¶ April 22, 2007 Sunday
^Murder warrant issued against Bangladesh ex-leader Hasina as she prepares to return home<
^By JULHAS ALAM=
^Associated Press Writer=
¶ DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) _ A court issued an arrest warrant against former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Sunday, her lawyer said, as she was poised to return to Bangladesh despite a warning from the military-backed government.
¶ The warrant comes amid news reports that the government is trying to force Hasina and her archrival, former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, into exile in order to calm a bitter division between their two political camps that has derailed the young nation's fragile democracy.
¶ The High Court, meanwhile, asked the government to explain clearly in writing if Zia is under house arrest, a domestic news agency reported.
¶ Media reports have said that Zia, who ended her latest five-year term in October and has agreed to go into exile in Saudi Arabia, is under house arrest.
¶ Justice M. A. Wahhab Mian told a state counsel that the government should clearly state whether Zia is being held, the United News of Bangladesh agency reported.
¶ Officials could not be reached immediately for comment.
¶ On Saturday, an intelligence official told The Associated Press that said Zia would leave the country with her younger son and other family members within the next few days as part of a deal to go into exile. He spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the issue.
¶ The government on Wednesday accused Zia's rival Hasina of issuing "inflammatory statements" against the country's military-backed interim government while she was outside the country, and warned her return might create further confusion and incite hatred among the people.
¶ Hasina, who held the office in 1996-2001, was charged with murder on April 11 while she was in the United States on a visit.
¶ The case involves the deaths of four protesters in a riot in October at one of a series of demonstations by her supporters accusing Zia's government of stacking the committee that was supposed to oversee January elections and rigging voter rolls.
¶ Over 30 people died in the protests that eventually led to the cancelation of the polls and the takeover by the the current military-backed government under emergency powers.
¶ Hasina was expected to board a flight from London to Bangladesh later Sunday.
¶ Metropolitan magistrate Meer Ali Reza issued the arrest warrant for Hasina on Sunday, her counsel Kamrul Islam told reporters. But he didn't make any further comment.
¶ The United News of Bangladesh agency reported that Hasina is now listed as a fugitive.
¶ Local media reported last week that she would be refused entry to the country, and that authorities have told airlines not to allow her to board any incoming flights.
Sunday, January 20, 2008
MY story: Cyclone Sidr
Washingtonpost.com
Powerful Cyclone Kills Hundreds in Bangladesh
Rescue Crews Struggle to Reach Survivors; Millions Across Country Are Left Without Power
By Julhas Alam
Associated Press
DHAKA, Bangladesh, Nov. 16 -- Aid workers struggled Friday to help hundreds of thousands of survivors of a cyclone that blasted Bangladesh with 150 mph winds, killing a reported 1,100 people, savaging coastal towns and leaving millions without power in the deadliest such storm in more than a decade.
Rescuers -- some even employing the brute force of elephants -- contended with roads that were washed out or blocked by windblown debris to try to get water and food to people stranded by flooding from Tropical Cyclone Sidr.
The damage to livelihood, housing and crops from Sidr will be "extremely severe," said John Holmes, the U.N.'s undersecretary general for humanitarian affairs and emergency relief coordinator, adding that the world body was making millions of dollars in aid available to
The winds wreaked havoc on the country's electricity and telephone lines, affecting even areas that were spared a direct hit and leaving the full picture of the death and destruction unclear.
By late Friday, about 24 hours after the cyclone roared ashore, officials were still struggling to get reports from many of the worst-hit districts.
Dhaka, the capital city of this poor, desperately crowded nation of 150 million people, remained without power. Winds uprooted trees and sent billboards flying, said Ashraful Zaman, an official at the main emergency control room.
The government's most recent announcement put the death toll at 242, but officials in the
The United News of Bangladesh news agency, which has reporters deployed across the devastated region, said the count from each affected district left an overall death toll of at least 1,100.
Holmes said his U.N. agency believed that more than 20,000 houses had been damaged in the hardest-hit districts He said the death toll was expected to climb beyond the government's figures.
About 150 fishing trawlers were unaccounted for, he said.
Hasanul Amin, assistant director of the cyclone preparedness program sponsored by the government and the Bangladesh Red Crescent Society, said about a dozen teams had been deployed to the worst-hit areas in the country's southwest.
But it was slow going. In the
"We have lost everything," a farmer, Moshararf Hossain, told Prasad. "We have nowhere to go."
The cyclone swept in from the Bay of Bengal and roared across the southwestern coast late Thursday with driving rain and high waves, leveling thousands of flimsy huts and destroying crops and fish farms in 15 coastal districts, officials and witnesses said.
Sidr spawned a four-foot-high storm surge that swept through low-lying areas and some offshore islands, leaving them under water, said Nahid Sultana, an official of the disaster management ministry.
At least 650,000 coastal villagers had fled to shelters, where they were given emergency rations, said senior government official Ali Imam Majumder in
Volunteers from international aid agencies, including the U.N. World Food Program, Save the Children and the U.S.-based Christian aid group World Vision, have joined the relief effort.
World Vision is putting together seven-day relief packages for families that will include rice, oil, sugar, salt, candles and blankets, according to Vince Edwards, the agency's
END/
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