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LAW week
Opposition asks ex-CJ not to head next caretaker govt
Opposition politicians and legal experts at a roundtable urged the immediate past chief justice to refrain from assuming office of the chief adviser of the next caretaker government to keep the post above controversy. They said the immediate past chief justice should not take over as the chief of the interim government as political parties have questioned his neutrality for his pervious involvement with the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). -The Daily Star, April 3.
Cop caught in 'kidnap' bid
Lawyers and onlookers caught a plainclothes police sergeant and his brother trying to kidnap a man at gunpoint on the Supreme Court premises , April 3. The police sergeant's brother, however, denied having made the kidnap attempt and claimed that they tried to catch the man who owed him Tk 50,000, as he was fleeing at the sight of the sergeant. Both were turned over to Ramna police who seized the firearm of Traffic Sergeant Mahfuzur Rahman and showed him and his brother Mahbubur Rahman arrested for the abduction attempt. -The Daily Star, April 4.
Workers Party leader dies in hospital after 'Rab torture'
General Secretary of Bangladesh Workers Party Chuadanga unit Shyamal Sarker died at the Jessore General Hospital Saturday night allegedly in torture in Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) custody. Sarker's family members said Rab men arrested him from his village home at Ibrahimpur under Damurhuda upazila of the district on December 9 last year. The family members alleged that the Rab tortured him severely in their custody and then kept Sarker in the district jail untreated. -The Daily Star, April 4.
Amendment to Land Law
Top bank officials said marginal farmers will face difficulty to receive agricultural loan from banks due to newly amended law relating to land registration and transfer. The bank officials expressed their concern when they met Law Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Moudud Ahmed at his office in Dhaka.The Registration Act, 1908 and The Transfer Property Act 1882 were amended in December last year, which will be effective from July 1, 2005. Top officials from 12 banks told the law minister that it will be difficult for the marginal farmers to bear the costs of property transfer fees following the amendment to act. Moudud assured the bankers that if necessary the government will reconsider the amendment to give relief to marginal farmers. -The Daily Star, April 5.
Rights body harming UN
Secretary-General Kofi Annan said the conduct of the United Nations' human rights body was undermining the credibility of the entire UN organisation and urged governments to support his plan to reform it. "Unless we remake our human rights machinery, we may be unable to renew public confidence in the United Nations itself," he told the UN Commission on Human Rights, which is holding its annual six-week session at its Geneva headquarters.
"We have reached a point at which the commission's declining credibility has cast a shadow on the reputation of the United Nations system ... and where piecemeal reforms will not be enough," he said, in the text of a speech to be delivered later. Launched some 60 years ago, the commission is the UN's main mechanism for monitoring respect for human rights around the world. But critics say in-fighting and its inability to act firmly in the face of clear abuse have eroded its authority.
Annan has called for the commission, at present made up of representatives from 53 countries nominated by regional groupings, to be replaced by a smaller Human Rights Council, whose members would be elected by the UN General Assembly. -Reuters, Geneva, April 7.