US roots against hartal
Visiting top official cancels Khaleda meet, deplores cycle of shutdown; Powell too did not meet Hasina on similar grounds in 2003
Dismayed at the BNP-led alliance's hartal during her visit to Dhaka, US Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs Wendy R Sherman yesterday criticised such shutdowns and cancelled her meeting with the BNP chairperson scheduled for yesterday afternoon.
“My schedule required me to make some changes…I met the opposition leader the last time I was in Dhaka,” Sherman said at a joint press conference at state guesthouse Meghna in the afternoon.
Nearly an hour later, she again talked to reporters after delivering a speech on US-Bangladesh relations organised by the Bangladesh Institute of International and Strategic Studies (BIISS) at Ruposhi Bangla Hotel in the capital.
“I was rather surprised when I arrived yesterday… a hartal was underway,” said the US under-secretary of state.
On the cancellation of the meeting with Khaleda Zia, US Press and Information Officer Kelly S McCarthy told The Daily Star that the under secretary regretted that a hartal marked the first day of the US-Bangladesh partnership dialogue, and subsequent schedule changes precluded her meeting with the BNP chief.
US embassy officials said the US was always against programmes like hartal as a means of voicing demands. Former US secretary of state Colin Powell cancelled a meeting with the then opposition leader Sheikh Hasina on June 19, 2003, as the Chhatra League, student wing of the Awami League, did not call off its hartal on the day of the meeting.
Sherman's cancellation of her meeting with the BNP chief is clearly a diplomatic setback for the BNP, as the party had decided to call a hartal on the first day of the US-Bangladesh dialogue on Khaleda's instructions.
US embassy officials had approached Khaleda through BNP leaders and requested her to postpone the shutdown. But she had turned down the request in a rather cavalier manner, said BNP sources.
"The BNP chief through her party policymakers conveyed a message to the US embassy that Sherman's movements in the capital would be out of the purview of the hartal," said a BNP leader, asking not to be named.
BNP Vice Chairman Shamsher Mobin Chowdhury, responsible for the party's foreign affairs, said the scheduled meeting between the US official and the BNP chief had been cancelled because of problems over Sherman's schedule.
Some policymakers in the BNP termed the cancellation of the meeting an embarrassment for the party, and said it would have a negative impact on ties between the party and the US.
However, another section of BNP leaders brushed aside such fears, and said it would not have any major repercussions.
Speaking at the programme organised by the BIISS, Sherman said, “My colleagues and I, along with a great many Bangladeshis, have watched with dismay, as the streets of Dhaka have been shut down by hartal, by angry demonstration after angry demonstration.”
“By speaking as a friend of Bangladesh, I worry about a cycle of violence that shuts down a city of millions on what seems like a daily basis, that dramatically slows Bangladesh's economic growth, that feeds a political culture that rejects compromise, that breeds fear in the minority population, that brands some citizens and their beliefs less worthy than others, and that radicalises segments of the population. To truly prosper, Bangladesh must free itself of this long-standing cycle of election-year violence.
“I cannot presume to tell the people of Bangladesh or your leaders what issues demand attention, what wrongs must be righted, or what approach your country must take as it faces the grave challenges of the future. In Bangladesh, as in any democracy, this is for the people alone to decide,” she said.
It may be mentioned that on March 4, Khaleda Zia cancelled her scheduled meeting with visiting Indian President Pranab Mukherjee by citing security reasons when the Jamaat, a key ally of the BNP, called a hartal on that day.
Joint Statement
Remarks by Under Sec Sherman on US - Bangladesh Relations
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