Gun attack, police obstruction mar hill people’s rally against amendment

Gun attacks on and police obstruction in three hill districts on Tuesday marred the hill people's demonstrations against the imposition of Bengali nationality on national and linguistic minorities in the 15th amendment to the constitution.

The United People's Democratic Front has called a blockade of road and waterway in three hill districts for July 20–21 denouncing the amendment.

The party's associate body of students Pahari Chhatra Parishad also called a student strike in all educational institutions in the hill districts for July 14 for the same cause.

UPDF supporters Shimul Chakma and Newton Bikash Chakma were wounded with bullet after unnamed people fired into the human chain at Shilachhari. Eight more sustained injuries.

The human chain also faced obstruction at Ghagra in Rangamati. Crude bombs were exploded.

The UPDF blamed the Santu Larma-led Parbatya Chattagram Jana Sanghati Samiti for the attacks but the PCJSS brushed aside the allegation outright.

In Bandarban, the police did not allow human chains in front of the local press club. A human chain was later formed at Balaghata.

Thousands of hill people took to the streets in three hill districts with human chains on highway and roads in Khagrachari and Rangamati and at places in Bandarban at the call of UPDF.

Source : New Age

CHT commission urges govt to revise 15th amendment

Chittagong Hill Tracts Commission expressed reservations on Tuesday about some stipulations in the 15th Amendment to the constitution, particularly its use of the terms 'tribes', 'minor races' and 'ethnic sects and communities' to identify 'indigenous peoples.'

In a letter to the prime minister, the commission also said, 'The constitution should not have Bangali nationalism as its foundation as there is documentary evidence of the contributions by many non-Bangalees to the liberation war.

It called for immediate corrective steps to address the concerns of the ethnic minorities of CHT.

It called for a fresh amendment to the constitution to accord due recognition to Bangladesh's all the 50 or 60 'indigenous peoples' in line with the UN Charter.

It said that the amendment was brought ignoring opposition from several lawmakers and civil society groups.

It also expressed reservations about the retention of the provision of state religion and Bismillah-Ar-Rahman-Ar-Rahim in the constitution.

Source : New Age

Ali Toyob dies

Senior advocate Ali Toyob, also a language movement veteran during 1952, died of old age complications at Chuadanga Sadar Hospital on Monday at the age of ninety.

He is survived by his wife, two sons and a daughter.

He was buried at Chuadanga Jannatul Maula graveyard after janaza that was joined by people from all walks of life.

A condolence meeting was held at the court premises.

District and sessions judge KG Mostafa presided over the meeting that was also attended by local judicial officers and members of local bar.

Ali Toyob joined local bar in 1957 and took part in the language movement in 1952 when he was a Dhaka University law student.

Source : New Age

RU celebrates 58th founding anniversary

Rajshahi University with grand celebration observed its 58th founding anniversary on Tuesday.

RU vice-chancellor professor Abdus Sobhan inaugurated the programme by hoisting the national and university flags on the Senate Building premises at about 10:00am, amid the national anthem sung by the students and staff of the university.

After releasing pigeons and balloons they brought out a large and colourful procession that paraded through the campus streets to end in front of the Kazi Nazrul Islam Auditorium of the university.

At about 11:00am a discussion on the history and achievement of RU was held at the auditorium with the VC in chair.

Pro-vice-chancellor Mohammad Nurullah, economist Sanat Kumar Saha, also a former professor of the university, former RU central students' union vice-president Abdur Razzak and acting treasurer Mohammed Abdul Bari addressed the programme, among others.

Source : New Age

Govt not to allow missions’ neglect of citizens abroad

The government would not tolerate any negligence of officials at Bangladesh missions abroad in providing service to expatriate

Bangladeshis, foreign minister Dipu Moni said in Jeddah Tuesday.

'No negligence will be tolerated,' she told them.

Speaking at a function, hosted by Bangladesh Consulate in Jeddah for launching issuance of machine readable

passports and visas, she said the officials at missions must provide

service to Bangladeshis abroad.

