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At least 2,01,204 people have been arrested so far since the imposition of state of emergency on January 11 on mere suspicion under Section 54 of the Code of Criminal Procedure and Section 86 of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police Ordinance.
   Law enforcers continue arresting people on suspicion abusing those laws in violation of several orders and directives of the Supreme Court, about which most of the lawmen do not have any clear idea, reveals a recent study by the Bangladesh Legal Aid and Services Trust.
   On the other hand, the High Court’s directives on amendment to those laws empowering law enforcers to arrest people without any warrant and interrogation of detainees remanded in police custody as well as a draft bill for making the amendments have been gathering dust at the home ministry for more than five years now.
   A total of 4,40,684 people have been arrested on various grounds since January 11, a cabinet committee meeting on law and order was told on December 10. Of the arrested, warrants were issues for arrest of 2,39,480 and the remaining 2,01,204 were arrested on suspicion, meeting sources said.
   The DMP alone arrested 1,934 people under Section 54 of the CrPC and 23,450 more under Section 86 of the DMP Ordinance.
   The High Court on April 17, 2003 issued a 15-point directive on the government and asked police officers, magistrates, jail officials, and sessions’ judges to ensure that human rights were not violated.
   The directives were issued in the judgement on a public interest litigation writ petition filed by the BLAST and a number of other rights organisations and activists challenging the abuse of law enforcers’ arbitrary power of arrest on suspicion and torture of arrested people in police remand.
   The writ petition was filed in November 1998 following the government’s continued inaction in implementing and making public the recommendation made by the judicial inquiry commission of Justice Habibur Rahman Khan, formed to probe the killing of Shamim Reza Rubel, a university student who died in police custody at the Dhaka office of the Detective Branch of police on July 23, 1998. He was arrested under Section 54 of the CrPC.
   In the 15-point directive, the police was ordered to disclose their identity while arresting people, furnish the people with the reasons for their arrest within three hours of taking them to police station, inform the relatives of the arrested immediately, and arrange for examination of the people injured during their arrest by physicians.
   According to the findings of the BLAST study conducted this year, 53.6 per cent of people arrested in 2007 were not given any chance even to ask about the reasons of their arrest and the families of 63.9 per cent of them were not informed about the arrests.
   The court also directed the authorities concerned to build rooms with glass walls in jails for interrogation of the arrested. Until such rooms are made, the arrested will be interrogated at the jail gates in presence of their relatives and lawyers, the court said.
   But no such glass-walled room has been made yet and no relative or lawyer has been allowed to be present during interrogation of any arrested person. Police officials argued relatives and lawyers had not been allowed to be present during the interrogations for the sake of investigations, the study report said.
   There have been only a few incidents of interrogating detainees at jail gates. Of the police officers, interviewed by the study team, 51.2 per cent did not reply to the query about the contents of the court directives and none of the rest could clearly mention any of the directives.
   Since April 2003, the High Court and the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court so far have issued a number of orders on the government not to arrest people on mere suspicion, unless they are found in possession of arms or any dangerous sharp implements or weapons, between sunset and sunrise without any satisfactory reason.
   The orders came in the wake of indiscriminate blanket arrest made immediately before various agitation programmes of opposition parties.
   But all the orders of the Supreme Court have failed to restrain law enforcers from continuing with abusing their arbitrary power of arresting people on mere suspicion, without any warrant.
   In the April 17, 2003 verdict, the High Court also directed the government to amend the sections 54 and 167 of the CrPC.
   According to law ministry sources, they sent a draft bill proposing amendments to the sections along with the High Court directives to the home ministry in June 2003, seeking the latter’s opinion, but they are yet to get any response.

Tens of thousands of Sidr survivors have been left with no job options but to live on relief supplies one month after the decades’ deadliest cyclone ravaged the country’s south on November 15.
   Prospects are still bleak for farmers, fishermen and day-labourers, who lost their loved ones, homesteads and livelihoods, to go back to work soon due to lack of income generating initiatives.
   Damaged structures are still left in bad shapes in most areas.
   Though rehabilitation and reconstruction works began in a limited scale, most of the activities in the affected areas are still focussed on relief distributions. People in dire need of everything—food, money, clothes and other materials— prefer queuing for relief to working in cropland, locals said.
   Development expert, locals and officials believe prolonged dependence on relief supplies would erode the people’s enthusiasm for work.
   They suggested that the government should go for full-scale rehabilitation and reconstruction activities to involve the people in schemes like ‘food for work.’ Supports are needed for resumption of farming and fishing activities which can also engage a substantial workforce.
   Farming and fishing activities are yet to begin in full swing as farmers and fish traders were not provided with supports to buy cattle and boats, washed away or damaged by the cyclone and strong tide.
   ‘The areas require massive income generating activities to bring people back to works,’ an expert on post-disaster rehabilitation, Mahbub Hossain, told New Age on Friday.
   The government and private entrepreneurs should immediately take steps to help the victims get back to works instead of queuing for relief, suggested Mahbub, executive director of BRAC.
   Farmers, fishermen, small traders, unemployed youths and school children in the Sidr-hit southern districts still spend their days waiting for relief goods, local people and officials said.
   Seeing bleak prospects for future incomes, they are now busy making safe stocks mainly of food stuffs and also cash, blanket and clothes being distributed by different organisations and individuals even a month after the cyclone.
   The cyclone, rated to be the worst one since 1970, ravaged the country’s costal belt November 15 night, leaving 3,347 people killed.
   About one-fourteenth of the country’s population were affected by the cyclone and tidal surge that caused colossal loss to life and property in 30 districts, 12 being badly hit.
   The government as well as local and global charities responded immediately to the urgent needs and came up with humanitarian assistance in huge quantity.
   The government’s concentration was still on relief and rehabilitation of the affected people.
   But the locals felt food-aided programmes like ‘food for work’ or ‘cash for work’ or other income generating works should be launched immediately involving the people, who turned jobless overnight and left with nothing.
   Whatever farming and fishing activities have started by now, there is a shortage of day-labourers.
   Dependence on relief is affecting the people’s job habit, some felt.
   Some farmers in the southern districts said that they did not find day-labourers to reap aman crop as farm workers were still running after relief.
   ‘We find no one to reap the paddy,’ said Abdus Sattar, one businessman in Patharghata of Barguna district.
   ‘They (the day labourers) refuse to go to work in cropland, because they are too busy with relief collection,’ he said.
   Mostafa Chowdhury, president of Bangladesh Trawler Owners Association based in Barguna, referred to the similar problem for fishing.
   He said fishermen were not inclined to resume fishing as they found standing in queues for relief more rewarding.
   ‘These people need motivation to go back to work, otherwise it will have a negative impact on them in the long run,’ he said.
   Asked whether the government assured them with any support for the equipment lost or damaged in the cyclone, Chowdhury replied in the negative. ‘We did not get any support from the government as of now to start our business.’
   Communications adviser MA Matin, who is the chief coordinator of relief operations, said rehabilitation of the affected people and assistance in house building were two major concerns of the government.
   ‘Deputy commissioners in the districts have been working out the mechanisms for them,’ he told New Age on Friday.
   The adviser said a total of Tk 165 crore was given for relief and rehabilitation in the areas.
   Twenty-eight lakh VGF cards were been distributed among 20.64 lakh affected families and each of them would get at least 15 kilograms of rice by middle of next month, the adviser said.
   Asked whether the government considered income generating projects for the affected people, the chief relief coordinator of the government said that money had already been allocated for ‘food for work’ scheme, which might begin in the first week of January 2008.
   Post-cyclone reconstruction works would require $1.8 billion according to the latest estimate of the government and the international community so far pledged about $220 million.
   Apart from heavy losses pounded on crop, livestock, fisheries and poultry sub-sectors, the cyclone levelled Sundarban mangrove forest, uprooted trees in localities while tidal surge damaged 7,714 kilometres of roads and 1875 kilometres of flood protection embankments.
   Mahbub said beginning of reconstruction of roads and embankments, massive plantation and other rehabilitation works would generate jobs for the poor. In addition, fishermen should be provided with grants for nets and boats they lost in the tide and cyclone.
   The water resources ministry sought Tk 722.83 crore for rehabilitation of embankments, while communications ministry allocated Tk 10 crore for road repairing.
   Upazila Nirbahi Officer of Shoronkhola, Shahnewaz Talukder said majority of the people were still looking for relief, whose flow slowed down over the past week.
   Few people started working. ‘We need to immediately return the people to their respective professions,’ the UNO said, hoping to start ‘food for work’ programme after the Eid.
   ‘Relief has changed the people’s attitude. Everyone here believes he or she will get something at the end of the day and that is why they are least bothered to start working,’ said Mohammad Nazrul, a college teacher in Tafalbari, one of the badly affected unions of the Sarankhola. He said people had now become selective in taking relief goods— they now take rice, lentil or new clothes, not flattened rice or used clothes.
   A report prepared by comprehensive disaster management programme says there is no chance of treating the polluted water before the next rainy season.
   Schools houses are not put in order still, though the government allocated more than Tk 73 crore for repair and renovation works. A total of 4,231 educational institutes were completely damaged while 12,723 others partially, official estimates said.

