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Some of the Sidr victims in the coastal areas are considering changing their occupations as they are worried whether they can resume their work anytime in near future. But another section of the victims is trying hard to cope up with the situation and carry on with their jobs.
   ‘I am worried about how to feed my family,’ Mohammad Kabir, a fisherman of Chanbunia at Patharghata in Barguna, told New Age Tuesday as Sidr destroyed his lone fishing boat and nets. ‘I don’t have any land and don’t know any other trade.’
   Kabir, 50, who already owes about Tk 150,000 to usurers for the boat, said obtaining a fresh loan to buy or build a new boat would be impossible for him.
   Solaiman, 53, who lends money to the fishermen of the village, claimed he became penniless as the November 15 cyclone ruined 14 boats of the fishing village.
   ‘What can I do now if they [the borrowers] fail to pay me back the money or supply me with fish,’ he wondered. ‘I can only pray that they can arrange money from some other source to make or repair their boats to go back to fishing.’
   Siddiqur Rahman, 35, of Char Padma village, used to work as a paid fisherman before the evening when the category 4 cyclone hit. But he cannot return to that job as the boat he worked in was wrecked. ‘Working as a day labourer is my only alternative to provide for my five-member family,’ he said.
   Siddiqur lost six goats and 35 poultry birds to Sidr. ‘The livestock would have helped me during this hardship.’
   Nasima Begum of Subidkhali at Mirzaganj upazila in Patuakhali said they had been a self-sufficient family living off the fertile cropland they owned on the River Paira. ‘But we became helpless overnight. The river eroded our land. The land we cultivated last year exists no more… The cyclone also swept away the fishes from two ponds we had leased from another person… Our future is bleak,’ she said, adding that ‘we may have to abandon farming for another occupation.’
   Proful Chandra Dash of Dhuskhali at Bamna upazila in Barguna said the tidal surge of the Bishkhali River in the evening of November 15 washed away his grocery shop and wooden house. ‘Now I am planning to leave the village to work as a labourer somewhere else,’ he said.
   Kabir, Solaiman, Siddiqur, Nasima, and Proful are a few of the 8.5 million people affected by Sidr, which left about 3,500 dead, several thousands missing, and 40,000 injured.
   Another section of the victims however is doing their best to continue with their old trades.
   Anwar of Chanbunia owned two fishing boats and a grocery shop before the calamity. The shop and one of the boats were completely destroyed and the other boat was partially damaged. ‘I am repairing the damaged boat to resume fishing,’ he said.
   Subodh Sen runs a grocery shop at Fuljhuri bazaar in Barguna. He said the tidal surge whipped up by Sidr damaged goods worth about Tk 150,000 in his shop. ‘Still, the only option I have is to continue with running the shop,’ he said.
   According to the United Nations estimate, about 2.6 million people across nine districts needed emergency assistance. Nearly 564,000 homes were completely destroyed and another 885,280 damaged. At least 1.25 million livestock was lost to the cyclone and the estimated area of cropland damaged has risen to 2 million acres.
   The Bangladesh Economic Association president, Quazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmed, said only providing relief would not be a sustainable solution, unless the victims were rehabilitated economically. ‘The victims need grants, not loans, to continue with their trades.’
   ‘We will have to move from a life on charity to economic activity,’ he said, adding that the cyclone-hit people are also in the need of sustainable shelters as they live in vulnerable areas.

Cyclone victims in the south, struggling to manage food for family members, are also fighting to arrange money to pay back micro-credit instalments as non-governmental organisations are showing no mercy.
   Local and national NGOs, instead of waiving interests, have intensified their efforts in the third week inside the cyclone that struck on November 15 to force micro-credit recipients to pay back instalments.
   Cyclone Sidr killed people and damaged property in Bhola, which is one of the 12 worst-affected districts. Official statistics say more than 50 people were killed by the cyclone in the district, many were injured and hundreds of shanties were razed to the ground.
   The non-governmental organisations, in the wake of government warning of stern action against realisation of loan repayment in affected areas, have only changed their strategy — they are now giving out interest-free loans so that borrowers could pay the instalment.
   NGOs in few areas of the south are giving the affected families Tk 200 each along with rice to help them to pay the instalments. By doing so, they are helping the affected families and are also helping them to pay the instalments.
   ‘We do not have roof overhead and food to feed the children, but we need to meet the demand of the NGOs,’ said Momtaz of Koralia in the Bhola district headquarters on Wednesday.
   She said she had paid Tk 300 on Wednesday as ASA representatives were constantly pressuring her to pay the instalments.
   ‘I borrowed the money from another villager,’ she told New Age, showing her damaged house. She said ASA had not waived a single penny after Sidr took away Tk 100 of her savings as she failed to pay the instalment on time.
   Field visits showed NGO representatives were forcing borrowers to pay the instalment they failed to pay just after Sidr had struck, killing more than 4,000 people and making millions homeless.
   Nasima, wife of Farid, said she had paid two instalments after the cyclone. ‘They come and tell us there is no way but to repay the money.’
   ‘If need to pay the instalment to get more loans,’ said Nasima, a resident of Joynagar at Daulatkhan and recipient of micro-credit from ASA.
   Hasina Begum of Koralia paid Tk 500 on November 22 to BRAC people. She said cyclone had taken everything; but there is no way but to pay the instalment.
   Two ASA representatives roamed about the areas on Wednesday collecting money from micro-credit recipients.
   ‘We are here not to realise instalments, but to give them loans,’ said one of them who identified himself as Amin Ahmed.  He said they were taking money from the people who were willingly repaying instalments.
   After they had hurriedly left the area, the women said the NGOs representatives showed no mercy to them.
   One of them was Mariam, a recipient of BRAC micro-credit, who paid Tk 125 on Wednesday.
   Masuma, wife of one Abdul Kader, said BRAC had given her Tk 200 and 10 kilograms of rice November 28. ‘The same day the representatives asked me to pay my due instalment and I paid them Tk 280. I had to take the money from others.’
   The BRAC public relation director, M Anwarul Haq, said his organisation had suspended all activities related to micro-credit. ‘We have instructed our men to distribute relief among the affected people. They have been asked not to receive repayment instalments from cyclone victims.’
   ‘The NGO people are so heartless they would not spare me even if one of my children is dead,’ said Nasima. ‘Bury your child and pay the dues,’ Nasima, standing in her damaged house at Dakkhin Joynagar, quoted an ASA representative as saying.
   A group of women who have paid instalments showed their cards to show that they all paid the instalments to the NGOs.
   In Charfesson, Daridra Bimochan, ASA and Paribar Unyan Sangstha forced cyclone survivors to pay the instalments on Wednesday.
   Nasima Begum, a member of Rupashi Bangla Samiti, an association of ASA at Char Nazimuddin, said she had to pay her instalment as she was pressured by the NGO representatives. Ashura Begum of Daridra Bimochan at Purba Adarshapara also paid her instalment on Wednesday.
   Alefa Begum, a member of Sonar Bangla Mahila Bhumihin Samiti, said she borrowed money from others at a higher interest to pay her instalment.
   The deputy commissioner of Bhola, Belayet Hossain, said they were yet to receive any such complaints. He said he would take action in keeping with the government order against any such activities.
   NGO representatives told New Age they were yet to receive any instruction not to realise the instalments.
   The communications adviser, MA Matin, also chief coordinator of relief operations, at the Barisal airport on Tuesday said action would be taken against NGOs realising instalment or interests.

