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Beijing will support Dhaka in setting up a nuclear power plant, in accordance with the ‘China-Pakistan model’, to mitigate the severe power crisis and meet the ever growing demand for electricity.
   ‘China and Bangladesh signed an agreement on the peaceful use of nuclear energy in 2005, which cleared the way for civil nuclear cooperation,’ said the outgoing Chinese ambassador, Zheng Qingdian, at the Dhaka Reporters’ Unity’s auditorium on Sunday.
   ‘The cooperation could follow the China-Pakistan cooperation model,’ he added.
   Touching on the issue of the Kunming-Chittagong road link via Myanmar, Qingdian said, ‘China has a positive attitude to this project as it will facilitate personal exchanges and trade in the region. I think the three nations must sit down and strive for progress on the issue as early as possible.’
   When asked whether China would play a proactive role for delimitation of the maritime boundary in the Bay of Bengal, especially during negotiations with Myanmar, the Chinese diplomat evaded a direct answer.
   He, however, said that any difference of opinion should be resolved by all the parties concerned.
   Zheng declined to comment on such issues as the US proposal to help Bangladesh secure its maritime boundaries and Bangladesh giving transit facilities to India.
   Qingdian said that in recent years China and Bangladesh have become closer and there have been wider exchange and cooperation in political, economic, military and cultural areas as well as people-to-people relations.
   ‘Sino-Bangladesh relations have become the model which demonstrates how the countries of different social systems and cultural backgrounds can interact harmoniously,’ he claimed.
   ‘China is looking forward to expanding cooperation with Bangladesh, especially in agriculture, education, ICT and communications,’ Qingdian added.
   The Dhaka Reporters’ Unity’s president, Shamim Ahmad, conducted the programme, which was also addressed by its general secretary, Pathik Saha.

Jyotirindra Bodhipiray Larma, president of the Parbatya Chattagram Jana Sanghati Samiti who signed the Chittagong Hill Tracts Treaty in 1997 on the party’s behalf, on Sunday said that even 11 years after signing the deal the country’s ruling class has no interest in implementing it.
   ‘Whenever they were asked about the treaty, they just say it would be done, it is going to be done. But nothing has become visible…Though I must admit that the barriers that will be faced in order to implement the treaty cannot be easily crossed,’ he said at the launching of a memorial volume on Manabendra Narayan Larma, the founder president of the regional political party who was slain in 1983, at the CIRDAP auditorium in the city.
   ‘Manabendra was the victim of a local and international conspiracy and the masterminds of his murder are still in the hills and oppressing the people,’ he said.
   Ganaforum’s presidium member Pankaj Bhattacharya, while launching the book, said he expects the new government of ‘change’ to be the same in word and deed. ‘The treaty was made with the state, so do not make state a betrayer,’ he said. ‘The nationalism of Mandabendra was not of the ultra sort, nor was it narrow. It was simply a struggle to establish and ensure the rights of his community.’
   ‘Manbendra was not only a regional leader because he spoke up for all the suppressed people. He was the only person in the first Parliament who raised his voice for trial of war criminals, rehabilitation of biranganas and doubling of the budget for the armed forces. But this man was portrayed as separationist,’ said Pankaj.
   The Communist Party of Bangladesh’s general secretary, Mujahidul Islam Selim, said, ‘Larma is not a historic character — he is still present now as his agenda of struggle still exists in society.’
   Selim spoke of his realisation that his party’s unquestioning extension of support to Awami League immediately after independence was a wrong step. ‘Then our policy regarding the Awami League was unity and struggle, but it was true that much stress was put on unity and little on struggle. Such unstinting support could save neither Sheikh Mujib nor the country. And the result is the nation was grabbed by evil rightwing forces.’
   The Awami League lawmaker from Khagrachhari, Jyotindralal Tripura, who was also a close aide of Manabendra, was choked by emotion while recalling him. ‘He is the man I love most. He was our source of inspiration…When I was studying in college the seniors warned us not to mix with him, saying we would not get any jobs if we did so.’
   Tripura expressed his regret that after signing the peace treaty, peace was yet to arrive in the hills. ‘People in the hills overwhelmingly voted to see the agreement implemented. Our leader assured me that it would implemented.’ he said.
   Abdullah Sarkar, central leader of the Bangladesher Samajtantrik Dal, demanded a judicial probe into Manabendra’s murder. He also called for ensuring the ethnic minority people’s right to land and suggested construction of a monument in memory of Manabendra, along with a library.
   Writer Mesbah Kamal said Manabendra was a political philosopher of the region who accommodated the people of other races in the struggle to realise the rights of the ethnic minorities. ‘Everybody lauds the 1972 Constitution as a flawless one but Manabendra pointed out that it does not represent the majority of the people, and nobody after his death said so.’
   New Age’s editor Nurul Kabir said the chauvinist approach of the ruling class, under any banner, leaves limited scope to establish the rights of the ethnic minorities. ‘Winning the support of the democratic sections of the Bengalis will remain a very important factor for the realisation of the rights of the minority communities.’

