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Bangladesh a great concern

States US senate committee resolution

Diplomatic Correspondent
The US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations has approved a resolution on Bangladesh expressing 'great concern' about the continued political deadlock that distracts from the country's many important challenges.
Condemning the ongoing violence, the resolution urged political leaders in Bangladesh to engage 'directly and substantively' in a dialogue towards free, fair and credible elections.
Senators Richard Durbin, Michael B Enzi and Christopher S Murphy submitted the resolution (Res-318) to the Committee on Foreign Relations on December 11, expressing the sense of the Senate regarding the critical need for
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political reform in Bangladesh, and for other purposes.
The Senate Gommittee, at a meeting on Wednesday with its Chairman Senator Robert Menendez in the chair, cleared the way for a hearing on the resolution in the US Senate.
The meeting was held at the Capitol Building at 2:15pm (Washington DC time).
In its six-point recommendation made in the three-page resolution, the Senate Committee urged political leaders to ensure the safety and access of observers to Bangladesh's upcoming elections.
The committee also urged them to take immediate steps to rein in and condemn the violence as well as provide space for peaceful political protests.
It supported the ongoing efforts by UN Assistant Secretary General for Political Affairs Oscar Fernandez-Tara neo to foster political dialogue between political factions in Bangladesh.
The committee urged the Bangladesh govern-
ment to ensure judicial independence, end harassment of human rights activists, and restore the independence of the Grameen Bank.
The resolution will be followed by a full hearing in the US Senate anytime soon.
It notes that that hundreds of Bangladeshis have died in violent clashes as a result of political violence and unrest, and some opposition and human rights activists have been arrested.
It observed that trials held by the International Crimes Tribunal in Bangladesh to prosecute those responsible for atrocities committed during the Liberation War have fallen short of international standards.
The government of Bangladesh eliminated a constitutional provision requiring the governing party to cede power to a neutral caretaker government three months before an election.
The numerous nationwide strikes and blockades called by the 18-party opposition coalition lead to violence, resulting in dozens of deaths.
Students cannot attend school and complete
mandatory exams; and many citizens have had their work and daily activities disrupted due to the strike related violence, the resolution said.
It also said a stable, moderate, secular, Muslim-majority democracy with the world's seventh largest population, and the world's fourth-largest Muslim population, will have lasting positive impacts in the region and beyond.
"The success of the democratic process in Bangladesh is of great importance to the United States and the world," it said.
Turning to the issue of the Grameen Bank, the resolution said the bank's revolutionary microfinance lending to the poor has helped reduce poverty not only in Bangladesh, but has served as an innovative and powerful model for helping the poor elsewhere in the world.
The Department of State, Congress, and other high profile international voiceshave recognised the Grameen Bank's innovative work and expressed great concern over actions by the government of Bangladesh that undermine the