Clean Dhaka

http://www.bcas.net/Env.Features/Energy/2003/December2003/15%20to%2030.htm

Master plan envisages ‘clean’ Dhaka by 2015
Julhas Ripon

The Dhaka City Corporation and the Japanese International Cooperation Agency have started formulation of a comprehensive, modern and environment-friendly solid-waste management plan for a ‘clean Dhaka by 2015’.

The Clean Dhaka Master Plan will deal with different aspects of solid-waste management and focus on a strategy of reduction, recycling and reuse.

The plan will be submitted to the government in January, said Mayor Sadeque Hossain Khoka on Wednesday.

The mayor was earlier briefed about the inception report on the master plan by experts and officials of JICA and the DCC counterpart personnel unit.

Japanese ambassador to Bangladesh Matsushiro Horiguchi and JICA resident representative Takashi Sakamoto were present at the briefing, and so were former chief executive officer A.Z.M. Shafiqul Islam and chief conservancy officer of the DCC Sohel Faruquee.

The 16-member counterpart personnel unit, led by Anwar Hossain Patwary, and JICA experts are conducting a study of the 360-square-kilometre corporation area and newly-urbanised areas on its outskirts to formulate the plan.

A joint study, conducted by JICA and the DCC in 2000, found that the city generated everyday about 5,000 tonnes of sold waste, more than 80 per cent of which is biodegradable domestic waste.

If the population growth continued at the current rate, the daily volume would be no less than 11,000 tonnes by 2015, says the study.

The planned master plan will address different technical, institutional and social issues to establish a sustainable mechanism of scientific solid-waste management.

The plan will also suggest how technology transfer through close collaboration with counterpart personnel unit can be ensured.

The joint team will pinpoint technical issues related to collection, transportation, recycling, immediate treatment and disposal of garbage to meet the ‘clean’ Dhaka target.

JICA officials also said they would work for capacity building of the corporation’s solid waste management cell, enriching its survey skills for comprehensive planning knowledge, selection and evaluation of technologies.

After preparatory works, the joint team will start fact finding and situational analysis.

At this stage of activities — between December 2003 and March 2004 — the team will conduct surveys, visit different sites, talk to stakeholders, and collect and analyse relevant data.

“We will work with a participatory approach where all stakeholders would be consulted to make the plan sustainable,” said Kihachiro Urshibata, deputy leader of the JICA study team, during a presentation.

Patwary read out a statement detailing the background of the master plan formulation process.

The corporation currently collects, transports and dumps solid waste generated everyday in the city without following any scientific procedures, said the co-ordinator of the waste management cell and the counterpart personnel unit.

“The corporation is working with JICA through mutual co-operation for smooth implementation of the study and effective use of the study results,” said Patwary.

The mayor thanked the Japanese government for extending co-operation in different development sector, especially in the environment sector. “We appreciate the current move and hope that the study will help us identify the problems and formulate proper action plan to fulfil our dream of clean city in near future.”

Horiguchi was appreciative of some recent DCC moves to solve the garbage problems and stressed community participation in all the process.

“We hope both the counterparts will work together to make the study a success,” said the Japanese ambassador.

Later, the ambassador along with JICA team members and DCC officials visited the corporation’s official dump site at Matuail to have a close look at the current waste-disposal system.

Source: New Age, December 18, 2003

Nishorgo Project

http://www.bcas.net/Env.Features/Biodiversity/2004/march2004/1%20to%2015.htm

Nishorgo project launched to protect reserve forest, biodiversity
Kazi Shahnaz with Julhas Ripon

The Ministry of Environment and Forest, with the goal of protecting the country’s fast disappearing reserve forests and biodiversity, formally launched a conservation project on February 24.

Minister for Environment and Forest Shajahan Siraj inaugurated the project, titled “Nishorgo”, in the presence of diplomats, representatives of different government departments and international donor and money lending agencies, local government representatives and journalists at a ceremony in the Bhawal National Park in Gazipur.

