Ariful, arrested from the Pagla bus stand on Wednesday, was sent to Dhaka Thursday night for interrogation at the joint interrogation cell.
   Ariful, during interrogation, admitted being involved with Jamaatul Mujahideen. He disclosed important information, the investigators said.
   The police in Madaripur recovered two live bombs with timing devices, huge quantities of bomb-making materials and JMB leaflets from the house of a JMB leader, Maulana Ali Ahmed, at a sadar upazila village Friday evening.
   Ali Ahmed managed to get away; but the police detained his wife, Umme Murtaza, in this connection.
   The Madaripur police officer-in-charge said they had raided the house on information provided by a militant, Abbas, now being questioned by the police.
   The police also recovered some books on jihad from the house of Ali Ahmed, who sustained wounds in the legs when he joined Afghan war.

Agitated villagers around the Tengratila Gas Field Friday morning foiled another bid of Niko Resources to remove the equipment including the rig from the gas field of which Niko is the operator.
   Tense situation prevailed among the locals affected by two blow-outs at Tengratila under Doara upazila in Sunamganj as Niko officials, on Thursday evening tried to remove equipment, said locals.
   Tengratila Demand Realising Action Council has decided to file a case against Niko for constructing a 2.5 kilometre road in the area without sufficient drainage, which would lead to floods in the adjacent villages.
   According to the sources, leaders and activists of the action council, villagers barricaded a truck loaded with parts of the rig and other equipment in front of the gas field’s main entrance on Friday morning at about 9:30am when the officials tried to remove equipments from the field.
   At one point, Niko officials, including its communication officer, Abu Sayeed reached the spot and took back the truck to the gas field, said sources.
   As locals became increasingly suspicious of Niko’s activities, police officials managed to the calm the situation.
   Leaders of the action council told New Age on Friday afternoon that Niko’s bid to shift its equipment from the gas
   field despite the close watch of locals on the movement of its employees was a pre-planned move.
   Fazlul Haque, a leader
   of the action council said Niko’s goal was create a ‘hazardous situation’. ‘But we have are
   ready to foil any of its conspiracies that would against the interest of the people or the state.’
   On the other hand, Lakshipur union chairman of the locality, Amirul Haque, was also compelled to back out of his initiative to collect signatures of locals and submit a memorandum to the prime minister in favour of Niko. Amirul was apparently dissuaded by the resistance of the action council and an agitated mob, according to sources.
   Amirul, along with his accomplices, went to Tengratila on Friday morning to collect signatures. But the people of the surrounding areas resisted him and engaged in a heated altercation.
   At one stage, Amirul was bound to return home abandoning his signature campaign, said sources.
   The action council has postponed its meeting with locals of five adjacent villages, which was scheduled on Friday afternoon to decide the strategy to tackle Niko’s conspiracy.
   Nurul Amin, joint convener of the action council said they would meet later at a convenient time.
   Leaders of the action council claimed that the Niko built a 2.5 kilometre long link road from Tengratila Gas Field to Bagra Gas Field (Chhatak East) without building proper culverts despite repeated requests.
   They said 15 villages adjacent to the newly built road would be flooded in the rainy season for not building sufficient culverts. ‘So we are bounded to take legal action against Niko,’ they said.
   They told New Age that they will meet the deputy commissioner of Sunamganj within a day or two to discuss the issue and file a case against Niko within a week.

