PM rules talks with opposition leader

Says the next general elections under EC

Bangladesh singing bath Sangstha. New York

The Prime Minister, Sheikh Hasina, has about the need for the meeting for talks with the opposition leaders ' excluded various problems in the country.

On a "Meet the Press" program said with journalists on Bangladesh of's Permanent Mission to the United Nations in New York on Saturday, the Prime Minister the most important

"Requirements of the BNP leaders have been ' damaged sons", end process against war criminals and withdrawing the money laundering cases, which release against their sons.

"Would not the trial of war criminals in illegal interests of a political force be?" The corrupt should be released? Attack would brought not the people, the people by grenade stand in the dock, and those who embezzle money to orphans to book?,' asked them the questions.

For 40 years, Hasina, said the country was free and the Awami League was in power for 10/11 years. "The development and the welfare of the people were only made when the Awami League, which was in power, but others have plundered the country property,", she said.

Dipu Moni, Health Minister AFM Ruhal Haque, Bangladesh of Foreign Minister's Permanent Representative to the UN, Foreign Minister Mijarul Finley's Abdul Momen, PM spokesman Abul Kalam Azad and Bangladesh press Ministers in Washington Swapan Kumar Saha present on the occasion.

At the beginning of the program, the Prime Minister marked different programs of their 11-day tour of New York.

She said that the US President, Barack Obama, Bangladesh had asked, and Obama the exchange of greetings with her to the reception, organized by the UN Secretary-General, Ban Ki-moon and US first lady Michelle. "The President expressed to visit interest in Bangladesh", she said.

Their Government has the Prime Minister had strong efforts make flight from Biman Bangladesh Dhaka-New York again.

The Prime Minister has the work of the United Nations was not only limited to peace. "We want the world to see body more effectively." We want to see, want contradictory world... we leave a peaceful environment for the new generation, "she said."

To do this, she expressed, the United Nations would play a special role.

The 'they peace model' in her speech in 66. The UN General Assembly revealed on Saturday, said Hasina, peace in the world would come, if questions which have been implemented in accordance with the model of peace.

The Prime Minister said that her Government wanted to make the people of the source of all power or owner. ' The people would vote ruling would decide the country and the people are the greatest strength of their power.

About the country's economy, she said that the purchase the poverty, the main obstacle to development, been reduced to increased to the people, while.

Highlight the need for peace and stability of the country to improve the standard of living which people, said they all had combines work to eliminate poverty.

The regional connectivity said Hasina of the current global social and economic system remains no country insulated. "Making regional connectivity is a must," she said, added that her Government for the welfare of the people has been working, through the establishment of friendly relations with all neighbouring countries.

The Prime Minister further said the establishment of regional connectivity India had agreed for transit, Nepal and Bhutan while Manmohan Singh's last visit to Bangladesh.

"The question of cooperation of water power in the region, discussed even during his", she said.

On relations between Bangladesh and India, she said that friendly relations between the two countries exist. "Discussions in progress are over the water share the common rivers, including Teesta", she said.

She also said that discussion, whether a preliminary agreement on the water could be made part of Teesta. They hope "would if we could fix parts of the aisle a complicated problem like water, we also able to reach an agreement on the water parts of teesta River be ink,'.

Khaleda Zia's comments, which the BNP election would not go without the caretaker Government, said the Prime Minister, that elections would take place when the time comes, and all political parties would involved is about.

Mr leinen reports Hasina said, would take place the next general elections under the supervision of the Electoral Commission and all political parties would participate in the polls

"The Government will not intervene in none of the elections," she said.

The Prime Minister said that her party was at first a movement for the Transitional Government forged. ' The BNP wanted it not... but she said, there was not a neutral person in the country with the exception of mad people and children.

Then, they were forced to be the caretaker: Government Bill in the House at midnight.'

Mention the special experience it on the caretaker Government Justice Latifur Rahman, who said the Prime Minister that he dismissed 13 Secretaries (Latifur), between a half an hour to talk about oath and at that time, were not appointed the other consultants and meeting of the Cabinet was not held.

She said that the BNP President Iajuddin Ahmed as caretaker head of Government in 2007 after against the law, framed by the party.

Mention that all the heads of the previous interim Government, the BNP created that were, plundered she said that she (BNP) thought that she would be able from money abroad to siphon, they during their rule.

Hasina, said that their Governments do not want to cancel the managing system of Government. But she said pronounced judgment declaring the Court illegally the managing system of Government.

"How would we legalize caretaker Government system, which has been declared by the apex court for illegal?,' they called into question."

The Prime Minister said that the Awami League was not entitled, in the year 2001 to power come as the party does not agree to sell gas from abroad.

"Sheikh Hasina policies sell the interests of the country for the greed which does not," she said.

Mention that BNP would power movement never successfully, Hasina said the people of the country would not stand for the corrupted. "they (BNP) not the development and progress of the country could hinder,", she said the BNP not pushing something to do, the people who suffer from deals.

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| Source: newagebd.com

Jamaat leader hires US firm to lobby

A senior Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami leader, Mir Quasem Ali, along with his US-based brother Mir Masum Ali, in the past year spent $310,000 (Tk 24 million) hiring one of the top United States lobbying firms to try and influence the country’s politicians and government officials on the ‘Bangladeshi War Crimes Tribunal’ and issues relating to the ‘political opposition,’ according to documents lodged with the US congress.

In March 2010, the Awami League government set up the International Crimes Tribunal to prosecute people alleged to have committed war crimes during the 1971 war of independence.

Since its establishment, the tribunal has detained seven men, five of whom are leaders of the Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami.

Quasem Ali, a successful businessman, is a member of both Jamaat’s 15-member central executive committee and its working committee.