Bangladesh Bank has no plan right now to tell the banks or non-government organisations to suspend loan instalments or
   waive interest of the cyclone-affected people in the southern districts.
   ‘The financial sector has its own discipline and as a regulator we cannot break it,’ governor Salehuddin Ahmed said on Wednesday, when asked about the recent statement of the chief of army staff General Moeen U Ahmed calling upon the NGOs to suspend instalment for four months.
   The central bank cannot give directive to banks to suspend recovery of instalment without assessing the impact of such a decision, he said.
   ‘It is a technical matter. If the directive is given and if a bank incurs loss due to instalment suspension, then who will take the responsibility?’ the governor said.
   The central bank will assess the impact of suspension of loan instalment and discuss it with banks, he informed.
   The governor, while briefing reporters on his visit to Khulna and Barisal earlier this week, said the central bank told the banks to give farm loans. But other agencies must ensure timely supply of inputs like fertiliser and seeds as well as uninterrupted irrigation to help agriculture recovery.
   Banks should give loans in livestock and fisheries apart from crop sector, he suggested.
   Branches of the private banks outside Dhaka give lesser loans than they collect as deposits, which means there is a net transfer of fund to the capital, he observed.
   ‘This attitude should be changed and there should be decentralisation,’ he said.
   He informed that businessmen in Barisal and Khulna alleged that they were not getting desired cooperation from banks.
   ‘The picture is same for all over Bangladesh. Small borrowers do not have enough access to bank loans,’ he said.
   Small and medium enterprises should be brought to the mainstream economy, he pointed out, advising banks to invest a chunk of their Tk 11,000 crore in liquid assets in SMEs.
   The governor said he was the sub-divisional officer of Pirojpur 30 years back and he did not notice much change in people’s lifestyle there.
   The region should develop its industrial base, he said.
   State-owned banks have a loan target of Tk 1,700 crore for the cyclone affected regions and out of that Tk 278 crore has already been disbursed.
   The governor instructed the banks to disburse 70 to 80 per cent of their loan targets by January.
   ‘We have to achieve a bumper boro crop to offset the loss of aman,’ he said.

Jamaat-e-Islami secretary general Ali Ahsan Mujahid, its assistant secretary general Abdul Kader Molla and former National Board of Revenue chairman Shah Mohammad Abdul Hannan were sued on Wednesday on treason and sedition charges.
   A freedom fighter of Sector 2, Fazlur Rahman of village Dakhkin Ramerkanda at Keraniganj lodged the case with the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate’s Court of Dhaka against the three for anti-liberation activities in 1971 and audacious statements they recently made in the media on the liberation war.
   After hearing the complaint, judge Emran Hossain Chowdhury admitted the case and ordered Tejgaon police station to register it as a first information report.
   It was the first ever case of treason and sedition in recent times filed under the Code of Criminal Procedure for anti-liberation activities and remarks.
   Plaintiff Fazlur Rahman told reporters after filing the case, ‘I could not file the case in the past due to adverse political situations in the country.’
   In his petition Fazlur said the accused had opposed the emergence of the independent Bangladesh and engaged in killing, looting and raping during the liberation war of 1971 by forming different auxiliary forces including Al Badr, Al Shams and Razakar to support the Pakistani occupation army. Reports published by dailies including Sangbad at that time gave enough proofs of the atrocities of those forces.
    The complainant stated that the accused persons committed crimes of treason by killing about 30 lakh people, raping about two lakh women and committing many other offences.
   Even 36 years after the independence, the accused persons do not yet recognise Bangladesh’s victory, flag, constitution or Independence Day, the petitioner further stated.
   He pointed to the recent statements of the accused persons. Mujahid, after a dialogue at the Election Commission secretariat on October 25, told the media that there was no anti-liberation force or war criminals in this country.
   Undermining the liberation war, Kader Molla on October 31 said, ‘Freedom fighters had crossed over to India lusting after pretty women.’ And Hannan in a private television talk show on October 26 said, ‘It was a “civil war” and not war of independence.’
   All their actions and statements tantamount to sedition and they should be brought to trial for upholding the country’s independence achieved through supreme sacrifice of three million people, contended the petitioner.
   Such statements went against the nation’s sovereignty and the accused persons committed offence of sedition under section 121 (A)/123(A) of the Penal Code, the plaintiff said. He named the editor of daily Prothom Alo and news editor of Bhorer Kagoj as prosecution witnesses.
   Advocate Abu Mohammad Abdur Razzak appeared for the freedom fighter.