With the financial assistance from the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and the Asian Development Bank (ADB), the Department of Forest and Environment will implement the project to improve the management status of the country’s protected forest areas which are under constant threat of human encroachment.

The “protected areas” include safari parks, wildlife sanctuaries, national parks and game reserves.

The Nishorgo programme is also designed to deal with the sharing of economic benefits by the stakeholders, formalisation of processes for reducing local conflicts over protected areas, installation of visitor amenities, refinement of the policy framework for management of protected areas, facilitation of eco-friendly private sector investment that can provide key services to the protected areas and support for applied research on protected areas that can improve future planning.

The minister announced that the project would be implemented through the adoption of a new management strategy, called ‘co-management’. The term ‘co-management’ means ‘a situation in which two or more social actors negotiate, define and guarantee amongst themselves a fair sharing of the management functions, entitlements and responsibilities for a given territory, area or a set of natural resources’.

The environment minister emphasised the importance of establishing partnerships between the ministry and the forest department working on its behalf with key stakeholders such as the people living around the protected areas, private businesses, other ministries, international donors, the conservation community or the indigenous people. “We will ensure effective partnership of all the local and national stakeholders in the management process under this project, where the matter of providing alternative income-generating opportunities to those presently living on forest resources will be included,” said Siraj.

The programme was also addressed by Environment Secretary Syed Tanveer Hussain, US Ambassador Harry K. Thomas, Deputy Director of USAID local mission Bath Paige and Chief Conservator of Forest M. Anwarul Islam.

Initially, the forest department will implement the project in five protected forest areas out of 16, which include Lawachhara National Park, Rema Kalenga Wildlife Sanctuary in Sylhet, Satchuri Reserve Forest, Teknaf Game Reserve in Cox’s Bazar and Chunati Wildlife Sanctuary in Chittagong.

Thomas reminded the audience that Bangladesh is a ‘bellwether for the world-wide challenge of balancing population growth with a need for economic growth and a limited environmental resource base’. “Bangladesh is endowed with productive land resources. I strongly believe that the Nishorgo programme has the potential in the next few years to transform the protected forest areas into biodiversity sources of global standing, which will give Bangladesh much greater stature at international environmental negotiation tables,” said Thomas.

He said that Bangladesh and the USA had signed an agreement under a debt-for-nature swap mechanism in 2000 under which a foundation called “Arrannayak” was established to administer small grants programme for tropical forest conservation in Bangladesh. “With all these issues I am pleased to see that the government is taking an important step through the Nishorgo programme to establish environmental good governance,” he added.

Environment Secretary Syed Tanveer Hussain said that the envisaged goals would not be limited to words only, rather the project would prepare the ground for the institutional improvements that can emerge from this partnership process of the co-management system.

“The threats to protected areas come from various sources and many types of people. We recognise that we must build partnerships to address the threats, and that we must take advantage of the best in technology to achieve our goals through capacity building of the departments concerned,” Hussain added.

Source: Weekly Holiday, March 05, 2004

Bali-Climate Change

Dec 12, 2007

While the West protects itself against global warming, the poor beg for help

By MICHAEL CASEY

AP Environmental Writer

BALI, Indonesia (AP) _ Surrounded by rising seas and short of water, the glitzy city state of Singapore has built one of the world's largest desalination plants and is paying Dutch experts tens of millions of dollars (euros) to devise ways to protect their island.

Bangladesh, meanwhile, is digging out from a cyclone that killed at least 3,200 and left millions homeless. The impoverished country wants to build up its coastlines to ward off the potentially devastating impacts of global warming, but has no money.

The disparities between the rich and poor in adapting to encroaching oceans and the floods and droughts that are expected to worsen with rising temperatures have dominated the U.N. climate conference on Indonesia's resort island of Bali.

The haves _ which pump the lion's share of pollutants into the atmosphere _ are arguing about emission targets and high-tech solutions. The have-nots _ which contribute little to global warming but are disproportionately among the victims _ need tens of billions of dollars (euros) to save their sinking islands, to help farmers adapt and to relocate those in the path of destruction.