The nation on Friday observed the 37th Martyred Intellectuals Day paying homage to its brightest sons who had fallen victim to one of the history’s most brutal pogrom against intellectuals on the eve of the country’s liberation in December 1971.
   On the occasion the political parties, socio-cultural groups, rights activists and people from all strata renewed their call for holding trial of the war criminals.
   Sensing their defeat, the Pakistani army and their local collaborators unleashed their death squads known as Razakar, Al-Badr and Al-Shams, who picked up intellectuals, including writers, academicians, journalists, physicians and engineers, from their houses and killed them at Rayerbazar, Mirpur and other places a couple of days before the country became independent on December 16, 1971.
   People across the country observed the day through various programmes, including seminars, discussions, human chains and silent processions.
   The national flag flew at half-mast atop all government offices and educational institutions.
   In the capital, different political parties, socio-cultural organisations, professional bodies, students’ organisations, families of the martyred intellectuals and the common people thronged the Martyred Intellectuals Memorial at Mirpur and the Rayerbazar Memorial to place wreaths from early in the morning. President Iajuddin Ahmed, chief adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed and advisers to the caretaker government placed flowers at the Mirpur Martyred Intellectuals’ Memorial in the morning.
   President Iajuddin Ahmed placed a wreath at the memorial in Mirpur at 6:55am, followed by chief adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed at 7:12am, setting off official commemoration. Then Jamir Uddin Sircar and Akhter Hamid Siddiqi, speaker and deputy speaker of parliament respectively, placed flowers at the memorial.
   The Sector Commanders’ Forum observed a two-minute silence at the intellectuals’ memorials at Rayerbazar and Mirpur at 4:30pm. Political parties hoisted black flags atop their offices commemorating the day. Cultural organisations held various programmes marking the day.
   Bikkhubdho Deshbashi, a forum of eminent citizens, formed a human chain at the Rayerbazar Memorial at 10:30am, demanding a ban on communal politics and trial of war criminals.
   Awami League, BNP, 11-Party Alliance, Left Democratic Front, Democratic Left Alliance, Communist Party of Bangladesh, Workers Party, Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), Gana Forum, Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal, Bangladesher Samajtantrik Dal, Bangladesh Chhatra Union, Samajtantrik Chhatra Front, National Front of Teachers and Employees, Dhaka University, Bangla Academy, Sammilita Sangskritik Jote, Bangladesh Chhatra Moitri, Jatiya Shikkhak Karmachari Front, Bangladesh Juba Moitri, Dhaka Union of Journalists, Shramajibi Mukti Andolon, Samajtantrik Mahila Forum, Sangbadik-Shramik-Karmachari Oikya Parishad, DUTA, and different organisations placed wreaths at the memorials and held discussions on the occasion.
   At the Rayerbazar Memorial in the morning, martyred journalist Sirajuddin Hossain’s son Shahin Reza Noor said, ‘We demand trial of the war criminals by a special tribunal immediately as we have learnt that the caretaker administration is sincere about punishing the war criminals.’

Most of the monuments erected at the sites of 1971 killing fields and mass graves at the private or government initiatives are in a shabby state due to lack of proper maintenance.
   Many of the monuments also do not bear any testimony to the facts of war of independence, and names of the martyrs, keeping new generation in dark about the nation’s glorious history.
   The Liberation War Museum, a private sector initiative to uphold the war history, lists 467 such killing fields and mass graves across the country. Eighty-six of them are in the Dhaka division, of which 22 are in the metropolitan area.
   There are 148 killing fields and mass graves in Rajshahi division, 87 in Chittagong, 67 in Khulna, 22 in Barisal and 57 in Sylhet, according to the museum which listed the places from citations in books and writings on independence war.
   The liberation war affairs’ ministry, however, has put the number at 193.
   New Age investigation on 20 killing fields and mass graves in the city revealed that nine monuments were built at the sites and five of them carried the lists of martyrs.
   A monument was set up by local people at Rainkhola killing field site situated at Block-C (new), under Rainkhola in Mirpur. But there are no written documents to tell the new generation about the martyrs and significance of the monument, neglected for years.
   A public toilet and a water tank at a corner of the open space of the killing field made the whole premises filthy.
   A policeman at Shah Ali police station could not say anything about the monument though he was living there for two years.
   Nurul Islam, who has been living there for the last 65 years, told New Age on December 6 that about 500 skeletons and human bones were found in a water body at the place during a housing construction work in 1998. National Housing Authority identified it as a killing field of 1971 and kept a space of 10 plots open, he said.
   Nurul Islam said Biharis, who collaborated with the Pakistani occupation forces, used the area for slaughtering the freedom-loving people during the War of Liberation. But successive governments did not take any initiative to preserve the site with due respect, he regretted.
   No plaque or written document signifying the history of the liberation was there at the Muslimbazar killing field site, identified in July 1999, during an extension work of Muslim Bazar Nuri mosque.
   Many human bones were found there at that time, but no monument could be constructed due to the resistance from the mosque committee, said locals.
   The committee, however, has erected a pillar, covered with black mosaic as a token monument.
   The Moslim Bazar Nuri Mosque has been renamed ‘Shahid Muktijoddha Jam-e Mosque Complex’, said Abdur Razzak, a teacher of the madrassah at the mosque.
   Beharis, who had a concentration in Mirpur area, killed countless people during the liberation war and dumped many bodies into the wells at the place, and some of them were buried at the adjoining areas, said SK Momotaj, a resident of the area, who was then a student of class four.
   He said he had witnessed killing of two men by the Biharis in the second week of March, 1971, and said they were dumped in a drain just beside the Muslim Bazar.
   But Anwar, a youth living there for six years, failed to say anything about the killing field.
   Although Jagannath University authority constructed a monument at the university campus on February 19, 2002, no list of the martyrs was kept, and no description was written at the site.
   According to Liberation War Museum, the then Jagannath College was a camp of the Pakistani forces. A mass grave was found near the Students’ Council Office of the college on January 8, 1972.
   A monument was found at Mohammadpur Physical Institute Campus, but there was no mention of the killing field or the martyrs.
   Mohammadpur physical Institute was a torture cell and killing field during the liberation war. Many people were tortured to death there throughout the nine-month war.
   A monument was built at the Jagannath Hall premises of Dhaka University with names of 46 martyrs imprinted. Most of them embraced martyrdom at the dawn of liberation war. The monument at Ramna Kalibari premises, built on March 27, 2001, has the names of 59 martyrs.
   According to the war museum, 50 to 60 Bangalis, including EPR members, were killed at Kalibari on March 27 and 20 in 1971.
   There is a plaque in front of Madhu’s Canteen in Dhaka University campus bearing the names of 20 teachers, 102 students and 32 officials and employees of the university who sacrificed their lives during liberation war.
   The monument, constructed in 1990 in Rajarbagh Police Line, was found well-maintained.
   It bears the names of about 744 martyrs.
   Rajarbagh Police line was one of the big torture cells of Pakistani forces. About 2,000 Bangali policemen were killed on March 25, 1971 alone at the place.
   Rayerbazar killing field, one of the biggest in the country, gives the testimony to martyrdom of a good number of intellectuals at the fag end of the war.
   The spot is spread over an area of about 3 kilometres.
   The killing field was identified on December 18, 1971 and the first foundation stone was laid there by Shaheed Janani late Jahanara Imam in late ‘80s, said Akram Hossain of Public Works Department. Two more foundation stones followed— one by Khaleda Zia in 1991 and another by Sheikh Hasina in 1996 during their tenures as prime minister.
   Akram recalled that he had come to Rayerbazar killing field on December 20/22, less than a week after the nation’s glorious victory in 1971, to find out his relative, Abdul Khaleq. Khaleq, the then chief of East Pakistan Jute Board, was picked by razakars and al-badrs on December 12 or 13 in 1971, from Motijheel office.
   ‘I failed to find out his body there. But we later found his letter urging the family to save his life by paying the ransom demanded by a razakar,’ he said. Jallad Khana at Mirpur-10 is one of the most-visited killing fields in Dhaka.
   Liberation War Museum with the help of Bangladesh Armed Forces in 1999 excavated the pump house and found 70 skeletons and 5,392 bones, revealing the atrocities and gruesome killing in 1999.
   Eight years after the excavation, the museum authority built a memorial at the site keeping the structure of the pump house intact.
   The Pakistani occupation army and their local collaborators razakars, al-badrs and Biharis killed many people at the killing field, said local people.

