Yasmin and after

Sir. It is unparalleled in the history of Bangladesh where the policemen have committed atrocities against a girl — namely Yasmin? in Dinajpur — which eventually led to a severe confrontation between the police and the public. The prevailing evidence urfrnistakably showed the girl was raped by the patrol police and was later killed and left on the road. There cannot be a greater 'outrage than, this perpetrated on this innocent girl by those who are responsible for the ■ maintenance of law and order and for the protection of the, honour of innocent citizens.

I do not know if the criminals have been really identified by the Home Ministry and severe pun||h-ment meted out to them. The ministry ought to do this.

In the immediate context of the violation of the innocent girl. I have the honour agd grace to suggest that the honorable Home Minister may resign ibllowing instances of many of a civilised administration This may at least partly' restore the' honour and dignity of the government a* well as the ruling party arrtong the people of Bangladesh.

Professor M T Haq Pallabi. Dhaka

UN-NATO air strike

Sir. Although overdue for last forty months and t^o late yet we wekMme UN-NATO air strikes against Bosnian Serb targets.

It appears that following the bold anlS. brave Croats teaching the barbarous Serbs a lesson, perhaps the USA, UK and France gathered the courage to launch the long awaited air strikes against the Serbs consistent with the demand of the peace loving people of the world with a view to punishing them for their atrocities, mayhem and genocide which have been continuing unabated.

We feel a sigh of relief that now for the first time Radovan Karadzic the ’Hitler'

and Ratko Mladic the Halaku Khan' have started talking, sometimes, directly and , sometimes indirectly, about a negotiated settlement of the Bosnian crisis. Radovan Karadzic told the United Nations that there was no need for UN-NATO air strikes spying the Serbs had opted for fi^ace. However, Ratko Mladic has still kept himsjlf engaged with typical "yes. but. provided” etc. churlish quibbllng-and sinister design.

We jgrongly feel (hat at lasl4hg,UN and NATO have * realfself the facts about Bosnia and they have awakened after a long and deep sleep.

Let us Hope that all the Bosnian Serbs war criminals would soon be brought to book and the United Nations . ensure that they would never dare * to commit inhuman crimes and genocide in fu-. ture.

OH Kabir Dhaka-1203

Voice of frustration

Sir. The ultimate in vexa-i tion is instilled by the contemporary usage of the ab-ttractlon — "the people” — by our taotley politicians. So. what or who are the "people'1 and more importantly, what measures or numb^s determine the Ukes and dislikes of the people of a nation? Intellectuals and practitioners of politics have, over centuries wrestled with such concepts and with the aim of elucidating at least partially, the potential ambiguities of such emotive terms of "the people", helped evolve the institutions of Parliament, judiciary etc. etc. Such an evolution towards some overvalued ideal of democracy has always resulted in the shrinkage of the arena of politics whereby individuals of the civil society are allowed their own political, private and social spheres.

And the entire nation of Bangladesh, goes under house-arrest* foMi2 hours, 24 hours. 36 hours wfth more sbeh indictments

*

planned for'the near future It is amazing to observe that the whole gamut of our political actors, tiespite advertised differentiation among them, are in reality a bunch of homogeneous selfserving nincompoops.

Here 1 am terrorised into confinement whenever any of our "democratfc" forces ordain it so. for the sake of a cause that I care very little about. The tragedy is that, with or without a caretaker government, all forthcoming incumbents will have to be chosen from the same bunch of mainstream "leader# that engineer the anarchical, republic of Bangladesh today.

However, ‘most immediate of my problems, and I dare-" say yow problems, is the imposition of hartals.

Awaken fellow nationals. Let us appeal in unison to all concerned To keep politics . opt of the streets. If suck’ Wi utopian gesture is heedetl. ft will be Ilie very-first step df development that our. ill-fated Bangladesh will take.

Lutfey Siddiqi >

Uiliuersidj igyork. UK‘ '.

Traffic jam

Sir. Traffic jam in Dhaka has become endemic. It is a fact of life and*we. the '*esi-dents of ftiis city, have come to realisq'that no solujfon is in slghr and we have Wlive with It. ButfpHIl the rolfl-users can get some respite If all the,users could show little bit of consideration to^rds each other. Most often it is compounded by the fact that neither the car drivers nor the rickshawpullers would give a side to the traffic coming from the opposite. A case in point i4 the regular traffic Jam around the Viqarunnesa School As I live In the vicinity. I witness the drama* ev*1 eryday. I presume similar problem occurs in front of every school. ,»

Three times a day morning, mid-day and altefl noon — the roads around the school is clogged with tAfflc as all the available road surface is occupied by both incoming and outgoing vejil

cles. This could Ite avAded by applying'tfte mdsj «pslimen-tary “ra/fic regulations. During thq rugh tours when" shifts chqngg. three roads around the schaol viz. Elephant Road. SiflBheswari Road and Bailey Ro«d ^lould be designated a's one-way roads without allowing any vehicle (including rtekshaw^ to enter the roads from opposite directMm. This will, however, requite the cooper- ' ation of the traffic police, the' school authorities and. most importantly-, the own-ers/users of veftfoles. both motojtsed and”noq-rgo-torised. Let this preinfer aca ftpiiric Institution "of the city jjoourjt^y!) set an example for

others to emulate.

Hedayal Ahmed . . s, Bara Magh Bazar. Dhaka

War Crime

Sir. My heart swelled with pflde and joy as 1 read in the newspapers in Pakistan, that Minister for ^orks. Rafiqul Islam Miah. Member of Parliament Suranjitsen Gupta and Retd. Justice K M Sobhan of Bangladesh have not only demanded that Pakistan should apologize lo Bangladesh for” the horrendous atrocities commuted by the Pakistanis In 1971 but they should also be put on trial tor war crimes.

It is a long felt demand of the people of Bangladesh anti ir4s about time the government. the intellectuals find the Internattepal War Crimes Tribunal do something about it The Japanese^ and the Serbs look like ttey scouts compared to what the Pakistani Army did In Bangladesh "and it is unlmag tnable that they should be al ■Owed to, get aw^ wffttt’ it. The Nazis are still being hunted down like raMd lpgs fifty years after the eqg Of the War and there-Is no rAsOn whatsoever lor the'Pakisumte not to be him ted down^^nd broujffit jo trial.

Keep up the good work geAllonien History and th» nanon wgi be forever grateful to you

Parveen Haque LzSwre. Pakistan