"The issue of equity is crucial. Climate affects us all, but does not affect us all equally," U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon told delegates from nearly 190 nations Wednesday. "Those who are least able to cope are being hit hardest. Those who have done the least to cause the problem bear the gravest consequences."

The United Nations Development Program says 98 percent of the 262 million people hit by disasters from 2000 to 2004 came from impoverished countries, while the money to prevent disasters in the United Kingdom alone was six times what was spent in all poor countries.

The number of people affected by natural disasters has quadrupled over the past two decades _ from famines in Africa to floods in South Asia, according to Oxfam International, though it is not clear how much of that is due to global warming.

But with scientists predicting that temperatures could rise by as much as 5 degrees Celsius (9 degrees Fahrenheit) things are only expected to get worse.

The U.N. predicts that about 1.8 billion of the most vulnerable people across the globe will be hit by water shortages, 600 million more will go hungry and 32 million will be displaced by droughts and floods.

"Poor countries have really urgent priorities _ putting food on the table, accessing water, health care," said Antonio Hill, a climate change expert with Oxfam. "On all these issues, climate change is making these things worse."

From Venice to New Orleans, the West is already taking action to fight climate change within their borders.

Canada said Monday it would spend US$85.4 million (euro58 million) on adaptation measures, including tens of millions of dollars (euros) to help its Inuit communities adapt to warming Arctic climate.

The low-lying Netherlands _ which for centuries has built a vast network of canal systems, experience it is now passing on _ is spending an additional US$25 billion (euro17 billion) to improve its water defenses. Italy is doing the same.

Singapore, meanwhile, has built a 139 million desalination plant to boost its domestic water supply and teamed up with the Dutch engineering firm Delft Hydraulics as part of a more than US$208 million (euro141 million) effort to become a hub for climate change research _ much as it has for biotech and the medical industry.

The tiny city-state is itself vulnerable to global warming, but also realizes that "there is great potential to make money," said Peter Ng, who is part of the Dutch partnership called Singapore Delft Water Alliance. "If we play our cards right and do what we do well, other countries will come to us for help."

Poor nations, in the meantime, are doing what little they can.

Some are creating early warning systems, building bamboo storm shelters on stilts or making plans to relocate island communities. But the money often does not reach villages hardest hit by worsening floods and the rising seas.

In Kaoakola located along Bangladesh's Jamuna River, for instance, Mohammad Sheikh complains he has been forced to move his house three times because of increased floods.

"We're very poor. We can't afford it," the 70-year-old said, adding that he has been forced to become a day laborer after his 300 acres were lost to flooding. "The river, the floods have taken everything from me."

The Maldives _ a popular tourist destination made up of more than 1,000 low-lying islands _ also exemplifies the limits of good intentions in developing countries. It has rolled out plans to move communities to a few, well-protected islands, but so far has only been able to come up with the money to build up one such island.

"Climate change has become a daily reality in the Maldives and other small island states," said the country's president, Maumoon Abdul Gayoom, recalling how his islands were being hit by storm surges and erosion while fish were dying of mysterious diseases.

Even if the maximum suggested assistance is approved, it won't cover the costs.

Only up to US$300 million (euro203.9 million) annually will be available through a U.N. adaptation fund expected to be created in Bali and up to US$1.5 billion (euro1 billion) a year if an international climate agreement to succeed the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012, is approved.

That still falls far short of the nearly US$86 billion (euro58.4 billion) the UNDP estimates is needed annually by 2015, prompting some to suggest that additional mechanisms, such as a tax on bunker fuels or, as Oxfam demands, funding targets for industrialized countries.

Impoverished nations are also demanding a post-Kyoto agreement offer of increased access to technology for adaptation and assurances the money for climate response won't be taken from already meager development aid.

"The money they put up for this adaptation fund is peanuts. It's nothing," said Khandaker Rashedul Haque, a Ministry of Environment comparing his problems in Bangladesh to those of New Orleans, which is still recovering from Hurricane Katrina.

"Why are they putting up a few billion for a city like New Orleans when they are putting up a few million for the entire world?"