A number of non-governmental organisations at a press conference on Sunday demanded continuation of the Local Government Commission for strengthening local bodies and decentralising the administration.
   They urged the AL-led government to take necessary steps for approval of the Local Government Commission Ordinance 2008, promulgated by the interim administration of Fakhruddin Ahmed.
   The Equity and Justice Working Group, in collaboration with 14 other NGOs, organised the press conference at the National Press Club against the government’s reported move to exclude the Local Government Commission Ordinance from the list of Ordinances selected for parliamentary approval.
   ‘We will submit a memorandum to the Prime Minister’s Office tomorrow [Monday], demanding continuation of the Local Gover-nment Commission,’ said Rezaul Karim Chowdhury, executive director of the Coast Trust, who moderated the press conference.
   Representatives of the NGOs decried any interference by lawmakers in the local development activities.
   They said the Members of Parliament should concentrate on making and amending laws and monitoring all development activities thro-ugh the parliamentary standing committees. The BNNRC’s chief executive, AHM Bazlur Rahman, in his written statement said the Awami League government should keep the commission alive in keeping with its promise.

The Human Rights Forum on Universal Periodic Review, a coalition of 17 rights organisations, on Sunday called on the government to make specific pledges to ensure human rights through discussions in the parliament.
   At a briefing at the Dhaka Reporters’ Unity, they also alleged the foreign minister, Dipu Moni, failed to describe the state of human rights in Bangladesh in the United Nations Human Rights Council.
   The United Nations Human Rights Council, recently held in Geneva, reviewed the state of human rights in Bangladesh from 2004 to 2008 under the Universal Periodic Review.
   Dipu Moni, in her report on behalf of the government, failed to specify steps for the implementation of the Chittagong Hill Tract Peace Treaty, ensuring human rights, the forum convener, Sultana Kamal, also a former adviser to the caretaker government, said.
   The foreign minister also failed to specify the steps for holding war crimes trial, she said.
   The UN council has made some initial proposals on the human rights states in Bangladesh after the review which would adopted in the United States Human Rights Council’s session scheduled for June.
   The Human Rights Forum demanded the proposals should be in the parliament for discussions. The government should give concrete assurances for the implementation of the proposals, holding discussions with the human rights organisations and civil society actors and formation of a parliamentary standing committee on human rights.
   Human Rights Forum leader Sayeed Ahmed addressed the briefing and Ramjan Karmaker gave a introductory speech. Iftekharuzzaman, Sara Hossain, Zakir Hossain and Farida Yesmin attended.

Assailants wounded an Awami Juba League leader with gun shots at Kafrul in the capital on Sunday.
   The victim, Ziaul Haque Swadhin, 36, the president of the Juba League’s ward no 14, was on his way to a cell-phone shop at West Shewrapara at about 4:30pm when the assailants intercepted and fired shots at him, leaving him critically injured, his relatives said.
   He was undergoing treatment at the Dhaka Medical College Hospital with bullet wounds on the head and neck.
   Relatives said that the attack might have been launched as a sequel to a previous conflict over a disputed piece of land in the locality.
   None was arrested till 9:00pm in connection with the incident.

