Bangladesh looks more beyond its own borders.

Title

Language

English

Source

Business Day Volume XIV (No. 132) August 29, 1980

Year

1980

Subject

Bangladesh--Politics and government.

Rights

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Abstract

In five years President Zia has managed to bring
order to this overpopulated country of 90 million, which the previous regime of “father of the nation” Sheikh Mujibur Rahman had reduced to chaos and
poverty in just four years.

Fulltext

Page 4 Business Day Friday, August 29, 1980 WORLD SITUATIONER Ethiopia Polish crisis spreads; invades Somalia military maneuvers by NATO, Warsaw Pact slated Japanese, Germans support NAIROBI (Reuter) - Ethiopian troops backed global negotiations on oil by fighter-bombers in vaded north-west Soma lia yesterday, Mogadishu radio said. UNITED NATIONS (Reuter) - Japan and West Germany yesterday endorsed proposals for global negotiations on energy, aimed at greater stability in the pricing and supply of oil. West German Foreign Minister Hans-Dietrich Genscher told the United Nations General Assembly: “We cannot evade an energy dialogue any longer.” Saburo Okita, the delegate of Japan, said measures should be devised to recycle surplus oil funds to developing countries lacking oil resources. Okita welcomed the initiative of the developing countries’ Group of 77 to include energy in comprehensive economic negotiations, due to start in January. They were addressing the assembly on the third day of a special session on Third World development problems. In his statement, Genscher said there could not be a smooth transition from the oil age to alternate sources of energy unless oil-exporting and oil-importing countries cooperated in a spirit of joint responsibility. “Although rising prices for a commodity (oil) that is becoming increasingly scarce may be unavoidable, abrupt price increases and sudden problems of adaptation which cause severe setbacks in economic activity must be avoided,” he said. Genscher thus echoed US Secretary of State Edmund Muskie, who appealed here Monday for stable oil prices and supply. Muskie said the oil nations bore a unique responsibility for the world’s economic plight. But in a speech, yesterday, a leading Asian statesman laid the blame elsewhere. Mahathir Bin Mohamed, deputy prime minister and trade minister of Malaysia, said: “Recession is mainly the result of an extreme lethargy and laziness of the workers in the industrialized nations. Having got used to an easy life at the expense of the rest of the world, they are not willing to work for a living any more. They would like the world to provide for them, as in the days of colonialism.” Biqdiscounts onTord’s MIVTDAnV only from HUN 1lUlIll (LIMITED OFFER ONLY.) The radio, monitored . Gdansk grew yesterday here, said Ethiopian -1 u” troops crossed the border near the town of Borama. Ethiopian jets raided other towns in the area, the radio said. It added that Somali forces had stopped the Ethiopian advance, but fighting continued. One Ethiopian aircraft was shot down and the pilot died instantly, the broadcast quoted the defense ministry as saying. It was the first time in their protracted terri torial dispute that Soma lia had accused Ethiopia of sending troops across the border. The Mogadishu government has previous ly said that Ethiopian jets struck at targets along the border. Aid workers have verified some of these raids. GDANSK (Reuter) - Support for the strikers who have paralyzed Poland’s Baltic port of with stoppages by workers in the industrial cities of Lodz and WrocLeaders of the 14-day strike in Gdansk showed no signs of backing down on their demands as the government’s chief negotiator returned to the port for fresh talks. The strikers, pressing Poland’s communist rulers for political re forms, have crippled industry in the north of the country. American east coast dock workers said they were starting a boycott on trade with Poland in solidarity with the strikers. The action will dis rupt grain shipments in tended to ease Polish food shortages. The United States also disclosed that Polish leaders have asked Wash ington for credit worth $67 5 million to buy food. As the stoppages spread, 20 enterprises were reported struck in Wroclaw and 10 in Lodz where workers issued a list of demands similar to those formulated in Gdansk. These include the right to strike, the right to form free trade unions and the abolition of cen sorship. An offer of free trade union elections and the possibility of the right to strike were rejected as insufficient yesterday by leaders of the Gdansk stoppage. Strike leader Lech Walesa was in defiant mood as he and col leagues prepared for another round of bar gaining with the govern ment’s chief negotiator, deputy prime minister Mieczyslaw Jagielski. “We are demanding, not pleading,” he said. Although the govern ment’s tactics have been conciliatory up to now, a leading political com mentator warned the strikers on television last night not to go far. Although there has Afghanistan boosts its forces with volunteers NEW DELHI (AFP) — The S ov iet-backed Afghan government has decided to raise a force of 10,000 to 15,000 armed volunteers to counter the