Associated Press Writer Julhas Alam in Dhaka, Bangladesh contributed to this report.

Food crisis

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/feedarticle/7457326

Food Crisis Looms in Bangladesh

• AP foreign
• , Saturday April 12 2008

By JULHAS ALAM

Associated Press Writer

DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) - For a 13-year-old boy in this impoverished, teeming city, some things are more important than classes - rice, for one.

``I need to eat first, then school,'' said Mohammad Hasan, standing at the back of a line of hundreds of people waiting to pick up government-subsidized rice.

With the price of food skyrocketing around the world, desperately poor and overpopulated Bangladesh is considered one of the world's most vulnerable nations.

An adviser to the country's Ministry of Food, A.M.M. Shawkat Ali, warned of a ``hidden hunger'' in Bangladesh and economists estimate 30 million of the country's 150 million people could go hungry - a crisis that could become a serious political problem for the military-backed government.

``We fear some 30 million of the ultra poor will not be able to afford three meals a day'' said Qazi Kholiquzzaman Ahmad, a leading economist in Dhaka, the capital.

Bangladesh already faces a decrease in arable land due to industrialization and the ever-growing population. Its low-lying land also is reeling from major floods and a devastating cyclone last year that destroyed some 3 million tons of food crops and left millions homeless and hungry.

The price of rice, the core of the Bangladeshi diet, has jumped by more than 30 percent since then - a major problem in a country where nearly half the population survives on less than $1 a day.

Approximately 10,000 textile workers demanding better wages to meet the higher food prices clashed with police near the capital on Saturday, said police station official Angur Akter.

Dozens of people, including at least 20 police officials, were injured in the violence, Akter said. Their exact number and conditions were not immediately known.

The government, which has ruled Bangladesh since January 2007, has responded to the shortages with varying degrees of success. It has opened more than 6,000 outlets distributing rice at roughly half the market price and announced plans to open more.

But ``the government failed to build enough stock of food immediately after last year's disasters, and because of that the situation has become volatile,'' said Ahmad, who heads an independent think tank, the Bangladesh Development Council.

``The government needs to build a buffer stock immediately. If the government fails, the situation will worsen,'' he said.

Major opposition parties have recently threatened street protests if the government fails to rein in rising prices and growing discontent could threaten the political balance.

India has agreed to ship 400,000 tons of heavily discounted rice to Bangladesh, but it could take weeks to arrive and officials are uncertain it will be enough. Because of high food prices, the Asian Development Bank warned that inflation could reach 9 percent by June.

Bangladesh is far from the only country with food problems. There have been riots in the African nations of Burkina Faso, Mauritania, Mozambique and Senegal. Rising prices have hit poor countries like Haiti and Peru and even developed countries like Italy and the United States.

A confluence of problems are driving up prices. They include soaring petroleum prices, which increase the cost of fertilizers, transport and food processing; rising demand for meat and dairy in China and India, resulting in increased costs for grain, used for cattle feed; and the ever-rising demand for raw materials to make biofuels.

As of December, 37 countries faced food crises, and 20 had imposed some sort of food-price controls. The U.N.'s World Food Program says it's facing a $500 million shortfall in funding this year to feed 89 million needy people.

World Bank President Robert Zoellick warned that prices could continue to rise for several years.

``This is not a this-year phenomenon,'' Zoellick said.

In Bangladesh, leaders are scrambling for solutions. Last week a senior official suggested people eat potatoes instead of rice.

Abdus Sobhan, a construction worker, who had spent hours waiting in the heat for discounted rice, dismissed the notion.

``It's better his family starts first, then we can think if we will change our habit of eating rice,'' he said. ``We can't bear it anymore.''

Jacob Interview

INTERVIEW
Freedom fighters won the war, not otherwise: Jacob

Omi Rahman Pial
bdnews24.com Senior Correspondent

Dhaka, March 28 (bdnews24.com)— Former Indian army officer JFR Jacob, who had designed the capture of Dhaka and surrender of Pakistani forces in 1971, has paid tributes to freedom fighters and said the victory of the Liberation War had been won by them, not otherwise.