More than 200 houses were in a fire which broke out in the Jamtali slum at Enayet Bazar in Chittagong on Sunday. More than 1,000 people became homeless.
   Fire service officials said the fire had originated from an electric short circuit in house of the slum, set up on the railway land, at about 1:15pm. Nine fire engines could put out the flames by 3:00pm.
   Local sources, however, said more than 200 houses were completely burnt and estimated the damage to be worth more than Tk 20 lakh.
   They also alleged the fire fighters had reached the spot an hour after the incident.
   ‘The damage would have been much lower if the fire fighters had reached the spot on time,’ said Abdul Karim, a resident. He said the place was not very far from the Agrabad fire station.
   Ruhul Amin, deputy director at the Fire Service and Civil Defence in Chittagong, however, said they had reached the spot soon after receiving the message, but their vehicles could not move as
   the place was heavily congested.
   No organisation or
   individual sent any relief to the affected till the afternoon.
   Local sources said the Bangladesh Railway officials and employees, who got quarters at Shahid Abdur Rob Colony, rented the houses to the low-income people, on the railway land.
   The railway staff also allegedly supplied gas and electricity to the slum from the quarters illegally.

The prices of food-grains are expected to decline further as the government is planning release of food from the official stocks, the food and disaster management minister, Mohammad Abdur Razzak, said on Sunday.
   After his meeting on food security with a European diplomat, he told reporters that the government would have to clear the warehouses to procure more food-grains from the domestic market following Boro rice harvest.
   ‘We will release rice from the stocks,’ he said. The government mainly supplies food-grains from the stocks under its social safety net programmes.
   The minister mentioned that there are indications of good food production this season and the government was planning construction of more warehouses to enhance the stocking capacity by another 5 lakh tonnes of food-grains on top of 15 lakh tonnes of capacity of the existing warehouses.
   Razzak, during his meeting with the European Commission delegation head in Dhaka, Stefan Frowein, sought assistance from the European Union to build the warehouses. Frowein was quoted to have suggested the government to approach other donors simultaneously for the fund.
   Later talking to newsmen after he called on the commerce minister, Faruk Khan, the ambassador said he discussed food security and the European assistance in this regard with the minister.
   He also called upon the government to look into the issue of humanitarian assistance for the Rohingya refu-gees from Myanmar although he lauded the way Banglade-sh wad dealing with the issue.

The property developers on Sunday urged the government not to ask their clients about sources of money when they would purchase their first ever flats, giving a legal protection to them in the next budget.
   In support of their demand, the leaders of the Real Estate and Housing Association of Bangladesh at a meeting with the commerce minister, Faruk Khan, argued that their business suffered a serious setback due to certain measures taken by the interim government.
   They also sought the commerce minister’s good offices for not to make the Real Estate Development and Management Ordinance-2008 a law by approving it in the parliament.
   The ordinance proposed stricter regulations for them, protecting the clients from various hazards, although the REHAB leaders pointed out that the risks would be removed as they would abide by the relevant policy guidelines.
   They opposed approving the ordinance by the parliament despite the fact that the Awami League-led government has kept the ordinance out of the list of ordinances promulgated by the interim administration, which will be placed in the parliament for approval.
   Faruk told the REHAB leaders that it was the discretion of law, justice and parliamentary affairs ministry whether to approve the ordinance, the meeting sources said.
   The REHAB leaders said that the anti-corruption drives carried out by the interim regime had severely affected their business. The money will be siphoned off to foreign countries unless the government allows to investment in the real estate sector, they added.
   The REHAB delegation, led by its president Tanvirul Huq Probal, apprehended that the money transactions in the property development might be slowed down further in the coming days under the impact of global recession since the remittances were a major source of investment in this sector.
   The commerce minister asked them to come up with specific proposal for including in the next and subsequent budgets, urging them to make it realistic. ‘I ask you to do something for the low income group of people,’ he added.
   The REHAB leaders said that they could construct low-cost houses at the city outskirts for the low income group of people. The government should provide residential accommodation to this group of people in the suburban areas, they suggested.

