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An independent mass tribunal in Dhaka on Monday charged the World Bank and two other lending agencies with offences of causing damage to Bangladesh’s economy and society and asked the government to take steps to realise reparations from them.
   The World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the Asian Development Bank were asked to stop ‘illegal activities’ while carrying out agendas of their masters. ‘Or else they will have to suspend their operations and leave this country,’ said the seven-member tribunal in its verdict.
   The tribunal recommended that the accumulated losses in economic and social sectors due to lenders’ policies and activities should be calculated by a committee comprising some experts and three agencies should pay compensations for their misdeeds. The government was also ordered to try the lending agencies’ local collaborators for carrying out anti-people activities.
   ‘This tribunal thinks that their destructive policies, projects and unlawful activities have resulted in enormous economic and social losses in the country,’ said Mohammad Ghulam Rabbani, a former Supreme Court judge, who presided over the symbolic trial process by the tribunal at the National Press Club.
   The mass tribunal preparatory committee, formed in November 2007, sent letters dated November 23, 2008 to invite the representatives of the three agencies in Dhaka to take part in Monday’s hearing and kept five seats reserved for them to defend their position. But none of them turned up.
   Upon announcement of the judgement in front of about 500 people, including rights activists, the three-page judgement was signed by six other members of the tribunal, Dhaka University professor emeritus, Sirajul Islam Chowdhury, professor of International Relations of the same university, Akmal Hossain, journalists Kamal Lohani and Syed Abul Maksud, writer Selina Hossain and engineer Sheikh Muhammad Shahidullah.
   Following the depositions made at the hearing, the tribunal indicted the multinational lending agencies for subjecting people to deprivation and widening disparity, ruining indigenous industries, retrenchment of workers, destruction of food and energy security, price-hike of essential items, agricultural inputs, water and electricity, commercialisation of education and health sectors, degradation of environment, creating dependency and hampering policy sovereignty.
   ‘It is also proved that in order to impose the burden of loans and influence the governments, the World Bank and similar organisations had resorted to various kinds of illegal means including gifts, bribes, blackmailing and pressuring [authorities] in secret manner with the help of the undemocratic interventions by the foreign ambassadors and vested quarters,’ read the judgement.
   Economists MM Akash submitted deposition on their harmful influence on industrial sector, Muinul Islam on financial and Anu Muhammad on energy sector, physician-cum-politician Mustaq Hossain on health, Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal leader, Bazlur Rashid Firoz on education, Shah Alam of the Centre for Law Research on jute and Junaid Saki of Bangladesh Krishak Majur Sanghati on agriculture sector.
   They all demanded compensations for the losses as a result of the policies and programmes of the lending agencies.

Freedom fighters, politicians, cultural activists and the people in general on Monday took an oath to boycott war criminals and their allies in the upcoming general elections to pave the way for trial of the war criminals.
   At a rally of freedom fighters and public in Dhaka, they also urged all the non-communal, democratic and pro-liberation forces to unite against the war criminals so that they cannot go to the state power.
   The Sector Commanders’ Forum organised the rally at the Central Shahid Minar on the occasion of Freedom Fighters Day.
   The participants carried placards and banners inscribed with slogans ‘try war criminals’ and ‘boycott war criminals like Nizami, Mojaheed and Saidee through ballots on December 29’.
   One of the sector commanders, KM Shafiullah, administered an oath to resist the war criminals to uphold the spirit of the war of independence.
   Workers Party president Rashed Khan Menon said, ‘The Election Commission was asked to take steps to bar the war criminals from participating in the polls, but they did not do so. The commission as well as the government rather legitimised the war criminals through registering them as political parties. He also criticised BNP for forging alliance with the war criminals.
   Communist Party of Bangladesh president Manzurul Ahsan Khan castigated the interim government for not ensuring the trial of war criminals.
   Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal president Hasanul Haque said, ‘I hope, if the 14-party alliance comes to power, the war criminals will be tried within six months.’
   Shahriar Kabir, acting president of Ekhattorer Ghatak Dalal Nirmul Committee, said, ‘The fundamentalist forces are hatching a conspiracy to foil the elections.’ The programme was addressed, among others, by CR Dutta, Nasiruddin Yusuff, Golam Ahad Chowdhury, Ayesha Khanm and Abu Osman Chowdhury.