The countries participating in the UN Climate Change Conference in Bali till Wednesday continued to remain divided over the manner and outcome of the negotiations on climate change induced by greenhouse gas emission.
   While some parties are in favour of launching formal negotiations in Bali, others believe that the time is not yet ripe and that the differences of the parties must be bridged further. Therefore, they reason, informal negotiations should continue a bit longer.
   The current negotiations aim to establish a broad framework to launch negotiations by the end of the conference which will be completed by 2009 and reach full implementation status by 2012 when the Kyoto Protocol will expire.
   Adaptation funds for the developing countries to enable them to cope with the effects of climate change continued to feature strongly on the third day of the conference.
   Yvo de Boer, the executive secretary of the UN Climate Change Convention Framework, during his daily briefing referred to Oxfam’s response to the amount of funds currently available for adaptation as an insult since the money was not nearly enough to cover the cost.
   According to a preliminary estimate by the international non-governmental organisation mentioned above, the developing countries require at least $50 billion per year to cope with climate change while the amount currently available was mentioned to be a measly $36 million.
   ‘If it is an insult, it is a rather big one,’ said de Boer, pointing out that the amount of adaptation funds available to the developing countries would increase to $5 billion after 2012 if there is a high demand for Clean Development Mechanism and the carbon market is thriving.
   However, there was a general sense of acknowledgement that given the most conservative estimates of asking for over $40 billion for adaptation immediately, these funds were rather inadequate. There is yet to be an official assessment under the UN climate change regime that may be deemed official.
   De Boer also acknowledged that though the current climate change makes it obligatory for the industrialised countries to ensure gradual technology transfer to facilitate more environment-friendly economic growth, there has not been such transfer at a satisfactory rate. Such technologies could prove to be crucial for least developed countries like Bangladesh in ensuring access to the adaptation funds that are expected to begin to flow soon since possession and implementation of approved environment-friendly measures will facilitate that access.
   Pointing out that people of the poorest countries situated in the mega-deltas, especially those in the Ganges-Brahmaputra basin, small island countries and those in sub-Saharan Africa were in increased risk from sea-level rise, droughts and flooding, de Boer said that the deltaic regions were doubly threatened. ‘If you look at the number of metropolises in these regions, it is easy to understand the scale and extent of the threat that climate change might have on the huge number of people living there.’
   He expected a positive response from the parties at the conference to work for gathering sufficient funds and functional mechanisms and to make them operational by the end of the conference.
   Outstanding issues that the civil servants cannot resolve will presumably be left for the high-level segment of the meeting to sort out when ministers are expected to join the conference, de Boer told the press when asked to elaborate on the agenda that would be left for consideration of the ministers.
   Speaking about the Clean Development Mechanism which is an inherent part of gathering adaptation funds for developing countries, de Boer said that since the climate change regime was looking towards market-based solutions for the system to be able to finance itself, there was the problem that such investments were not deemed profitable or viable in small economies although they will be the worst victims of climate change. In this regard de Boer thought there could be some form of public funding or incentive to encourage private sector investment in poor countries.
   The secretary for environment and forests, Rezaul Kabir, underlined the need for equitable access to capacity building of poor countries so that they might avail themselves of the facility in a more meaningful manner and thus ensure more equitable distribution of these projects.

A Dhaka court on Wednesday asked the ACC investigation officer to submit to the court the investigation report of the GATCO corruption case filed against the detained former minister Khaleda Zia and 12 others by January 7.
   Another court asked the Tejgaon police officer-in-charge, also the investigation officer, to submit the report of the extortion case filed by Noor Ali against former detained Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and two others by December 31.
   The court of metropolitan magistrate Golam Rabbani issued the order in connection with the GATCO case filed by the commission’s deputy director Golam Shahriar Chowdhury with the Tejgaon police on September 2. The commission’s deputy director Jahirul Huda is now investigating the case.
   The court of metropolitan magistrate Ehsanul Haque issued the order in connection with the extortion case against Hasina, also the Awami League president, her cousin Sheikh Helaluddin and his wife Rupa Chowdhury.
   The Unique Group managing director, Noor Ali, filed the case with the Tejgaon police on June 13 alleging that Hasina with the help of others had extorted Tk 5 crore from him when she was prime minister between 1996 and 2001.
   On July 29, Hasina was shown arrested in the extortion case after she was arrested on July 16 in the extortion case filed on June 13 by the East Coast Trading Pvt Ltd managing director, Azam Jahangir Chowdhury.
   Khaleda Zia and 12 others, including her detained youngest son, Arafat Rahman, were accused of awarding a contract to an ‘unsuitable and ill-equipped firm, GATCO,’ to handle the inland container depots in Dhaka and at Chittagong port allegedly for bribe.
   The joint forces arrested Khaleda Zia, also the BNP chairperson, and Arafat Rahman, at her house in the Dhaka cantonment on September 3 in the GATCO case.

The High Court on Wednesday declared illegal and void the tax evasion case lodged against the detained former BNP state minister Iqbal Hassan Mahmud Tuku.
   The High Court bench of Justice M A Rashid and Justice Miftahuddin Chowdhury pronounced the verdict after hearing a petition of Tuku challenging the legality of the case.
   It was the first verdict in any petition challenging the legality of tax evasion cases filed by the National Board of Revenue to bring the tax dodgers to book, and the verdict visibly threw the revenue board’s counsel into frustration.
   The revenue board filed the case accusing Tuku of evading more than Tk 3.80 crore in income tax in 1999–2007.
   Tuku later filed the petition challenging the case. The High Court on August 29 stayed midway its proceedings and issued a rule on the revenue board to explain why the case would not be quashed.
   Tuku, arrested on February 4, is now serving a sentence of nine years’ imprisonment handed down by a special judge’s court on November 15.
   The special anti-graft court, set up in the Jatiya Sangsad Bhaban’s MP hostel to try the high-profile corruption suspects, jailed Tuku for amassing illegal wealth beyond his known sources of income and concealing information in his wealth report submitted to the Anti-Corruption Commission. The court also ordered confiscation of his wealth of Tk 3 crore.
   Rafique-ul Huq, assisted by Ajmalul Hossain, appeared for Tuku.