"I've always said it was your (Bangalees) liberation war. It was your war of independence, not otherwise," retired Lt Gen Jacob told reporters at the Indian High Commission Friday.

Jacob revisited the Liberation War history framed with a click and a flash—the bloodied birth of a nation: Bangladesh.

On the afternoon of 16th December 1971, in the then racecourse ground, the Pakistan army surrendered to the Indo-Bangladesh allied forces. The official conclusion to the war on the eastern front was being signed on a wooden table by Pakistani commander, Lt Gen AAK Niazi and the commander of the joint forces, Jagjit Singh Aurora sitting on one side.

In the photograph, almost all the key players were present, one of them leaning from the left of the table as if to see whether Niazi was signing correctly. And he had every right to do so. Jacob made it happen.

The Pakistan army surrendering in the open was the second largest ceremony of its kind after the World War II. As the chief of staff under the Indian army's Eastern Command, Jacob, then a major general (junior to Aurora), drafted the instrument of surrender and convinced Niazi to accept it. The feat was the licence to the freedom of Bangladesh.

Thirty-seven years on, the general is again in the land where the great triumph was achieved. Upon invitation by the government, Jacob led an 11- member team of Indian army war veterans of 1971 to the 37th anniversary of Independence Day.

Immersed in nostalgia, a good-humoured Jacob claimed himself to be a journalist and urged the "brethren" to be kind to him with questions that would be possible for him to answer. There were a few that he dodged, but obliged to set the record straight about some issues exploited with 'evil intentions' by some quarters.

It was not a formal press conference, and the bdnews24.com correspondent took the opportunity to capture the rare moments of revisiting the Liberation War history by Jacob, author of "Surrender at Dacca: Birth of a Nation".

You had fought in Africa and the Pacific during WW2. You know about the holocaust. How do you see the ethnic cleansing of Bangalees in 1971 in the form of genocide?

Jacob: The atrocities committed by the Pakistan army are well known to you. They are well documented and you have much better records than anyone else. Your people have gone through it, so you are in a better position to judge it.

How did the Indian army get involved in Bangladesh's War of Independence?

Jacob: You want the official version or the unofficial one (laughs)? After the Operation Searchlight that took place on the 26th of March, the crackdown, we were monitoring the situation and were shocked to hear radio conversations of the Pakistan army. We heard Mujib's (Sheikh Mujibur Rahman) declaration, then Zia's (Ziaur Rahman) declaration of independence. And then the refugees started coming in countless numbers from across the borders. We took note of the situation and lent a hand to the Mukti Bahini, the freedom fighters of your country. Then in April, Tajuddin (Tajuddin Ahmed), Nazrul Islam, Osmani (MAG Osmani) all came to Theatre Road (in Kolkata), organised the Mukti Bahini and the war was on. We provided all possible logistic support to them. Unofficially, it was from April and officially, much later.

Last year, in an interview you claimed that capturing Dhaka had not been featured in the original plan of the Indian army, but it was you who had thought otherwise and disobeyed the order to march towards the capital.

Jacob: Well, it's a long story and you'll get tired of listening to it. The details are all written in my book, how everything happened and when. It's a very comprehensive documentation of the strategy and tactics used. I ask you to have a look at it.

Is it true that the freedom fighters were trained in India before the war?

Jacob: No, not before the war. To be precise, it was from the 13th April that we started helping them and it was a continuous process.

How did you guess that the surrender was on the cards?

Jacob: On the 14th December, we intercepted that a meeting was to be held at the Governor's House. Assuming that Niazi would be there with the governor, we planned an air strike. After it was carried out, the governor resigned. He took refuge in the Intercontinental Hotel. The situation was critical as the UN had the Polish resolution in their hand, the Russians telling us to hurry up as they were worried about the overuse of the veto power in our favour.

That afternoon, General Niazi sent a ceasefire proposal to the UN. Bhutto was in New York and he refused. On the 15th of December, the US proposed a ceasefire in Delhi and we accepted it. On the 16th of December, I was told to go and ask them to surrender.

