Ousted Bangladeshi PM blames US for her removal from power

Special Ousted Bangladeshi PM blames US for her removal from power
Former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina weeps while she visits a metro station in Mirpur vandalized by students during the anti-quota protests in July. (File/Bangladesh Prime Minister's Office))
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Updated 11 August 2024
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Ousted Bangladeshi PM blames US for her removal from power

Ousted Bangladeshi PM blames US for her removal from power
  • Sheikh Hasina was one of the world’s longest-ruling female leaders
  • In new statement, she claimed US wanted control of Bangladeshi island

NEW DELHI: Bangladesh’s ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, who is currently taking refuge in India, has accused the US of playing a role in her removal from power as she promised a prompt return to Dhaka.

Hasina was forced to resign and fled to neighboring India on Aug. 5, following weeks of nationwide demonstrations and a deadly crackdown on protesters, which emboldened a student-led movement to oust her regime after 15 years of uninterrupted rule.

The 76-year-old said Washington was to blame for her ouster in a message issued for supporters of her Awami League party, which appears to be her first statement since she left Dhaka.

“I resigned, so that I did not have to see the procession of dead bodies. They wanted to come to power over the dead bodies of students, but I did not allow it. I resigned from the premiership. I could have remained in power if I had surrendered the sovereignty of Saint Martin Island and allowed America to hold sway over the Bay of Bengal,” she said in a statement, which was first reported by India’s English-language daily The Economic Times.  

“I beseech the people of my land, ‘Please do not be manipulated by radicals.’”

Hasina was referring to St. Martin’s Island, Bangladesh’s sole coral reef island located in the northeastern part of the Bay of Bengal, alluding to years-old rumors claiming that the US was seeking control over the island to turn it into a military airbase.  

The US Embassy in Dhaka did not immediately respond to Arab News’ request for comment on Sunday.

“If I had remained in the country, more lives would have been lost, more resources would have been destroyed. I made the extremely difficult decision to exit. I became your leader because you chose me, you were my strength,” Hasina said.

“With the grace of almighty Allah, I will return soon. The Awami League has stood up again and again. I shall forever pray for the future of Bangladesh, the nation which my great father strived for. The country for which my father and family gave their lives.”

Hasina, 76, was one of the world’s longest-ruling female leaders and has played a pivotal role in Bangladesh’s politics, a nation of about 170 million people that declared its independence in 1971.

She is the daughter of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the country’s charismatic founding leader, who was killed in 1975 in a military coup when Hasina was 28. She served as prime minister from 1996 to 2001 and regained power in 2009.

Under her leadership, Bangladesh became one of the fastest-growing economies in the region, with World Bank estimates showing that more than 25 million people in the country have been lifted out of poverty in the last two decades.

But critics say she has grown increasingly autocratic and called her a threat to the country’s democracy, with many saying that the sudden collapse of Hasina’s government had reflected a broader discontent against her rule.

The student-led demonstrations that began peacefully in July were against a quota system for government jobs, which was widely criticized for favoring those with connections to the ruling party.

The rallies then turned violent as security forces clashed with protesters, leading to the killings of at least 300 people and the arrests of around 11,000 others, triggering new protests that culminated in a civil disobedience movement that forced Hasina’s resignation.


Putin hails Russia’s huge number of ‘terror’ convictions

Putin hails Russia’s huge number of ‘terror’ convictions
Updated 20 February 2025
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Putin hails Russia’s huge number of ‘terror’ convictions

Putin hails Russia’s huge number of ‘terror’ convictions
  • “Military courts have a key role in deciding on criminal cases with a terrorist direction,” Putin said in a speech to Russia’s top judges.
  • “Last year, around 950 such cases were looked at, 1,075 people were sentenced“