The interim government on Wednesday asked the parliament secretariat to cancel immediately all allocations of NAM flats to former lawmakers.
   It also directed the secretariat to get 90 of the luxury apartments allocated to the former members of parliament vacant. Earlier on Tuesday, the housing and public works ministry reportedly approved a proposal for cancelling allocations of the apartments to 108 former MPs who are either facing legal proceedings or are absconding or has died or has failed to provide information required for accommodation in government flats, according to official sources.
   The government also has raised the monthly rents of the flats from Tk 400/800 to Tk 20,000/25,000, excluding electricity bills, effective from March last for the former MPs who will now have to get fresh allocations from the directorate of government accommodation.
   The housing and public works ministry on Wednesday sent an official order to the effect to the secretary of the parliament secretariat.
   ‘We have decided in principle to cancel the allocations of NAM flats to the former lawmakers who are either in jail or absconding to avert legal proceedings,’ the law adviser, Mainul Hosein, who is also responsible for the housing and public works ministry, told New Age.
   He said the speaker of the parliament had requested him to review the newly set rents of the flats for former MPs. ‘We will consider it, if we get such a request from the speaker formally on behalf of the ex-lawmakers.’
   A committee, led by additional secretary to the parliament secretariat ABM Nuruzaman, which was formed earlier to review the allocations and rents of the NAM flats, placed the proposal before the government last month for cancelling the allocations to 108 former lawmakers.
   According to the official order, instead of the parliament secretariat, the directorate of government accommodation will henceforth be the authority responsible for allocation of the NAM flats. Government officials will also be entitled to get these flats allocated to them.
   In June, the housing and public works ministry asked the parliament secretariat to vacate the NAM flats occupied by former MPs following a government decision to hand over the charge of the apartments to the ministry.
   The former MPs whose allocations have been cancelled are Abdul Jalil, Abdus Shahid, Mizanur Rahman Minu, Md Mozammel Haq, AM Reasat Ali, Fariduddin Choudhury, Raihan Akhter Banu, Md Karim Uddin Bharsa, Abdul Khaleque Mandal, Md Helaluzzaman Talukder Lalu, Zakaria Taher, Mahmudul Haque, Alauddin Ahmed, Golam Habib Dulal, Abdul Matin Sarker, Md Abdur Razzaque, M Rashiduzzaman Millat, Md Amzad Hossian Sarker, Rokeya Ahmed Lucky, Ferdous Akhter Wahida, Md Abdul Gafur Bhuiyan, Khairul Kabir Khokon, MA Karim Abbasi, Enamul Haque, Mostafa Kamal Pasha, Abdul Wadud Bhuiyan, Zahid Ahsan Russel, Hamida Banu Shova, M Ruhul Kuddus Talukder Dulu, Rafiqul Anwar, Syed Ashraful Islam, Abdul Kader Siddiq, MM Amin Uddin, Mahbubur Rahman, Harun Al Rashid, M Naser Rahman, Ebadur Rahman Chowdhury, Md Zahed Ali Chowdhury, Khurram Khan Chowdhury, Ziaur Rahman Khan, Mohammad Mosharraf Hossain, Md Nurul Huda, AKM Mosharraf Hossain, Manjurul Ahsan Munshi, Golam Mohammad Siraj, Suranjit Sen Gupta, Mohammad Wakkas, Syeda Nargis Ali, Salauddin Ahmed, Md Abul Hossain, Md Matiur Rahman Talukder, Md Sohrab Uddin, Md Mojibur Rahman Manju, Nasirul Haque Sabu, Sheikh Helal Uddin, Nur Mohammad Mondal, Shahjahan Chowdhury, Shah Md Abu Jafar, ABM Fazle Karim Chowdhury, Abdul Hai, Panchanan Biswas, Mosheur Rahman Ranga, Abdus Sobhan, Md Mizanur Rahman Chowdhury, Mirza Azam, Nazir Hossain, KM Anwarul Islam, Md Shamsuzzoha Khan, Md Mosheur Rahman, Syed Mehedi Ahmed Rumi, Md Hafiz Ibrahim, Syed Moazzem Hossain Alal, AKM Selim Reza Habib, Md Harunur Rashid, Mosharraf Hossain Mongu, Abdul Hai, Md Abul Khair Bhuiyan, Ziaul Haq Molla, Md Habibul Islam Habib, M Ilyas Ali, Md Ashraf Hossain, Alamgir Kabir, Shahidul Islam, Md Shahjahan, AKM Fazlul Haq Milon, Shahjahan Choudhury, Md Shahidul Islam, Samsul Alam Pramanik, Zahir Uddin Swapan, Md Abdul Ghani, Alamgir Mohammad Mahfuzullah Farid, Shawkat Ali, and Shah Mohammad Solaiman Alam.
   The NAM flats allocated to the late Shahidul Islam Biswas, late Syed Manjur Hossain and late Altaf Hossain Golandaz have also been cancelled.
   On June 19, the interim government of Fakhruddin Ahmed handed over the charge of the flats to the housing and public works ministry for renting those to government officials on a temporary basis.
   Earlier, the BNP-led alliance government had decided that the fully-furnished flats, constructed in 2001 for the Non-Aligned Movement summit that Dhaka eventually declined to host, would be handed over to lawmakers to resolve their accommodation problems.
   A total of 304 out of the 324 NAM flats in the city were allocated to the members of the eighth Jatiya Sangsad in June 2005 and the charge of the flats went to the parliament secretariat. Of the rest, seven flats at Nakhalpara were allocated to the Anti-Corruption Commission and 16 to the Special Security Force.
   Presently, 160 of the flats are occupied by former MPs and 90 have already been handed over to the housing ministry.