The advisory committee to finalise the draft coal policy completed Friday the review of the draft and is set to submit it to the government.
   ‘We have finalised the draft coal policy protecting the national interests. We are now ready to submit the draft any time when the government gives us a schedule,’ the committee convenor, former vice-chancellor of the BUET Abdul Matin Patwari, told newsmen after the final review meeting at Petrobangla.
   The draft policy discourages coal export with the present coal and gas reserves. It recommends awarding coal exploration and development licence to a state-run entity that can go for joint venture with local private-sector and foreign companies through competitive bidding, mandatory installation of power plants at mine mouths, setting up an open-pit coal mine as a test case, and forming a coal sector development committee to set the royalty rate on extracted coal time to time.
   ‘Many people have an apprehension that our coal resources will be looted. We hope the draft coal policy will dispel such apprehensions. After lots of debate, difference of opinion, and hectic meetings, we have successfully completed a draft which we feel should be acceptable to all,’ Abdul Matin said.
   The daft policy mentions that, as per the current estimate, the proven coal reserve in the country’s four fields is around 884 million tonnes, whereas the demand for coal for power generation is around 450 million tonnes till 2025, 825 million tonnes till 2030, and 1,200 million tonnes till 2035.
   It says, ‘Even if open-pit mining method is applied in case of shallow coal reserves like Barapukuria and Phulbari and underground mining method is applied in medium depth coal reserves like Khalashpir and Dighipara, the total amount of coal that can be extracted is 660 million tonnes.’
   Besides, given the current reserve of gas, the country is set to face gas shortage after 2011.
   ‘In these contexts, there is no scope of coal export from Bangladesh with the current reserve of coal and gas and as the annual rate of coal extraction will be enough only to demand the country’s demand for coals,’ the policy points out.
   It, however, says that if the country discovers new gas and coal fields in future, the government can make a decision on coal export after considering the demand and supply scenario of coal and after ensuring the country’s energy security for 50 years based on the recommendations of the proposed 28-member coal sector development committee.
   In case coking coal is found, the policy keeps a provision of exporting coke, a finished product of coking coal, a high grade coal compared to the usual steam coal.
   The policy says the north-west region of the country will be declared a coal zone to facilitate its long-term development.
   It says a holding company titled ‘Coal Bangla’ will be formed. Along with Coal Bangla, other government entities like Petrobangla will also get coal field exploration and development licences.
   The policy says at first one open-pit mine will be developed at a shallow depth coal field like Barapukuria’s north field to gather hands-on experience and to assess its impacts on the environment. ‘If the result of the open-pit mining method is satisfactory, it can be used in other coal fields for commercial extraction.’
   It, however, says, ‘Although the geological condition, financial and technological issues and the overall energy security will get preference in use of open-pit mining method, opinions of the local committees comprising elected local government representatives and social groups will have to be taken into consideration.’
   Regarding the underground mining method, it says necessary measures will have to be taken based on the experience of Barapukuria. The policy says the lessee of a coal field will have to rehabilitate the inhabitants of the area before commencing mining, pay proper compensation to them, reclaim the land used for coal mining and give back the land to the former owners after completion of mining activities.
   The policy says that the lessee will have to install a power plant of at least 500MW capacity at the mine mouth for extraction of every 3 million tonnes of coal and have to bring the plant into operation within six month into beginning of coal production.
   The policy says the coal price will be 70 per cent of that on the international market.
   The coal sector development committee, headed by the power and energy minister and comprised of parliamentary members, secretaries of different ministries, a major general of the army, professors of universities, experts and private-sector representatives, will set the royalty rate time to time considering the cost of coal production, international coal price, electricity generation cost, and the government’s neat income.
   The policy has set the royalty rate of coking coal at 30 per cent of the price of steam coal on the global market.
   Professor Nurul Islam of the BUET, Professor Badrul Imam of Dhaka University, Bangladesh Army engineer-in-chief Major General Ismail Faruque Chowdhury, Centre for Policy Dialogue executive director Mustafizur Rahman, Petrobangla director Maqbul-E-Elahi, and IIFC executive director Nazrul Islam were also present at the Friday meeting of the draft finalisation committee.