A confidential British Foreign Office document accuses Israel of rushing to annex east Jerusalem to prevent it from becoming the capital of a Palestinian state, The Guardian newspaper reported.
   In a dispatch from Jerusalem, it said the memo was put before EU foreign ministers on Monday as part of Britain’s turn at the European Union presidency, although no immediate decisions were taken on it.
   The preliminary report criticises Israel over settlement construction, its controversial separation barrier, the demolition of Palestinian homes and a plethora of discriminatory residency, taxation and building policies.
   On Monday, EU foreign ministers agreed they would adopt a detailed analysis on east Jerusalem at their next meeting which would then be made public, an official said. ‘EU foreign ministers remain very concerned about the situation in east Jerusalem,’ said Ross Allen, British political consul in Jerusalem.
   Drawn up by British diplomats in east Jerusalem, the document says that Israeli policies are designed to prevent the city from becoming a Palestinian capital, particularly through Jewish settlement expansion, The Guardian said.
   ‘Israeli activities in Jerusalem are in violation of both its roadmap obligations and international law,’ the document was quoted as saying, referring to the multinational plan for a gradual move towards a Palestinian state.
   The document also reportedly claims that Israel’s controversial concrete security barrier is being used to expropriate Arab land in and around the ancient city.
   ‘This de facto annexation of Palestinian land will be irreversible without very large-scale forced evacuations of settlers and the rerouting of the barrier,’ it was quoted as saying.
   ‘When the barrier is completed, Israel will control all access to east Jerusalem, cutting off its Palestinian satellite cities of Bethlehem and Ramallah, and the West Bank beyond,’ it was quoted as saying.
   ‘This will have serious ... consequences for the Palestinians.’
   The Guardian said EU foreign ministers put the issue on hold until next month under pressure from Italy, which according to the newspaper’s sources, is seen by Israel as its most reliable ally within the 25-nation European Union.
   An Israeli foreign ministry spokesman, Mark Regev, was quoted as telling the newspaper that Israel believes Jerusalem ‘should remain the united capital of Israel’.
   ‘At the same time, Israel has committed itself that Jerusalem is one of those final status issues,’ he added.

Queen Elizabeth II opened a summit of the 53-nation Commonwealth on Friday with an appeal for determined action against challenges such as terrorism that she said posed a threat to all.
   Dressed in cherry-red coatdress and broad-brimmed hat with a feather, the queen said the club of mostly former British colonies can be ‘strong and effective’ in addressing problems such as terrorism and poverty as it is a diverse group of nations representing many faiths, cultures and people.
   ‘Determined and collective action can also help us tackle other challenges that cannot be addressed alone, such as the scourge of terrorism, which is a threat to us all and has directly affected a number of our countries,’ the British monarch said at the opening ceremony held at a conference centre in Valetta.
   She expressed thanks to Commonwealth nations who stood by Britain in the wake of the July 7 bombings that killed 56 people on three London underground trains and a bus, the worst terrorist attack in Britain.
   Other than Britain, Pakistan, India, Kenya, Tanzania, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka are among the Commonwealth countries also struggling with terrorism.

The Bangladesh Nationalist Party on Friday announced a series of action programmes, including a grand rally at Paltan Maidan on December 21, in protest against what the leaders said anarchy, violence, and conspiracy of the opposition parties and Islamist militant outfits.
   ‘The BNP always stands against anarchy and any form of militancy, and will be stick to it for the sake of the country,’ said the party’s secretary general Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan after emerging from a meeting with the leaders of the BNP and its front organisations in the evening.
   ‘At the grand rally, we will illustrate our position to the people and urge them to be alert against any sort of conspiracy being hatched by the opposition parties and Islamist militants,’ he said.
   Mannan, also the LGRD and cooperatives minister, however, kept mum about the expulsion of Abu Hena, a BNP lawmaker who was sacked from the party on Thursday.
   But a senior leader said, ‘If you bring an allegation, you must prove it.’ Whatever Hena said was the outcome of his personal anger, he said adding that the meeting also discussed the issue. He, however, refused to elaborate on what kind of decisions the party leaders made in this regard.
   The meeting, held at Bhuiyan’s Bailey road residence, also discussed the latest political situation in details, and drew up the programmes to mobilise people’s support. The programmes include rallies and processions at Muktangan and all the district headquarters on December 6, rallies and protest processions at all upazila headquarters on December 12, discussions on December 14 and December 15 to mark Martyred Intellectuals Day and the Victory Day, and celebration of the Victory Day on December 16, and a colourful procession in the capital to mark the day on December 17.
   The BNP will place floral wreaths at the National Memorial Monument in Savar in the morning, and at the grave of the former president, Ziaur Rahman, on the occasion of the Victory Day. It will also hold a cultural function at Ramna Batamul.
   The meeting formed a four-member committee, headed by the party’s joint secretary general, Gayeshwar Chandra Roy, to make the programmes a success. The party’s chairperson and the prime minister, Khaleda Zia, will attend the grand rally as chief guest while Mannan Bhuiyan as special guest.