Forty-two leading exporters have been nominated for the commercially important person status for 2007 in view of their performances in the 2005-06 fiscal year, official sources said.
   The selected industrialists represent 17 export-oriented categories including readymade garments, knitwear, frozen food, leather goods, raw jute and agro-processing.
   Finance, planning and commerce adviser Mirza Azizul Islam last week endorsed the list, which was sent to the cabinet division for approval in the council of advisers meeting, sources said.
   Prior to the adviser’s approval, no objection certificates were taken from the home ministry, Bangladesh Bank and National Board of Revenue, finance ministry officials said.
   Names of 12 exporters were dropped from the initial list as they defaulted on bank loans while 48 others had their names axed for evading tax, they said.
   According to the CIP (export) regulations-2006, CIPs are entitled to use VIP lounge at airports and get entry pass for Secretariat and invitation to citizens’ receptions.
   They also enjoy the privileges such as reservation in all government transportation including airlines and railway as well as foreign ministry’s recommendations for foreign visa.
   The privileges are offered for one calendar year or until the announcement of next CIP list, sources in the commerce ministry said. No CIP list was published since 2002.
   The nominated list for 2007 includes two exporters from raw jute sector—Sharif Fazlur Rahm and Salim Reza of Khulna.
   Four exporters have been selected from jute goods sector. They are Humayun Kabir, Kazi Rezaul Hasan, Sayful Islam and Feroza Begum.
   Eight exporters chosen from frozen food sector are Iqbal Ahmed and Yasmin Khan of Chittagong, Touhidur Rahman, Syed Abu Asfar, Mia Mohammed Abdus Salam, Begum Shahana Sultana and Rezaul Hoque of Khulna, Kazi Shahed Ahmed of Dhaka.
   Apparel exporters Anisur Rahman Sinha, Azizul Islam, Anwarul Azim, Asif Ibrahim, Shaiful Islam and Inamul Hoque have their names in the list.
   Three exporters in the category of agriculture products are Gobinda Chandra Saha, Shahab Uddin and Gokul Chandra Saha.
   Shuza Uddin and Prakash Ranjan Das Gupta have been nominated from the categories of agro-processing products and dehydrated salt respectively.
   Nurul Islam and Firoz Ali Fakhri have been nominated as CIPs from the category of specialised textile/home textile.
   Nine exporters from the category of knitwear are Zahur Ahmed, Gaohar Shiraz Jamil, Sardar Toffazzal Hossain, Mohiuddin Faruqi, Tamal Kanti Sharker, Amir Hamja Sharker, Kaniz Fatema Rima, Abdul Mazid Mondal and Jahangir Alam Khan.
   Begum Afroza Khan Rita, Jhantu Kumar Saha and Razzab Sharif have been selected from the categories of ceramic tableware, plastic products and melamine respectively.
   Mirza Salman Ispahani, Jashim Uddin and Saiful Islam have been chosen under ‘miscellaneous’ category.
   There has been no nomination from five categories including tea, light engineering and pharmaceuticals as the names proposed by Export Promotion Bureau were found either loan defaulters or tax evaders, sources said.

The chief adviser, Fakhruddin Ahmed, has told the visiting Danish minister for development cooperation that the law will take its own course over the trial of the two detained top political leaders.
   ‘Here court is open — judiciary is open. No one is above the law and everyone will get due process of law,’ the head of caretaker government categorically said when the minister of Denmark, Ullah Toernaes, wanted to know about the trial of the two top leaders of the two major political parties.
   The Danish minister Wednesday made a courtesy call on the chief adviser at his office, when relief and rehabilitation works, election, political reforms and prices of essentials came up for discussion.
   Fakhruddin said the present government was committed to holding a free, fair and acceptable election free from the influence of ‘Money, Muscle and Misuse’ of authority by December 2008.
   ‘The Election Commission is working to that end following its announced roadmap and the government would provide all-out cooperation, as need be,’ he further told the Danish minister.
   As the minister mentioned the Election Commission’s dialogue with political parties, Fakhruddin said the Election Commission was an independent domain. It would prepare a set of guidelines after discussion with the political parties, following its discussions with media personalities and civil society as well.
   Responding to a question, he said political parties also wanted their own reform and registration of political parties was the demand of the people and political parties.
   Citing various institutional reforms like Anti-Corruption Commission and Election Commission, he said reformed political parties and revamped institutions would further strengthen the democracy in Bangladesh.
   The Dane highly appreciated and was impressed about government’s relief operations in the cyclone-affected areas as she visited some Sidr-hit places. Also, she was impressed at evacuation of a huge number of people in a short time by the government.
   She apprised that Denmark’s donation of another $2 million for midterm rehabilitation be channelled through the World Bank.
   And a donation of $1 million would be made for longer-term rehabilitation in response to the chief adviser’s call for international cooperation for an estimated fund of $1 billion.
   The chief adviser thanked Danish minister for immediate response to his call for cooperation in long-term rehabilitation programme.
   Climate change and its negative impact on Bangladesh was also discussed. The Danish minister said a conference on climate change like in Bali would be held in Denmark in 2009.