The military-controlled interim government is preparing the next government policy options paper focusing on fiscal and monetary policies and exchange rate in apprehension of shocks and to minimise effect of the global economic crisis.
   The finance ministry has begun outline the paper, ‘Global financial crisis: policy options for the next government,’ working out strategies to attract export orders from the European Union and the United States corresponding to their respective demands.
   The finance secretary, Mohammad Tariq, has been given the responsibility for the preparation of the policy options paper for the next elected government, which is likely to assume office by mid-January after the December 29 general elections.
   The latest global situation is also believed to have offered new opportunities for countries such as Bangladesh in view of its competitive advantage in a number of areas, said a senior finance ministry official.
   ‘We are preparing the outlines for the policy papers that will identify sectors vulnerable to western financial crisis,’ said the official, reminding that the country’s two vital sectors obviously were exports and remittances.
   The government earlier formed a technical committee to deal with the shocks from the global economic meltdown.
   The committee, formed under the coordination council on fiscal and monetary policies and exchange rate to deal with the feared shocks, will also review the economic situation in the first quarter of the current financial year and make recommendations to minimise the effect of the global crisis.
   The National Board of Revenue and Securities and Exchange Commission chairmen, Bangladesh Bank deputy governor, insurance directorate director general, Export Promotion Bureau vice-chairman, additional secretary of the Economic Relation Division and a member of the IMED comprise the technical committee.

Participants in an exchange of views on Monday demanded the government should relax the rules for students with disabilities to get stipend.
   They also demanded the government should implement the much-talked-about unified education system.
   In his keynote paper, Nafisur Rahman, director of the Jatiya Pratibandhi Unnayan Foundation, said ‘The government should relax the conditions for stipend, such as attendance and exams results, for students with disabilities.’
   He said, ‘A significant number of students with disabilities cannot fulfill all the stipend distribution criteria set by the government.’
   Other participants subscribed to Nafisur’s views and said the government was unable to bring all the students with disabilities under the stipend programme coverage because of fund constraints.
   According to government statistics, about 70 lakh students from Class I to XII were receiving stipend every year. None of the government or non-government agencies have the actual figure of the students with disabilities covered by the stipend programme.
   Organised by the Jatiya Pratibandhi Unnayan Foundation, the programme was chaired by the forum president, Khandaker Zahurul Alam, while director general of the Directorate of Primary Education M Nazrul Islam Khan spoke as chief guest.
   The meeting held in the CIRDAP auditorium was also attended by the Pratibandhi Unnayan Foundation managing director, Mansur Ahmed Chowdhury, the secretary general, Jawaharul Islam Mamun, and Campaign for Popular Education deputy director Tasneem Atahar.

The High Court on Monday issued a rule asking the government to explain in eight weeks why its inaction to arrange adequate equipment in case of disaster caused by earthquake should not be declared to be illegal.
   Responding to a public interest litigation writ petition, a division bench of Justice Syed Mahmud Hossain and Justice Quamrul Islam Siddiqui also asked the government to explain why a direction should not be given for arranging ample rescue equipment necessary for saving the lives of citizens in case of disaster caused by earthquake.
   Besides, the HC bench directed the government to report through the Supreme Court Registrar within eight weeks the available rescue equipment it has.
   Human Rights and Peace for Bangladesh, a rights body, filed the writ petition as public interest litigation.
   Moving the petition, HRPB president Manzill Murshid submitted before the court that there was an apprehension that a major earthquake might hit Bangladesh anytime in future. In this regard, he referred to recent media reports.
   The counsel told the court that at present, Bangladesh lacked proper and well-equipped rescue arrangements to cope with the aftermath of any disaster caused by earthquake.