The interests of the least developed countries and small island states, considered among the most vulnerable to climate change, remain ignored at the UN climate change conference in Bali.
   While the large developing countries continue to bicker with the developed countries to make sure that no concession is made as far as reduction is concerned, the poorest and the most vulnerable countries have to remain satisfied with the establishment of a board for adaptation funds, which have been theoretically operationalised.
   Quarters have pointed that even under the current text for adaptation funds, which the poor countries demand to cope with the adverse effects of extreme weather events due to global warming, there remains much scope for the process of getting the funds to become as complex and bureaucratic as before.
   Some have also pointed out that the funds are direly inadequate—to the tune of some $36 million—for as many as 100 countries that might suffer from climate change.
   Walden Bello, head of the Bangkok-based Focus on the Global South, said the outcome was rather disappointing for the least developed countries. ‘Other than a decision on the adaptation funds, there is no significant outcome for the least developed countries.’
   A press release of Action Aid stated that as talks moved into their final hours ‘it has become clear that the interests of the 100 countries most vulnerable to climate change — the Least Developed Countries, Small Island Developing States and Africa — are being shunted to the sidelines’.
   Taken together, these 100 countries, including Bangladesh, Malawi and Fiji, are responsible for only 3.2 per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions, compared to 4.5 per cent for India, 15.3 per cent for China, 23.3 per cent for the United States and 24.7 per cent for the European Union.
   With their greenhouse gas emissions so small there is little for them to mitigate.
   Yet as arguments intensify over the ‘mitigation range’ – whether rich countries should commit to a 25-40 per cent carbon cut by 2020 now in Bali – the urgent adaptation needs of the countries who are being hit first and the worst by climate change are being forgotten.
   A negotiator from Africa said, ‘We do not have the capacity to adapt to the impacts of climate change on our own. Without our rightful share of finance from the big polluting countries millions of our people will be condemned to a bleak future.’
   They have been talking about adaptation funds and to me it seems that it was almost like a diversionary tactic to keep the attention away from mitigation and keeping all the poor countries from getting together to exert pressure on the large emitters to take on emission reduction commitments, said Ahsan Uddin Ahmed, executive director of the Centre for Global Change.
   During the first week of the conference there were heated discussions whether to accept the Global Environment Facility as the secretariat as there were a number of complaints against this organisation.
   Insiders at the highest levels of the UN climate change regime as well as members of delegations, alleged that this facility was ‘strongly lobbying’ or that they were offering to release funds, ‘presumably in exchange for support in their favour.’
   As a result, none of the groups comprising of the least developed countries or the small island states managed to come out with a clear and unanimous position.
   Consequently, and with active UN support, the environment facility was nominated as the secretariat with the World Bank as the trustee for few when it will be reviewed.
   ‘I think it was a mistake for the parties to agree to the Global Environment Facility as the secretariat and the World Bank as the trustee, because ultimately these are controlled by the North,’ said Bello, a noted campaigner against corporate globalisation and imperialist hegemony.
   Enele Sopoaga, permanent secretary for food and labour, also a former ambassador to the United Nations for Tuvalu, said on Tuesday that it was a compromised agreement regarding the funding mechanism of the funds.
   While Bangladesh has been appointed as the joint chair of the adaptations funds board comprising of 16 countries—two each as UN constituency from its five regions, one each from least developed countries and small island states, two each from annexe 1 countries and another two from non-annexe 1 parties—there is else that has been achieved for poor countries.
   ‘The other demand we had was that the poor countries would have direct access to these funds,’ said Mohammad Reazuddin, a director of Department of Environment in Bangladesh, representing the country in the contact group designated to deliberate on adaptation funds.
   Monique Barbut, the GEF chief executive, said that the allegations were an insult to the organisation. She denied the claims of her organisation having engaged in foul play and said, ‘The funds are allocated in advance and each country knows well how much it would get. There is no scope of offering further funds.’
   She also pointed to the fact that even the UN authorities would in fact prefer her organisation to house the secretariat.
   Yvo de Boer, apparently disregarding the concern of the poor countries said during his press briefing on December 10, that he earnestly hoped that the Global Environment Facility be nominated as the secretariat.
   Ahsan pointed out that while adaptation was surely an immediate need, but without effective reduction measures there would be floods every year or cyclones. ‘What we are doing here is asking for pittance that would actually enable us to give alms to these people. There is not really any point to this.’
   A number of delegates, refusing to be named, said reduction of emission was the only means to help poor and vulnerable countries and that this emission reduction commitment would have to come from developed and advanced developing countries depending on their level of development, which is unlikely to happen in Bali.

The sincerity of the large economies to effectively deal with climate change has been called into question as the UN climate change summit, also the 13th conference of parties to the UN climate change framework convention, neared its end on Friday.
   Although there is an overwhelming consensus about the authenticity of the scientific evidence and consequent recommendations of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the highest body dealing with the matter, parties refuse to act according to those recommendations and act irresponsibly, said a number of observers and delegates from poor countries vulnerable to climate change.
   On December 10, talks in subsidiary bodies on technology transfer broke down over a single word. While one group, presumably of the developing countries, was in favour of
   having the text state ‘technology leveraging facility’, developed countries favoured
   the ‘programme’ instead of ‘facility’.
   Apparently the word ‘facility’ implied funds and provision of technology on easy terms.
   According to sources, this technology represents substantial commercial interest in the form of services trade as well as intellectual property rights, which the developed countries were unwilling to give up.
   Thus the final compromise ended up as ‘strategic programme’.
   The European Union is the most ambitious and has repeatedly indicated its conviction that the Bali Roadmap, the declaration that is expected to launch formal negotiations, should strongly refer to the IPCC-recommended range of emission reduction by industrialised countries.
   The reference to this range in the preamble of the draft text, as the European Union has pointed out, sets a level of ambition that should guide the negotiations and, furthermore, this range is backed by science and thus should not be subject to political manipulation.
   The United States has been strongly in opposition to this and the recent threat by the European Union to boycott the US-backed summit of the major economies scheduled for January 2008 in Hawaii has put the United States in a tough spot where obstinacy could result in complete failure of that initiative devised and championed by the American president.
   According to observers this is merely another US ploy to undermine the outcome of Bali and direct the course of negotiations in a way that suits the US interests.
   On the other hand, the large developing countries that have become the largest emitters, such as India and China, are even opposed to commit to voluntary reductions, despite the promise of providing them with finances and technology to do so. Their objection to the current text is apparently over the qualifying words ‘measurable and reportable’ national mitigation actions with regard to their level of development.
   It is very likely that the numeric reference to the range of 25 to 40 per cent emission cuts recommended by the scientific community will be dropped in order to have the US as well as a few other developing countries on board.
   In such a case, the text would not be either substantive or effective to address climate change.
   While the advanced developing countries and the developed countries bicker over their narrow self-interests, the real losers will turn out to be those most vulnerable to climate change that are poor and do not have the means or the capacity to cope with extreme weather events.

The first phase rescue operation, launched by Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha to recover the bodies of trapped workers from inside Rangs Bhaban, ended on Friday.
   Selim Newaz Bhuiyan, director of Fire Service and Civil Defence (Dhaka zone), told newsmen that they had tried to recover the bodies of missing workers trapped under the debris, but BUET experts didn’t allow them to carry on the operation for fear of further collapse.
   ‘So we have decided to wrap up our first phase rescue operation by Friday noon. We will resume the operation as per the directives of Rajuk,’ the director added.
   The rescuers, however, failed to recover any more body till Friday night.
   Three construction companies — Amin Mohammad Foundation, Meer Akhter Foundation and Eastern Housing — with the help of Rupayan Construction continued to place more steel bars on the seventh and eight floors till Friday night.
   Rajuk chief engineer Shah Alam told newsmen that they were removing rubbish and other materials from the building after propping up on the seventh floor. ‘Later we will recover the bodies.’
   Rajuk started the rescue operation on Thursday morning in the presence of BUET experts.
   The rescuers till Thursday night managed to recover four decomposed bodies of the workers hanging on different floors of the collapsed building.
   The body of Aminul Islam, 20, son of Majlar Rahman, of Phulchari under Katlamari in Gaibandha, was handed over to his elder brother Noor Alam. Three other bodies were kept at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital morgue.
   A high official of Rajuk told New Age, ‘The three bodies were kept at the morgue as their relatives demanded that they would take the bodies to their village home after recovering other bodies trapped under the debris.’
   The family members of the victims claimed that 10 of their relatives were still missing and they would not return home without taking the bodies.
   At least four people died and 14 others went missing after top floors of the 22-storey building on the city’s Bijoy Sarani caved in on December 8. The building was being demolished as the Supreme Court on August 3 ruled the construction of the floors beyond the sixth illegal.
   The government engaged a private firm, Six Star Corporation, to demolish the unauthorised floors.

