Nation mourning Sheikh Mujib

The nation is observing the National Mourning Day, the 36th death anniversary of the country's founding father Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

Prime minister Sheikh Hasina on Monday laid a wreath on the grave of the architect of Bangladesh's independence at Tungipara in Gopalganj.

Chiefs of the Army, Navy and Air Force, armed forces, Hasina's younger sister Sheikh Rehana and the cabinet members were also present there.

It is a government holiday with the national flag flying at half-mast at government buildings and the Bangladesh missions abroad.

Programmes to mark the day started by laying wreathes to Sheikh Mujib's mural in front of Bangabandhu Museum at road 32, Dhanmondi early in the morning.

President Zillur Rahman and the prime minister laid wreaths on the mural. After that, Hasina also laid floral wreaths on the graves of other victims of the day at Banani graveyard.

They issued separate messages to mark the day.

The Awami League is observing the day by flying the national flag at half-mast and hoisting black flag in every party office across the country early in the morning. It is holding day-long programmes to observe the day.

Prayers in the mosques, temples, pagoda and churches will also be held to mark the day.

State-run Bangladesh Television and Bangladesh Betar are broadcasting special programmes while national dailies have published special supplements.

This year the day is being observed in a different context as five murderers of Sheikh Mujib were hanged on Jan 28 last year following their convictions and decisions of the Supreme Court.

Six other former army officials convicted in their absence are still on the run while another died abroad.

The day was observed for the second time at state level after the Awami League formed government in 1996. The caretaker government in 2001 also observed the day.

But BNP-led four-party alliance government cancelled the decision to celebrate the day at state level.

It was restored as National Mourning Day in 2008 following a High Court order after a gap of six years under the BNP-led government.

SHEIKH MUJIB'S LIFE

Mujib was born on Mar 17, 1920 at Tungipara in Gopalganj.

He came to limelight with the formation of Purba Pakistan Chhatra League following the end of British rule in the Indian sub-continent.

Mujib continued to rise in national politics because of his active involvement in the language movement in 1952, 1954 general elections, and six-point declaration in 1966.

His arrest in the Agartala conspiracy case catapulted him into the national limelight, making him the undisputed leader of the Bengali's freedom struggle against Pakistani exploitation.

He was given the title of 'Bangabandhu' - friend of the Bengal- after he was freed from jail in 1969.

On Mar 7, 1971 Mujib delivered the historical speech at Racecourse Maidan (now Suhrawardy Udyan), which inspired the countrymen to join the war of independence.

A handful of renegade army officials on Aug 15, 1975 killed Mujib along with his wife Begum Fazilatunnesa, sons Sheikh Kamal, Sheikh Jamal and Sheikh Russel, daughters-in-law Sultana Kamal Khuki and Parveen Jamal Rosy, Mujib's younger brother Sheikh Abu Naser, nephew Sheikh Fazlul Haque Moni, Moni's pregnant wife Begum Arju Moni, Mujib's brother-in-law Abdur Rab Serniabat, Serniabat's daughter, son, nephew and grandson, Mujib's security chief Col Jamiluddin Ahmed, three guests and four domestic workers.

Mujib's daughter prime minister Sheikh Hasina and her younger sister Sheikh Rehana, were in Europe and thus escaped the massacre on that fateful night.

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Embattled Strauss-Kahn to face new sex allegation

Strauss-Kahn(left), Tristane Banon(Right).

French writer Tristane Banon is to file a complaint for attempted rape against former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn, her lawyer said on Monday.
Banon accuses Strauss-Kahn of trying to assault her as she tried to interview him in a Paris flat in 2003.
Strauss-Kahn said he would sue Ms Banon for making false statements.
He was recently freed from house arrest in New York in a separate alleged case. He denies sexually assaulting a hotel maid in the city on 14 May.
Meanwhile, prosecutors of the New York sex assault case are going to drop all sex assault charges against the former IMF chief in the coming weeks because of doubts about his accuser's credibility.


"We all know this case is not sustainable," the newspaper quoted a top investigator in the case as saying.
However, the new sexual assault allegations in France are unlikely to affect his New York trial, experts have opined.
It was shortly after Strauss-Kahn was arrested in New York that Banon came forward to say that he had tried to assault her.
She did not go to the police at the time, but did raise the allegation in a TV chat show in 2007, when Strauss-Kahn's name was bleeped out.
Banon's lawyer, David Koubbi, said on Monday that she had instructed him "to file a formal criminal complaint for attempted rape" against Mr Strauss-Kahn. He said the complaint would be filed yesterday to a Paris prosecutor.
He said the alleged incident took place in February 2003, and not in 2002 as previously reported.
Banon, 32, has claimed that during the interview, Strauss-Kahn said he would only speak to her if she held his hand.
According to her version of events, she eventually had to fight him off as they wrestled on the floor and he undid her bra and pulled open her jeans.

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Pakistan arrests CIA's bin Laden informants: report

 

 

 

 Pakistan's top military spy agency has arrested five CIA informants who fed information to the US spy agency before the raid last month which killed Osama bin Laden.

One of the detainees was reported to be a Pakistani Army major whom officials said copied license plates of cars visiting the al Qaeda leader's compound 30 miles northwest of Islamabad. 

The fate of the CIA informants arrested in Pakistan is unclear.

Outgoing CIA Director Leon Panetta raised the issue of the informants' detention during a trip to Islamabad last week where he met with Pakistani military and intelligence officers.

