Kuwait emir heads for siege-hit Dhaka

Dhaka, June 10: Bangladesh's foreign minister has pleaded with the main opposition party to defer a mass siege of the capital to avoid embarrassment during a two-day visit to Bangladesh by the emir of Kuwait, officials said today.

The Awami League showed no sign of cancelling its plan to block entry points into Dhaka, a city of 10 million, tomorrow.

And, heightening the political tension ahead of a general election campaign, Awami's leader threatened to call a general strike unless the government embraced electoral reforms.

''We may call a strike from June 12 to 15, followed by harder actions, if the government fails to accept electoral reforms I proposed months ago,'' Sheikh Hasina, a former prime minister, told a meeting of senior party officials last night.

Awami General Secretary Abdul Jalil said if the authorities tried to thwart the siege by thousands of protesters, the 14-party alliance led by Hasina would paralyse the country.

''We are headed for a big showdown and widened violence,'' said a police officer readying for tomorrow's protest, ahead of which nearly 3,000 opposition activists and suspected criminals were detained across the country.

VIOLENCE PREDICTED

Officials said there had been no response from the opposition to an appeal by Foreign Minister M Morshed Khan to put off the siege until after the visit of Kuwait Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah, who was due to arrive today.

Kuwait employs a large number of Bangladeshis and is also the main supplier of fuel to the impoverished south Asian country.

Security has been tightened in Dhaka for the two events.

''We want to make his visit 100 per cent safe and useful,'' a senior police official said.

Many schools and universities in the capital were ordered closed on June 11, a working day in Bangladesh.

''We fear widespread violence and a police crackdown on the siege,'' said one government official, Kamrul Islam.

Hasina wants Chief Election Commissioner M A Aziz to be removed immediately for what she says is his pro-government bias.

The opposition also wants next January's election to be organised by a caretaker administration led by a figure acceptable to all political groups, and for the armed forces to be placed under that caretaker chief's control during the polls.

Analysts say Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia's government has stonewalled the demands, further provoking the opposition.

But the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) blames the deadlock on the Awami, which has refused to allow BNP's governing partner Jamaat-e-Islami party to join negotiations over the proposed reforms.

The opposition accuses Jamaat of opposing Bangladesh's 1971 independence war against Pakistan, helping the Pakistani army in a genocide in former East Pakistan and, more lately, harbouring Islamist militants who killed at least 30 people and wounded 150 in a countrywide bomb attacks. Jamaat denies the charges.

Khaleda's second five-year term is due to end in October, when the caretaker government will take over.

REUTERS