Source : Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has said her government plans to procure fighter aircraft, surface-to-air missiles, helicopters and other armament to strengthen the armed forces.

She told Bangladesh Air Force (BAF) personnel Wednesday that the government had drawn up plans and set the process, including budget allocation, in motion.

‘Budget allocation for the Bangladesh Air Force under the present fiscal year is the biggest amount in the history of the force,’ she said.

She witnessed the BAF’s annual exercise WINTEX-2010 at the main fighter base at Kurmitola in Dhaka Cantonment, United News of Bangladesh (UNB) reported.

‘The present government will take all possible measures to build up the country’s air force as an up-to-date force by arming it with modern technology-based war weapons,’ New Age newspaper quoted her as saying.

Sheikh Hasina said her government was firmly committed to building a modern, knowledge-based air force that excelled in training and technology in order to ensure security of the country and its people.

A development plan had been approved for constructing infrastructure at Cox’s Bazar, located in the southeastern region bordering Myanmar, for smooth operation of fighter jets and transport aircraft to ensure security of economic activities in the maritime territories and relief operation in remote areas, Hasina said.

Defence purchases in Bangladesh have been mired in political controversy.

A court Monday acquitted Hasina of corruption charges in the purchase of eight MiG-29s that were bought during her earlier tenure as the prime minister.

She told the airforce personnel that the government of her political rival, Begum Khaleda Zia (2001-06) had kept the aircraft unused for long ‘just to get her in trouble’, the newspaper said.

A frigate purchased from South Korea for the Bangladesh Navy was also kept in mothballs for five years. It was re-commissioned in 2007.

The security analyst

Prime minister Sheikh Hasina’s cabinet today approved “in principle” the total reconstitution of the Bangladesh Rifles under a draft law which seeks to set death penalty for mutiny by the personnel of the paramilitary force.
The draft Border Guard Bangladesh Bill 2010, which also seeks to rename the mutiny-infested Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) as Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB), was approved in-principle by the cabinet, officials said.

“The cabinet also formed a high-powered six-member committee for final scrutiny of the proposed law,” prime minister’s press secretary Abul Kalam Azad told newsmen.

The committee, comprising two advisers, the prime minister’s principal secretary and home and law ministers was asked to submit a report at the next cabinet meeting, he said.
If the law is passed, the current Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) Order of 1972 and Bangladesh Rifles (Special Provision) Ordinance 1976 will be annulled.

The force will be renamed Border Guards Bangladesh.

The border guards will get a new insignia and new uniform of black, maroon and ash instead of the present olive-maroon colours.

The draft law also suggests a new organogram, new command structure and tougher promotion conditions for guardsmen to equivalent positions. There are also proposals to create more Border Outposts and swell the force’s ranks.
The decision came as the country last week observed the first anniversary of the February 25-26 BDR carnage during which 74 people, including 57 army officers serving the paramilitary force were killed at its Pilkhana headquarters.

Officials said the draft Border Guards Bangladesh Act 2010, sets death as the maximum penalty for mutiny as the existing BDR Act only suggested a seven year imprisonment for ordinary disobedience or breach of command in the paramilitary force

DEATH PENALTY

The proposed law will further toughen penalties for crimes committed by border guards.

It includes a provision of death penalty for mutiny, or disobedience in the field by border guards. The existing maximum penalty under the BDR law is seven years in jail.

Abul Kalam Azad said on Monday: “The present BDR act was not sufficient for trying the February 2009 mutiny.

“The prime minister thinks a stronger law is necessary to prevent repetition of such events. She wants establishment of rule of law in the country and trial of all killings.”

The press secretary said the report of the high-powered committee will contain the final recommendations on the new law.

For some in Bangladesh, a mutiny a year ago that left 74 dead strengthened the democratic government, while others allege that the use of torture to extract confessions is undermining the justice process.

In the headquarters of Bangladesh’s border guard force, where the uprising began, the walls of Major General Mohammad Mainul Islam’s otherwise immaculate office are still pockmarked with bullet holes.