Negotiations at Bali were on the ‘brink of agreement’ at 10:00 pm on Friday but set to continue for several hours beyond the schedule until Saturday morning due to last-minute debates on language of the final text.
   Sources close to negotiators indicate that it would be a watered-down declaration and thus disappointing. It might not have a substantive response to climate change, they fear.
   The 13th conference of parties to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change is expected to end with a declaration that will launch formal negotiations towards reaching an agreement by 2009 to address climate change after 2012.
   With a small informal working group of some 15 parties, of which Bangladesh is one, discussing the language of that text, scheduled to reconvene at midnight, Yvo de Boer, the executive secretary of the framework convention, still could not predict how much time those negotiations might take.
   But he said that the parties were ‘on the brink of agreement’ and ‘absolutely not deadlocked’. De Boer explained that the language in question would govern the nature and direction of negotiations for the next two years.
   ‘And these are not only related to climate change, but also have to do with economic and social developments of countries and thus are very important. They are not merely wordsmithing.’
   He explained that there were three specific issues in the final text that were still being debated. The first related to the emission reduction commitments or actions taken by both developed and developing countries. While there has been progress in the language regarding the developed countries, parties are still debating over what the text should state in case of developing countries, also blamed for rising levels of carbon emissions.
   The second point of discussion is likely to be the preamble. The challenging task here would be how to refer to the scientific findings of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and its recommendation that industrialised countries should reduce their emissions between 25 and 40 per cent of 1990 levels by 2020.
   Although the preamble is not legally binding but creates more of a moral obligation, there is significant opposition to such a reference.
   According to those negotiating the text the United States, Canada, India and China are opposed to such an explicit numeric reference as the guiding level of ambition that the European Union has termed it to be.
   Sources in that informal group of 15 parties said that it was very likely that the numeric reference would be dropped in the final text, which, according to observers, would be a disappointing outcome.
   The third stumbling block, which negotiators said has turned out to be the ‘deal breaker,’ would be the process of the negotiations and the status of the body that conducts these negotiations in the course of the next two years.
   ‘It is important that the text here is concrete and specific so that the next session that decides on the work programme for the next two years can do it swiftly instead of spending time trying to understand what this text says,’ said de Boer.
   The options include an independent agreement outside the Framework Convention or the Kyoto Protocol which is strongly supported by a handful of countries.
   But reportedly an overwhelming majority of parties are in favour of the second option in which they would like to see an ad hoc working group to conduct the negotiations under the framework convention. It implies that the agreement to be reached in 2009 would be an extension of the convention and enhancing its implementation and scope.
   Reportedly the declaration would be finalised anytime between midnight and 7:00am Saturday morning. UN secretary general Ban Ki-Moon is expected to return to Bali on Saturday and hold a press conference at 11:00 am local time.

Pakistan was poised to lift emergency rule today (Saturday), but critics said it might make little difference for an opposition complaining the president, Pervez Musharraf, can still engineer an election win for his allies.
   With January 8 parliamentary elections only weeks away, restrictions on media and the judiciary still stacked the cards in favour of Musharraf and his caretaker government, opposition members and political analysts said.
   Musharraf imposed the emergency on November 3, suspended the constitution and purged the Supreme Court to fend off challenges to his re-election, which new hand-picked judges have since rubber-stamped.
   Under international pressure, including from his ally the United States, Musharraf said he would restore the constitution.
   ‘The lifting is just an ornamental thing,’ said Khawaja Harris, a senior lawyer working with opposition leader and former prime minister Nawiz Sharif.
   ‘In the meantime, Musharraf has set the rules of the game and everything he wanted to install is already in place.’
   Several judges, including Chief Justice Iftikhar Chaudhry, who were deposed by Musharraf are still being held under house arrest. The Pakistani media criticised this week a ban on live broadcasts as an attempt to control election coverage.
   Election monitors say the caretaker administration, from the central government to district level, can fix the result and Sharif and former prime minister Benazir Bhutto’s opposition parties have said the government has the power to rig votes.
   Critics say Musharraf, who stepped down as army chief last month, faces pressure to avoid losing because an opposition-run parliament could move to impeach him over accusations he acted unconstitutionally in securing a new term as president.
   ‘The detention of lawyers, the absence of a level-playing field and the ability of the election commission to enforce a code of ethics will not change,’ said political analyst Nasim Zehra.
   The election is essentially a three-way battle between parties loyal to Musharraf and the parties of two main opposition leaders, former prime ministers Benazir and Sharif.
   With political rallies currently banned, parties have been holding what they call smaller ‘meetings’ to get round the regulations. There is some hope bigger rallies would be allowed as the campaign gets into gear.
   ‘There could be some relaxing of allowing rallies but time is so short until the election, it will not make much difference,’ said Harris.
   Critics are also worried that, while lifting the emergency, Musharraf could retain his influence by introducing amendments to curtail judicial independence, such as limiting tenures of judges.
   ‘When the emergency is lifted, the devil may be in the details,’ said Zehra.
   Farahatullah Babar, a spokesman for Benazir’s party, said his party was opposed to any amendments.
   ‘One of the most important amendments to my mind, although it has not been stated so, is he will say all his actions will be indemnified and make his actions beyond the purview of the parliament.’

A UN human rights envoy on Thursday told US lawmakers not to send any delegation to monitor the upcoming election in Pakistan, claiming that it was already rigged by the president, Pervez Musharraf.
   ‘There is no point in monitoring the elections or watching the poll — the rigging has already happened,’ said Hina Jilani, a prominent Pakistani attorney who is also the UN special envoy for human rights defenders.
   She made the remarks after lawmakers at a Congressional hearing on the political crisis in Pakistan sought her opinion on the prospect of monitoring the January 8 polls to elect a new parliament.
   Jilani, co-founder of the Human Rights Commission in Pakistan, charged that Musharraf, who was expected to lift a five-week-old state of emergency today (Saturday), had already destroyed institutions such as the judiciary and the press.
   Fearing that the Supreme Court would disqualify him from running for re-election, Musharraf sacked and detained independent-minded judges and lawyers leaders who refused to accept his imposition of emergency rule.
   ‘Freedom of assembly is totally curtailed, freedom of expression is curtailed,’ Jilani said.
   ‘Under these conditions, the election that is going to take place on January 8 has very little credibility. Under Pakistan’s constitution and the law, the judiciary oversees the elections.
   ‘A judiciary that lacks the confidence of the people and has no credibility, how do you think the elections are going to be credible?’ Jilani asked the lawmakers.
   Earlier, Democratic lawmakers Sheila Jackson Lee and Jim Moran told Jilani they were considering the possibility of going to Pakistan as part of a Congressional delegation to monitor the election process.
   Moran said there were however doubts among lawmakers when to go to Pakistan.
   One Congressman felt that ‘if they were to do it in the first two weeks of January, it will show an implicit support for Musharraf and, in effect, the process of confirming his election.’
   There were also doubts that if the delegation went after the election, the government would be ‘using us to show American support — bipartisan support — which may not be appropriate,’ Moran said.
   ‘What should we be doing?’ he asked Jilani.
   She replied: ‘The world outside can help by analysing and making itself more aware of the situation in Pakistan and getting the facts correct because only correct facts will allow people to understand the solution.’