The head of the ICT’s investigation agency has previously confirmed to journalists that the agency is conducting inquiries into whether Quasem Ali committed crimes during the 1971 war of independence. It is understood that in 1971 he was president of the Jamaat’s Chittagong unit student wing.

His younger brother Masum Ali, who lives in New York and is understood to be a US citizen, is named as the project director of media and publications on the website of the Muslim Ummah of North America, an organisation which attracts US-based supporters of the Bangladesh Jamaat.

Cassidy and Associates,

which in 2010 was ranked as the sixth largest lobbying firm in the United States, is required by the Lobbying Disclosure Act 1995 to file with the US senate a registration form when any client starts using its services.

For as long as the arrangement continues, the firm must also file quarterly reports setting out the fees it receives from the client and the individual lobbyists within the company who undertook the work.

It is these publicly available documents which New Age has obtained in relation to the two brothers.

Abdur Razzaq, a Jamaat leader and head of the legal team defending his party colleagues accused of war crimes, declined to comment on whether the lobbying was undertaken on behalf of the political party. The forms do not mention Jamaat’s name.

Both Mir Quasem Ali and Cassidy and Associates failed to respond to a series of questions e-mailed to them.

It is not unlawful for a Bangladesh citizen or an organisation to hire a lobbying firm; documents filed with the US congress by lobbyists show that in 2001 and 2002, the Bangladesh Export Processing Zones Authority spent $430,000 (Tk 32.6 million) on hiring US lobbyists and between 2001 and 2009, the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters’ Association spent over $530,000 (Tk 40.2 million) on lobbyists.

The United States has become an important battleground for those supporting and those opposing the International Crimes Tribunal.

Whilst the Bangladesh government is seeking to get the US government’s stamp of approval for the tribunal, the Jamaat-e-Islami wants the US congress and government to take a critical position in light of what they argue are violations of due process.

The effectiveness of Cassidy and Associate’s lobbying may in part be gauged if Stephen Rapp, the US ambassador for war crimes-at-large, comes for his third visit to Bangladesh, expected to take place in November. He has previously said that the US government might provide assistance to the tribunal depending on how he and the congress viewed the fairness of the trial process.

The documents, obtained by New Age directly from the US senate database, show that on November 24, 2010, Cassidy and Associates filed a lobbying registration form for a ‘client’ named as ‘Mir Quasem Ali’ and an address which matches the Jamaat’s leader current address at Mirpur in Dhaka.

The registration form describes the client’s business as ‘Television programme production and broadcast.’ Quasem Ali is a major shareholder of the Diganta Media Corporation which owns Diganta Television and the newspaper Naya Diganta.

The document describes the ‘specific lobbying issue’ for which the client has sought services from Cassidy and Associates as ‘Bangladeshi war crimes tribunal and political opposition matters.’

Nearly two months later, on January 13, 2011, the company filed a ‘lobbying report’ which stated that Quasem Ali would be required to pay ‘$80,000’ (Tk 6 million) for work done by the company in the final three months of 2010.

The figures are supposed to be a ‘good faith estimate’ by the company ‘rounded to the nearest $10,000.’

The forms disclose that the lobbying company put together a four-member lobbying team to lobby the ‘US house of representatives, the US senate and the state department.’

The team included the company’s founder and executive chairman, Gerald SJ Cassidy, one of its senior vice-presidents Mark Clack, who had previously worked as a staff member of the house of representative international relations committee, and also Elizabeth Tregaskis, the company’s ‘international specialist.’

Gerald Cassidy is one of the most prominent and respected lobbyists in Washington.

In a subsequent ‘lobbying report’ relating to work undertaken in the first three months of 2011, the lobbying company estimates that it would receive a further fee from Quasem Ali of $100,000 (Tk 7.9 million)

The form, this time stated that the company’s lobby was solely focused on the ‘Bangladeshi war crimes tribunal’ and not on opposition party matters.

This fee paid by Quasem Ali in the first quarter of 2011 was amongst the largest quarterly fees incurred by any of Cassidy’s clients in 2011 — with only about one dozen out of 140 clients paying more.

The filed documents, publicly available through an online US congress database, shows that Quasem Ali did not pay for any further lobbying work but that less than a month after he terminated his contract with the company, his brother, Masum Ali then became a client of Cassidy’s seeking lobbying around exactly the same subject areas.

In the next six months, the lobbying disclosure forms, seen by New Age, show that the fees paid by Masum Ali totalled $130,000 (Tk 9.9 million) — divided into $50,000 for the work undertaken between April and June 2011 and $80,000 for lobbying between July and September.

Masum Ali is described, like his brother, as involved in television production which may refer to his role in establishing Diganta Television in the United States. The forms show that a similar team of lobbyists worked for Masum Ali, though Gerald SJ Cassidy was replaced with the company’s number two executive, Gregg Hartly.

It appears that the arrangement between Masum Ali and the lobbying company is ongoing as it has not yet filed a ‘termination’ form.

According to the US congress database, the two men appear to be the only individual clients of Cassidy and Associates in 2011. All their other clients were companies or organisations.

Other Bangladesh newspapers have suggested that Quasem Ali has paid $25 million to lobbyists but this figure is not supported by the documents disclosed to the US senate by Cassidy and Associates.

Criticisms of the tribunal have not just been made by the Jamaat-e-Islami. Independent human rights organisations including Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have raised concerns about inadequacies in the International Crimes (Tribunal) Act 1973 and the tribunal’s rules of procedure, and they may themselves be involved in lobbying the US government on the tribunal.

The US Ambassador for War Crimes, in a letter to government ministers earlier this year, also set out a series of changes that should be made to the law but many of these have not yet been made.

Source: newagebd.com/newspaper1

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