The bloodstains have been scrubbed away, the bullet holes are neatly circled as evidence, which will soon be used in court, and Islam now says, proudly, that the handling of the crisis a year ago on Thursday was a big step forward.

“Not a single bullet was fired to stop this mutiny. A large mutiny was controlled in a peaceful, democratic way; you must appreciate that is a good thing, and a good lesson for everybody,” he said.

On February 25, 2009, Islam’s predecessor and 56 other senior army officers were shot dead when soldiers at Bangladeshi Rifles (BDR) headquarters in Dhaka went on a killing spree, later hiding the bodies in sewers and shallow graves.

Angry soldiers, citing grievances about pay and conditions, killed 74 people during the 33-standoff at the headquarters, including civilians, before they looted the compound and burned parts of it down.

The siege briefly threatened the survival of the newly elected government of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who refused to use force to end the mutiny — instead offering an amnesty in a televised appeal.

The decision upset powerful figures in the army, which had relinquished power just weeks before, and many observers worried that the standoff could lead to a return of military rule.

“It was the prime minister’s judgement and vision, and with hindsight I can see how disastrous it would have been to fight fire with fire,” Islam said.

Bangladesh — one of the poorest countries in the world — has a history of political violence, coups and counter-coups since winning independence from Pakistan in 1971.

The country was run by a military dictator from 1982 to 1990, before democracy was restored in 1991. In January 2007 the army again stepped in and democracy returned with elections, which Hasina won, in December 2009.

Hasina’s civilian government has dealt with the fall-out from the mutiny through democratic channels, including internal reforms — which address many of the mutineers’ grievances — and legal proceedings.

One year on, the wheels of justice are grinding slowly forward, but there are concerns about the use of torture on suspects and the reliability of any convictions as a result.
Nhereen Ferdousi, widow of Colonel Mujib Hoque, a senior BDR officer killed during the mutiny, wants justice — but justice she can believe in.

“We are very much hopeful that they will bring justice, but it must be the right kind of justice. We don’t want any innocents to be blamed,” she told AFP.

On Wednesday, the government announced that around 900 border guards would be tried in civil courts on murder, arson and looting charges related to the mutiny. Bangladesh has the death penalty for murder.

In parallel, an estimated 3,500 people face charges in military-run Special Courts for involvement in the mutiny, where they face a maximum penalty of seven years in prison.

Rights group Amnesty International has raised concerns that “highly charged emotions in the aftermath of the mutiny” could mar the ongoing legal process, citing the deaths of 48 BDR personnel in custody, allegedly due to torture.

“They beat my husband while he was hanging from the ceiling, they even beat his toes,” said Sharifa Begum, 46, whose husband Torab Hossain has been in Dhaka’s central jail since May 2009.

Her son Sharif Ahmed, 28 and also a BDR soldier, has been missing since June. Both of them were posted at the BDR Headquarters during the mutiny.

“My husband told me: I have confessed but only to prevent severe torture. I did not touch any weapon, nor assist any mutineers. I’m innocent,” she said.

The BDR’s Islam maintains that there is no evidence of torture in custody leading to the deaths, and said if there were, it would be fully investigated.

BDR Rivel overview!!:Bangladesh 2009

2010

Dhaka trial of Bangladesh mutiny begins

The trial has begun in the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka of border guards accused of taking part in a mutiny a year ago.

The revolt by members of the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) left 74 people dead, including 57 officers.

The mutineers blamed their revolt on bad pay and years of mistreatment by corrupt officers.

Last year, the government set up six special courts to try suspected mutineers. Trials began in November and the first verdict is expected in May.

The mutiny took the country to the brink of nationwide conflict. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina said it was a plot to bring down her government.

Some 80 border guards went on trial in Dhaka on Tuesday charged in connection with the mutiny.

