Bangladesh president seeks to defuse political crisis

DHAKA, Oct 29: Bangladeshi President Iajuddin Ahmed consulted feuding party leaders today to try to defuse a mounting crisis over forming a caretaker government to steer the nation through to January general elections.

A deadlock has triggered political clashes that have killed 22 people and injured hundreds more over the past three days across the impoverished country of 140 million.

The president first intervened yesterday after former Supreme Court chief justice K M Hasan backed out of an arrangement to temporarily take the reins after the expiry of Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia's five-year mandate.

Hasan -- who was to take charge of an interim administration to prepare for elections -- withdrew just hours before he was due to be sworn in after objections from opposition parties who derided the former judge as a government stooge.

''It is best I should stand aside rather than be a hurdle to the political process,'' Hasan said in a statement yesterday.

Iajuddin then proposed taking Hasan's place in a compromise that Khaleda's Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) appeared to favour but the main opposition Awami League rejected.

STATE OF EMERGENCY?

Three people were killed in street violence today, police said. Their deaths raise the toll of those killed in the fierce street battles that have been raging since Friday to 22.

''We are still facing a dangerously turbulent situation,'' said one police officer. ''Anything may happen any time.'' Thousands of protesters, carrying sticks and chanting slogans, gathered in central Dhaka today for a rally.

Protesters also blocked roads, burned vehicles and attacked the homes and offices of politicians, police and witnesses said.

Army, navy and air force chiefs met Khaleda today, fuelling speculation a state of emergency could be declared.

''This may be just a farewell call, as the PM is about to formally step down,'' one official said. ''On the other hand, maybe they have discussed the prevailing situation and possible way out, let's say a state of emergency.''

Other sources said the armed forces have been put on alert to act at short notice to prevent a worsening of violence if the president takes charge of the interim administration. ''Use of force is often necessary to protect law and order,'' Khaleda's son and first joint secretary-general of BNP Tareque Rahman said. ''So we all should be prepared to resist and overpower the law breakers and anarchists.'' President Iajuddin summoned the leaders of BNP, Awami League and two smaller parties -- BNP's ally Jamaat-e-Islami and the Jatiya Party of former military ruler Hossain Mohammad Ershad to discuss the prevailing political issues.

The BNP and Jamaat have already endorsed plans to make Iajuddin the caretaker head of the government. Jatiya leaders said they believed the president will do what is best. But opposition leaders said they could not accept the president as caretaker head of the government.

''I can smell a conspiracy in the attempts to put the country's president in charge of the interim government,'' opposition Awami party leader Sheikh Hasina told reporters.

Under the constitution, once Hasan declines to take over as caretaker head of the government the position should be offered to his immediate predecessor as chief justice, providing the former justice is not older than 72.

Legal experts say the president can head a caretaker government only if no retired chief justice -- or non-political, non-partisan figure acceptable to all parties -- is available.

Two other former chief justices -- Mahmudul Amin Chowdhury and Hamidul Haque -- do fit the constitutional criteria. The opposition has said they have no objection to either of them.

But the ruling BNP and its allies are believed to object to the former justices, officials monitoring the transition said.

The southern port of Chittagong remained idle as the opposition enforced an indefinite strike there. The strike is hitting the country's 8 billion dollars a year garment export business, said S M Fazlul Haque, president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association.

REUTERS