April 21, 2007

Can Sheikh Hasina return to Bangladesh?

AP is reporting:
"We've ticket in our hands with confirmation," Abdus Sobhan Golap, Hasina's close aide, told The Associated Press by phone from London. Hasina is scheduled to board a British Airways flight at Heathrow airport on Sunday to arrive in Bangladesh on Monday.
Her son Sajeeb Wajed urges the Bangladeshis to raise their voices against this unlawful ban of the Caretaker Government.

Now the question is can Hasina defy the ban?

I have got another email alert which prescribes how to block Hasina's return:
Phase 1
Two BAF F-7BG AC will escort out the aircraft from the BD airspace to further south towards the Bay of Bengal.

Phase 2
If the Phase 1 fails,the DAC air traffic control will not give clearance to the aircraft carrying Hasina to land and following Phase 1.

But it is important that the aircraft does not land at the first place. The whole action can be performed legally under all international laws and charters.

It is allowed under international law to deny entry to any aircraft to one's airspace. Iran has recently denied entry of an aircraft carrying Iraqi PM. US homeland security regularly excercise this option to prevent people from coming to the US who it believes to threaten us national security.
Should we pay notice to these hoaxes? Remember the last hoax turned out to be true.

Can international pressure make a difference here? Shafiur reports that Hasina met Lord Avebury, a British MP and Vice Chair of Parliamentary Human Rights group and he tells:
Under international law, a person cannot be denied entry to his or her own country [Article 12(4) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, of which Bangladesh is a signatory].
But the UK Government is yet to comment on this officially Mash writes a brilliant article pointing to the double standard of USA:
The deafening silence from Washington as an Islamic country of 150 million people has its democracy gutted by the military, combined with words of encouragement from the Ambassador, can only help to embolden the Generals in Bangladesh.

So this is Mr. Bush’s freedom agenda. When a lone "journalist" named Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury was arrested in Bangladesh, then under civilian rule, on charges of sedition and then released on bail, free to publish to his heart’s content, the neocons persuaded the United States government to pressure the Bangladeshi government to drop all charges against the man and cancel his upcoming trial. Bangladesh was threatened with aid cut-off if it did not buckle to American pressure. The United States House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a resolution demanding that Bangladesh drop all charges against this man. The State Department highlighted this man’s cause. All because he was being given full due process by the democratically elected government of Bangladesh.
So with the international community silent it is likely that Hasina's will not be able to return.

Related stories:

* Bangladesh leader vows to return.

* Bangladesh: Caretaker Government Targets Dynastic Politics

* Sheikh Hasina has the Right to go back to Her Homeland.

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