The Awami League-led opposition alliance at a meeting Friday evening decided not to respond immediately to the ruling party’s call for dialogue on the opposition’s proposed reform agenda.
   It decided to take a ‘wait and see’ stance in this regard until the call for dialogue comes more ‘precisely or formally’.
   ‘We have not yet got any specific formal proposal from the government. We will take a decision jointly after receiving it formally,’ said Worker Party president Rashed Khan Menon after the meeting at Awami League president Sheikh Hasina’s Sudha Sadan residence.
   Senior leaders of the opposition alliance at the meeting preferred strengthening the ongoing anti-government movement, rather than to put emphasis on dialogue, meeting source said. BNP secretary-general Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan on Thursday urged Awami
   League general secretary Abdul Jalil to set a date and time for dialogue on reforms of the Election Commission.
   ‘Come up with good proposals for ensuring a free and fair election...we can discuss
   those in or outside the parliament. Say when and where you will sit, we don’t have any reservations about that,’ Bhuiyan said in his speech in parliament on Thursday.
   Friday’s meeting with Hasina in the chair discussed Bhuiyan’s call and termed it ‘ambiguous’.
   ‘First the ruling parties should clearly state what they want to discussion. Then we would consider the call,’ said Menon.
   He said Bhuiyan’s statement did not make clear whether the call for dialogue was coming from him personally or from the BNP.
   The meeting was also attended by Hasanul Haq Inu of Jatiya Samajtantrick Dal, Saifuddin Ahmed Manik of Gana Forum, Mohammad Nurul Islam of Ganatantri Party, Abdus Samad of Gano Azadi League, Dilip Barua of Samyabadi Dal and Awami League leaders Abdur Razzak, Tofail Ahmed and Abdul Jalil.

Senior BNP leader Oli Ahmed, also a lawmaker, on Friday indirectly held the Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh responsible for the emergence of Islamist militancy a day after BNP lawmaker Abu Hena had been expelled from the party.
   ‘If the Islamic militants are not controlled, the situation may worsen,’ Oli Ahmed, a member on the party’s national standing committee, told the BBC Bangla Service radio channel.
   He said the prime minister, Khaleda Zia, might have had a clear idea about the militant activities.
   ‘No one is unaware these days about who are the bombers and who are the terrorists involved in subversive activities, especially after the August 17 incidents [the countrywide series of blasts],’ he said, hinting at the Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh, a right-wing component of the ruling four-party alliance.
   The people captured in connection with the blasts clearly mentioned which parties they belonged to and under whose leadership they carried out the attacks, he said.
   ‘It’s now clear to the prime minister who are the people working against the country’s interest… oppose democracy and want to establish Islamic rule,’ he said, referring to the emergence of Bangla Bhai, also known as Siddiqul Islam, the operation commander of the Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh, who killed many at different places in Rajshahi.
   ‘I’m also victimised by such terrorism. More than 25,000 armed people came to my constituency to snatch votes when I was running in the 2001 general elections,’ he said. Asked for whom the armed people might be working, Oli Ahmed said, ‘It’s your responsibility to find out who they are.’
   ‘But later I heard, the people in the Satkania-Lohagara constituency could cast their vote until 11 o’clock, and no voting took place afterwards on the day.’ He named one of the top terrors, Ahmaidya, who belonged to the Jamaat-e-Islami Bagladesh at the time, who sought apology to him for the incident.
   ‘The people who shot at me have not been brought to justice in four years. Only Ahmaidya was killed by the Rapid Action Battalion. But the patrons of Ahmaidya are still at large,’ Oli Ahmed said.
   The killing of only the followers would not put an end to terrorism, the lawmaker said, adding that none of the leaders were arrested as yet. ‘The bosses should also be captured. They are too powerful.’
   Oli Ahmed, also a former minister, said he had taken up the issue with the government through newspapers, but no action had been taken.