Different organisations and an economist on Sunday asked the government to make the Real Estate Development and Management Ordinance-2008 a law approving it in the parliament for the greater interests of the people.
   The Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association, Association for Land Reforms and Development, Nijera Kori, Bangladesh Sthwapati Institute, and Transparency International Bangladesh, and professor of Economics department at Dhaka University, Abul Barakat, on Sunday sent letters to the state minister for housing and public works, Abdul Mannan Khan, and president of the parliamentary standing committee, Md Rahmat Ali, asking them to take immediate steps for making the ordinance a law, said a press release of the BELA on Sunday.
   ‘The dishonest realtors have been conducting their business by grabbing land for long and deceiving their clients for the lack of proper legal framework,’ the release said.
   ‘The making of the ordinance a law is necessary for controlling the fraudulent activities of the realtors and bringing them under the legal process,’ the release added.
   The clients as well as common people will get rid of the realtors’ fraud and deception if the ordinance is made law as it provides a provision of sentencing the fraud real estate businessmen, said the BELA release.
   ‘If the ordinance is not made law, it will go in favour of the real estate companies and throw the people into an uncertain situation, which is not expected from the government,’ the release mentioned.
   The environmentalists and members of civil society have asked the government to make the ordinance a law, incorporating some more effective provisions to reach the benefits of the law to the people.

Politicians, lawyers, freedom fighters, journalists and civil society members on Sunday said the trial of war criminals would have to be carried out in a transparent and fair manner following the existing legal process.
   ‘The whole process of the trial will have to be fair and transparent, and the trial will have to be carried out following the conventional legal process and maintaining the international standard so that the right of the accused people to defend themselves is not violated,’ said BNP standing committee member Moudud Ahmed in a discussion meeting.
   The Nagarik Committee organised the discussion on ‘War Crimes: Independent Judicial System’ at the National Press Club in Dhaka.
   ‘Nobody should be harassed; otherwise, it could be counterproductive,’ said Moudud, also a former law minister.
   Calling upon the government to bring an amendment to the International Crimes (Tribunal) Act 1973, the former law minister said, ‘Power can easily be misused while enforcing the act as it has given a huge arbitrary power. Moreover, there are many sections in the act which are at odds with the country’s constitution.’
   The Bangladesh Jatiya Party chairman, Andaleeve Rahman MP, questioned, ‘Why did the previous governments keep the issue alive?’ He asked the government not to be biased politically while trying the war criminals.
   He also asked the media people to play their due role without being biased. ‘Identifying anybody as war criminals before the trial might be a prejudicial act,’ he observed, adding, ‘The judiciary must be independent in true sense before going for the trial of the war criminals,’
   Journalist Sadeq Khan observed, ‘The issue of war criminals has been dragged over the years due to political reason.’ He said the war criminals might belong both to the victorious and the defeated forces. So, the war criminals should be tried irrespective of which group they belong to.
   Supreme Court lawyer Rafiqul Islam, also a former BNP minister, asked the government to try the war criminals without the meddling of the executives.
   ‘It is very unfortunate that the government is seeking help from the US in trying the war criminals when it is the US which had arranged all the things in 1974 to send back 195 identified war criminals to Pakistan without trying them,’ Islam observed, adding, ‘Documents of the liberation war say the war was between Pakistan and India. So, the government will have to look into whether there are any war criminals in the Indian army too.’
   Shafiul Alam Pradhan of the Jatiya Ganatantrik Party asked the government to ‘try the Indian army first as they looted huge arms and weapons soon after the liberation war’ which, according to him, is a war crime.
   He said, ‘The government should also try a minister, who is also the brother-in-law of the prime minister, Sheikh Hasina, and the chief of a component of the Awami League-led alliance, who was the chairman of the military tribunal formed during the liberation war in Pakistan to try Bangladeshi army personnel.’
   Hamidullah Khan, a second commander of the liberation, alleged, ‘The Awami League is speaking of the trial of war criminals to achieve political gain.’
   He also cautioned that the country’s situation might be unstable while implementing the trial of war criminals.’
   Among others, Dhaka University teacher Mahbub Ullah, Chittagong University teacher Mohammad Hasan and former minister Golam Sarwar Milan spoke on the occasion.