She said that they must provide 'quality service' even if they have limitations.

She said the government was taking action against officials at Bangladesh missions abroad on specific complaints of 'deliberate negligence' to the people.

She said, 'We will continue to take such action.' 

The foreign minister also urged Bangladeshis living abroad to be 'understanding' about 'the genuine limitations' at the missions and the officials working there.

She said that the foreign ministry as well as the country's missions abroad were working with limited manpower.

She said that in many situations 'we cannot provide the service as the foreign ministry has been working with an organogram prepared

in 1982 although the

work has increased

a lot in dimension and variation in last three decades.

The foreign minister urged all Bangladeshis abroad to abide by the laws of the host countries.

She also urged Bangladeshis abroad to remain alert so that they, their friends and relatives did not earn bad name for Bangladesh.

In an oblique reference to the opposition political parties, the foreign minister also urged them to remain alert so that no 'quarter' could make adverse campaign against the country abroad.

She also requested Bangladeshis living abroad to vote and encourage others to vote for the Sundarbans to make it the world's number one natural wonder.

State minister for home Shamsul Hoque Tuku, Bangladesh ambassador to Saudi Arabia KSA M. Shahidul Islam, the consul general in Jeddah M. Nazmul Islam and director general of Immegration and Passport M Abdul Mabud also spoke.

Mabud said the government would take steps to issue machine readable passports and visas from all the 66 Bangladesh missions abroad.

The government started issuing machine readable passports on May 13, 2010.

He said the authorities would gradually replace 13 million manual passports with MRPs.

He said that with the introduction of the latest the visa issuance system, all the immigration check posts of the country would be able to verify

the authenticity of Bangladeshi visas online to check any fraudulent practice.

Source : New Age

Submit probe report against Jamaat leaders by Aug 1: ICT

The International Crimes Tribunal on Tuesday ordered the prosecution to submit the report of the investigation of the war crimes allegedly committed by the four detained top leaders of the Jamaat-e-Islami by the first of August.

The tribunal also cautioned the prosecution that one year of the detention of the four top Jamaat leaders — its amir Matiur Rahman Nizami, secretary general Ali Ahsan Mohammad

Mojaheed and assistant secretaries general Mohammad Kamruzzaman and Abdul Quader Molla — would be completed on August 1 and the tribunal would have to respond positively to their bail petitions, in accordance with its rules, unless the investigation report was submitted by that date.

The chief prosecutor, Golam Arif Tipu, replied that the investigation report, in the form of a formal charge, would be submitted by 1 August.

The tribunal, which was instituted on 25 March, 2010 for the trial of war crimes committed during the War of Independence in 1971, passed the order after the chief prosecutor sought more time for completing the investigation and submitting a report.

Opposing the prosecution's plea, defence counsel Tajul Islam argued that the Jamaat leaders should be granted bail as the prosecution had failed to submit charges against them within one year of their detention.

The tribunal of Justice Nizamul Huq, Justice ATM Fazle Kabir and Judge AKM Zahir Ahmed posted for August 1 the hearing of the bail application filed by the Jamaat leaders.

It also ordered the prison authorities to allow the detained Jamaat leaders to sign the files of their income tax returns and to ensure proper medical treatment for them.

If the formal charge against the four top Jamaat leaders is submitted by August 1, it will be the second formal charge in the war crimes cases of this country.

The first-ever formal charge of war crimes was submitted to the tribunal last Monday against Delwar Hossain Sayedee, the detained nayeb-e-amir of the Jamaat.

In addition to the five Jamaat leaders, Bangladesh Nationalist Party's standing committee member Salauddin Quader Chowdhury, also a lawmaker, has been detained on charge of committing war crimes.

Each of them had to undergo one day of interrogation at the safe house in Dhanmondi.

The tribunal, however, on March 31 granted bail to former BNP lawmaker and minister Abdul Alim on certain conditions.