SAARC foreign ministers are set to reach an agreement to initiate social sector projects under the regional development fund at a two-day meeting scheduled to begin in New Delhi on Friday.
   The SAARC Development Fund, the first-ever umbrella fund of the regional bloc, will have three windows, including a social window with an initial amount of $300 million expected to fund poverty alleviation programmes and related projects.
   Diplomatic sources said apart from focusing on the above issue, foreign ministers of the South Asian countries would review the implementations of the summit decisions, especially of establishing connectivity and institutions for the benefit of the people.
   ‘The meeting is expected to give Mauritius an observer status in the eight-nations grouping,’ said a source.
   Quoting India’s external affairs secretary Shivshankar Menon, the Associated Press of Pakistan on Wednesday reported SAARC leaders agreed to establish the South Asian University and a food bank.
   ‘We are close to reaching an agreement on SDF fund and an investment protection treaty,’ he said.
   After the end of first-day meeting of the standing committee, Menon said the project of telemedicine was going right on track as the countries identified their hospitals. Progress has also been made in the establishment of the university.
   In 2005, the SAARC countries decided to reconstitute the existing South Asian Development Fund and establish a SAARC Development Fund, an umbrella organisation for all SAARC development funding.

Pakistan’s government has formally retired 37 judges, including the former chief justice, who refused to approve president Pervez Musharraf’s emergency rule, the attorney general said Wednesday.
   The judges declined to take a fresh oath of allegiance after Musharraf imposed the state of emergency on November 3, citing as one major factor the judiciary’s ‘interference’ in government.
   Pakistan’s opposition parties, including those led by ex-premiers Benazir Bhutto and Nawaz Sharif have called for the judges, led by outspoken chief justice Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, to be restored.
   ‘Thirteen judges of the Supreme Court and 24 judges of the high courts of Lahore, Peshawar and Sindh stand retired with the issuance of notification by the law ministry,’ Attorney General Malik Muhammad Qayyum said.
   Qayyum said the judges were not entitled to any post-retirement benefits.
   ‘However, the government will soon enact a law to enable these judges to get these benefits,’ he added.
   He said the retired judges would also have to vacate their official residences for their successors.
   Many of the judges however say that they remain under effective house arrest in their residences, where they have been kept under heavy police guard since the state of emergency began.
   Only four of the Supreme Court’s former total of 17 judges agreed to be sworn in under emergency legislation brought in by Musharraf.
   Musharraf has been at loggerheads with the judiciary since he tried to sack former chief justice Chaudhry in March, a move that led to massive street protests and sent his popularity plummeting.
   Chaudhry was finally dispatched when he refused to take the oath.
   Critics say Musharraf’s main motivation for imposing the emergency was to purge the Supreme Court of hostile judges amid fears that they would overturn his victory in an October 6 presidential election.
   The new-look court rubberstamped his election win last month and Musharraf was subsequently sworn in for a second term as president, albeit this time as a civilian after quitting his dual role as army chief.

Former student leaders, cultural activists and student organisations on Wednesday continued to condemn the court’s verdict to jail four teachers of the Rajshahi University, and called it a blatant infringement of the freedom of expression. They demanded immediate release of the teachers.
   Nine former representatives of the students’ unions of Dhaka University, Rajshahi University and the BUET who were elected in the 1980s and 1990s, said in a statement that they were shocked at court’s verdict which was delivered in spite of the fact that the accusations were not proved beyond doubt.
   ‘People of all walks of life were disturbed at the imprisonment of the teachers for violation of the emergency rules. When the law is used as tool of oppression, it loses its credibility,’ they said.
   ‘The verdict was a breach of promise that was made by the chief adviser. This sentence of imprisonment was not only a violation of basic rights but also infringement of the freedom of expression mandated by the constitution,’ they added.
   The above statement was signed by former RUCSU vice-president Nurul Islam Thandu, former DUCSU vice-president Mahmudur Rahman Manna, former RUCSU vice-president Fazle Hossain Badsha, RUCSU vice-president Ragib Ahsan Munna, former EUCSU general secretary Muniruddin Ahmed, former RUCSU general secretary Shamsul Huq Tuku, former DUCSU general secretary Moshtak Hossain, former RUCSU general secretary Jahangir Kabir Rana, former RUCSU general secretary Ruhul Kuddus Babu.
   The Sammilita Sangskritik Jote said that sentencing university teachers to jail was an unprecedented incident. ‘In the same state of emergency one Sadeque Siddique brought out a jubilant procession after Sheikh Hasina was arrested, but he was not punished,’ said the statement signed by Nasiruddin Yusuf and Golam Quddus.
   ‘When initiatives to free the billionaire businessmen accused of corruption are being taken, the teachers are being punished for bringing out a silent procession on the campus. It is shocking, unexpected and a violation of the constitution which makes equal rights of all citizens mandatory,’ said the statement.
   The South Asian People’s Union against Fundamentalism and Communalism demanded immediate release of all teachers.
   ‘We are shocked at the jailing of four Rajshahi University teachers for joining a silent procession. We hoped that the government would release the teachers and students arrested after the August 20-22 incidents as the judicial commission has said that it had not found any evidence of teachers’ involvement in the violence,’ said the statement signed by Kabir Chowdhury, KM Subhan, Hena Das, Borhanuddin Khan Jahangir, Ajay Roy and Shahriar Kabir.
   ‘We have seen war criminals and fundamentalists staging demonstrations across the country in spite of the state of emergency and making odious remarks on the constitution, government, liberation war and freedom-fighters. No one was arrested or punished for bringing out processions against Prothom Alo,’ added the statement.
   ‘It is not acceptable that the emergency rules are being applied against only those who oppose the fundamentalists and not against the fundamentalists,’ said the statement.
   The Jatiya Mukti Council’s president, Badruddin Umar, and secretary, Faizul Hakim, in a statement denounced the verdict and said the incident has exposed the real nature of the interim government.
   ‘Jailing the teachers was a continuation of the oppression by the government to contain the students’ resentment against the assaulting of a student by soldiers. The unelected and military-run government has indulged in autocratic rule by imposing the state of emergency,’ the statement added.
   The Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal-backed Bangladesh Chhatra League demanded immediate release of the teachers.
   The Student Action Committee, the students’ alliance led by Awami League’s student wing Bangladesh Chhatra League, said that punishment of the teachers for speaking out against oppression would create an inflammable environment in the universities.