Two suspected criminals were killed in an encounter with the Rapid Action Battalion in the city’s Kadamtoli WASA pump area early Monday.
   A patrol team of RAB-10 came to know that a gang of armed criminals, believed to be the members of Rosen gang, was holding a meeting to reorganise the gang following the November 26 killing of Rosen and one of his accomplices in RAB shootout.
   As the RAB team raided the hideout near Kadamtoli WASA pump at around 3:00am, the criminals opened indiscriminate shoots on the elite force prompting them to retaliate, RAB said, adding that after about 20 minutes of exchange of gunshots, the gang members had retreated.
   The fight over, the RAB, and the local people and police, who came to the scene hearing the shots, found two unidentified criminals lying on the ground sustaining bullets, RAB said.
   A sub-inspector of RAB-10, Jahangir Alam, also received bullet wounds during the shootout, they said.
   The RAB and police later seized a pistol, two revolvers and 203 rounds of bullet from the spot.
   RAB-10 intensified patrol in Jatrabari, Sabujbag, Kadamtoli and Shyampur areas following the killing of listed criminal Rosen and his sidekick Biddyut in RAB encounter at Shanir Akhra.
   Rosen was wanted in a number of criminal cases, including for murder, and he used to rent his firearms to other criminals in and around the capital, the battalion claimed.

The Anti-Corruption commission in Chittagong at Hathazari on Monday arrested a physician of the Chittagong Medical College and a woman in possession of money given in bribe for admission of a student to the college, a commission official said.
   A commission team arrested Gopal Mojumder, the physician, and Ferdousi Begum as they were receiving Tk 1,80,000 in bribe from a student, Nuruddin, promising him to help in admission to Comilla Medical College, the official said. Nuruddin withdrew the money Monday morning and gave it to them, he said. He was supposed to pay Tk 6,00,000 for admission to the Comilla Medical College.
   Nuruddin earlier gave them Tk 28,000 and informed the commission of the matter, he also said.
   The arrested during interrogation said some physicians of the Chittagong Medical College, Comilla Medical College and senior officials of the health services directorate general were involved in arranging admission of the students who failed in the admission tests, the official said.

The 53rd founding anniversary programmes of Bangla Academy began in Dhaka on Monday with speakers paying tributes to Buddhadeb Basu and Manik Bandopadhyay, two giants of modern Bangla literature on their birth centenaries.
   The day’s programme was highlighted by presentation of essay on Buddhadeb Basu by Biswajit Ghose. Syed Azizul Huq presented his essay on Manik Bandopadhyay on the sense of life and art in his writings.
   Dr Syed Mohammad Shahed, director general of the Bangla Academy, presented the address of welcome. Hayat Mahmud chaired the discussion meeting. Azfar Hossain participated in the discussion on the essays.
   In the evening, a cultural function was held where artistes presented songs of Tagore and Nazrul.
   Today’s programme will be devoted to Rammohan Roy on the occasion of 150 years of his death and to Shamsunnahar Mahmud on her birth centenary, said a news release of the academy.

Consumer rights activists seek government intervention in prices of flour-made food items as consumers continue to pay irrationally high prices for them despite drastic fall in wheat and bulk flour prices in international and local markets.
   Against more than 50 per cent fall in wheat and bulk flour prices over the past few months, bakers’ association in late last week announced to cut prices of its products by 10 per cent although it is yet to come into effect.
   Consumer rights activists under the platform of Consumer Association of Bangladesh said the government should prevent the trend of profiteering and force the profit-mongers to be responsive to the fall in wheat and flour prices.
   They alleged that in the previous two years, prices of flour-made foods, including naan and chapattis, were almost doubled in all eateries across the country, but no adjustment had been made yet despite the sharp fall in wheat and flour prices.
   Tariqul Islam, a power supply department official, said he had bought one pound of sliced breads from a Malibagh shop at Tk 38 on Monday.
   ‘Two years back, price of the bread was between Tk 20 and Tk 22,’ he said and regretted that although the bread price had been almost doubled on the plea of flour price hike, the bakers are reluctant to cut the prices despite sharp fall in what and flour prices.
   Price of a 74-kilogram sack of ordinary grade of flour was on Monday selling for Tk 1,600 at Maulvi Bazar against Tk 2,750 in the middle of the current year.
   In international market, prices of ordinary grade black sea wheat of Russia or Ukraine origin declined by around $200 per tonne against $450 in the middle of the current year.
   In the local wholesale markets, price of per maund (37.3 kilogram) of black sea wheat declined by up to Tk 600 last week or halved in just six months.
   CAB general secretary Quazi Faruk told New Age said they had monitored that all flour-made food items remained irrationally and exorbitantly high either in shops or restaurants.
   ‘One can realise the extent of profiteering possible in Bangladesh and how the authorities remain idle in protecting consumers’ interest,’ he added saying that fixing bread prices by the government was a very common practice in Pakistan and many other countries.
   Abu Taher, a retailer at New Market, admitted that the prices of a small pack of salted biscuits or noodles two years ago had been 50 to 70 per cent lower than their current prices.
   ‘We cannot cut prices if the manufacturers or suppliers don’t do that,’ he argued when asked to explain the reason for no change in prices.
   Mohammed Hannan Mia, treasurer of Bangladesh Bread and Biscuit Manufacturers’ Association, hoped that the prices of bakery items would come down shortly as they had asked the members to cut prices by 10 per cent with immediate effect.
   ‘As prices of fine grade flour did not fall like that of ordinary grade flour, we cannot afford its further reduction,’ he argued.