Officials on Friday put final touches to preparations to try to ensure the safety of 1.5 million foreign pilgrims visiting Saudi Arabia for Hajj in Makkah.
   A total of 11,000 doctors, nurses and paramedics will be on hand to provide medical care with 4,200 beds at 21 hospitals and 145 health centres in the sites of Makkah, Meena and Arafat, local media reported.
   According to the official news agency SPA, 85 ambulances have also been mobilised for the occasion and health awareness and alerts will be issued in case of any epidemic outbreaks.
   Al-Jazeera news reported that the health ministry in the desert kingdom had been spraying pesticides on pilgrims’ tents and accommodation blocks to protect against mosquitoes.
   The precautions and security measures are to try to prevent a repeat of the high death tolls that have often characterised past pilgrimages, such as that in 2006 when 364 people were killed in a stampede at the entrance of the Jamarat Bridge, where Muslims cast stones at a pillar representing Satan.
   The stoning ritual has created some of the worst scenes of panic during the Hajj, including that in 2004 when 251 pilgrims died, and in 1994 when 270 perished in a stampede.
   The agency quoted the Hajj central commission as saying that 1,467,515 people had by Wednesday already arrived in Saudi Arabia ahead of the celebrations which begin on Monday.
   The annual pilgrimage, which attracts hundreds of thousands of Saudi faithful as well as foreign residents in the kingdom, begins on the eighth day of the month of Dhi al-Hajja under the lunar calendar.

The Kolkata police requested Dhaka to nab and deport back Jiban Singh, a wanted criminal who, they believed, was hiding somewhere in Bangladesh, police sources said.
   Criminal Investigation Department police received a fax message in which the police of India’s West Bengal state also wanted a list of Indians detained in Bangladesh’s jails.
   The requests were made within a week of the arrest of a Bangladeshi crime suspect, Sanjidul Islam Imon, in Kolkata.
   The Kolkata police arrested Imon from Gariahat in Kolkata on December 7 tracking his mobile telephone conversation with an old Dhaka businessman over a demand for Tk one crore in toll. The West Bengal police got the tip from Bangladesh’s CID.
   The fax message was sent about deporting Imon and another top criminal of Dhaka, Tanvirul Islam Joy, back to Dhaka, the sources said.
    The CID earlier wanted to bring back the two wanted in the case of grenade attack on Awami League rally on August 21 in 2004, Morsalin and Muttakin, now detained in New Delhi jail.
   Though there is no extradition treaty between Bangladesh and India, the Kolkata police earlier handed over three Bangladeshi crime suspects, Habibur Rahman Taj, Ibrahim Sohel and Biplob Rahman alias Lambu Selim, to Dhaka on October 7. They also handed over two other suspected Bangladeshi criminals, Babul alias Jewel and Rafique Mullick, on December 2 to the CID.
   The handovers followed fruitful negotiations between top police bosses of Dhaka and Kolkata in Delhi in September this year.
   Jail sources said that a total of 351 Indians were detained in different jails in Bangladesh. Seven of them were imprisoned in Dhaka Central Jail. Two of them have already completed their jail terms and are now waiting for their return home.
   The CID sent a request letter to the jail authority on December 13 about the status of Indian nationals in prison and was expecting to get the list on hand soon, the sources said.

The high-level segment of the UN climate change conference also marked the beginning of a green room process with an informal group of 40 countries called ‘friends of the chair’.
   Representatives of developing countries have also indicated that developed countries were even resorting to threatening developing countries with trade sanctions in order to compel them to take on emission reduction commitments.
   President of the current conference of parties to the UN Framework Convention, Rachmat Witoelar, the Indonesian environment minister, selected an even smaller group of 15 countries to decide on the final text that is regarded as the instrument to launch negotiations towards an agreement by 2009.
   According to several negotiators and insiders, there is notable disappointment among the African countries as there was no country to represent the region.
   ‘It is very likely that the African delegates will raise objections once the text is finalised and placed before the plenary sometime between midnight and Saturday morning for their endorsement,’ said one negotiator.
   Another delegate member from a least developed country said, ‘They have already raised the issue at a G77 and China meeting.’
   According to insiders, although Bangladesh was not initially invited to the meeting, delegation members on their initiative ‘influenced’ their way into the closed door sessions.
   During a briefing of the G77 and China, which represents the largest body of developing and least developed countries, ambassador Munir Akram of Pakistan said there was sever pressure on the developing countries and this pressure in some instances took the form of threats.
   When asked about what kind of threats and whether these were related to aid, Akram said, ‘I did not hear aid mentioned, but I did hear trade sanctions mentioned.’
   When asked where the number 40 was derived from, and on what criteria was the smaller informal group decided upon, Yvo de Boer said, ‘Such method is not uncommon at such a late stage of the negotiations.’
   He said the initial number of 40 came from Nairobi where the same number of countries was selected based on geographical representation. De Boer explained that these countries within the small group routinely go back to their larger groups and relate to that what has transpired.
   Stating that it would be at the plenary that the final decision would be taken, it might not be a unique case that a country objects to the text being presented before them.
   De Boer admitted, however, that the process lacked transparency. He said, ‘The good thing is that you have less number of people at the table and it is easier to decide but the bad thing is that it is less transparent and less accessible.’

India aims to have a missile defence system able to track and shoot down incoming warheads by 2010, scientists in the capital announced on Thursday, in a move that analysts say could spark a new arms race in the region, reports The Guardian.
   The announcement would see India join an elite club of countries that have such military capabilities — with the US, Russia and Israel. It came just days after Pakistan tested a cruise missile capable of carrying nuclear weapons.
   India’s top military scientist, Dr VK Saraswat of India’s Defence Research and Development Organisation, said, ‘If I keep quiet and wait for [a missile] to fall on my city and then start sending my own deterrent missile ... a lot of damage is done. It is essential you have a system which will first take on that kind of a threat.
   ‘Because we have a ballistic missile defence system ... a country which has a small arsenal will think twice before it ventures,’ he added, in an apparent reference to nuclear-armed rival Pakistan.
   Last week the Indian military demonstrated its missile defence systems by shooting down a warhead off its east coast. Saraswat said within three years, major cities such as Delhi and Mumbai would be under a protective shield.
   India is also beefing up its armoury. It has announced a nuclear-capable missile with a range of 3,700 miles — far enough to hit Beijing or Rome.
   Analysts say Pakistan’s rapid build-up of short-and medium-range missiles is of special concern to India despite an ongoing peace process between the two.
   K Subrahmanyan, a writer on defence issues, said India needed to raise the ‘uncertainty levels for Pakistan’.
   ‘Pakistan is acquiring advanced missile technology from China. No missile defence system is perfect, but if we can knock out three out of every five warheads, it means our adversary has to fire more rockets. It is a means of deterrence.’
   Analysts in Pakistan say such thinking is hastening an arms race. ‘The first impulse is to ask how does Pakistan get [a missile defence system],’ said Ayesha Siddiqa, a defence analyst. ‘The next will be to increase the number of missiles to make sure it has enough to evade the shield.’
   Other countries are also racing to develop ‘Star Wars’ technologies. This year, after Tokyo saw North Korea test ballistic missiles and conduct a nuclear test, Japan’s parliament authorised $2.5b (£1.3b) to develop a missile defence system. The US, which has run 36 missile defence tests since 2001, has authorised an annual spend of a half a trillion dollars on a missile shield.
   There are no indications of the cost of the Indian missile defence system, but many analysts say there are better uses for India’s money. ‘The US can afford such follies, but a developing country like India cannot,’ said Bharat Karnad from Delhi’s Centre for Policy Research. ‘We should be getting more missiles, not finding ways of shooting them down.’