MOSCOW: Russian military courts sentenced more than 1,000 people on terrorist charges last year, President Vladimir Putin said Thursday, referring to a massive wave of prosecutions during the Ukraine offensive.
Russia’s secretive military courts prosecute captured Ukrainian soldiers, Russians accused of working with Kyiv or sabotaging Moscow’s army, domestic opponents of the Kremlin, and alleged radicals and terrorist groups.
“Military courts have a key role in deciding on criminal cases with a terrorist direction,” Putin said in a speech to Russia’s top judges.
“Last year, around 950 such cases were looked at, 1,075 people were sentenced.”
Russia regularly sentences people over opposition to the Ukraine offensive, while convicting captured Ukrainian soldiers on treason and terrorist charges.
The Geneva Conventions prohibit the prosecution of prisoners of war (POW) for taking part in armed hostilities.
Moscow has also intensified its targeting of alleged jihadist cells since the March 2024 massacre at a Moscow concert hall that killed 145 people — an attack claimed by the Islamic State.
The crackdown at home is of a scale not seen since the Soviet era.
The OVD-Info rights group says 1,184 people have been prosecuted in Russia for their opposition to the Ukraine conflict — including 258 for justifying “terrorism” and 58 for “acts of terrorism.”
The Memorial rights group says Russia has 868 political prisoners, though its co-founder Oleg Orlov told AFP last year there were “a lot more” that campaigners did not know about.
Jailed for “discrediting” Russia’s armed forces, he was then released in a prisoner exchange with the United States.
Putin on Thursday praised Russia’s judges for their “dedication” in overseeing the ballooning case load.
He said Russia had created 100 courts and appointed 570 judges in occupied parts of eastern Ukraine, where Moscow has jailed an unknown number of Ukrainians for opposing Moscow’s military offensive.
“They are completely integrated in the united Russian judicial system,” Russia’s Supreme Court chief Irina Podnosova told Putin.
She said military courts had seen a steep rise in overall cases during the Ukraine campaign.
“In 2024, they looked at 18,000 criminal (cases), 13,000 administrative (cases) and 9,000 civilian (cases),” she added.
Little is known of the fate of Ukrainians sentenced by Russian-installed courts in the four Ukrainian regions Russia annexed in 2022 — Donetsk, Kherson, Lugansk and Zaporizhzhia.
Russian courts are known for their low acquittal rates.


Teenager kills two women in knife attack at Czech shop

Teenager kills two women in knife attack at Czech shop
Updated 20 February 2025
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Teenager kills two women in knife attack at Czech shop

Teenager kills two women in knife attack at Czech shop
  • Police arrested the teenager, a Czech national, minutes after the attack at an Action branch on the outskirts of Hradec Kralove
  • The attacker’s motive was unclear but that there was nothing to indicate a terror attack, police said

HRADEE KRALOVE, Czech Republic: A 16-year-old boy killed two women in a knife attack at a discount shop in the Czech Republic on Thursday, police said, adding the motive remained unclear.
Police arrested the teenager, a Czech national, minutes after the attack at an Action branch on the outskirts of Hradec Kralove, around 100 kilometers (60 miles) east of Prague.
“Both of those attacked suffered injuries which were so serious that they could not be saved despite all efforts of the rescuers,” police said on X.
Police spokeswoman Iva Kormosova said the teenager attacked a shop assistant at the counter and another worker in a service area of the store.
The attacker’s motive was unclear but that there was nothing to indicate a terror attack, police said.
“The information we have for now seems to suggest he chose the victims randomly,” they added.
Rescuers received the first call about 0730 GMT, half an hour after the shop had opened.
“When we arrived, we found two people stabbed,” Anatolij Truhlar, head doctor of the local air rescue service, told the private CNN Prima News TV channel.
“Unfortunately, despite 40 minutes of resuscitation efforts, both persons died,” he added.
Police were deployed outside the Action discount store where a lone candle flickered, and a part of an adjacent car park was closed with police tape until Thursday afternoon.
“I think you’re not safe anywhere, given what’s going on around us,” passer-by Adela Ptackova told AFP.
Czech Prime Minister Petr Fiala expressed condolences to the families of the victims, calling the murders “an incomprehensible, horrendous act.”
Terror attacks are rare in the Czech Republic, an EU and NATO member of 10.9 million people, but in 2023 a student killed 14 people and wounded 25 in a shooting rampage at a Prague university.
The Czech Republic’s southern neighbor Austria is reeling from the murder of a teenager in a knife attack by a Syrian asylum seeker in the city of Villach at the weekend.


Kyrgyzstan urges respect for heritage amid row over Russian ‘appropriation’

Kyrgyzstan urges respect for heritage amid row over Russian ‘appropriation’
Updated 20 February 2025
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Kyrgyzstan urges respect for heritage amid row over Russian ‘appropriation’

Kyrgyzstan urges respect for heritage amid row over Russian ‘appropriation’
  • “Recently, there has been an alarming trend related to the commercial use of national patterns and symbols,” its culture ministry said
  • “The culture ministry calls on all organizations, entrepreneurs and individual citizens to respect the historical and cultural heritage of the Kyrgyz Republic“

