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[email protected] 3513 December 2012
The World News Headlines
Ali hits out at tax break for millionaires and regressive tax measures against poorest in society
Chancellor George Os-borne’s autumn state-ment, has been met
with fierce criticism by the Bangladeshi MP for Bethnal Green and Bow, Rushanara Ali.
Ms Ali pointed to the Con-servative chancellor’s deci-sion to favour the rich with tax breaks while hitting the poorest with disproportion-ate and regressive taxation.
She also said that the Chan-cellor had failed to address the crucial issue of unemployment which is hitting the Bangladeshi community particularly hard.
Ms Ali said: “This Govern-ment is failing my constituents on jobs, growth and the deficit. Peo-ple on low and middle incomes are being hit the hardest while millionaires are getting a tax cut.
“The poorest in society are paying the price for the Gov-ernment’s economic failure with higher VAT, the granny tax, and real terms cuts to tax credits, jobseekers allowance, maternity pay and child benefit.
“The Office for Budget Re-
sponsibility has downgraded its growth forecasts this year, next year and the year after. This is devastating for my constitu-ents in Bethnal Green and Bow.
“It is clear that this Tory-led Government is simply not de-livering, and my constituents are suffering the consequences.
“George Osborne is not interested in getting young people into work or in help-ing small businesses survive. Under this Tory-led coalition,
the economy has flat lined for two years, 963,000 young peo-ple are out of work, long-term unemployment is rising and the claimant count is forecast to be 275,000 a year higher in 2015.
“The Government is cut-ting spending too far and too fast and the autumn statement offers no hope for those strug-gling to make ends meet. Only One Nation Labour can deliver the change Britain and Bethnal Green and Bow needs to get
people into work, make our economy fairer and stronger and ensure people are better off.”
However, the Chancellor George Osborne has denied that the poor are bearing the brunt of his austerity measures following plans for a new round of deep cuts in welfare and Whitehall spending, insisting that the rich are paying “a greater share”.
The chancellor also re-jected accusations that he had fiddled the figures to make the government’s finances look better and played down fears that the UK’s credit rat-ing could be downgraded.
Plans to cut £3.75bn a year off the government’s welfare bill by uprating benefits for Brit-ain’s poorest families by just 1% a year until 2015 was one of the biggest money-raising measures outlined by the chan-cellor in autumn statement, af-ter he admitted Britain’s ailing economy had left him unable to meet the government’s targets for repairing the public finances.
Measures targeting high earners included cutting the amount they can put into their pension pot tax-free from £50,000 to £40,000, from 2014, raising £1bn, and increasing the threshold for paying the higher rate of income tax by just 1% a year would raise a further £1bn.
The chancellor told MPs that limiting benefit increases, a fresh £31bn squeeze on government departments after 2014 and tax increases aimed at the better off were unavoidable if Britain was to cut its borrowing. He sought to soften the blow by raising the tax-free personal allowance on income by £235 to £9,440.
Chancellor Osborne makes his Autumn Statement
Inspirational residents in Tower Hamlets have been recognised at a commu-
nity awards ceremony for their dedication to the people and the areas where they live.
The third annual STAR in the Community Awards took place on Monday, 26 November and the worthy winners were revealed at a celebration in the Marriott Hotel, West India Quay, Canary Wharf which hosted the
eleven housing organisations based in the borough.
The winners were selected by a panel of independent judges hav-ing been nominated by their fel-low residents. Among the winners from EastendHomes residents were Mrs Margaret Hughes (EEH Inspirational Resident); Daisy Buchanan-Cook (Young Person of the Year Award); and, jointly, Mrs Onjona Begum and Mrs Forhana Begum (Environmental
Award). In receipt of three awards, EastendHomes residents were the most successful of any landlord.The ceremony was hosted by the Chief Executive of the National Housing Federation, David Orr, and awards were presented by Jim Fitzpatrick MP and Tower Ham-lets Lead Member for Housing, Councillor Rabina Khan.