The Prime Minister’s Office on Thursday sent directives to a special committee to probe thoroughly the graft allegations against the recently resigned state minister for civil aviation, Mir Mohammad Nasiruddin.
   Sources from the PMO said there were allegations of financial irregularities against Nasir regarding the purchase of two F-28 aircrafts from Indonesia two years back.
   The PMO was informed that there were a number of allegations against the former state minister. The allegations include administrative irregularities, illegal appointments against temporary posts of the national flag carrier Biman and Civil Aviation authorities and also leasing the cleaning management of Zia International Airport to private sector through financial mismanagement.
   Nasir was forced to resign at the directive of the prime minister, Khaleda Zia, on November 17 following a stalemate in the hajj flight.
   On the following day, the state minister for agriculture, Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir, was given the portfolio of the civil aviation and tourism minister.

Some officials and employees of the Rupali Bank have expressed their willingness for a settlement outside the court as the Planning Commission pushes hard to have a High Court injunction on the bank’s divestment vacated, said sources in the bank.
   However, sources in the commission claim that the office of the attorney general, a respondent in the case, is not extending adequate support in the legal battle against the court order.
   The government has, meanwhile, been under tremendous pressure from the multilateral lending agencies, especially the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank, to expedite the process towards the vacation of the stay order and to go ahead with the Rupali divestment plan under its banking sector reforms.
   A number of the bank’s officials and employees, directly or indirectly involved in the July writ petition that eventually led to the stay of the divestment process, have expressed their interest in a settlement outside the court but are yet to come up with a formal proposal, said the sources.
   They are watching closely the hearing of the case by a High Court Division bench, added the sources.
   Their petition challenged the validity of the May 12 public notice issued by the commission, inviting expression of interest in the divestment of the government shares in the bank.
   Some 20 international banks and financial institutions posted online their willingness to become strategic partners of the bank
   ‘Most of the officials and employees are tempted to get the handsome package of compensation or a new job if and when the bank’s shares are offloaded,’ said an official of the commission, who handles the matters relating to the modalities for the Rupali privatisation.
   The commission has also decided to offer handsome package of compensation and, if the court verdict allows divestment, it will reach understanding with the future strategic partners of the bank to absorb maximum number of officials and employees from within.
   About the legal battle, the commission’s perception is that the lawyers want a slow and steady hearing while deputies of the attorney general, AJ Mohammad Ali, have pleaded with the court for a deferred submission as Ali is now abroad.
   The commission’s legal adviser, Rabeya Bhuiyan, told the court last week that she wanted to continue her submission on behalf of the main respondent in the case.
   The submission of the writ petitioners has so far been completed. M Zahir will soon appear for the bank.
   The commission expects that the submission will be completed before the court goes into vacation.
   Meanwhile, IMF representatives had a meeting with the commission chairman, Enam Ahmed Chaudhury, and took stock of the latest state of the legal battle as well as the commission’s preparations to go ahead with the divestment initiative. The lending agency is learnt to have expressed its satisfaction at the progress.
   A foreign consulting firm, GBRW, has been assisting the process. The government has extended its contract till February 2006.