Source : New Age

ICT rules change insufficient for fair trial: HRW

The Human Rights Watch in a statement on Tuesday said that the new amendments to the Rules of Procedure of the International Crimes Tribunal did 'address some key problems' but 'fail[ed] to bring other areas of the law and rules into compliance with international standards.'

Brad Adams, the director of Human Rights Watch in Asia, said, 'While the

amendments are a significant improvement, key problems still need to be fixed to ensure fair trials and avoid unnecessarily lengthy appeals.'

The tribunal, set up under the International Crimes (Tribunals) Act 1973 to prosecute Bangladeshi citizens alleged to have committed war crimes and other international crimes during the 1971 war of independence, made public in the past week the latest amendment to its rules.

In the statement, the Human Rights Watch went on to suggest six further changes that it considered 'necessary to ensure fair trials' — repeal of the first amendment to the constitution; allowing an accused to question the impartiality of the tribunal; amending the International Crimes (Tribunals) Act to ensure that the 'definitions of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide conform with international standards'; ensuring that the defence is given adequate time to prepare, instead of the current three weeks; and giving the accused the right to make appeals during the trial (interlocutory appeals) instead of only at the end.

Abdur Razzaq, the head of the legal team, representing the five leaders of the Jamaat-e-Islami detained for nearly a year by the tribunal on allegations of committing war crimes, on Tuesday claimed that unless further significant changes were made to the legal regime regulating the tribunal, any trial it held 'would be a show trial'.

At a press briefing held in the Supreme Court Bar Association's auditorium, Abdur Razzaq, sitting with four other members of the legal team of the accused, rejected the changes made to the rules as 'cosmetic' and criticised comments made earlier by the registrar that the tribunal was a 'national tribunal prosecuting international crimes.'

'If you say that it is a domestic tribunal then follow the domestic laws, allow the accused persons the protection of the fundamental rights guaranteed by the constitution, the procedural safeguards contained in the Criminal Procedure Code and the substantive law of evidence contained in the Evidence Act,' he said.

Razzaq outlined five key demands including the repeal of the first amendment to the constitution, which would then allow 'the accused persons to exercise their fundamental rights guaranteed in the constitution'; creating a forum to hear appeals against the tribunal's decisions prior to conviction; and allowing foreign counsel to appear before the tribunal.

In response to a question about what would happen if these changes were not made, Razzaq said that his legal team may decide to stop participating in the tribunal proceedings.

Razzak said that without these changes the tribunal would not be 'acceptable to us, to the right-thinking people of Bangladesh [or] to the international community.'

In an impromptu press briefing following Razzaq's press conference, the chief prosecutor, Golam Arif Tipu, said that he thought it was inappropriate for the defence lawyers to hold a press conference commenting on the rules in this manner.

He also defended the 1973 act which he said was based on the international standards that existed at the time.

'So far as the rules are concerned, I have no grievance,' he told New Age later. 'The changes also provide advantages to the accused.'

Source : New Age

No probe initiated

A three-member committee, formed to probe the road accident at Mirsharai which killed 44 schoolboys on Monday, did not initiate

investigation till Tuesday afternoon.

The committee chief, Ibne Alam Hasan, also additional chief engineer of the Chittagong zone of Roads and Highways, said he came to know about the committee from media reports and did not receive any formal direction.

'I don't know yet the other members of the committee. I will initiate the probe after consulting the other members on receiving a formal direction,' he said.

He also said he had communicated with the higher authorities adding that he was advised to wait for a formal directive.

The communications ministry on Monday formed the three-member committee to probe the Mirsarai tragedy.

Kabir Ahmed Nizamee, chairman of Mayani union council, filed a case with the Mirsarai police accusing Mafiz Uddin, driver of the ill-fated truck, of causing the accident.

Iftekher Hasan, officer-in-charge of the Mirsharai police station, said the police launched a manhunt for the driver who had been on the run.

'We came to know from the survivors that he was driving recklessly and talking over mobile phone when the accident occurred,' he added.

