The interim government of Bangladesh will be trained and sworn on Thursday evening, and its chief Muhammad Yunus will guide citizens through a “democratic process,” said the country’s army chief.On Wednesday, there was a burst of activity, two days after the resignation of Sheikh Hasina as Prime Minister in the midst of a mass movement which blames her for more than 300 lives lost during demonstrations since mid-July.The Ministry of the Interior announced a new controversial battalion chief of the rapid elite action (RAB), one day after the replacement of the police chief. The country’s attorney general resigned. The employees…
Author: Frank M. Everett
Muhammad Yunus has long pleaded for peace by prosperity.Now, the 84 -year -old Nobel Prize winner must restore stability in Bangladesh in the face of an agitated economy with young people who are angry with unemployment and citizens crushed by the inflation burden.Yunus, who won the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize for the Pioneer Micro, received the little enviable task on Tuesday to lead an interim government in his country, after Sheikh Hasina resigned from his post as Prime Minister a day earlier and fled the nation.His departure came after weeks of anger after fatal clashes that made more than 300…
When the demonstrators ransacked the official residence of Sheikh Hasina and set fire to an honorary museum his murdered father – the founding chief of Bangladesh – they symbolically offer a good storage room to the rule of his oldest Prime Minister, whose rise in power was inextricably linked to him.Hasina, 76, one of the two women to have been Prime Minister of Bangladesh, resigned and fled the country on Monday. In a breathtaking turn of the events, the army chief announced that she had resigned, while the demonstrators led by students converged on the capital Dhaka to demand the…
The Sheikh Hasina of Bangladesh resigned from his post as Prime Minister, the chief of the national army announced on Monday, in an astonishing turn of events while the chief who had held his duties for 15 consecutive years seemed to give the requests of the student demonstrators to resign.The announcement came while Dacca and other cities have prepared for more violence, as thousands of anti-government demonstrators challenged a curfew and walked despite the strong presence of government troops and police on the street.”Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has already resigned and we are working to form an interim government,” said…
More than a week of heavy rains throughout Southeast Asia has left farms and houses flooded in regions of Myanmar, Cambodia and Laos where only two months ago, people suffered from a prolonged heat wave in the middle of concerns of drought.In Myanmar, there have been 11 deaths linked to floods since July 27 in the regions of Bago and Ayeyarwady and in the state of Kayin, according to local residents and social assistance groups. Seven of these deaths were in the Bago region, said a social worker at Radio Free Asia.”Four people drowned and three were electrocuted. We had…
Forces of Myanmar’s junta attacked a series of villages in central Myanmar, killing three civilians and forcing some 10,000 people to flee after anti-junta insurgents attacked a nearby military base, residents told Radio Free Asia on Friday.The Sagaing region is regularly hit by airstrikes and artillery bombardments as junta forces suppress insurgent groups who have intensified their attacks over the past nine months.About 150 junta soldiers in a convoy of vehicles attacked at least nine villages in Kanbalu municipality on Thursday, residents said, following an attack on a military camp by members of the anti-junta People’s Defense Forces allied with…
A draft internal document leaked by the municipal health authority in southeastern China’s Quanzhou city aimed at encouraging government officials and employees to have three children in order to boost falling birth rates has sparked a heated debate on social media.The document, which circulated online as a screenshot before being identified as a draft leaked by the Quanzhou Municipal Health Commission, lists a number of ways municipal authorities are considering to “organize and implement the three-child policy.”China abandoned its policy limiting most couples to one child in 2015, after decades of human rights abuses, including late-term forced abortions and sterilizations,…
A worried calm prevailed in the capital of Bangladesh Dhaka on the third day of a national curfew on Monday, while the authorities said they had arrested hundreds of people for their alleged involvement in violence during demonstrations that became fatal last week.Although there were no street protests or conflicts, two people seriously injured in previous violence died of their injuries on Monday.This made the number of deaths at least 138 in a week of street clashes which began as demonstrations against a system of discriminatory quotas for government jobs and became broader agitation against the 15 years of power…
The streets of Dacca allowed a deserted look on Monday and during the weekend, with the exception of the patrolling security forces after the Bangladesh government imposed a national curfew last week after mortal street clashes.The order restricted people at home for all hours except two each day when they are allowed to go out. During this break, people could be seen aligned with grocery store and other stores, or to pay bills.Police members and security forces were in large numbers in the streets and took up the air situation.After days of violent clashes that cost at least 138 people,…
RFA Insider welcome again! Oops – Eugene and Amy get a little confused when they flip the podcast format and give listeners the main story first, followed by the regularly scheduled recap and jokes.How it’s doneJoining Eugene and Amy in the studio is Mem Satitpanyapan of RFA’s sister organization BenarNews, a news media outlet covering security, politics and human rights in Southeast and South Asia.Mem, who is senior manager of Thai content, discusses with the team a murder case in Bangkok that is making international headlines. The bodies of six tourists – two Vietnamese Americans and four Vietnamese nationals –…