Sri Lanka’s new president Mahinda Rajapakse demanded Friday a fresh peace process with Tamil Tigers in the ethnically troubled island and ‘transparent’ monitoring of the Norwegian-brokered truce.
   Rajapakse, in his first policy statement to parliament following his election victory last week, said he wanted to institute a new peace process that would not tolerate ‘terrorism’ and recruitment of child soldiers.
   The president did not give any details, but said the peace process between the previous government and the Tamil Tigers did not make progress because other stakeholders were excluded.
   ‘The current ceasefire agreement will be revised to ensure protection of human rights, prevent recruitment of children for war, safeguard national security, prevent terrorist acts...and introduce an open transparent ceasefire monitoring mechanism,’ he told the 225-member assembly.
   He said he was ready to open talks with the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam but rejected a long-standing Tiger demand for recognition of a traditional homeland for the minority Tamils.
   ‘Sri Lanka will be the traditional homeland of all its people—Sinhalese, Tamils, Muslims, Malays and Burghers,’ he said. Any solution must also have the approval of the ‘majority of the people of this country,’ he said.
   He said a solution to the island’s decades-old Tamil separatist conflict would be found within a ‘unitary state,’ a U-turn for his Sri Lanka Freedom party that earlier agreed to devolve powers under a federal structure.
   In 2002, his party said it was willing to turn the country into a federal state in exchange for peace between the Sinhalese majority and Tamil minority and an end to three decades of bloodshed that has cost over 60,000 lives.
   There was no immediate response from the LTTE to the president’s statements.
   ‘Facilitation and mediation extended by the United Nations and other such organisations that support peace in Sri Lanka, all friendly countries, the international community, India and other regional states will be properly organised and utilised to strengthen the peace process,’ Rajapakse said.
   But he made no reference to current peace broker Norway, whose ouster was demanded by Rajapakse’s main nationalist coalition partners, the Marxist JVP, or the People’s Liberation Front and the all-monks Buddhist party of JHU.
   His government said Thursday it would open talks with other political parties before resuming negotiations with the Tamil Tigers.

International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women was observed on Friday across the country with a number rallies, discussions and dialogues organised by different organisations.
   Speakers at a rally participated by more than 12 organisations under the banner of Action Network to Combat Violence Against Women demanded enactment of a law to stop domestic violence against women.
   The organisations participated in the rally — beginning at Bangladesh Shishu Academy and ending at the Central Shaheed Minar — include Ain O Salish Kendra, Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust, Bangladesh National Women Lawyers Association, MSS, Odhikar, Padakhhep, Samata, Steps towards Development, Uttaran, SAP Bangladesh, AED/BHRAP.
   A statement read out in the rally said domestic violence is not a personal matter rather an issue of human rights violation. They said the current law does not address the issue properly and demanded introduction of a separate law.
   Naripakkha organised a rally in front of Dhanmondi Boys School holding placards, banners and festoons with messages against violence against women.
   The Welfare Association of Repatriated Bangladeshi Employees organised a human chain in front of the High Court to raise awareness about violence against women on the day.
   The Bangladesh Society for the Enforcement of Human Rights distributed leaflets and stickers across the Dhaka city, screened videos at Shahabagh crossing and played songs on women’s rights throughout the day.

