Events So Far

Once again, I must apologize for taking so long to post. School is keeping me really busy. With class, recruiting for a job and homework I am working 12-14 hours a day. That leaves a little bit of time to spend with my family, but not much. On top of that, I was down with the flu for an entire week so I've fallen really behind.

My mother's 60th birthday has come and gone. None of us were allowed to even speak to her. It is now almost three months since she has been arrested. She continues to be held without a trial. This is a 60 year old woman, a former Prime Minister, being held without a trial for three months. This makes a mockery of due process.

The regime continues to tell foreign representatives and government officials that my mother is being kept in luxury. This is another blatant lie. She is being kept in virtual solitary confinement. She has still not been allowed access to telephones. She has not received treatment for the damage caused to her ears in the August 21st, 2004 grenade attack. It causes her severe headaches and nausea. The bed she was given had broken. I don't know if it has been replaced yet. This is not living in luxury.

In the meanwhile, Fakruddin was here in the US. He was questioned repeatedly about due process and kept repeating the phrase "Law of the land." If he was indeed following the law of the land, why would he feel the need to keep defending it? Bangladeshi law prohibits detention without bail in all but capital cases. So Fakruddin is clearly lying.

Fakruddin spoke at the Asia Foundation, but only selected people were allowed to ask questions. Outside of those, many hands were raised but all were refused. Clearly he had something to hide. When he spoke at Columbia University they were not able to keep such a tight rein on questions and some difficult ones were raised, which he essentially ignored. This is clearly not the mark of an upstanding man of integrity. In fact, this is exactly how a dirty politician acts.

In fact, I've learnt from a very confidential and trusted source that before accepting the position of Chief Advisor, Fakruddin's condition was that he be given three years to rule. How does a non elected appointee demand to rule for three years? And yes, this is from a very senior and respected source.

In the meanwhile, there riots appear to be breaking out on a regular basis in Bangladesh. One week it is laborers in an Export Processing Zone. Another week it is workers at a garments factory. In each case this regime cracks down with brutality. In half of the incidents at least one protester has been killed by the police. Have we become savages? Why is it that our civil society doesn't even bat an eyelid at these murders?

Yet, the Islamists have been protesting every Friday for three weeks against a cartoon. Far from cracking down on this violation of emergency, this regime has allowed these protests to continue. This simply adds to the complete immunity this regime has shown to Jamaat-e-Islami for corruption and terrorism. Do we need any more evidence of this regime's fundamentalist leanings?

I ask all patriotic Bangladeshi's to keep raising awareness about what is happening in our country. We will not lie down and let these people turn out country back 17 years. We do not want Bangladeshi to become another Pakistan.