BISHKEK, Kyrgyzstan: Kyrgyzstan has called for respect for its “historical and cultural heritage” after a Russian clothing brand used traditional Kyrgyz designs and claimed copyright over them, prompting accusations of “cultural appropriation.”
The Central Asian country is closely allied with Moscow, but has taken steps to reinforce its national identity in recent years after many decades of dependence on former ruler Russia.
“Recently, there has been an alarming trend related to the commercial use of national patterns and symbols, which are an integral part of the historical and cultural heritage of Kyrgyzstan,” its culture ministry said on Facebook Wednesday.
“The culture ministry calls on all organizations, entrepreneurs and individual citizens to respect the historical and cultural heritage of the Kyrgyz Republic.”
The furor began earlier this month after social media users accused Russian fashion label Yaka, founded in 2023, of ripping off traditional Kyrgyz patterns and including a legal warning against “copying” its designs on its website.
Yaka sells a range of clothes and accessories featuring colorful Kyrgyz patterns, describing them as “modern ethno-chic.”
It also sells “shyrdaks,” traditional felt rugs native to Kyrgyzstan that are sometimes used as a dowry at weddings and have been included in UNESCO’s list of intangible cultural heritage.
Some social media users accused the brand of “cultural appropriation” — when a tradition is taken from another culture and used in a way that was not intended.
Kyrgyzstan has a relatively freer media and looser controls on social networks than its authoritarian Central Asian neighbors, but open anger against Russia is rare.
Yaka’s founder Anna Obydenova reacted to the criticism by calling on Kyrgyz people to “learn Russian better” in an Instagram video.
She later deleted the video and apologized.
In an Instagram post Tuesday, she denied accusations of disrespect toward Kyrgyz culture, saying she had worked with local craftswomen.
“I never said I came up with these patterns, nor did I call myself a designer or author of the motifs,” she said.
“I am simply a person who saw incredible beauty and wanted to share it with the world.”
Russian remains an official language in Kyrgyzstan, with a segment of the population expressing pro-Russian attitudes.
But others, especially among the younger generation, have turned away from Moscow, partly due to the invasion of Ukraine and Russian authorities’ often harsh treatment of Kyrgyz migrants.


Africa’s first G20 meeting opens with call for ‘cooperation’

Africa’s first G20 meeting opens with call for ‘cooperation’
Updated 20 February 2025
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Africa’s first G20 meeting opens with call for ‘cooperation’

Africa’s first G20 meeting opens with call for ‘cooperation’
  • “It is critical that the principles of the UN Charter, multilateralism and international law should remain at the center of all our endeavours,” Ramaphosa said
  • “Geopolitical tensions, rising intolerance, conflict and war, climate change, pandemics and energy and food insecurity threaten an already fragile global coexistence“

JOHANNESBURG: South Africa’s President Cyril Ramaphosa opened on Thursday a Group of 20 foreign ministers meeting with a call for “cooperation” amid geopolitical tensions and “rising intolerance.”
Top diplomats from the world’s largest economies gathered in Johannesburg for the two-day talks held for the first time in Africa, overshadowed by the absence of US Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
“It is critical that the principles of the UN Charter, multilateralism and international law should remain at the center of all our endeavours. It should be the glue that keeps us together,” Ramaphosa said.
“Geopolitical tensions, rising intolerance, conflict and war, climate change, pandemics and energy and food insecurity threaten an already fragile global coexistence,” Ramaphosa said.
The G20, a grouping of 19 countries as well as the European Union and the African Union, is deeply divided on key issues from Russia’s war in Ukraine to climate change.
World leaders have also been split on how to respond to the dramatic policy shifts from Washington since the return of US President Donald Trump.
“As the G20 we must continue to advocate for diplomatic solutions to conflicts,” Ramaphosa said.
“I think it is important that we should remember that cooperation is our greatest strength,” he added. “Let us seek to find common ground through constructive engagement.”
A curtain-raiser to the G20 summit in November, the meeting was attended by top diplomats including Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, his Chinese and Indian counterparts as well as European envoys like France’s Jean-Noel Barrot and Britain’s David Lammy.
But the group’s richest member, the United States, was only represented by Dana Brown, the deputy chief of mission at the American embassy in Pretoria, after Rubio skipped the meeting amid disputes with the host nation over several policy issues.
Pretoria has in particular come under fire from Washington for leading a case at the International Court of Justice accusing Israel of “genocidal” acts in its Gaza offensive, which Israel has denied.
US Secretary of Treasury Scott Bessent announced on Thursday that he would also not attend the G20 meeting of finance ministers and central bank governors in Cape Town next week.
The first G20 presidency by an African nation was an opportunity for the continent to be “heard on critical global issues, like sustainable development, the digital economy and the shift toward green energy,” Ramaphosa said.
South Africa’s priorities for its presidency of the powerful grouping included finding ways to scale up resilience to climate disasters and improving “debt sustainability” for developing countries.
It also wanted to mobilize finance for a “just energy transition” in which countries most responsible for climate change support those least responsible, he said.
“G20 leaders should secure agreement on increasing the quality and quantity of climate finance flows to developing economy countries.”
South Africa would also champion the harnessing of critical minerals for “green industrialization.”
However, in a sign of the tensions in the grouping, the planned group photograph was canceled as “several countries did not wish to appear next to Lavrov,” members of a delegation told AFP.
South Africa’s agenda for its presidency might be “derailed” by heightened geopolitical tensions, senior researcher at the Institute for Security Studies in Pretoria, Priyal Singh, told AFP ahead of the meeting.
“The elephant in the room is the geopolitical context in which this meeting is taking place,” Singh said.
Rubio’s absence will “distract the focus of the meeting,” warned William Gumede, professor of public management at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg.
“It sends a symbolic message to Africans: the US is not taking Africa seriously,” he said.


