
Bangladesh braces for more violence
(AFP)
9 January 2007
DHAKA - Bangladesh was braced for more violent clashes on Tuesday as thousands of protestors prepared to march to the presidential palace in a bid to force the government to cancel this month’s elections.
As a nationwide transport blockade entered its third day, members of the main opposition Awami League and its allies were due to march to the palace, Bangabhaban, despite a ban on gatherings in the area, police said. Police and troops were patrolling the capital Dhaka with barbed wire barricades, blocking all roads leading to the presidential palace in an attempt to prevent a repeat of violence on Sunday and Monday, in which riot police fired rubber bullets and tear gas at protesters. “We won’t allow any trouble by the political parties at the Bangabhaban presidential palace. It’s the highest security priority for us and we have thousands of troops to prevent violence,” said a police chief, speaking on condition of anonymity Opposition activists held dozens of protests elsewhere across the city but there were no reports of violence, said deputy commissioner of Dhaka police Abu Nasir Khalid. All main routes out of the city were blocked by opposition supporters, again crippling the nation’s transport network. Police clashed with demonstrators on Sunday and Monday after being pelted with small bombs, rocks and stones. Dozens of people, including some police officers, were injured, many of them seriously. In Chittagong, home to the impoverished country’s largest port, a record 21,000 containers were waiting to be processed, due to the suspension of operations, terminal manager Moshiur Rahman told AFP. “The port authorities have agreed to give an army escort to anyone interested in taking delivery of their cargoes, but so far none has taken any delivery,” he added. At least 66 cargo vessels were stranded at the port, unable to unload or take on new cargo, he said. The parties are demanding the postponement of January 22 elections, alleging that they cannot be fair without massive changes to the voter list. They have staged dozens of protest strikes and blockades over the past year to press their case, repeatedly bringing the country to a standstill and causing massive losses to businesses. The opposition alliance accuses the outgoing Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) of seeking to rig the elections by appointing biased officials to an election commission, which drew up a list containing 14 million fake voters. Meanwhile, the United States called on authorities in Bangladesh to guarantee the fairness of the elections. Under Secretary of State Nicholas Burns spoke to the head of Bangladesh’s caretaker government to urge the creation of ”conditions that would allow for free, fair and transparent election(s)”, spokesman Sean McCormack said in Washington Monday. “I’m not sure to this point that we have seen them take those actions, and we would encourage them to do so,” McCormack told reporters. At least 35 people have died in pre-poll violence since late October.
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