The Privatisation Commission seems desperate for a last-ditch attempt to keep the Rupali Bank handover issue alive although the Saudi Arabian bidder missed the payment deadline and repeated reminders went unanswered.
   Saudi Prince Bandar Bin Mohammad Abdul Rahman Al Saud was given time until November 30 to pay $458 million as agreed price for the bank’s 93.26 per cent shares.
   But the deadline was ignored and no communication was so far made from the bidder. The finance ministry in consultation with the chief adviser’s office last week decided in principle to scarp the plan and ask the commission to convey the Saudi prince of the government’s unwillingness to proceed further with the deal, said officials concerned.
   But the commission is still hoping to get a decision in a day or two from the government high-up before sending a final letter to the Saudi Arabian bidder and bringing the deal to a close.
   ‘We will hopefully get a directive in this regard from the chief adviser’s office tomorrow [Thursday]. We have to give the prince the last chance to respond so that there remains no legal debate for scrapping the deal,’ a high official of the commission told New Age on Wednesday.
   Chairman of the commission M Abu Solaiman Chowdhury went to the chief adviser’s office on Tuesday and waited for a directive from there until the last minute of the working hours on Wednesday.
   He refused to tell the press anything about the outcome.
   Prince Bandar and his agents kept the commission and the government waiting for more than six months since the two sides concluded negotiations after resolving disputes and signing of the draft sales and purchase agreement.
   Various quarters, including economists, suggested that the deal with the defaulter bidder should immediately be rescinded.
   ‘The government should scrap the deal as soon as possible and it should have come to an end much earlier. It’s better for the bank, for the country’s financial sector and for the government as well,’ Atiur Rahman, a senior economist, said.
   Professor Abu Ahmed, a share market expert and Dhaka University teacher, time and again said the shares of the Rupali Bank should be offloaded through the share market. He and others pointed out that there should have been a provision of down payment or significant amount of deposit for such bidding.
   Atiur, who once headed a nationalised commercial bank, recommended that the government could offload 50 per cent of the remaining shares of Rupali Bank and distribute the rest 50 per cent among five to 10 corporate investors.
   ‘It can help Privatisaion Commission avoid the hassle of initiating the process of offloading the shares through fresh tender,’ the economist said.
   The government could also corporatise the bank in line with three other state-owned commercial banks — Sonali, Janata and Agrani.

As the world tries to hammer out a future plan to tackle climate change, tiny islands say it is too late — their homes and histories are disappearing under the rising sea.
   Dressed in traditional grass and rattan skirts, the islanders used music, song and slide shows to tell their story to a tearful audience in a luxury hotel on the Indonesian island of Bali.
   For nations and communities that sit only a few metres above sea level, even small ocean rises engulf their land and send destructive salty water into their food supply, leaving residents with little choice but to flee.
   ‘Relocation for us is our only means of building our future. We will lose our identity, but we have no choice, the islands are shrinking,’ said Ursula Rakova, from the low-lying Carteret Islands in Papua New Guinea.
   ‘Do we leave our children so they float in the sea, or do we help them now?’
   Climate experts say that as global warming heats the Earth up, glaciers and polar ice caps will melt and sea waters will expand, sending oceans rising by at least 18 centimetres (7.2 inches) by 2100.
   World sea levels rose 3.1 millimetres (0.12 inch) per year from 1993 to 2003, the Nobel-winning Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has said.
   Representatives from the Carteret Islands, the Pacific nation of Kiribati, and islands in Australia’s Torres Strait have brought their story to a UN climate conference being held here in Bali.
   ‘For us as Kiribati people, the land is very important,’ said Tangaroa Arobati, a global warming activist from Kiribati, where about 92,500 people live on 33 coral atolls which sit about two or three metres above sea level.
   Drinking water is being contaminated with sea water, while extreme weather events beat coastlines, and fish are no longer abundant.

The education ministry on Wednesday asked the deputy commissioners of 12 Sidr-hit districts to prepare fresh lists of educational institutions damaged by the cyclone as allegations of irregularities were levelled in the preparation of earlier lists.
   ‘We have received several allegations of irregularities in preparing the lists of high schools, college and madrassah from filed level. Some institutions which were partially damaged have been listed as fully damaged,’ a ministry official said.
   Some institutions, which are listed as partially damaged, have not been damaged at all, he said.
   The letter signed by AKM Abdul Awal Majumdar, additional secretary of the ministry, requested the deputy commissioners to send the fresh lists of damaged educational institutions by Thursday.
   The deputy commissioners have also been asked to complete the repair or reconstruction of the institutions by December 15.
   The 12 districts are Satkhira, Khulna, Bagerhat, Pirojpur, Barguna, Patuakhali, Bhola, Jhalakati, Barisal, Shariatpur, Madaripur and Goplaganj.
   The government in the past week allocated Tk 2.5 lakh each for 584 fully damaged educational institutions in 12 districts, pounded by Sidr on November 15.
   The government allocated Tk 20,000 each for 2,546 partially damaged educational institutions.

A suicide attacker slammed a bomb-filled car into an Afghan army bus in Kabul Wednesday, killing at least 16 people in the second such blast in two days during a visit by the US defence secretary, Robert Gates.
   The extremist Taliban group claimed responsibility for the morning rush-hour bombing, which struck in the south of the Afghan capital as Gates wrapped up a short visit to assess efforts against an intensifying insurgency.
   The bus was reduced to a blackened skeleton of mangled metal, its roof and sides blown out.
   ‘It was a big explosion and sent fire into the sky,’ said Akbari Sarwar, a journalist who was on the road when the blast hit. ‘When I moved in I saw scores of bodies, legs, arms, heads, flesh everywhere,’ he said.
   Eight Afghan National Army soldiers and eight civilians were killed according to information given to the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, spokesman Brigadier General Carlos Branco told reporters.
   Another defence ministry officials said up to 20 civilians may have been killed, many of them children, but information was still being verified.
   Four of the dead were children in their early teens, health ministry spokesman Abudullah Fahim said. Seventeen people were treated in hospital, he said.
   The attack occurred as Gates ended a short trip to Afghanistan in which he held talks with the president, Hamid Karzai, about the violence being led by the Taliban.

