Former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed is determined to return to Bangladesh despite the interim government's efforts to prohibit her from doing so, according to her son.
In an exclusive interview with the Tribune on Thursday, Sajeeb Wajed said his mother, currently in London, was booked to take a British Airways flight to Dhaka on April 22. While the Bangladeshi government has asked the airline not to let Hasina board the flight, her son said, “She is determined. As of this moment, she is scheduled to go home.”
Hasina had been visiting family in the Washington, D.C., area before heading out to London earlier this week. While she was in the U.S., the military-backed interim government filed murder charges against her and other party colleagues, accusing them of playing a role in the deaths of a number of activists during riots in late October.
Sajeeb said his family, especially his mother, was "really stressed" by the recent developments. "There
is absolutely no truth to the charges filed against her,” he said.
He accused the military-backed government of taking a “page from the Pakistani handbook.” He said: “They aren’t calling it martial law but the military is running the show behind a civilian facade. They say that the elections will not happen for another two years – that’s what happened in Pakistan, too. This strategy hasn’t worked in Pakistan, I don’t know why they think it will work in Bangladesh.”
A statement from the home ministry in Dhaka said that police, diplomats and immigration and civil aviation officials had been ordered to stop Mrs. Wazed from reentering the country. “Her irresponsible leadership caused serious lawlessness that destabilised public order and discipline, disrupted national security and economic activities in the country,” it said, adding,
“In this context, if she returns to the country it is feared that she will again jeopardise discipline and economic activities in the country through provocative statements.”
“This is a coup” against Hasina, former prime minister’s son said, referring to the government’s efforts to keep her from returning to Bangladesh. The interim administration has promised to clean up politics, crack down on crime and corruption and introduce electoral and economic reforms before organising new elections by the end of 2008. It declared a state of emergency on Jan. 11 and postponed a general election planned for Jan. 22 after clashes between supporters of Hasina’s Awami League and the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, led by Begum Khaleda Zia.
Sajeeb called the corruption accusations leveled against his mother bogus. “My mother has no other source of income outside Bangladesh. We’re not like the other political families. We don’t have foreign bank accounts,” he said. Sajeeb, a consultant, lives with his wife, an attorney, and four-month-old baby in the Washington-area. “We are a well-to-do professional couple. We have a mortgage, two cars, one car payment and have a very average American life. But we are certainly not living in the lap of luxury,” he said.
The interim government has also targeted Hasina’s archrival Khaleda. Sajeeb said his party did not plan to join forces with Khaleda in a campaign against the military-backed administration. “If we do that their tarnished image will hurt our credibility. [The BNP] has some serious allegations of corruption leveled against them,” he said. But he admitted, “We do have some common ground now that the government is acting against us.” Christine Fair at the United States Institute of Peace in Washington said the presence of a common foe was not enough to unite the warring ladies. “Their differences are too great and neither party understands the need for party reform,” she said. She doubted the military could reform the parties “without buy in from the leadership.”
“More importantly, the military has no exit strategy. It may have the best intentions — so may have
Musharraf — but military leaders’ agenda evolve and become self-serving without a committed and declared strategy for reform and retreating back to the barracks,” she said, adding, “When democracy does come back, ever leader will be looking over
their shoulders” to the military.
Fair said not letting Hasina back into Bangladesh and exiling Khaleda are “extra-constitutional measures that belie the military nature of this government ...and no one wants to call it a coup.”
Khaleda ended a five-year term as prime minister in October.