The state is responsible for nurturing poverty, allowing many organisations to cash in on the poor people’s plight, say economists, referring to research findings that the micro-credit acclaimed worldwide hardly contributes to improving the conditions of the poor in Bangladesh.
   Micro-credit has not changed the conditions of 77 per cent of the recipients and failed to ensure land ownership of 76 per cent, food security of 64 per cent and healthcare facilities for 84 per cent, found a study titled ‘Role of Micro-credit in Poverty Eradication’ that covered Nilphamari district.
   The research, conducted by two professors of economics at Rajshahi University, Mahfuz Arefin Chowdhury and Moazzem Hossain Khan, reveals that micro-credit has rather increased the overall indebtedness of the poor in 75 per cent cases.
   The poor in the monga-prone area have failed to prevent their children from dropping out of schools in 85 per cent cases, even after taking micro-credit which has only increased their use of mobile phones by about 50 per cent, according the survey findings presented at the biennial conference of the Bangladesh Economic Association on Friday.
   The researchers termed micro-credit a programme that nurtures poverty by continuing the vicious cycle of poverty by capitalising on the vulnerabilities of the poor.
   ‘Poverty is inherent in our policy, our culture. We have seen politics using poverty and profiteering by sustaining it,’ observed Jahangirnagar University Vice-Chancellor Khandaker Mustahidur Rahman, speaking as the chair of a session on poverty.
   Only 23 per cent of the micro-credit recipients can bear the pressure of loan repayment instalments and the remaining 77 per cent just fail to become successful due to the high rate of interests charged by the lenders, said Moinul Islam, a former BEA president and a professor of economics at Chittagong University. The rate ranges from 28 to 38 per cent, he pointed out.
   Most of the micro-finance institutions have become ‘profitable’ since micro-credit has proven to be a good business, Moinul told the meeting. ‘Micro-credit alone is not a panacea for poverty. We have to focus on social transformation.’
   ‘Those who profess to send poverty to museum in reality try to hide the actual state of poverty in the society, instead of saying goodbye to it. It will remain an illusion, unless there is massive change in the overall policy,’ said Sanat Kumar Saha, a professor at Rajshahi University, presiding over another session on the third day of the four-day conference.
   The number of micro-credit recipients is shown in the reports of micro-finance organisations at 1.95 crore households, much higher than the number of poor families in Bangladesh, which has a total of 2.25 crore households, an economics teacher said, taking part in the discussion. The economists attribute such duplication of membership of individual borrowers with more than one organisation to obligation to pay back their loans in instalments.
   Another research, ‘A Case Study of Grameen Bank and BRDB’ conducted by Tapash Kumar Biswas, Khairul Kabir and Mihir Kumar Roy of the Bangladesh Academy for Rural Development of Comilla, has found that the benefits derived from micro-credit have not helped the recipients to cross the below-poverty line, the researchers said.
   ‘The amounts of credit taken by them [the study respondents] were not enough to generate effective income… In most cases, micro-credit helped in generating part-time self-employment that contributed little to poverty alleviation,’ they reported, suggesting that micro-credit programmes needed to incorporate human poverty-related indicators, such as health, sanitation, population, and nutrition.
   The researchers underlined the need for effective monitoring and assessment of utilisation of loans disbursed by the micro-credit organisations so that the beneficiaries could get the training necessary and generate income.
   The researchers of ‘Role of Micro-credit in Poverty Eradication’, Mahfuz and Moazzem, observed, ‘Micro-finance organisations are charging interest at rates much higher than the commercial banks do.’
   They recommended that micro-credit institutions should immediately bring down their interest rates — a much-talked-about issue that most of the economists at the conference raised and demanded downward revision of interest rates to alleviate poverty instead of ‘creating poverty’.
   In a recommendation, the researchers said the Tk 50,000 ceiling on micro-credit should be relaxed so that the recipients could undertake viable income generating projects to get out of poverty.

Nepal’s government may agree in principle to abolish the monarchy in a deal to resolve a political deadlock with Maoist former rebels, but implement the decision only after fresh elections, a top minister said on Friday.
   The Maoists quit the
   government in September demanding an immediate end to monarchy, a move that forced an indefinite postponement of constituent assembly elections that had been set for last month.
   The prime minister, Girija Prasad Koirala, was set to meet the Maoists on Friday for talks aimed at ending the stalemate that has jeopardised the peace with the rebels, who laid down arms last year.
   ‘We are ready to declare a republic now. But the decision must be endorsed by the first meeting of the constituent assembly before being implemented,’ the home (interior) minister, Krishna Prasad Sitaula, said.
   He said the government could also agree to some electoral changes to address the concerns of the Maoists, who want fully proportional elections for the 497-member assembly meant to draw up a new constitution and decide the fate of the Hindu monarchy.
   Under an earlier agreement 240 assembly members were to be elected directly through a first-past-the-post system and an equal number through proportional representation. The rest were to be nominated by the cabinet.
   ‘The number of seats for proportional representation might be increased to include more marginalised groups,’ Sitaula said.
   Maoists also said a consensus was likely.
   ‘We expect to reach an agreement in our meeting with the prime minister,’ their spokesman Krishna Bahadur Mahara said.
   The Maoists have already confined thousands of their fighters to United Nations-monitored camps after the government agreed to the elections, their main demand during the conflict that killed more than 13,000 people.
   But they are now saying King Gyanendra and his supporters could sabotage the vote and want the monarchy be booted out before the polls, now expected to be held by April next year.

The British Army is losing the equivalent of one battalion a year as a result of illegal drug use, researchers said on Friday.
   This was more than the number of fatalities and serious casualties in both Iraq and Afghanistan, the Medical Research Council Biostatistics Unit claimed.
   Analysis of figures from the ministry of defence by the body, which was published in the Journal of the Royal United Services Institute, found there had been a four-fold increase in soldiers testing positive for cocaine. It said figures showed that positive tests for illegal substances in the British Army rose from almost 520 in 2003, to 795 in 2005 but fell to 769 last year.
   The unit said this was the equivalent of losing more than one battalion a year to drug use. The MOD rejected the research findings, saying that drug use in the army was not widespread.
   Professor Sheila Bird, a unit senior scientist, labelled the findings as worrying and warned there could be more.
   ‘What is worrying from our study... is the sharp increase in the proportion of soldiers testing positive for cocaine, a sharper increase than in 16-24 year olds in society at large,’ she said in a statement.
   ‘The interim period coincides with major combats in both Afghanistan and Iraq and there is natural concern that the rise in cocaine use may be a direct result of increased combat stress. This could just be the tip of the iceberg.’
   But an MOD spokesman refuted the claims that drug use was rife despite admitting that more soldiers had tested positive. He said positive detection over the past four years averaged 0.77 per cent compared to almost 10 per cent in other ‘civilian workplaces’.
   ‘Drug misuse is not widespread in the Armed Forces,’ he said. ‘Drug misuse is incompatible with service life and is not tolerated. The increase in individuals testing positive for cocaine is a reflection of society as a whole.’
   He said the MOD has a compulsory drug testing police to ‘reinforce the message that drug use is unacceptable’.