Urgent action is needed to tackle domestic violence against women, which is widespread, deep-rooted and largely hidden in a wide range of societies, a study by the UN health agency said.
   The study conducted by the World Health Organisation in 10 countries found that between 15 per cent (Japan) and 71 per cent (Ethiopia) of the women interviewed had been subjected to physical or sexual violence by an intimate male partner during their lifetime.
   The study covered 24,000 women in selected areas or cities in Bangladesh, Brazil, Ethiopia, Japan, Namibia, Peru, Samoa, Serbia and Montenegro, Tanzania, and Thailand.
   Wide differences were found between prevalence of violence in Japan and in largely provincial or poorer settings such as Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Peru and Tanzania, although the outcome was the same.
   ‘Partner violence appears to have a similar impact on women’s health and well-being regardless of where she lives, the prevalence of violence in her setting, or her cultural or economic background,’ said researcher Charlotte Watts of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.
   More than three quarters of women in urban areas in Brazil, Japan, Namibia and Serbia said there was no reason for the domestic violence, while about one quarter said so in Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Peru and Samoa.
   At least 20 per cent of the women reporting physical violence had never told anyone before being interviewed, while the others were more likely to confide in friends or family than approach medical staff or authorities.
   ‘It’s still considered a matter not to be shared with outsiders,’ said Wassana Im-em of Mahidol University, adding that the impact of domestic abuse goes beyond physical injuries to become a ‘chronic long term health problem throughout society’.
   The study found a high number of abused women suffered secondary ailments such as depression and reproductive health disorders.
   Almost half of nearly 3,000 women surveyed in Thailand have been battered or sexually assaulted by their partners, as activists warned Thailand still has no satisfactory legal means to combat abuse, which is often dismissed by authorities as a private matter between women and their partners.
   Abuse is an ‘endemic problem. In fact it is a public health problem in every society around the world,’ said William Aldis, the WHO’s representative in Thailand.
   A much grimmer picture emerged in Bangladesh, where an average of 57 per cent of women surveyed had been either physically or sexually assaulted.
   ‘Violence against women represents an added burden on already struggling health systems in developing countries,’ said the WHO’s Henrica Jansen, of the Department of Gender and Women’s Health.
   The authors said they had to develop new guidelines for carrying out the research after women were assaulted following their participation in previous surveys on the issue.
   From about one-fifth of women in Ethiopia to more than half in Peru, the violence of those in the ‘ever abused’ group was severe enough to result in physical injury including fractures and eye damage.
   ‘Women are more at risk from violence involving the people they know at home than from strangers in the street,’ WHO director general Lee Jong Wook told reporters.
   ‘This study reveals one of the least desirable facets of the world we live in,’ Spain’s health minister Elena Salgado commented at the launch of the study.
   The WHO said the study ‘challenges the perception that home is a safe haven for women’.
   High rates of sexual abuse experienced by girls and women—ranging from six per cent in Japan to 59 per cent in Ethiopia—were ‘particularly alarming’ in the midst of the HIV/ AIDS pandemic, the study underlined.
   It also slated a high degree of emotional abuse of women, warning that overall physical and mental violence had a far deeper and durable impact than the immediate harm it caused.

Burmese women, in a procession, urged to all neighbouring countries of Burma and ASEAN countries to publicly raise their concerns with the Burmese military junta against their human rights violation, particularly against women.
   In a procession in Dhaka on Friday the Burmese women leaders also urged using diplomatic channels to pressure the regime, including placing Burma on the UN Security Council agenda.
   Rakhaing Women’s Union and Women’s League of Burma in the procession said 22 women have been raped publicly throughout the Rakhaing state by soldiers and policemen in 2005.
   They demanded an end to the brutal violence of the military against women and children by establishing democracy in Burma
   The procession was organised in front of the National Press Club to celebrate International Day for the Elimination Violence against Women.
   The women leaders said the Burmese military regime continued systematic violence against women and girls neglecting their rights for education, health and social welfare of the people.
   The military junta is also manipulating with the facts by forcing women to join its women’s wing, the Myanmar Women’s Affairs Federation, said the leaders.

Hollywood star and United Nations refugee agency goodwill ambassador Angelina Jolie Friday urged the world to honour its pledges of aid for Pakistani quake victims before winter causes a second wave of death.
   Jolie, who toured the disaster zone with actor Brad Pitt on Thursday, also warned against allowing children orphaned by the disaster to be adopted too soon. The American actress herself has adopted a son and daughter from abroad.
   ‘There are so many wonderful pledges that could come in the next few years, but this winter is in the next few weeks and so many people are in danger of possibly freezing to death,’ Jolie told reporters in Islamabad.
   ‘There’s not just one disaster that happened, there’s another disaster that could happen very soon.’
   Donors last week promised more than 5.8 billion dollars for Pakistan but much is for long-term reconstruction and not immediate aid. The UN says cold, disease and hunger could swell the current death toll of more than 73,000.
   ‘This is not to say there hasn’t been much aid. But the support obviously needs to continue to come and the pledges that were made need to materialise soon,’ added Jolie, dressed in a white UNHCR T-shirt.
   Oscar-winner Jolie and Pitt—with whom she is romantically linked—handed out food, blankets and plastic sheeting to survivors in the mountains on Thursday, coinciding with a visit by the UN high commissioner for refugees.
   Pitt was not at the press conference. UN sources said he was maintaining a low profile to keep the focus on Jolie’s charity work.
   However, Jolie and Pitt together visited president Pervez Musharraf on Friday to pledge the UN’s continued support for Pakistan, state media said.
   Asked for her impressions of the devastation caused by the October 8 earthquake, she told the press conference: ‘It is a huge situation, you fly over these areas ....it is unbelievable.’
   The actress said she had been touched ‘as a woman and as a mother’ by talking to a young boy around the same age as her son in the remote northern Alai Valley, which has relied on helicopter airlifts for aid.
   ‘He was so happy because his sister survived the earthquake and they didn’t think she would,’ Jolie said. But she said the boy was scared of aftershocks and survivors generally were ‘still understandably very traumatised.’
   ‘These people have received aid but they are very far out, and they are very concerned about the winter coming,’ added Jolie, who is making her third visit to Pakistan.
   The ‘Tomb Raider’ star—who took charge of Ethiopian baby Zahara in July this year and brought Maddox, now four, home from an orphanage in Cambodia in 2002 — also said people should not ‘jump in’ to adopt quake orphans.