Full list of winners:Inspirational Resident Awards:
Margaret Hughes, Mustapha Rami, Martin King, Raja Be-rezag, Richard Caley, Colin Field, Larry Herman, Charmaine Green-Burke, Rita Brown and Tommy Herbert
Axis Europe Young Person of the Year Award: Daisy Buchanan-Cook
Contribution to Resident In-volvement Award: KM Abu Taher Choudhury
Bringing People Together
Award: Joynal HaqueEnvironmental Award: Onjona
Begum and Forhana BegumThe eleven housing provid-
ers who jointly co-ordinated the awards were: EastendHomes; Gateway HA; Newlon Housing Trust; Old Ford HA; One Hous-ing Group; Poplar HARCA; Providence Row HA; Spitalifields HA; Swan Housing Group; Tower Hamlets Community Housing and Tower Hamlets Homes.
East End Homes residents sparkle at Star in the Community Awards
Rushanara Ali MP
Award winner: Onjana Begum
Award winner: Daisy Buchanan-Cook
Award winner: Forhana Begum
Award winner: Margaret Hughes
Award winner: KM Abu Taher Choudhury
Rushanara Ali MP slams Chancellor’s statement
This WeekEgypt set for rival rallies Pro-government and opposi-tion protesters have started to gather in Cairo for rival rallies for and against a controver-sial constitutional referen-dum proposed by Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi. Leftists, liberals and other opposition groups have called for marches to the presidential palace on Tuesday after-noon to protest against the hastily arranged referendum planned for Saturday. While the centre-right Islamists, who dominated the body that drew up the constitution, have urged their followers to turn out “in millions” in a show of support for the president and for a referendum they feel sure of winning.
Syria rebels make gains Syrian rebels have taken full control of a sprawl-ing military base that they stormed two days ago in the country’s north, killing at least 35 government troops in the fighting, anti-government activists say. The UK-based Syrian Observatory for Hu-man Rights (SOHR) said the battle for Sheik Suleiman base, near the city of Aleppo, ended on Tuesday after rebels took over the main compound and warehouses at the site. The rebels first entered the base on Sunday afternoon, after weeks of fighting with soldiers loyal to President Bashar al-Assad.
Israel raids NGO officesIsraeli soldiers have raided the offices of three civil society organisations in the heart of Ramallah in the oc-cupied West Bank. Entering before dawn on Tuesday, troops wrenched open the doors of the Women’s Union, the Palestinian NGO Network and Addameer, an advocate for Palestinians in Israeli jails. The raids were the first of their kind in a Palestin-ian city since the West Bank government won an initiative at the United Nations General Assembly on November 29 which recognised a de facto Palestinian state.
Berlusconi blames Monti Former Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi has accused the technocrat government of Mario Monti of dragging Italy into recession by fol-lowing economic policies by Germany.
‘This Government is failing my constituents on jobs, growth and the deficit. People on low and middle incomes are being hit the hardest while millionaires are getting a tax cut’
News36 13 December 2012
Tower Hamlets Mayor Lutfur Rahman said he was “deeply dis-
appointed with the Tory Chancellor’s Autumn State-ment will put more pres-sure on the poorest and the most vulnerable in society.
Mayor Rahman said: “I am deeply disappointed that the Government is continu-ing to hit the poorest and most vulnerable the hardest.
“Here in Tower Hamlets we will continue to work with our vulnerable resi-dents, to ensure they are ac-cessing all the benefits and services that they are eligi-ble for and help residents access financial, debt and housing advice, through building on the excellent pro-gramme of events held dur-ing Money Matters Month.”
Cabinet Member for Housing, Cllr Rabina Khan, also expressed her con-cern that local communi-
ties will be worse off after the Autumn Statement.
She said: “Welfare cuts are hitting the poorest in our society the hardest. They will have a particularly harsh impact on women, single
parents and minority ethnic households. It is also dif-ficult to see how we are ‘all in it together’, when corpo-ration tax is being reduced, and the proposals in the government’s Autumn State-
ment could increasingly mar-ginalise the borough’s most vulnerable families, increase household debts and reduce local economic growth.”
In response to the govern-ment’s Autumn Statement, a Tower Hamlets Council spokesperson said, “The most significant resource challenge for Tower Hamlets Council – and other London local authorities - is mitigat-ing, as far as possible, the severe impact of the Ben-efits Cap, which forms part of the government’s exist-ing welfare reform plans.
