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BANGLADESH: Army Deployment May Wreck Polls

Farid Ahmed

DHAKA, Dec 13 2006 (IPS) - Bangladesh President Iajuddin Ahmed’s action calling out the army to maintain law and order 45 days ahead of elections on Jan. 23 may result in a boycott of the polls by a 14-party alliance led by the powerful Awami League party of former premier Sheikh Hasina Wajed.

On Monday four members of the interim cabinet, which is also headed by the President, resigned in protest against the deployment of the army in this country which was born out of a bloody civil war in 1971 and has since seen several spells of repressive military rule.

The Awami League’s arch rival, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), was the creation of former military dictator Maj. Gen. Ziaur Rahman. After his assassination in an army coup in 1981, the BNP’s control fell to his widow Khaleda Zia who demitted office as prime minister late on Oct. 28 after completing a five-year term, leading a ruling coalition.

Sheikh Hasina inherited leadership of the Awami League after her father, Bangladesh’s founder and first president, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, was killed in a 1975 military coup in which, she has repeatedly said, Ziaur Rahman had a hand.

Taking note of the army deployment, this week, the New York-based Human Rights Watch (HRW) said on Tuesday: ‘’Past experience with Bangladeshi leaders deploying the military gives us serious cause for concern.”

‘’During the last major deployment, in 2002, more than 50 people died after being arrested by troops,” noted Brad Adams, Asia director of HRW, in a statement. ”Abusive members of the military have enjoyed near-total immunity for their violent crimes in the past.”

Referring to the current deployment, Adams said: ‘’If the military is to promote law and order today, it must respect the law. Given the military’s record of human rights violations, it’s crucial that the army follow strict rules limiting the use of force..”

Monday’s resignations and President Ahmed’s prompt induction of four new members into the cabinet the next day have whipped up calls by the Awami League and its allies for him to step down in favour of a ‘neutral’ interim government capable of conducting ‘free and fair elections’.

Sheikh Hasina and her allies have accused Ahmed of acting outside the constitution by deploying the army and continuing to take orders from Khaleda Zia and other BNP members. “The president has failed to prove his neutrality and acted to appease (Zia) who made him the president,” she said, referring to Ahmed’s nomination for the job by the BNP.

Ahmed has done little to negate the charges of partisanship. Two weeks ago he appointed, within his team of election commissioners, Mudabbir Hossain Chowdhury, a former officer in the Pakistan army which has been charged with carrying out mass murders and rapes during the civil war.

Most newspapers have been critical of the President’s moves and a leading English language national daily ‘New Age’ carried on Monday a front page commentary titled “Iajuddin executing dubious design.” In an editorial, the ‘Daily Star’ also blamed Ahmed for the present crisis. “The President’s go-it-alone policy is responsible for it,” the editorial said.

People on the streets have begun to voice concern over the future of an impoverished Bangladesh lurching from crisis to crisis with nearly half of its 140 million people below the poverty line.

“I believe the situation is worrisome à.everybody wants to know what’s going to happen next or whether the elections will be held on time or not,” college teacher Shihab Uddin told IPS in Dhaka on Tuesday.

The four members who resigned were said to have been the most active in trying to bring rapproachment between the two rival political camps.

“With the resignation of these four advisers, hopes that flickered for a solution to the ongoing political crisis have been doused and things have returned to grave complexities,” Mir Nasir Hossain, president of Federation of Bangladesh Chambers of Commerce and Industry, told IPS

A former president of the country and now the chief of the Liberal Democratic Party president, Prof. AQM Badruddoza Chowdhury, said the resignation was a reflection of a lack of confidence of the cabinet members in the chief of the interim government and that it would only intensify political crisis and make the general elections uncertain.

As soon as the President announced induction of new members to the cabinet, the Awami League and its allies said Ahmed should relinquish his office as there could be no free and fair elections under him.

“With the new political development, we have to rethink whether we would join the polls or not,” said Sheikh Hasina. She has been on the streets since October demanding, besides a revamped Election Commission (EC), the updating of voters’ rolls, rescheduling of polls, and a reshuffle of the bureaucracy to ensure “free and fair polls.”

“We demand a free, fair and credible election. If a neutral and congenial atmosphere is not ensured, how can we participate in the polls?” she asked.

But the BNP and its Islamist partner, the Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh, said there was no crisis following the resignation of the advisers (cabinet members of the interim government) and that the atmosphere was now right for holding free and fair elections. “A congenial atmosphere is prevailing for holding the polls,” said BNP secretary general Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan.

“If a party avoids elections, it doesn’t mean that the polls will lose credibility as elections cannot be deferred,” added Bhuyian, referring to the possibility of a boycott by the Awami League and its allies.

The four advisers said they had resigned as they felt they were unable to ensure fair elections and that conscience did not allow them to stay on.

Sultana Kamal, a cabinet member who resigned, said she and her colleagues had tried to work towards holding free and fair elections, but stepped down when they were thwarted. “We framed the package proposal and were discussing it with all the parties to find a solution acceptable to all, but we could not go ahead with it,” she said, adding that the country lacks an atmosphere conducive for a fair and credible election.

The Bangladesh-born British High Commissioner in Dhaka, Anwar Choudhury, said the development was unfortunate and that it ”introduced uncertainty over the functioning of the interim administration.”