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VICTIMS’ CONCERNS BEING IGNORED
Hocus-pocus may derail BDR massacre trial
M Shahidul Islam
Justice and law are distant cousins. In times when law and justice fail to connect, as seems to be the scenarios evolving now with respect to the prospective trial of the Peelkhana massacre of February 25-26, powerful emotions are bound to be unleashed by aggrieved parties, unless the usefulness of law meets the demand of justice.
The recent decision of the government to conduct the trial in two different courts comes at the risk of (1) overruling the recommendations of two of the three investigation bodies, and (2) alienating the sentiments of the armed forces, who are the victims of those heinous crimes...[ FULL STORY ]
Bangladesh has scope to bargain hard with India
Sadeq Khan
At the end of her four-day official visit to New Delhi, Bangladesh Foreign Minister Dr. Dipu Moni and her diplomatic team managed to obtain a joint statement, which threw clearer light upon the various issues discussed and meeting of minds obtained for improvement of Indo-Bangladesh relations, as earlier disclosed in a press statement by the Bangladesh High Commission on September 8...[ FULL STORY ]
Dipu Moni in Washington
Holiday Report
After the laborious Delhi visit, Foreign Minister Dipu Moni had little time to talk to the Prime Minister, her cabinet colleagues and the local press before she flew off again to Washinton. Her task this time to is prepare for the Prime Minister’s attendance in the UN General Assembly...[ FULL STORY ]
OFFSHORE GAS ISSUES
Hasina’s appeasement policy to cost national wealth
Faisal Rahim
Recent developments relating to oil and gas exploration in the offshore waters is opening a new chapter of the Awami League (AL) Government’s appeasement policy towards close neighbour India as well as the US under a new strategic blueprint.
With India Sheikh Hasina is now seemingly busy working out details to provide corridor to India under the guise of the Asian Highway (AH) network. She is also amending law to return land to minority community people who had left the country for India at different times in the country’s history leaving behind properties. The then Pakistan government had declared those properties as abandoned...[ FULL STORY ]
Nepal’s Maoists: Great concern for Indian security
Shamsuddin Ahmed
Pushpa Kamal Dahal (Prachanda), Maoist leader and former prime minister of Nepal, is in a fishy trip to the Chinese city of Hong Kong. He flew to Hong Kong Monday (Sept 14) without prior announcement. According to his aide Manoj Thapa accompanying him, Prachanda will attend a training session of the party cadres. "He is busy holding clandestine meetings shortly after arrival," Manoj told Kantipur online declining to give further details.
On the same day Vivek Gumaste, an Indian strategist, cautioned that Nepal Maoists are a threat to India. Maoists in India have close links with the comrades of Nepal. "They are waiting for the right moment and right circumstances to launch an armed bloody revolution in India via Nepal with the backing of China," wrote Gumaste for Redif News. Obviously, his apprehension is accentuated by a recent articles published in Global Times of China, which advocated break-up of India into 20 to 30 independent states. ..[ FULL STORY ]
Phenomenal increase in extortions
Special Correspondent
All efforts went in vain as people from all walks of life saw a phenomenal rise in extortions and muggings despite deployment of law-enforcers ahead of the Eid-ul-Fitr and Durga Puja festivals to maintain the law and order.
State Minister for Home Affairs Shamsul Haque Tuku last week attempted to put a brave face on the deteriorating law and order situation by shifting his responsibility saying that the incidents of mugging and snatching are not as much as were experienced in the past years...[ FULL STORY ]
Indo-Bangla joint statement: A one-way traffic
Abdul Hannan
The ruling Awami league has historic close and friendly ties with India and there is expectation that trust and confidence will be restored between the two countries and bilateral relations will improve qualitatively after addressing all outstanding and contentious issues to mutual benefit of the two countries. Let us evaluate the outcome of just concluded visit of foreign minister Dipu Moni to New Delhi in the light of the joint statement issued after the official talks between Bangladesh delegation led by Dipu Moni and Indian side led by Indian foreign minister Krisna. ..[ FULL STORY ]
Govt. invites own troubles thru’ control mechanism
Shahriar Noori
Politicisation of administration, dependence on henchmen and bid to turn the Prime Minister’s Office into a virtual single centre for running the state affairs are landing the government into unexpected troubles.