You had drafted the instrument of surrender. What was Niazi's reaction when you placed it before him?

Jacob: He (Niazi) said, 'Who told you that we want to surrender? You are supposed to talk about ceasefire.' Then, the argument went on and on. Then it got stuck with regard to surrendering to the joint forces. He insisted it was to be the Indians. And I refused and insisted that it was going to be both Bangladesh and the Indian army. Later, when he was summoned to the Hamudur Rahman Commission in his country, he said that the reason for his surrender was that I blackmailed him. He wrote that in his book too. I never blackmailed him. I was just negotiating the surrender process, not blackmailing him. All I said was that we would not take any responsibility for the resumption of any hostile situation if they did not surrender.

Then, I gave him 30 minutes to think it out. When I came back, he still kept quiet. Then I walked up to him and said, 'General do you accept this document?' I asked him thrice, but he didn't answer. So I picked it up and said I'd take it as accepted.

Then I saw tears in his eyes. I looked at him with pity and thought this man has behaved very badly with the people of Bangladesh. You know what his army did and I don't want to repeat that. I wanted him to surrender in front of the people of Dhaka.

He (Niazi) said, 'I won't surrender anywhere else. I'll surrender in the Dhaka office.'

I said no. You will surrender at the racecourse in front the people of Dhaka.

It's the only public surrender in history.

Niazi said: 'You'll also provide a guard of honour.'

It was he who had said Dhaka would fall over 'my dead body'. That's why I made it a point to make him surrender in front of the people of Dhaka.

Why was the commander-in-chief of Bangladesh army, General MAG Osmani, absent at the ceremony?

Jacob: There is a lot of propaganda about it. The fact is, he was in Sylhet. He was in a helicopter that was shot at by the Pakistan army. I had ordered everyone on the Bangladesh side to stay in Kolkata. But he rode the chopper, got shot and couldn't attend the ceremony. It's not our fault. He should have been there. We wanted him there. Khandker (deputy commander-in-chief AK Khandker) attended in his absence.

Afterwards, you had the chance to interrogate Niazi and Major General Rao Farman Ali (a key player in the 1971 crisis and adviser to the governor of East Pakistan). What did they say?

Jacob: They denied everything, the atrocity and everything. They kept on saying that they would not forget the humiliation and would take 'badla' (revenge).

The 1971 war is often referred to in different quarters as another Indo-Pak war and some say it was a civil war, and these words hurt our pride. What's your view on it?

Jacob: I've always said it was your liberation war. It was your war of independence, not otherwise.

The call for trying collaborators, the local war criminals, is heating up as sector commanders have launched a broader movement. Should India come forward with facts and documents, as some say they possess, to facilitate the process?

Jacob: It's the internal matter of the government of Bangladesh, your own problem which you have to solve yourselves. I have nothing to say on that because it is for you to decide. Apart from that, I'm just a soldier, not a politician.

Last of all, I want to tell you something. The freedom fighters and the East Bengal Regiment, who with their limited resources fought a mighty regular army, earned the liberation of Bangladesh and it was their love for the country that made them victorious.

We helped them, we were brothers in arms. But it was their fight, they fought it. They fought with passion and they achieved what they fought for. I give my heartiest blessings and share the pride for them. They are the gems your country should be proud of.

bdnews24.com.

NB: Republished with permission.

Media under EPR

March 12, Wednesday

(bdnews24.com is Bangladesh’s first online newspaper. REPUBLISHED WITH PERMISSION)

www.bdnews24.com

US report points to media restrictions in Bangladesh

Dhaka, March 12 (bdnews24.com)—Emergency rule has allowed security and intelligence agencies to compel the media to file stories supporting the government, the US State Department has said in a statement.

The security and intelligence agencies put restrictions on newspaper content, said the US State Department's human rights report for 2007, released Tuesday in Washington.

The agencies monitored media houses and cautioned journalists about material deemed "offensive to the government or military", the report said.

The report said journalists and editors were summoned by joint forces for questioning.

