Md Toaha after 1971: From Prothom -Alo

An article in the prothom alo on Md Toaha the Peking Party Leader, after 1971 on the liberation war.

Another article on Sheikh Mujibar Rahman from Dailystar Forum

BDR Mutiny: How do Indian media know that fast?

See this ridiculous link of timesofindia

They say:
"The preliminary interrogation of some of the rebels has thrown up the name of Salauddin Qadeer Chowdhury, a well-known shipping magnate and reportedly very close to the Pakistan military-intelligence complex and the opposition BNP. According to sources monitoring the situation, about one crore taka has already changed hands to help the mutiny along. "

Even though on the 1st march night at 2:25 IST they had this news online, I suppose no Bangladeshi media was aware of it.

Mutiny Over: now what?

Some important notes on the BDR mutiny:

• TV and other Media started to claim the BDR mutiny as revolution against ARMY.
• Probably they did not know abut the genocide by the BDR
• The starter was shown as heroic by the media
• Sooner they advertised that ARMY had started to operate with helicopters and artillery
• BDR started to shoot the helicopters using machine guns
• There was a rumour of a curfew from 3:00pm
• The leaflets were found requesting the BDR to cease their revolt

Upto this point everything was on BDR's side. They were talking about the corruption of the ARMY officers during the "dalvat" oeprations. 3 civilians died and nobody did ever accused BDR directly for the miscreants. Probably the civilian life has no value!

After the day had passed things started to change. The Government officials and ministers started a negotiating process and decided to handle the whole matter rather politically. Few of the BDR jawans submitted their arms to the state minister and supposedly everything seemed to be ok.
But the next day everything was changed. Before that some people from he acquaintance in the BDR and ARMY claimed of genocide and mass rape and loot of the higher ranked army officers, their families and their households. Several online bloggers and even rumour were spread on these happenings.

Later in the afternoon that day, some dead bodies were detected and news od massacar was confirmed and the things started to change. Media started to sing in a different tone. The Army was ready with the TANKS and the prime-minister succeded to handle the matter without that much army involvement. Now the media was called by the Information minister and warned on the situation.

The shameless media people soon changed their motives.

Even tonight on the Chanel-One there was a media personel, editor of bdnews.com saying that the fault was not on the part of the media, but the mismanagement of the govt. Govt should have taken care of the matter. Even he said that such serious matters related t national security should have been dealt with more caution. Even he gave some examples of restrictions which the govt could put on the Media.

Whern the conductor related that point to the free information flow of as a govt. committment then he changed the notion and said that there should be no information Ministry. The media should not report/governed by the ministry. Even in the next sentence he claimed the presence of some regulatory body which he could not defintely figured out exactly. The unprepared or excited bdnews editor was most probably not the best person to be there.

Another program was going on in another chanel. Former BDR dg Anwar Hossain was present and he claimed there was no wrong with the ARMY officers.

We should not forget the dead bodies of the ARMY officers and the corruption allegation against them.

Bangladesh wins Silver in Beijing for National Anthem

From 205 countries and their national anthems ours is chosen to be musically 'of quality' after that of Uruguay. Thanks to Rabindranath Tagore. The ranking is done by Alex Marshall, freelance journalist and specialist on music.

He says "National anthems are the same the world over - a short, classical piece meant to stir up pride", and on "Amar Sonar Bangla", "...A wonderful anthem that sounds like it was written for a stroll along the Seine..."

The Rank:
1. Uruguay
2. Bangladesh
3. Tajikistan
4. Mauritania
5. Dominica
6. US Virgin Isles
7. Senegal
8. Nigeria
9. Nepal
10. Japan

Latest News

America started to contact the Nepal's Maoist government though they called them terrorist few years back. Nepal blog Reports.

News says that Bangladesh has the drafts ready for a truth commission. Another process by which the current government try to make their stay steady.

It was probably yesterday that i heard that the Rohinga refugees of Myanmar were given voting rights. Another news says, "Myanmar refugees in Bangladesh say won't return".

Photography: Saiful Haque Omi

A photography exhibition started from yesterday at the Drik gallery(dhanmondi Rd 27). It would remain open from 3-8 pm till 10th of May. The show titles "Partnership in Practice".

Back to his earlier works, I found some today from Zahid sir's table. "Heroes never die:; Political Violence in Bangladesh 1989-2005".

Link to the Daily Star Forum link that I found later > link

60 Jumma Houses Burnt Down In Sajek

ILLEGAL Bengali settlers backed by a strong contingent of army personnel have burnt down at least 60 Jumma houses in four villages under Sajek Union of Rangamati district. Many Jummas are reported to have been wounded and women raped during the attack that began at 9:45 p.m. on 20 April. Details of the incident are yet to come.

Sources said tension had been mounting in the area since the settlers began constructing houses in March after grabbing Jumma people's lands.

Sensing an impending attack, the Jummas, 50 - 60 of them, gathered at a point of the village to defend themselves. This somehow leaked to the army who went up to them and asked them not to worry. "Since we are here, nothing will happen and settlers will not attack you" an RP Habilder, Harun, was reported to have told the Jummas.