The 10th death anniversary of Kazi Aref Ahmed, one of the founders of Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal, will be observed today.
   On this day in 1999, some assailants fired shots at an anti-terrorism rally of JSD on the Kalidaspur school ground at Daulatpur upazila in Kushtia, which killed Kazi Aref and four other JSD leaders. The other leaders who were killed in the attack were Kushtia district unit president of JSD, Lokman Hossain, its general secretary, Yakub Ali and local leaders Israil Hossain Tafser and Shamser Mondal.
   To mark the day, JSD has chalked up elaborate programmes including flying of the party flags at half mast, hoisting black flags atop the JSD offices at 6:00am and placing of flowers at the grave of Kazi Aref in the Freedom Fighters’ graveyard at Mirpur at 9:00am.
   The JSD will also organise a discussion at the Colonel Taher auditorium at Bangabandhu Avenue at 4:00pm and the party president, Hasanul Haque Inu will preside over the discussion.
   Another faction of Jatiya Samajtantrik Dal will also place flowers on the grave of Kazi Aref at 8:00am and hold a brief rally there.

President of Communist Party of Bangladesh, Monzurul Ahsan Khan, left Dhaka on Sunday for Kathmandu to attend the 8th congress of the Communist Party of Nepal, a major partner of the coalition government in Nepal.
   The opening session of the six-day CPN congress will be held in Lumbini city, the birth place of Lord Goutam Buddha.
   CPB central leader, Sajjad Zahir Chandan, accompanied the party chief.

A 10-day basic training on self-employment for the members of the Village Defence Party began under the Dhaka Ansars and VDP ranges on Sunday.
   Under the supervision of the Dhaka range commander, Shamsul Alam, more than 3,800 VDP members are taking part in the training programme scheduled to conclude on February 26.
   The trainees will get basic knowledge of fish and poultry farming and cattle rearing, ways to prevent trafficking in women and children, elimination of gender inequality, healthcare, family planning and sanitation.
   They will also get free training in driving, computer operation, sewing to be organised by the Ansars and VDP ranges in future. They will also get loans from the Ansars and VDP bank, said a release on Sunday.

Rapid Acton Battalion in a drive seized 196 pieces of contraband Yaba tablets from the city’s Bayazid Bostami area on Sunday afternoon.
   Tipped-off, a team of the RAB-7 raided West Hajipara in Bayazid Bostami area at around 1:25pm and recovered the tablets in an abandoned condition.
   No arrest was made in this connection, RAB sources said.

The Food and disaster management secretary, Molla Waheeduzzaman has been made secretary to the Prime Minister’s Office.
   The establishment ministry on Sunday issued a gazette notification to the effect.
   Officer on special duty (additional secretary), Mridula Bhattacharjee has been posted to the women and children affairs ministry as additional secretary replacing Rokeya Sultana, who has been transferred to the labour ministry as secretary, acting secretary to the labour ministry, Md Mokhlesur Rahman has been made acting secretary to the expatriates’ welfare and overseas employment ministry and planning commission acting member, Md Habib Ullah Majumder has been sent to the planning division as acting secretary.
   Director general of the bureau of manpower employment and training, Md Abdul Malek and planning division acting secretary, Abdur Razzaq have been transferred to the planning commission as acting members, according to another notification issued on the day.
   Besides, officer on special duty, Syed Manjurul Islam has been posted to the energy and mineral resources division as additional secretary and another officer on special duty, SM Nazmul Islam has been made chairman of the Bangladesh Agriculture Development Corporation.