Teachers and students of the Dhaka University on Friday strongly protested at holding of a model test for medical admission by a private medical coaching centre at different buildings of the country’s premier university.
   Sources said dean of the arts faculty of the university, Dr Sadrul Amin, had given permission to the coaching centre Primate Programme, to hold the medical model test at DU buildings.
   Leaders of different student organisations and teachers described the incident a ‘step aimed at breaking the backbone of country’s premier institution.’
   The president of the Dhaka University Teachers’ Association, Dr AAMS Arefin Siddique, strongly condemned the holding of the model test by a coaching centre.
   ‘This is very unfortunate,’ he said.
   When contacted, the arts faculty dean said holding of model test of coaching centres was nothing new in the history of the Dhaka University.

A policeman was arrested on charge of extorting Tk 3 lakh from a cattle trader at Mirpur in the capital on Friday.
   According to a complaint filed by the trader, Uzzal Ali, with the Mirpur police, Nagendra Nath Roy, a havilder of the Dar-us-Salam Road police box, forced him out of a city service bus at the police box at about 10:00am while he was going to the Cantonment to pay a contractor Tk 3 lakh.
   The trader said half of the money was taken away by the policeman while the rest by the two — Abul Kalam Azad and Sumon alias Faruk. Later the police arrested Nagendra from the police box in the evening.

Leaders of the Bangladesh Petroleum Dealer’s, Distributor’s, Agent’s and Petrol Pump Owner’s Association on Friday decided to restart their previous movement if the government does not meet their demands within December 2.
   Leaders of the association on Friday at an emergency meeting decided to stop buying petroleum from December 2 with cash.
   They said it had been their previous plan but was suspended when the government assured them for solving the problems within November 15.

Unidentified assailants shot dead a young businessman and injured his bother-in-law injured at Paltan in the city on Friday afternoon.
   According to the local people, four assailants opened gunshots at Shah Alam alias Rony, 32, at point-blank range in front of his father-in-law’s house at 43/3 Naya Palatn.
   Al-Amin, 21, sustained bullet injures in the shoulder as he tried to save Rony.
   The family members and local people took them to Dhaka Medical College Hospital where doctors declared Rony, who received bullets in the chest, abdomen and head, dead was dead. The condition of Al-Amin was started critical.

A suspected leader of a robbers gang was killed in a gunfight with the Rapid Action Battalion at Chauddagram in Comilla early Friday, raising the ‘crossfire’ death toll to 447 since June 2004.
   The victim, Abdul Motaleb alias Motaiya, was also a member of Alkora union council and wanted in four cases, including two murders, RAB claimed.
   They said the gunfight took place after a RAB team had raided a place beside the Ashfalia-Goljari road in Chauddagram upon information that a gang of robbers had gathered there to commit robbery.
   As the team reached there, the robbers opened shots at the team members prompting them to retaliate, RAB said.
   At one stage, the robbers retreated and the battalion members found the body of Motaleb on the spot. They also recovered three LGs and three cartridges from the scene.