The CO (Commanding Officer) of Baghaihat zone was also present there. However, he did not speak to the Jummas.

While the army engaged the Jummas in talks, a group of Bengali settlers mounted an attack on four Jumma villages namely Gangaram Mukh, Simana Chara, Purbo Para and Baibachara.

They torched the houses, beat up whomever they caught hold of and raped the Jumma girls and women. However, details as to how any have been raped and wounded could not be known immediately.

The Hill Students Council, a front organisation of the United People's Democratic Front, will hold a demonstration in Dhaka later in the day, today, in protest against the barbarous Sajek settler attack.

April 21, 2008

Rail line links London with Bangladesh

RAIL enthusiasts with a sense of adventure and 23 days to spare will be able to travel by train from London to Dhaka, the Bangladeshi capital, when a new link opens later this year and it would be the longest rail route of the world longer than the trans-siberian one. Times Online reports:

"...The 7,000-mile Trans-Asia railway will follow one of the old Silk Roads through Istanbul, Tehran, Lahore and Delhi....The UN said the link would open up new trade routes within Asia and give the former Soviet republics of central Asia rail access to Iran’s strategic sea port at Bandar Abbas on the Gulf....."

Politics is the price of rice

Here is an excellent article by Rahnuma Ahmed published in New Age April 14,2008:

Recently, the chief adviser, in the light of accusations of poor food distribution, said shortages occur even in countries which have elected governments. Of course they do. That is not the point. The new system of corruption is individualistic, sector-oriented, and technocrat-elitist. It is not tied to constituencies and vote banks which have a nationwide spread, albeit with party lines of exclusion and inclusion. The new system is an introverted one. When it comes to food and other resources, the distribution is random. It is queue-oriented, linear. It does not encompass. Its reach is limited. Most are left out, 
writes Rahnuma Ahmed*

BHAT dey haramjada (Give rice, you bastard) – screamed the graffiti on a wall. It had stunned pedestrians in Dhaka. This was 1974.


In early March, six months before the famine had reached its peak, news of starvation deaths could be heard. Two to three months later, they had become common enough. Occasionally, dead bodies could be seen lying on the street. What had caused the famine of 1974? Amartya Sen, a Nobel Laureate, says that it was a reduction in the ability of people to command food through legal means available in society – in their entitlements to food – that led to the famine. Food crisis, says Sen, is caused not by food shortage but by the shortage of income and purchasing power. On a person’s ability to command commodities, particularly food, under entitlement relations. Starvation and famine are not only economic, says Sen. These are multi-dimensional subjects, they include social, political and legal issues. If groups of people lack purchasing power they can starve, even though markets are well-stocked. Even though food prices are low.


What had caused the famine of 1974? For Devinder Sharma, it was the US government’s decision to withhold 2.2 million tonnes of food aid that was at fault. The US government had wanted to ensure that the Mujib regime ‘abandoned plans to try Pakistani war criminals’. When the Bangladesh finance minister had called upon the US secretary of state, in August 1973, to appeal for food aid, the latter had advised the speedy settlement of disputes with Pakistan. Referring to Bangladesh government’s proposal of ‘war crimes’ trials of the Pakistan army, he had said it was ‘not good to have such trials’. ‘Humanity’ had never learned from war crimes trials, he said. Of course, the Americans had good reasons for saying so. The US ex-secretary of state Henry Kissinger’s name had repeatedly come up. War objectors had demanded that he be tried for US massacres in Vietnam, for America’s role in Bangladesh’s liberation war. That humanity never learns is best exemplified by the US and its allies. Pakistan. Israel. Humanity never learns unless, of course, the criminals are Nazis or Serbians.


But that is not the end of ‘famine is a political weapon’ for the US story. Pressure on the Mujib government returned. In 1974, the US ambassador said no food aid would be given to Bangladesh if it exported jute to Cuba. The Mujib government gave in to US pressure. Jute exports to Cuba were stopped, but by the time food shipments reached, it was too late. Most famine victims had succumbed.


Were there other causes? Some researchers say successive natural disasters, floods and droughts had prefaced the food crisis. Others mention the Awami League government’s lack of foresight in importing foods. In directing subsidised food to the politically vocal urban population, at horrific costs to far poorer rural people. Others stress political and administrative corruption which had encouraged massive hoarding, and the smuggling of food-grains. Many others say it was the gross mismanagement of the economy.


Why do I rehearse these instances from history? Because there are lessons to be learnt. Because it is not enough for either the chief adviser, his advisers, or the army chief to repeatedly say there is no shortage of rice, the markets are well-stocked, more rice is being imported, it will reach soon. Simplistic reasoning, simplistic assertions are not enough. There have been too many famines, too many deaths. Each death was one too many. We must learn from history. That lessons are not being learnt is obvious from what is being said. From the little that is being done. The rice queues keep getting longer.