A court here on Sunday ordered the remand of two prime accused persons in the country’s biggest-ever arms haul case for five days for interrogation by the newly appointed investigation officer, appointed for initiating a fresh probe, said court sources.
   The chief metropolitan magistrate, Helal Uddin, issued the order as the new IO, ASP Moniruzzaman who is head of the Chittagong CID, sought the remand of accused Hafizur Rahman and Deen Mohammad, sources added.
   Public prosecutor Ahsanul Huq Hena told New Age that Moniruzzaman submitted a petition to the CMM’s court, seeking remand of the main accused in accordance with his advice.
   ‘Those two prime accused need to be interrogated thoroughly to plumb the mystery behind the unloading of such a big consignment of arms and ammunition here,’ he said.
   ‘Even the names of the big shots involved in this arms case will come out if those two prime accused are interrogated,’ he observed.
   ‘Without grilling the two accused it will be difficult to successfully reinvestigate this arms case,’ he added.
   The origin of the consignment of smuggled arms and the identities of its supplier(s) and recipient(s) still remain unclear as the investigation has continued at a snail’s pace so far, he said.
   The 10 truck-loads of arms were seized from the CUFL’s jetty here on April 1, 2004 by a police team who were tipped off by certain quarters.

Mohammad Shahinul Alam, a Bangladeshi gastroenterologist, has been selected for the USA-Japan Medical Science Award for his investigation into resistance of Lamividin in treatment of Hepatitis B.
   The award will be given at the 19th Conference of the Asia Pacific Liver Association in Hong Kong today.
   Shahnul, an associate professor of liver at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University, had conducted research under the supervision of Professor Mobin Khan, said a press release.

The Minister for LGRD and Cooperatives, Syed Ashraful Islam, on Sunday said the members of the Parliament could be involved more effectively in the development activities of their constituencies if a simple amendment to the upazila law of 1998 could be passed in the Jatiya Sangsad.
   ‘The issue of making a simple amendment to the law in the House may also be raised in the meeting of the Cabinet,’ he said in response to a supplementary question by Shahiduzzaman Sarkar from the Naogaon-2 constituency in the question and answer session that began 20 minutes behind schedule amidst the absence of the main opposition party, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, and its allies.
   Ashraf, also the Awami League spokesman, replied in the negative when asked by independent lawmaker Fazlul Azim of Noakhali whether or not the government was considering block allocation of funds for development of rural infrastructure in each of the constituencies.
   He, however, alleged that a huge amount of money was spent uselessly in the name of development of rural infrastructure as the money was looted and the work done under the previous BNP-Jamaat alliance government was sub-standard.
   The minister said his party believed in equal development of infrastructure in all the constituencies and assured the parliamentarians that their government would emphasise the balanced and sustainable development of all the areas.
   The first session of the ninth Parliament, which resumed after a three-day recess, was virtually lifeless due to the absence of opposition lawmakers and also the front-row lawmakers. Only three MPs — Amir Hossain Amu, Matia Chowdhury and Syed Ashraful Islam — were present on the front row in the House when the proceedings started with Speaker Advocate Abdul Hamid in the chair.

Ruling Awami League lawmaker, Shajahan Khan on Sunday called on the parliament to form a parliamentary committee to investigate the corruption of the immediate-past president Iajuddin Ahmed during his tenure.
   He said this while speaking on the thanksgiving motion after Iajudin Ahmed’s address at the first session of the ninth parliament on January 25.
   Jatiya Party lawmaker, Fazley Rabbi Chowdhury of Gaibandha, in his address, criticized Iajuddin Ahmed for not pointing out the corruption, looting, politicization, price-hike and the plundering of funds during the BNP-Jamaat coalition government.
   AL lawmaker, Aktaruzzaman Babu of Chittaganj said the nation would look upon Iajuddin’s tenure as the ‘age of darkness’.
   He also accused the former president of violating his oath by playing a partisan role. Iajuddin always acted in favour of the then BNP-led four- party coalition government and tried to put the 4-party coalition in power again by declaring himself the chief adviser of the caretaker government.
   AL lawmakers Abdur Rahman Badi, Subid Ali Bhuiyan, MA Mannan, Shamsur Rahman Sharif and Elias Uddin Molla, among others, participated in the discussion.