Some in Washington see the arrest as another sign of the deep disconnect between US and Pakistani priorities in the fight against extremists.

The United States kept Islamabad in the dark about the May 2 raid by Navy SEALs until after it was completed, humiliating Pakistan's armed forces and putting US military and intelligence ties under serious strain.

Last week, at a closed Senate Intelligence Committee briefing, Deputy CIA Director Michael Morell rated Pakistan's cooperation with the United States on counterterrorism operations a "three" on a scale of 1 to 10, the Times reported, citing officials familiar with the exchange.

Other officials cautioned that his comments did not represent the administration's overall assessment, the newspaper said. "We have a strong relationship with our Pakistani counterparts and work through issues when they arise," CIA spokesman Marie Harf told the newspaper.

"Director Panetta had productive meetings last week in Islamabad. It's a crucial partnership, and we will continue to work together in the fight against Al Qaeda and other terrorist groups who threaten our country and theirs."

Asked about the Times report, a CIA spokeswoman neither confirmed nor denied it and said she had no further comment.

Pakistan's Ambassador to the United States, Husain Haqqani, was quoted as saying that the CIA. and the Pakistani spy agency "are working out mutually agreeable terms for their cooperation in fighting the menace of terrorism. It is not appropriate for us to get into the details at this stage." 

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Road to Europe shorter for Serbia after Mladic arrest

Protesters stand in front of a anti-EU banner as they attend a demonstration in front of Serbian Parliament on May 29, 2011 in Belgrade, called by ultra-nationalists against Bosnian Serb war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic's arrest lats May 26.

ANDREJ ISAKOVIC/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

By Olivia Ward Foreign Affairs Reporter

Ratko Mladic is in The Hague. But a week after the accused Bosnia war criminal’s arrest, where is Serbia?
Its president, Boris Tadic, is hoping for a member’s seat at the European Union — and soon.
But for both Tadic, and the beleaguered union, there are hurdles ahead. The clock is ticking toward a 2012 Serbian election, and a Brussels decision to put Belgrade on the track to long-sought integration.
Serbia’s longing for EU membership is not surprising. And in spite of political splits, some 60 per cent of Serbs back it.
With membership goes new trade; investment opportunity for a nation, in the doldrums for decades; subsidies; freedom of movement; a common currency and eventually an open door for Serbs to work in more prosperous countries.
It also helps to reclaim the place Belgrade lost as a cosmopolitan centre of culture and intellectual life, in the dark days of Slobodan Milosevic’s rule. And it confirms the normalization of Serbia’s post-Milosevic identity after the wars that stained the country with blood.
“The arrest of Mladic really lifted a great burden from Serbia,” says Ivan Vejvoda, a vice-president of the German Marshall Fund in Washington, and former senior adviser to murdered prime minister Zoran Djindjic. “During a period of democratic rule, the country had been held hostage by one person.”
In spite of years of doubts about Serbia’s commitment to bringing Mladic to justice, and a recent poll that showed 51 per cent of respondents were against handing him over to The Hague, European leaders reacted swiftly, and favourably, to his arrest. And ratings of Tadic’s Democratic Party have risen.
French President Nicolas Sarkozy called the arrest “a step toward integration . . . into the EU someday soon.” and German Chancellor Angela Merkel said it was “the best basis for the region achieving reconciliation and a future in Europe.”
But problems still lie ahead. A report by international war crimes prosecutor Serge Brammertz on Serbia’s co-operation with The Hague will be tabled at the UN this month. And the European Commission, which will decide on Serbia’s candidature for membership in October, is expected to base its decision on his conclusions.
Serbia’s opposition to the ethnic Albanian province of Kosovo’s declaration of independence has also worried the EU’s bedrock members, who are not eager to admit countries in conflict. But Tadic has joined in talks with Kosovo, and sent his chief negotiator to the capital Pristina.
The EU, meanwhile, has its own problems with expansion, and some original members grumble that the now 27-member body has already stretched too far. The economic crisis has bitten deeply, and several are seeking bailouts. Some also question the wisdom of remaining in the eurozone.
But for Tadic, and his ruling Democratic Party, which faces election next year — and a challenge from a nationalist party that led protests calling for an earlier poll — gaining a foothold on EU membership is crucial to political survival. And to Serbia’s future direction.
Some critics say that even admission as an EU candidate will do little to quell the frustration of recession-hit Serbs who believe the country has given too much for too little in return.
But says Vejvoda, “the situation is improving, and Tadic’s standing in the polls is better. Mladic’s arrest will help to bring back the liberal democratic voters.”
Tadic has also won points with a visa-free policy for EU countries that started in 2009. And the Fiat-Chrysler auto company is about to reboot an old plant in central Serbia that will turn out about 200,000 cars a year.
Mladic’s arrest will push Serbia farther down the road to stability, and EU membership. But some believe more is required.
The arrest “cannot simply mean closing the door on the past,” says Natasha Kandic, director of Belgrade’s Humanitarian Law Centre.
“Regional reconciliation strongly depends on Serbia’s approach. Good steps forward have been made . . . (but) promoting debate is the next one. Political authorities need to show serious support for establishment of a commission for truth and justice.

Photos

Protesters stand in front of a anti-EU banner as they attend a demonstration in front of Serbian Parliament on May 29, 2011 in Belgrade, called by ultra-nationalists against Bosnian Serb war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic's arrest lats May 26.

ANDREJ ISAKOVIC/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

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