Dallah Albaraka Group, one of the leading conglomerates in Saudi Arabia, has expressed its interest to buy state-run Rupali Bank, officials said on Wednesday.
   A team of the Jeddah-based conglomerate that controls 300 companies operating in more than 40 countries will arrive in Dhaka Friday to hold talks with the government, officials with the Board of Investment said.
   The move came after Saudi Prince Bandar Bin Mohammad Bin Abdulrahman Al-Saud’s bid to buy Rupali ran into snags.
   ‘The company is interested to purchase the RBL if it is not taken over by Prince Bandar,’ Fazlul Haque, local representative of Dallah Albaraka, told the news agency by phone.
   Haque said the group was also interested to buy troubled Oriental Bank and state-run Agrani Bank.
   ‘We’ll decide on the RBL sale soon,’ the finance adviser AB Mirza Azizul Islam, told the news agency at the cabinet division Wednesday.

The Greek police located and freed a Bangladeshi man sought in Italy for migrant trafficking who had been kidnapped and held to ransom for over a month by seven fellow Bangladeshis, the police said Wednesday.
   The 51-year-old unidentified man owned a small shipping company and used the ships to smuggle Bangladeshi immigrants into Greece, the police said.
   Two of the ships were seized in Italy which issued an international arrest warrant against the businessman but he was kidnapped over a month ago in the western Greek port of Patras, a major gathering point for migrants seeking access to Italy.

The government will prohibit felling of trees in Sundarban for the next one year, an environment and forest ministry meeting decided Wednesday.
   Another decision made at the meeting, chaired by the environment and forest adviser, CS Karim, will restrict all rights of entry to Sundarban for one year to authorised fishermen, honey collectors and nypa palm ( golpata) harvesters.
   Forest officials have been instructed to plant the cyclone-ravaged coastal patches of the forest with matching mangrove species.
   Karim told the meeting that the November 15 cyclone wrought extensive damage to the resources and biodiversity — both flora and fauna — of the world’s largest mangrove forest.

At least 36 people including seven soldiers were killed in fresh fighting between security forces and Tamil rebels in Sri Lanka’s embattled north, the defence ministry said Wednesday.
   Three soldiers were killed Wednesday in an ambush by the rebels after the military stepped up patrols along the de facto frontlines separating the mini-state held by the guerrillas, the ministry said.
   It said another four soldiers were caught up in a mine attack in which two more soldiers escaped with injuries.

The Rajshahi University’s vice-chancellor, Professor M Altaf Hossain, on Wednesday said that the university authority was trying to get the detained teachers released through the judicial process.
   ‘We are trying heart and soul to free our detained colleagues through the judicial process,’ he told reporters after the teachers of the mass communications department and the members of the liaison committee on the late August protests on the campus met him separately on Wednesday to discuss the release of their detained colleagues.
   The teachers of the mass communications department met the vice-chancellor at about 12:00pm.
   The members of the liaison committee, led by its convener Professor Nazrul Islam, met the VC in the afternoon. The delegation included Zillur Rahman, chairman of Rajshahi University Teachers’ Association, Professor Asma Siddika, dean of law and justice, Professor Rafikul Islam, Professor Emtajul M Haque, Professor Mukhlesur Rahman, Professor Gulam Kabir, Professor Zahid Hasan Milky, Professor M Hamid and Sohrab Ali.
   The students of the RU mass communications department decided on Wednesday to appeal to the chief adviser for the release of their detained teachers.
   M Khademul Islam, chairman of the mass communications department, told New Age, ‘We have met the VC and requested him to take appropriate initiatives for the release of our detained colleagues.’
   Professor Mukhlesur Rahman, a member of the liaison committee, said, ‘We met the VC and requested him to approach the law adviser because he has made a positive comment about the detained teachers. We are very hopeful that our colleagues will be released.’

The verdict in another case filed against 14 teachers, students and staffers of Rajshahi University in connection with the students’ protests on the campus on August 21–22 will be delivered today.
   The judge of Rajshahi Speedy Trial Court, Ruhul Amin, also additional chief metropolitan magistrate, will deliver the verdict in the case filed on charge of setting fire to an army vehicle on the campus on August 22.
   The accused are Professor Chowdhury Sarwar Jahan Sajal and Professor Golam Sabbir Sattar Tapu of geology and mining department, deputy chief information officer of the university Sadikul Islam, Bangladesh Chhatra League RU unit general secretary Ayen Uddin, BCL activists Dipayan Sarkar Deep, Mizanur Rahman Mithu, Sardar Ayaz, SM Fakrul Islam Raihan, Abu Sayem, Shamim Ahmed, Kazi A Latif, Shakhawat Hossain, and Aziz Bin Kamal and RU vice-chancellor’s driver Ataur Rahman.
   Of them, the two professors surrendered before the court on September 11 and law enforcers arrested Sadikul at his residence. The remaining 11 are on the run.
   During the campus protests, a vehicle of the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence was set on fire on the campus on August 22.
   DGFI Rajshahi deputy director Major Shawkat Ali filed the case with the Motihar police on August 23 and sub-inspector Mukhtar Hossain, investigation officer of the case, pressed charges against the 14 accused on September 1.
   The court so far has examined 24 prosecution witnesses in the case.
   The same court on Tuesday sentenced RU teachers Moloy Kumar Bhowmik, Selim Reza Newton, Dulal Chandra Biswas, and Abdullah Al Mamun to two years’ imprisonment for violating the Emergency Powers Rules by bringing out a silent rally on the campus on August 21.