Bangladesh protesters besiege govt building

DHAKA, Nov 29 (Reuters) Political activists seeking the removal of election officials surrounded Bangladesh's main administrative secretariat in Dhaka today, as a UN envoy flew in to assess the situation ahead of elections in January.

Witnesses said activists of a multi-party alliance led by Sheikh Hasina, chief of the Awami League, choked streets leading to the secretariat, preventing officials from going in or out.

''It's a total gherao (siege) of the secretariat,'' one witness said, adding that authorities deployed hundreds of riot police to try to prevent trouble.

Violence has swept the impoverished South Asian country in the run up to the election set for January 21.

Craig Jenness, director of the UN Electoral Assistance Division, arrived in Dhaka today for a three-day visit to assess the situation before the poll and then prepare a report for Secretary-General Kofi Annan.

Annan has urged the country's leaders to work together to ensure free and fair elections.

Nobel peace prize winner Professor Muhammad Yunus echoed Annan's appeal, saying on Wednesday feuding politicians should ''put aside bad faith and mutual mistrust, end confrontations and join hands to save the country from an impending danger''.

Animosity between Begum Khaleda Zia, who ended a five-year term as prime minister last month, and Hasina runs high and the two women have not spoken to each other for about a decade.

Yunus said Khaleda's Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and the Awami alliance should ''take part in the coming election and form a coalition government, which will solve all disputes ahead of a new election to be held within a year''.

At least 40 people have been killed and hundreds injured in clashes between political rivals since late October, when Khaleda handed power to the interim government.

The violent campaign forced Chief Election Commissioner M A Aziz to take three months' leave, leaving one of his deputies, Mahfuzur Rahman, in charge.

The 14-party alliance led by Hasina wants to remove all key officials at the commission to ensure free and fair voting.

Hasina and her allies accuse the commissioners of being biased towards the BNP and its ally the Jamaat-e-Islami party.

The alliance has enforced two crippling countrywide transport blockades in the past two weeks. Another shutdown looms as Hasina has asked the president to quit as head of the interim government by Saturday, accusing him of failing to prove his neutrality.

Yunus urged the alliance not to enforce any more blockades for the sake of the country's economy and peace.

REUTERS PDM KN1820