The recent happenings including the imbalanced pay structure in the Pay Commission report, firing and then reinstatement of judicial officials, massive promotion of different cadre service officials are giving rise to grievances among their fellow officials. These incidents are weighing heavily on the government putting the day-to-day administrative work in jeopardy.
And add to this a long list the violation of army discipline by the incumbent BDR chief. The man not only has changed the name of the institution and its logo, but also issued Eid cards using the new name and logo without taking government’s permission. His action jolted both the government and the army establishment, but no action has been taken even after a week of the misadventure...[ FULL STORY ]
India-China border tension: Who’s to blame?
Neville Maxwell
'So solidly built into our consciousness is the concept that China is conducting a rapacious and belligerent foreign policy that whenever a dispute arises in which China is involved she is instantly assumed to have provoked it.’ - Felix Greene 1965.
India is heavily reinforcing its Army and Air Force units on its undefined border with China (two additional infantry divisions, a squadron of attack aircraft, refurbishing airfields etc). This is in breach of the parties’ obligation under a 1993 Sino-Indian treaty to keep force levels in border areas to 'a minimum level compatible with friendly and good neighbourly relations’ and Beijing has protested angrily and publicly...[ FULL STORY ]
Beijing asks Indian media to promote friendship
Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Jiang Yu last week asked India’s media to be conducive toward promoting mutual understanding between the two countries amid reports on border tension...[ FULL STORY ]
GLIMPSES OF THE GREAT
Talleyrand
K Z Islam
Charles Maurice de Talleyrand-Périgord (1754-1838) known just as Talleyrand was a French diplomat. In all the biographies I have read and they run into hundreds I do not recall reading about any famous personality who had remained at the top of a nation all his life despite his chicanery, deception, treachery, betrayal, disloyalty (and every other synonym). He survived without any retribution, penalty or punishment.
I think someone should take the trouble of writing a modern biography of Talleyrand and give it the title "How to Survive in Life". He worked successfully from the regime of Louis XVI (1789), through the French Revolution (1792) and then under Napoleon I (1797-1814), Louis XVIII, Charles X, and Louis-Philippe (1813). Known since the turn of the 19th century simply by the name Talleyrand, he is widely regarded as one of the most versatile and influential diplomats in European history. The paradox of Talleyrand is that his amorality was combined with the coolest, the most brilliant, the most far-seeing insights in politics both at home and internationally. From these, in a career lasting forty-five years, he never wavered and they provide the thread by which we can follow his shifts of allegiance and his intrigues...[ FULL STORY ]
Hasina paying back by leasing out gas blocks: Engr. Shahidullah
Abdur Rahman Khan
Engineer Sheikh Muhammad Shahidullah, the convenor of the National Committee to Protect Oil-Gas Mineral Resources, Power and Ports (NCPOGMRPP) seems to have become the champion of the national causes by enforcing the first half-a-day general strike against the present government.
The NCPOGMRPP - quite a mouthful acronym - with active support from the left political parties enforced the half-day hartal in the capital city on Monday to protest against government initiative for signing deals with foreign companies to explore off-shore gas. In all fairness, the hartal actually was observed only partially.
The Committee claims that a provision in the deal allows the foreign companies to export up to 80 percent of extracted gas, which constitutes a threat to the energy security of the country...[ FULL STORY ]
UN team criticises Israel atrocities
Fazle Rashid in New York
A United Nations fact finding mission probing the three-week war in Gaza last winter made scathing criticism of both Israel and Palestinian militant group stating in unqualified term that both sides in the war took actions "amounting to war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity"...[ FULL STORY ]
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