Delhi swears in new chief minister as Modi’s party retakes India’s capital

Delhi swears in new chief minister as Modi’s party retakes India’s capital
Updated 20 February 2025
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Delhi swears in new chief minister as Modi’s party retakes India’s capital

Delhi swears in new chief minister as Modi’s party retakes India’s capital
  • Loyalist of Modi’s party, Rekha Gupta is the fourth woman to hold the capital region’s top office
  • BJP won Delhi election on promises to tackle air and river pollution, and subsidize poor women

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s loyalist and Delhi’s new chief minister, Rekha Gupta, was sworn in on Thursday, as India’s ruling party regained power in the national capital region after a 27-year gap.

The national vice president of the BJP’s women’s wing, Gupta had previously served as the party’s general secretary in Delhi.

She is the fourth woman to hold the office of Delhi’s chief minister.

“We will empower Delhi through modern infrastructure, excellent healthcare services, excellent education and new employment opportunities,” she said upon inauguration.

“Today, I took oath as the chief minister with the resolve to develop Delhi under the guidance of Honorable Prime Minister Narendra Modi. This is not just a responsibility but an opportunity to fulfill the aspirations of the people of Delhi.”

A first-time legislator, Gupta won the capital’s Shalimar Bagh Assembly constituency in February’s assembly elections.

Modi’s party won 48 of the 70 assembly seats — over twice more than the opposition Aam Aadmi Party of the previous chief minister, Arvind Kejriwal, Modi’s fierce critic.

The win was a boost for the Hindu-nationalist leader after last year’s general election saw him lose his parliamentary majority.

The BJP’s victory came on the promise of cleaning the capital’s Yamuna River, one of the most polluted waterways in the world. The Yamuna is particularly polluted downstream of New Delhi, which dumps about 60 percent of its waste into the river. At the same time, the river provides more than half of the Indian capital’s water.

Another promise was to tackle Delhi’s air pollution, which during winters soars to hazardous levels. In December, it was 35 times over the safe limit set by the World Health Organization, leaving residents complaining of breathing problems.

The toxic smog, which seasonally chokes the city for months, is caused by several factors, including construction activities, vehicle emissions, industrial pollutants and the seasonal burning of crop residue in neighboring states.

“The two biggest issues in Delhi are the river and the air. And I don’t see how they can do it,” said Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay, a political analyst and the author of Modi’s biography “Narendra Modi: The Man, The Times.”

While the farmers around Delhi have regularly been blamed for the pollution, the region’s air quality remained bad in February, even as there was no burning of paddy stubble to clear the soil for the next crops.

“So why is Delhi still so polluted at the moment? ... Automobile pollution is possibly one of the biggest things, but would the Indian government be doing anything to reduce the numbers of vehicles which have been sold in Delhi and the National Capital Region? No, it will not because it involves a lot of further financial matters,” Mukhopadhyay told Arab News.

Another promise was monthly payments of 2,500 Indian rupees ($28) to poor women, a one-time payment of 21,000 rupees to every pregnant woman, subsidized cooking gas, a monthly pension of 2,500 rupees for the elderly, and 15,000 rupees for youth preparing for competitive exams.

“Fiscally it is going to be a big challenge. I do not know from where they will provide this money,” Mukhopadhyay said.

“It is going to be very difficult, but they will have to do it otherwise within three months, there will be a backlash against the BJP. It is going to be fiscally mind-blowing.”