The accident, which took place at Abu Torab-Bartakia road at about 1:00pm on Monday, killed 44 students, including 35 of Abu Torab High School, two of Abu Torab Fazil Madrassah, three of Abu Torab Primary School and two of Professor Kamal Uddin College.

Source : New Age

Arafat now in Malaysia: Thai envoy

Thailand's ambassador in Dhaka Tasanawadee Miancharoen on Tuesday confirmed that Arafat Rahman went to Malaysia from Thailand.

'Koko is no longer in Bangkok. He is in Malaysia. You ask Malaysian ambassador,' she said briefly in response to a question at a press briefing organised at the Thai embassy on the eve

of a Thai Fair in Dhaka.

Arafat earlier went to Bangkok on parole for treatment on July 19, 2008. On June 23 this year, he was sentenced in absentia in a money laundering case.

Bangladesh high commission in Kuala Lumpur is not aware of the whereabouts of Arafat Rahman in Malaysia, reports Bdnews24.com.

'I talked to (Bangladesh) high commissioner to Malaysia and he told me that he had no knowledge about whatever was published in the media,' said Shamim Ahsan, director general of external publicity wing of the foreign ministry, on Tuesday.

The Thai ambassador talked about Arafat's whereabouts at a time when rumours are rife about his leaving Thailand to avoid 'getting extradited' after being found guilty of laundering money to Singapore.

Arafat and Ismail Hossain Simon, son of former BNP shipping minister late Akbar Hossain, were convicted of money laundering and jailed for six years and fined Tk 190.41 million each recently.

The Anti-Corruption Commission filed the case against Arafat and

Simon for laundering Singaporean dollar 2,884,000 and $ 932,000 to Singapore.

Arafat, arrested on September 3, 2007 in the GATCO corruption case, went to Bangkok on parole on July 19, 2008.

The government on August 19 last year cancelled his parole and asked him to return home by August 31 and surrender in court.

As Arafat did not follow the government instruction, he was convicted in the money-laundering case as a fugitive.

Source : New Age

Taxes still a stumbling block in US debt talks

After months of effort, president Barack Obama and congressional Republicans are right back where they started as they try to avert a looming debt default: arguing over taxes.

With a 'grand bargain' to tame the national debt seemingly off the table, Obama, House of Representatives Speaker John Boehner and other top leaders will try for a more modest deal when they resume their discussions at the White House on Monday afternoon.

But negotiators will have to confront a divide over taxes that has prevented them from reaching a deal so far. Democrats say new tax revenues need to be part of the equation, while Republicans say they won't back any increase in taxes.

A highly anticipated Sunday meeting broke little new ground. Obama and his fellow Democrats repeated the need for a 'balanced' approach, while Republicans restated their position that tax increases would further burden the already shaky economy. Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid lectured Republicans for backing away from tough decisions, sources said, while Boehner was largely silent.

One source familiar with the meeting described it as a 'frank exchange of views' — Washington-speak for 'acrimonious.'

The post-meeting rhetoric seemed to bear this out.

'It's baffling that the President and his party continue to insist on massive tax hikes in the middle of a jobs crisis,' said Don Stewart, a spokesman for Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell.

Reid's spokesman, Adam Jentleson, said: 'The stakes are too high for Republicans to keep taking the easy way out.'

Time is running short to break the impasse.

The Treasury Department has warned that it will run out of money to cover the country's bills if Congress does not raise the $14.3 trillion (8.9 trillion pound) debt limit by August 2. Failure to do so could push the country back into recession, send shock waves through global markets and threaten the dollar's reserve status.

The real deadline is even closer. Participants say a deal should be in place by July 22 to ensure Congress has enough time to act, and Obama has told lawmakers to be prepared to meet every day this week.

Aides to Boehner and Obama had spent much of the past week discussing an ambitious budget deal that would have reformed the tax code and popular social spending programs and scaled back annual defence and domestic spending.

The goal was the $4 trillion in budget savings, measured over 10 years, that budget experts say is needed to keep the national debt at a sustainable level.

Source : New Age