Proceedings are taking place in the same room at BDR headquarters – Darbar Hall – where the rebellion was launched when two soldiers tried to kill their commanding officer who was giving a speech at the time, the BBC’s Mark Dummett in Dhaka reports.

Searchers pulled bodies out of sewers around the barracks

Charges against the mutineers include conspiracy to kill officers and civilians, using weapons and explosives, creating panic, looting and trying to hide bodies.

In all some 3,500 soldiers are to stand trial in military courts for taking part in the mutiny.

A smaller group, which one newspaper puts at about 800, are to stand trial for murder, rape and looting, in a separate civilian court.

No date has yet been set for that trial which will be, by some measure, the largest in the country’s history, our correspondent adds.

At least 50 border guards detained for questioning have died in custody, the authorities say. Human rights groups have expressed alarm and suspect the figure could be higher.

Rights groups doubt the military’s account that some of the detainees committed suicide, while the rest had heart attacks or died of other illnesses.

Authorities in Bangladesh deployed the army to the southeastern hill region after more than 100 people were injured in clashes between tribals and Bengali settlers, police and local media said on Sunday,
At least two people were killed in the clashes that raged

throughout Saturday in the Rangamati Hill District, about 350 km (220 miles) from the capital Dhaka, the worst violence in the area in years.

Thousands of landless Bengalis, mostly victims of river erosion, were settled in the Chittagong Hill Tract region under a government plan in the 1980s to ease population pressure in the plains and also to defuse a tribal insurgency.

Relations between the settlers and the tribal groups have been tense over ownership of lands, often leading to violence.

“Army troops have been deployed and the situation is under control but very tense,” a local reporter said on Sunday by telephone. “Assembly of more than five people has been prohibited.”

Police said they found bullet-riddled bodies of a man and a woman in the Rangamati district where the clashes erupted. More than 100 homes were set on fire.

In 1997 the Bangladesh government signed a peace deal with tribal Shanti Bahini guerrillas who waged a 25-year insurgency over demand for political autonomy in the 5,500 sq miles (14,200 sq km) Chittagong Hill Tracts, bordering India and Myanmar.

Police said a tribal group opposed to the peace accord attacked a settlers village, sparking the latest violence.
Rights activists and eminent personalities yesterday strongly condemned the killing of indigenous people and arson attacks on their houses at Baghaihat in Rangamati on Saturday.

In separate statements, they demanded formation of a judiciary commission to probe the incident and punishment to the attackers.

They called on the government to provide food and treatment facilities for the affected families and ensure their rehabilitation.

They also called for deployment of police force formed with indigenous people and Bangalees.

They urged the government to activate the Chittagong Hill Tracts land commission to resolve land disputes.

The organisations included Bangladeshi Adivasi Odhikar Andolon, Gono Forum, Ain O Shalish Kendra (ASK), Bangladesh Legal and Services Trust (BLAST), Association for Land and Development (ALRD), Nijera Kori, Brac’s Human Rights and Legal Aid Programme, Transparency International Bangladesh (TIB), Association of Development Agencies in Bangladesh (ADAB), Chittagong Hill Tracts Hill Students Council, Revolutionary Workers Party of Bangladesh, Gonotantrik Bam Morcha, Samajtantrik Chhatra Front, Communist Party of Bangladesh, Gono Sangskriti Front, Jatiya Gono Front and Sammilito Samajik Andolon.

In a joint statement, 29 eminent personalities demanded a discussion on the issue in parliament.

They also called for formation of a parliamentary group who will talk to the affected people and the administration to calm the situation.

The signatories included Prof Mosharraf Hossain, Prof Anisuzzaman, Barrister M Amir-Ul Islam, Prof Rangalal Sen, Ajay Roy, Maj Gen (retd) Shafiullah, Prof Dr Syed Anwar Hossain, Barrister Sara Hossain and Prof Abul Barak

Bangladesh said it is on target to buy military equipment including 80 armored vehicles and two helicopters as part of its 10-year defense transformation plan.