In 1974 too, world food prices had risen. But the situation is far more grave now. Hard-hit consumers across the globe are protesting. Mexicans rioted in December 2007. Tortilla prices had jumped up; in some parts of Mexico, it was four times higher. In Indonesia, people have protested against the rise in soybean prices. In Burkina Faso, protestors attacked government offices and shops. Demonstrations have also taken place in Guinea, Mauritania, Morocco, Senegal, Uzbekistan, Yemen. Severe weather, rising population, rapid increases in demand for food grain (China, India), speculation in commodity markets are listed as reasons. Also, a growing trend to turn food into fuel. Four hundred and fifty pounds of maize can be converted into enough ethanol to fill the 25-gallon tank of an SUV with pure ethanol at one time. Or it can be used to provide enough calories to feed one person for a year. The competition between food and fuel is encouraged by governmental subsidies given to biofuel in western countries. In non-western nations, that those hardest hit should be provided with income support to help them purchase food is something all concerned agree upon. Simultaneously, it is agreed that governments should increase their investments in agriculture in order to improve agricultural productivity.


The situation in Bangladesh is made peculiar because of its rule by a caretaker government. Because of the fifteen-month-long state of emergency. Recently, the chief adviser, in the light of accusations of poor food distribution, said shortages occur even in countries which have elected governments. Of course they do. That is not the point. The new system of corruption is individualistic, sector-oriented, and technocrat-elitist. It is not tied to constituencies and vote banks which have a nationwide spread, albeit with party lines of exclusion and inclusion. The new system is an introverted one. When it comes to food and other resources, the distribution is random. It is queue-oriented, linear. It does not encompass. Its reach is limited. Most are left out.
 


The army chief’s versatile kitchen


The army chief, General Moeen U Ahmed, had said, on a visit to Chelopara in Bogra, Bangladeshis should increase the intake of potato in their daily diet. ‘We should not depend only on rice. Of course, we will eat rice but we must increase the intake of potato.’ That will reduce the food crisis, specially the pressure on rice. Potato yields this year have been very high.


A few days later, General Moeen invited the country’s leading editors to the army headquarters. The meeting was followed by a lunch where nine potato dishes were served with plain rice, fresh salad, fried ruhi fish. The potato-based dishes were: potato country curry, potato malai curry, potato noborotno curry, potato pudina curry, potato roller gravy, potato kofta curry, potato pulse curry, potato shak (spinach) curry. (Jaijaidin, April 9, 2008).


The list only proves that the army chief has versatile cooks, a versatile kitchen. But that was never in doubt. Just as his promotion, or his extension was never in doubt.
 


Street humour


The language of the streets is different from the language of those who rule the land. Emergency restrictions, and the intolerable food crisis has generated jokes that comprise a secret language of sorts between common people. Food jokes, queue jokes have been common elsewhere too.

Such as this one.

A man is queuing for food in Moscow. Finally he’s had enough. He turns round to his friend and says, ‘That’s it. I’m going to kill that Gorbachev,’ and marches off.

Two hours later he comes back. ‘Well,’ says the friend, ‘did you do it?’ ‘No,’ replies the other, ‘there was an even longer queue over there.’


A recent joke, overheard by a friend in Muktagaccha, between two rickshawallas:


So, shorkar says, we have to eat more potatoes. What do you say?


Well, get those high-talking advisers over, have rice, chaff, flour, and potatoes in charis (cattle troughs), let’s see what they eat. I’ll eat what they eat.


Nine types of any food would fill a rickshawalla’s stomach.

*Rahnuma Ahmed is an Anthropologist based in Dhaka, Bangladesh. She can be reached at: rahnuma@drik.net

Links and Notes

Here are the links of some You Tube videos relating to the genocides of 1971 by the Pakistani army:

Bangladesh Genocide 1971 : Jogannath Hall, Dhaka University Massacre

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sMg9Ly9nK0g&feature=related

Bangladesh Genocide 1971: Khulna Massacres

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Z6SgETOjug&feature=related

Bangladesh Genocide 1971: Rape Victims

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwwPbkyZVJo&feature=related

Protecting Pakistan's Hindus

Guardian reports on the state of condition of the minority hindu in Pakistan:

...Pakistan, according to many accounts, was founded as a way to protect the rights and existence of the minority Muslim population of Colonial India in the face of the larger Hindu majority. Pakistan's founder, Muhammad Ali Jinnah, is reported to have said in 1947: "In due course of time Hindus will cease to be Hindus and Muslims will cease to be Muslims - not in a religious sense for that is the personal faith of an individual- but in a political sense as citizens of one state." It is therefore a travesty of Pakistan's own founding principles that its Hindus - and not to exclude Christians and Ahmadis - have suffered so grossly...

When schools ‘teach' untouchability

In Gujrat, India still the teachers are practicing discriminition towards the untouchables unabashedly. DNA correspondent report:

...In village schools of Gujarat, SC children are forced to sit at the back, actively discouraged from participating in class activities, and even subjected to food and water taboos.....Dalit teachers and cooks are never allowed to serve food during the mid-day-meals to kids. Whenever Dalit cooks serve food, only Dalit children eat their mid-day meal...

Islamist protest in Bangladesh

Islamist organizations in Bangladesh protests against the Women Development Policy of the current Govt. Reuters said:

...Hundreds of members of a group campaigning for Islamic rule in Bangladesh clashed with police on Friday over a plan to give women equal inheritance rights...

Local daily Shamakal and Daily Star also make report.