The offices of all newspapers and news agencies will remain closed in December 8–10 on account of Eid-ul-Azha, one of the two greatest religious festivals of the Muslims.
   No newspapers will, therefore, be published in December 9–11, said a news release of the Newspapers Owners’ Association of Bangladesh on Monday.

The Bangladesh Telecommu-nication Regulatory Commission on Monday made public the draft guideline on domestic VSAT hub operator licence and sought opinions from all concerned on the guideline.
   A commission release said individuals or organisations concerned can give their opinions on the guideline by sending e-mail to the commission (btrc@btrc.gov.bd) by December 24.
   ‘The guideline will be finalised after considering the views and opinions of the people and then the commission will start issuing licences,’ said the release. ‘Individuals or organisations now operating VSATs will have the priority to get the licence.’
   ‘With the issuance of the licences to VSAT operators, internet penetration will increase,’ Manzurul Alam, the commission’s chairman, said.

Participants in a dialogue on Monday stressed the need for strong coordination among the donors, implementing agencies and the media to create mass awareness towards preventing HIV/AIDS in the country.
   Only 21 per cent people of the country including those living in urban areas have necessary knowledge about AIDS (acquired immune deficiency syndrome) and its consequences, they told the programme, quoting a recent survey.
   The United Nations Population Fund and journalist organisation Media Initiative for Public Policy jointly organised the dialogue between ‘young people and media on HIV/AIDS’, marking World AIDS Day at the National Press Club.
   The UNFPA resident representative, Arthur Erken, attended as chief guest the programme chaired by MIPP president and Associate Press bureau chief Farid Hossain.
   The UNFPA’s national programme officer, Dr Noor Mohammad, made a brief presentation on the overall HIV/AIDS situation in Bangladesh.
   The speakers lamented that Bangladesh still lacked adequate infrastructure, mechanism and skills to effectively combat HIV/AIDS.
   They also suggested that private companies should come up with big budgets for advertisements and awareness-building campaigns on the issue.
   The speakers from the young generation stressed on arranging concerts, making films and entertaining programmes in a larger way for TV screen to make information on HIV/AIDS easily acceptable to the youths.
   Mentioning the notion in many societies that information on HIV/AIDS was dangerous, the speakers said it was not information made out of ignorance that kills.
   They also said any programme to create awareness of HIV/AIDS among people should be based on culture and social values.
   ‘Humanizing AIDS can break the stigma,’ Arthur Erken noted and urged the media to tell the stories of the sufferers which would have a positive impact.
   The UNFPA resident representative also called on the media people to make policy makers accountable to the issue though their writings and works.
   Reminding that AIDS is a male issue, he said male behaviour in Bangladesh needs to be controlled to check the spread of the virus.
   ‘Women are silent victims, while men are the predominant factor in spreading HIV/AIDS in Bangladesh,’ said the UNFPA chief.