Planning Minister retired Air Vice Marshal A.K. Khandker made the announcement to parliament in Dhaka, saying orders will be placed for some equipment in the current fiscal year.

The shopping list includes seven tanks and one armored recovery vehicle for the army and maritime patrol craft.

The helicopters and 80 armored vehicles, as well as five armored recovery vehicles and five armored ambulances are destined for Bangladeshi troops on U.N. peacekeeping missions,

“An international tender has already been floated to purchase choppers and aircraft to strengthen maritime patrol and also to turn the navy into a three-dimensional force,” Khandker said.

However, The Hindu report gave no details of costs or time frames.

The country will also beef up its manufacturing of bullets and other small-caliber munitions.

“The government has approved in principle and allocated necessary funds to double the capacity of Bangladesh Ordnance Factory to produce ammunition for small arms,” Khandker said in reply to a written question by the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party.

He said that construction of five patrol craft at Khulna shipyard was under way. The government is considering building or purchasing two larger patrol craft, a hydro graphic survey vessel and one oil tanker at a national or a foreign shipyard.

The government will also be looking to buy one or two old frigates from other countries. The purchases of an offshore patrol vessel from the British navy and a large patrol craft are progressing, he added.

The army has various foreign-made APCs, including around 1,080 Russian BTR-80 and BTR-70 — of which more than 100 are used on U.N. missions — 60 Egyptian-made Fahd 28, and several Turkish and Romanian 6X6 RN-94 APCs for ambulance use.

Last February the newly elected government announced the ambitious procurement plan, including anti-tank and anti-ship missile systems, aircraft for maritime patrol, frigates, tanks and helicopters. A parliamentary committee agreed in principal the 10-year plan in June.

The ship BNS Osman is going to be equipped with anti-aircraft and anti-ship missile from China, analysts said. The BNS Bangabandhu is the most modern ship of the Bangladeshi navy and will be similarly equipped.

The BNS Bangabandhu was built in 1999 by Daewoo of South Korea for $100 million as a multi-purpose anti-air, anti-surface, anti-submarine frigate derived from the fleet of Ulsan class ships that are in service with the South Korean navy. It was fitted with a Thales command-and-control suite comprising a TACTICOS combat system, DA-08 surveillance radar, a Variant surface surveillance radar, a Mirador electro-optical tracking and fire control system and a LIROD Mk2 fire control radar.

The ship was decommissioned and put in reserve in 2002 because of essential warranty work. It was recommissioned in July 2007 for active service as BNS Khalid Bin Walid. It was renamed in 2009 as BNS Bangabandhu.

The navy is in the process of replacing its three former British navy frigates BNS Abu Bakar, BNS Ali Haider and BNS Umar Farooq with modern frigates in next couple of years. It hopes to be operating submarines by 2019.

Prime minister Sheikh Hasina said her government had come into power with the people’s mandate and they would judge the government’s successes, addressing the nation on her one year in power.

She criticised the army backed caretaker government, saying: “Remain alert so that no evil force can come to power.”

She said: “We were not responsible for the misrule during the two years preceding the (December 2008) election.”

She blamed BNP for the situation that led to the promulgation of a state of emergency on Jan 11 2007.

She also praised the contribution of those who helped bring about “the change”
…

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina wednesday, said in the last one year her government tried with all sincerity to live up to the public trust bestowed upon it in the last general election.

source : dailystar.

Addressing the nation , on the occasion of her government reaching its one year mark in power, Hasina said Awami League (AL)-led alliance’s landslide victory in the election was the manifestation of that public trust.

“Therefore, our responsibility towards the people also increased manifold. We tried to live up to that trust over the last one year. It is up to the people to judge how successful we have been,” the premier said.

“Our election pledges were to reduce prices of essentials and to ensure food security. We have largely succeeded in delivering on those pledges,” said the prime minister, whose cabinet focused on boosting up the agriculture sector from the very beginning.