rebels and Indian foreign office here say that the efforts have met with initial success. So far an estimated 4,000 volunteers from various Afghan provinces have been enlisted and are being given crash courses in weapon train ing and guerrilla warfare, the sources, who asked not to be named, said. The decision to raise the volunteer force — the idea was first mooted in Moscow — was taken at the high-level meeting Afghan President Babrak Karmal and his military generals had with a visit ing high-powered Soviet military delegation in been no official shift in the censorship position, Polish newspapers are now carrying extensive reports of the Gdansk strike. One newspaper pub lished for the first time all 21 demands made by the strikers. But the Krakow Roman Catholic weekly Tygodnik —iPowszeechny said censors had refused to let it publish a letter from Pope John Paul in which he prayed for his native country. Editor Jerzy Turowicz said no reason was given. In London, banking sources said the labor turmoil was unlikely to affect Poland’s credit worthiness although the strikes would prevent it reaching economic targets. The strikes are not expected to endanger a West German loan pack age of 1.2 billion marks ($660 million) which is likely to be signed within the next three weeks, they said. The Soviet news agency Tass said that “anti-socialist element” in Poland were trying to divert the country from socialism. It said party workers and working • people in Polarid were calling for effective steps to resolve the crisis. The crisis, it is noted here with some appre hension, will be coinci ding in early September with European military maneuvers of impressive size both by the Warsaw Pact and the North Atlantic Treaty Organiz ation (NATO). Bangladesh looks more beyond its own borders sive economic aid. NEW DELHI (AFP) — One decade after its painful birth, Bangla desh, one of the world’s poorest countries, is in creasingly looking abroad under President Ziaur Rahman who came to power in 1975. The 44-year-old gen eral, who has kept his army on a tight rein thus giving some degree of political stability to the country after a series of bloody coups, is embark ing on more and more overseas visits — last month to China, this month to the United States and now to Next month President Zia will travel to New Delhi for the common wealth conference but his relations with India, which in 1971 backed up the Bangladesh fight for independence from Pakis tan with troops, have worsened considerably. Far from growing closer to Moscow, Dacca is developing its links with China which pro vides it with arms and is now looking towards the Western world for masKabul some time in the middle of this month, the sources said. The volunteers who are in the age group of 18-30 are either activists of the ruling Peoples Democratic Party of Af ghanistan (PDPA) or sympathizers, the sources added. The sources, however, In the case of NATO, the exercise being organ ized now foresees the deployment of 60,000 men in West Germany in the most ambitious such operation in 11 years. At about the same time, but in East Ger many, the Warsaw Pact forces as of Sept. 8 will open maneuvers baptized “comrades-in-arms 80” involving an estimated 40,000 Soviet, East German, Bulgarian, Czechoslovakian, Hunga rian, and Polish forces deployed in the Baltic areas some 100 kilo meters from the Polish border. Moynihan denies link with drug smuggling ring A British peer living in the Philippines yesterday challenged an Australian judge who accused him of involvement with drug smugglers to repeat his allegations outside Parlia ment or withdraw them. Lord Moynihan, 4 5 was accused in a Royal Commission report tabled in the New South Wales Parliament this month of having con nections with a major Sydney drug ring in volved in the smuggling of heroin from the Phil ippines to Australia. The report by the Royal Commissioner, Just ice Woodward, on drug trafficking in New South Wales said Lord Moy nihan was a “shadowy figure” linked with a Sydney drug syndicate known as the “double bay mob.” — Reuter In five years President Zia has managed to bring order to this overpop ulated country of 90 million, which the pre vious regime of “father of the natiop” Sheikh Mujibur Rahman had re duced to chaos and poverty in just four The young turks in the Bangladesh army who assassinated Mujib, all his family and his main advisors have had to bow to a new strongAfter having lifted martial law and organ ized presidential elect ions followed by legisla tive elections last yfear, President Zia seems to be firmly in the saddle. This has not prevent ed at least two coup attempts against him. Despite the landslide vic tory of President Zia’s nationalist party the op position, led by the form er Awami League of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and the Islamic League, are beginning to pose the government some procould not say if the majority of the volun teers belonged to the Babrak Karmal’s Parcham (FLAG) faction of the PDPA. Afghan sources here believe that a majority of the volun teers belongs to the Parcham faction. There was, however, no independent confirmation.

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