DHAKA, JUNE 24: The Foreign Ministry on Sunday morning summoned Ralf M Reusch, the chargé d’affaires (CDA) of the German Embassy in Dhaka, to convey Bangladesh’s dismay, disappointment and concern over some of the remarks made by German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle at a joint briefing on Saturday. According to the ministry, the issues relating to human rights and recent killings, which were touched by the German Minister at the briefing, were not discussed during the bilateral meeting between the German Foreign Minister and Bangladesh Foreign Minister Dr Dipu Moni.
“I think we all agree that free and fair elections, freedom of expression and free press are important pillars of democracy and we urge all political actors to work together in order to strengthen democracy, human rights and rule of law,” the German Foreign Minister said at the joint briefing while replying to a question.
“Of course, we discussed the human rights situation. Like all, we are concerned about recent killings of activist and we expect these incidents will be investigated and the perpetrators would be brought to justice,” he said on human rights situation.
“The Ministry wishes to record its surprise at the content of a prepared written text and subsequent remarks by the German Foreign Minister immediately following the official meeting where he referred to issues that actually were not discussed,” said a statement issued by the Foreign Ministry.
“These include ‘free civil society, freedom of expression’ and ‘discussions on latest human rights situation in Bangladesh, concern over recent killing of activists and for their perpetrators to be brought to justice, etc,’ it said.
The statement stated, “The Ministry would like to emphasise that none of these issues were even raised during the discussion.”
“Since the German Foreign Minister read out from a prepared text, the Ministry considers this as a serious failure on the part of the officials who failed to reflect an accurate account of the discussions in the Minister’s statement e.g. the issues of human rights and recent killings which were not raised during the talks,” it said.
“The Ministry, therefore, summoned the CDA a.i. of the German Embassy in Dhaka this morning and conveyed Bangladesh’s dismay, disappointment and concern over such misrepresentation of facts in the press briefing,” said the statement.
Source: The Independent