On freedom of speech, the report said people could not criticise the government publicly without fear of reprisal.

"The constitution provides for freedom of speech and press; however, the government used the EPR to curtail these rights (freedom of speech and press)," said the report.

"Individuals were not able to criticise the government publicly without fear of reprisal," it said.

Newspaper ownership and content were often subjected to direct restriction and journalists reported being cautioned frequently by the security agencies against criticising the government or the military, the report said.

The report incorporated individual cases of harassment and torture of journalists by the security forces.

The report said "overt attacks" on journalists continued to be problem, but the number was fewer than in 2006. No journalists were killed in the attacks, it said.

The US State Department, quoting a local human-rights organisation, said at least 35 journalists were injured, 13 arrested, 35 assaulted and 83 threatened.

HUman Rights under EPR

March 12, 2008 Wednesday

(bdnews24.com is Bangladesh’s first online newspaper. REPUBLISHED WITH PERMISSION).

www.bdnews24.com

US says human rights worsened under EPR

Dhaka, March 12 (bdnews24.com)--The US State Department in its annual country report on the state of human rights in Bangladesh said the human rights situation has worsened in part owing to the state of emergency and postponement of the elections.

The State Department released its Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for the year 2007 on Tuesday.

The report said the ongoing anticorruption drive had popular support but raised concerns about whether due judicial process was being followed in high-profile corruption cases.

It also highlighted the interim government's attempts to exile former prime ministers Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia.

"The Emergency Powers Rules of 2007, imposed by the government in January and effective through year's end, suspended many fundamental rights, including freedom of press, freedom of association, and the right to bail," the report said.

"The government imposed unofficial house arrests on former prime ministers Sheikh Hasina and Khaleda Zia and made repeated efforts in the first six months of the year to force them into exile."

"Eventually, the government arrested both women on corruption charges, and at year's end they were awaiting trial".

The country report criticised restrictions on media.

Newspaper ownership and content were often subject to direct restriction by security and intelligence agencies, the State Department said, adding that journalists reported being cautioned frequently against criticising the government or the military.

On curtailing of individual and political freedoms alongside curbing freedom of press, the report said: "Individuals were not able to criticise the government publicly without fear of reprisal."

"The EPR suspended indoor and outdoor political gatherings, allowed the government to take legal action against critical editors and journalists, and allowed authorities to compel the broadcast or publication of stories supporting the government."

On extrajudicial and custodial deaths, the US State Department report said: "While there was a significant drop in the number of extrajudicial killings by security forces, they were accused of serious abuses, including custodial deaths, arbitrary arrest and detention, and harassment of journalists."

Using countrywide data from Bangladesh, the report said RAB killed 94 persons throughout the year, adding that the average number of such deaths dropped from 15 per month in 2006 to approximately eight per month during the year.

"The deaths, many under unusual circumstances, occurred during police operations or while the accused were in custody. The government, however, often described these deaths as crossfire killings, occurring in exchanges of gunfire between the RAB or police and criminal gangs," the report said referring to findings of local human rights organisations.

According to Human Rights Watch, joint forces held suspects illegally at unofficial places of detention where they interrogated, often abused, and in some cases forced suspects to sign confessions before releasing or presenting them to a magistrate, the report said.

The US State Department reported that the use of torture and abuse, including threats, beatings, and the use of electric shock, during arrests and interrogation increased after the declaration of the state of emergency.

The government rarely charged, convicted, or punished those responsible, and a climate of impunity allowed such abuses by security agencies to continue, it said.

On arrests, the report said the government reported arresting more than 300,000 persons between January and August, an arrest rate approximately 15 percent higher than in 2006.

"The majority of those arrested were released within a day or two."

No reaction is yet to be forthcoming from the government on the US State Department's report.

"I have not seen the report yet. I have to read the report first and then react," foreign secretary Md Touhid Hossain told bdnews24.com Wednesday.

Chief adviser Fakhruddin Ahmed and foreign adviser Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury are currently in the Senegalese capital Dakar to attend a summit of the Organisation of Islamic Conference.