Sri Lanka’s shaky coalition government on Friday won parliamentary approval for the island’s biggest ever war budget, despite a series of defections to the opposition.
   Parliament voted 114 to 67 in favour of the 2008 budget unveiled last month by the president, Mahinda Rajapakse, and which has allocated 166.44 billion rupees (1.51 billion dollars) for defence amid an upsurge in fighting with Tamil Tiger rebels.
   Prior to the vote, there were anxious moments in the 225-member assembly when the national heritage minister, Anura Bandaranaike, crossed the floor of the House.
   ‘Minister Bandaranaike was unhappy with the government’s handling of the economy as well as the peace process,’ a source close to Bandaranaike said.
   The defection came two days after a similar move by four coalition members, and further trimmed what is on paper a slender majority for the rainbow coalition.
   The 2008 budget raises the country’s defence spending to just under a fifth of total government expenditure, mainly to battle the separatist Tamil Tiger guerrillas.
   Fighting between troops and rebels has escalated in recent months in the 35-year-old conflict, with both sides distancing themselves from a peace process brokered by Norway.
   The government insists it is working on a political package aimed at addressing the demands of ethnic Tamils, but at the same time says it wants to totally “eliminate” the rebels and seize their mini-state in the north.

The World Bank on Friday offered assistance in the government’s agricultural rehabilitation programmes in the Sidr-ravaged regions.
   Praful C Patel, the bank’s South Asia vice-president, made the offer at a two-hour meeting with the agriculture adviser, CS Karim, at noon.
   ‘The World Bank has undertaken a number of rehabilitation programmes for the Sidr-affected farmers in the south, involving crop production, imports of food grains and house building chiefly,’ Patel told reporters after the meeting.
   He said he discussed with adviser how the bank could help the government to get over the farm losses.
   The bank will do its best when the ongoing donors’ assessment of the damages will be done and information disseminated towards end-January, Patel added.
   ‘The poverty alleviation programmes undertaken by the government in the Sidr-affected regions will be hampered. But a three-pronged coordinated approach combining the government, donors and NGOs could possibly help recover the losses,’ Karim told reporters.
   Rice production will suffer a nearly 1.4 million tonnes shortfall because of the recurrent floods and the cyclone, the adviser said.
   The government has initiated hybrid-rice farming in the Sidr-hit regions, he said.
   The hybrid rice production in the south may lead to harvesting of about 7.5 to 9 lakh tonnes of rice at the end of the season and the shortfall will have to be imported, Karim said.
   The adviser said the government would supply the affected farmers with fish fries, vegetable and lentil seeds through integrating and coordinating NGO interventions.
   The government would also provide farmers with grants and agriculture loans, as necessary, he said.

Eighteen prominent freedom fighters, led by Imam-Uz-Zaman, left for Kolkata on Friday to join the Indian Army in celebrating Victory Day of Bangladesh jointly at Fort William, the Headquarters of Eastern Command of Indian Army.
   Some of the other well-known freedom fighters in the group include Col Abu Osman Chowdhury (Sector Comman-der), Ali Zaker, Sara Zaker and Bulbul Mahalanobis, said an Indian High Commission release.
   The celebrations, to be held Friday to Sunday, include a tattoo and military band display, a cultural programme and Bara Khana with the Indian Army troops on Friday and Saturday.
   This will be followed by a wreath laying ceremony at Vijay Smarak (Memorial to the Indian Army soldiers who sacrificed their lives in War of Independence of Bangladesh) and later a reception at Army Command Mess on Sunday.
   The Indian government has now instituted joint celebration of valiant freedom fighters and Indian Army every year. This enables patriots on both sides to revive memories of the war of independence as also creating greater awareness among younger generation about enormous sacrifices made by Indian Army and freedom fighters, which led to a spectacular victory of Allied forces in 1971 war.

Another body of November 15 Sidr victim was recovered at Chaltei Bunia village in Sharankhola upazila Friday.
   Local people recovered the decomposed body of unidentified girl, aged about 12, from a water body in the evening.
   With the latest recovery, according to local administration, a total of 680 people were killed by Sidr in Sharankhola upazila.

Senior BJP leader LK Advani on Friday took a dig at the prime minister, Manmohan Singh, over his remarks on the former being anointed BJP’s prime ministerial candidate, saying he was not a political person, reports Hindustan Times.
   ‘I would just say that the prime minister is not a political person because a politically aware person cannot make such a comment,’ Advani said.
   Reacting to Manmohan’s remarks during electioneering in Gujarat that BJP’s announcement of Advani as their prime ministerial candidate was made to counter Narendra Modi, the former deputy prime minister said: ‘He is a simple man and that is why he said something like this.’
   Advani said he was surprised at the prime minister saying that the BJP’s announcement was aimed at countering Modi in Gujarat.
   ‘I am glad that the prime minister has openly accepted that no one can beat Modi in Gujarat,’ he said.
   Manmohan had said during campaigning in Gujarat: ‘The Central leadership of the BJP is nervous. They want to fill the post which is not vacant before the Gujarat election results are out.’

Several hundred workers of Nahar Garment Factory blocked the Kazi Nazrul Islam Avenue near Karwan Bazar in the city on Friday, demanding payment of their salary and bonus before Eid-ul-Azha.
   Traffic on the busy road was held up for about an hour following the demonstrations by the workers that caused severe traffic jam.
   The workers staged demonstrations in front of the factory as they were denied payment before Eid-ul-Azha despite assurance by the factory authorities earlier.
   They also started work abstention from Friday
   morning to press home their demands. At one stage, the workers took to the streets and blocked the road at around 8:30am.
   They withdrew the blockade at around 9:30am after a huge contingent of police and high officials rushed to the spot and assured them of resolving the matter.
   The officer-in-charge of the Tejgaon police station Lutfar Rahman told newsmen that they managed to bring the situation under control and tried to resolve the matter after discussion with the owner and workers’ leaders.

The US state department announced on Thursday it was raising the price of most visas for foreign visitors to the United States by more than 30 per cent.
   The move is aimed at helping pay for increased security measures for visitors, especially costs relating to the finger-printing of foreign visitors, the department said in a statement.
   Starting January 1 the price of a tourism, business, student or temporary employment visa goes up from 100 to 131 dollars, the statement said.
   The 100 dollar fee ‘was already lower than the cost of processing non-immigrant visas when the fee was reviewed as a part of the cost of service study in 2004,’ it said.
   It added that the state department ‘has been absorbing the additional cost.’
   US officials ‘are now collecting 10 fingerprints from each applicant, and the cost charged by the FBI to review those fingerprints no longer allows us to do this.’
   US immigration officials began recently taking prints from all of the visitor’s fingers at the Dulles-Washington International Airport, just outside the US capital.
   The measure is part of the US-VISIT programme, adopted after the September 11, 2001 terror attacks on the United States. The program is scheduled to be fully implemented in all US international airports by the end of 2008.
   The price of a US visa has gone up twice since September 11, the last time in 2002, the statement read.
   Residents of some 30 nations — including most European nations, Australia, Japan and Singapore — do not need visas to travel to the United States.