In the recorded televised address, Hasina, also the leader of the House and chief of the AL-led grand alliance, pledged to establish a healthy, positive political trend breaking away from traditional political culture.

She urged the main opposition to join the parliament and play an effective role in building a prosperous Bangladesh, shunning all narrow partisan and personal interests.

“Let’s unite to search for an enlightened way to build a golden Bangladesh,” Hasina urged the nation.

The premier elaborated on her government’s measures in different sectors including agriculture, communications, energy and power, education, ICT, commerce, food, poverty reduction, health, climate change, and protection of the environment and rivers.

Talking about massive plans in the communication sector, the prime minister said her government will build a rail line connecting the capital and Cox’s Bazar. A thirty-two kilometre long elevated expressway will also be built in Dhaka connecting Jatrabari and Zia International Airport to ease traffic congestion in the capital, she added.

The prime minister sought cooperation from all citizens for implementation of her government’s programmes and promises for building a prosperous Bangladesh.

“We want to free the country of corruption, misrule, illiteracy and poverty by 2021,” she said.

On curbing corruption, the premier said, “We want to see the country free of corruption. For that we have taken steps to reform and strengthen organisational structures. The Anti-corruption Commission is working independently.”

Speaking on establishment of rule of law, she firmly pledged to begin the trial of war criminals within the shortest possible time. None with connection to last year’s BDR mutiny will be spared, she said.

She also said the killers of four national leaders assassinated inside Dhaka Central Jail on November 3, 1975 will face justice. The perpetrators of the August 21, 2004 grenade attack on an AL rally, and the persons responsible for the 10-truck arms haul in Chittagong will be punished as well, she added.

“The government has taken different measurers so that no militant and terrorist activity can be carried out in Bangladesh,” said the premier adding that her government took different steps for strengthening law and order, and to that end it increased facilities and allowances for law enforcers.

In the speech the prime minister thanked the people of the country and expressed deep gratitude to those who voted AL to power.

She held the last BNP-Jamaat coalition government responsible for ushering in the immediate past state of emergency for two years by resorting to widespread corruption and misrule

The United Nations is going to appoint a major general from Bangladesh Army as the commander of its peacekeeping mission in Ivory Coast.

Chairman of parliamentary standing committee on defence ministry M Idris Ali said this to reporters at the Zia International Airport on his arrival after a 14-day official visit to the peacekeeping missions in the African states of Ivory Coast and Congo.

A number of members of Bangladesh armed forces and police are engaged in the UN missions there.

Talking to the press, Idris Ali also pointed out that there are some problems Bangladeshi peacekeepers are facing abroad.

The standing committee will submit recommendations to the government in this regard like taking initiatives to provide Bangladeshi soldiers with cheap phone call rates for talking to their relatives back in the country and chartering aircraft to fly them home on annual holidays, he said.

The Awami League lawmaker led a six-member delegation to Ivory Coast and Congo to witness the operational and administrative duties of Bangladesh contingent deployed there.

The team also visited various military installations and called on high officials of the UN peacekeeping operations.

Many think that such visits to UN peace mission areas will enhance the morale of Bangladeshi troops and help make them more dutiful.

Idris Ali told reporters that the UN would increase participation of Bangladeshi soldiers in its peacekeeping missions in the two countries.

Bangladesh is the second highest contributor to UN’s peacekeeping missions in terms of number of peacekeepers. The United States secured the number one position in terms of financial contributions.

Earlier, US President Barack Obama invited Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina along with heads of 10 other countries contributing peacekeepers to the missions to a meeting in New York on September 23 where they exchanged views and experiences on UN peacekeeping operations across the world.

source :http://www.bdmilitary.com/

moeen with gurumia

The former chief of army staff Gen (Retd) Moeen U Ahmed, who is now in the United States of America (USA), claimed that he was the only general who stood beside the people during the crisis moment and kept his promises to the nation in preserving democracy.
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