By IANS,
Dhaka : Bangladesh’s main opposition party has approached the UN seeking a probe against the previous caretaker government for alleged human rights abuses.
In a memorandum addressed to UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) alleged ‘oppression’ that led to the deaths of 40 “opposition leaders” and injuries to 2,500 political activists.
The party led by former prime minister Begum Khaleda Zia has also expressed ‘resentment’ at the role of then coordinator of UN agencies in Bangladesh, Renata Lok Dessallien, accusing her of writing a letter that ‘provoked’ the imposition of the national emergency in January 2007.
Dessallien was “supportive, in a way, of all gross violation of the UN convention against oppression instead of protesting against them during the two years’ state of emergency”, New Age newspaper quoted the letter as saying.
Emergency was imposed and a general election that the BNP had hoped to get a walk-over in January 2007 was cancelled after its rival Awami League boycotted it.
Both Zia and her arch rival and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina suffered long detentions during that period as the government conducted a drive against corruption.
However, Hasina is perceived as having benefited from the two-year interregnum, while Zia feels victimised and holds the caretaker government responsible for its poll defeat.
Today, the top officials who governed during 2007-08 are out of power and have nobody to defend them.
Immediate past president Iajuddin Ahmed, in a recent interview, justified all that happened during his tenure as “Allah’s will”.
Right from Iajuddin Ahmed to the just-retired army chief Gen. Moin U. Ahmed and Chief Advisor Fakhruddin Ahmed and his team of advisors who governed the country stand accused in the eyes of the BNP.
On the other hand, Hasina last week cautioned her party colleagues “not to join BNP” in their criticism of the caretaker government.