Reports say home-made bombs exploded in central part of the city, where several people including protesters and security forces were injured.
(DHAKA, Bangladesh) – As Press TV reports, an analyst whose name is familiar to Salem-News.com readers, Stephen Lendman, says the Bangladeshi government is responsible for the violent clashes that are breaking out in the South Asian country as it has left the people no choice but to “fight fire with fire.”
The comment comes as clashes erupted between Bangladeshi police and protesters over controversial trials of opposition politicians including leaders of the country’s Jamaat-e-Islami party, as our Human Rights Ambassador William Nicholas Gomes has reported.
On Monday, hundreds of people took to the streets in the capital Dhaka where they threw stones at security forces. In response, police used tear gas and rubber bullets to disperse the angry demonstrators.
Reports say home-made bombs exploded in central part of the city, where several people including protesters and security forces were injured.
Press TV has conducted an interview with Stephen Lendman, author and radio host in Chicago. What follows is an approximate transcription of the interview.
Press TV: Mr. Lendman how serious do you see this period of time for Bangladesh? Is this going to cause further tension yet still to come for the country?
Lendman: It really seems like it will. It’s been going on for quite some time and I must say that [as for the] 1971 war, if there is one person I can put a finger on as having immense responsibility for that it was none other than Henry Kissinger and the Nixon administration but that’s another topic you can discuss it another time.
Bangladeshi politics can get very sticky and complicated. Jamarah is the main Islamist party. BNP (Bangladesh Nationalist Party) is the main opposition party. Bangladesh claims to be a parliamentary democracy. You would never guess it by the way the country is ruled; it’s more a police state than anything else.
Press TV: So basically when we’re saying these opposition members including leader of the country’s main opposition group here are arrested so this means that there is going to be further action however by the opposition parties against what you are calling a police state there?
Lendman: Yeah, I really think so, I mean when repression gets that extreme and it continues all the time and Bangladesh is a very very tough place to live in. Human rights are simply violated on a regular basis. Ordinary people get fed up. They’re courageous people; they decide they don’t want to take it anymore and they do something about it.
I don’t think you really want violent clashes but the government leaves no choice. The government is violent so people looking to be free and have the rights they deserve they fight fire with fire.
Source: Salem-News
The atmosphere of a democratic nature has been so vitiated as the natural climate itself. Actually the govt appears to be acting on the fingertips of only one person who seems to have taken for granted that this country must be ruled – yes, ruled – none other than herself. And this her attitude has been the real problem for meaningful democracy. We common people sometimes are compelled to think it was far better to be ruled by pseudo-dictators like Aiyub Khan or H.M.Ershad. What have we gained during the rule of so-called democratic govts since? Have the hopes and aspirations of the people been fulfilled during this long forty two years of independence? Ask our common people and see what they answer. Now we are living in a much more autocratic regime where common people’s life and living – both have been put in utter jeopardy.