The government’s Au-tumn Statement today con-firmed that most benefits will rise by just one per cent – rather than the rate of infla-tion – and austerity measures may continue to 2018. We also learned today that local gov-ernment funding will be cut by 2% in 2014 – we will have to identify the impact on our borough in the coming weeks.
This combination of fac-tors may add to the chal-lenges faced by the thousands of Tower Hamlets families al-ready affected by the reforms planned for 2013, potentially causing further additional housing, local economic and social issues in the borough’.
Bilingual pupils learn more effectively when schools form partner-
ships with community lan-guage teachers who understand the children’s cultural back-grounds, according to research by Goldsmiths University.
The research funded by Tower Hamlets Council and Paul Ham-lyn Foundation revealed how mainstream and complementary schools can collaborate to en-hance educational achievement.
A new book Interconnecting Worlds: Teacher Partnerships for Bilingual Learning describes the success of the unique project where primary schools teachers
and community teachers in Tow-er Hamlets worked together to devise lessons that made the most of children’s language skills.
Councillor Oliur Rahman,
cabinet member for Children’s Services said: “Tower Ham-lets is very pleased to have taken part in this research. The council’s Languages Ser-
vice supports community lan-guage classes throughout the borough because we value the important role they play in chil-dren’s bilingual development.”
Teachers from primary schools formed successful part-nerships with colleagues from Bengali, Somali and Russian af-ter-school and weekend classes.
Together they devised topic-based work that drew on the mul-tilingual resources of children and families to support learning.
For example, children stud-ied a Bengali poem alongside an English one with a similar theme, or acted out the Rus-sian story Kolobok in which the
main character meets the same fate as The Gingerbread Man.
Dr Charmian Kenner, one of the book’s authors added: “By studying the same topic in different languages, children expanded their knowledge and reinforced their understanding.
“Many bilingual children learn about language and literacy in complementary school, which supports their educational achieve-ment in the mainstream. But this learning goes unrecognised – it’s like a hidden secret. Through the project, mainstream teachers visit-ed complementary schools for the first time and discovered the chil-dren’s other worlds of learning.”
Muslim employees considering how to plan for their retire-
ment, prompted by new UK pension auto-enrolment legisla-tion, are being offered a Sharia compliant investment service, called the Discretionary Port-folio Service (DPS), accredited by the Islamic Bank of Britain.
The DPS, provided by SMARTfund Administration Limited, provides access to a series of investment portfolios which aim to generate a Sharia compliant and ethical profit. The DPS is available to individual in-vestors following guidance from an Independent Financial Ad-viser. Employees choosing pen-sions as part of auto-enrolment regulations can also invest in a DPS portfolio and hold it within a self-invested personal pension, if offered by the company. As a qualifying scheme, the IBB ac-credited Sharia compliant SIPP, administered by Pointon York SIPP Solutions Limited, is avail-able to employers as a group per-sonal pension or as an alternative choice to the auto-enrolment schemes currently available.
Commenting on the chal-lenges of long-term financial planning, Sultan Choudhury, managing director, IBB said, “Retirement planning has be-come an important issue for all UK employees; new auto-enrol-ment legislation has highlighted that a large proportion of the population is not planning and saving enough for their future.”
Mayor ‘disappointed’ with Chancellor’s plan
Community language teachers are ‘secret of children’s success’
Shariah based investments widen choice
Mayor Rahman says the Tory government is hitting to poorest hardest
Bilingual pupils learn more effectively under certain conditions
Cllr Rabina Khan
‘Welfare cuts are hitting the poorest in our society the hardest. They will have a particularly harsh impact on women, single parents and minority ethnic households’
Mandela treatment working Former South African President Nelson Mandela has suffered a recurrence of a lung infection but is responding to treatment, a government state-ment said. The anti-apartheid icon was spending a fourth day in hospital on Tuesday for more tests, as his wife said his trademark “sparkle” was wan-ing. Looking calm in an inter-view with a local television network, Graca Machel did not give details about Mandela’s health status, just saying it was painful to see him “aging”.
Aussie DJs offer moneyThe Australian radio station which made a prank call to a UK hospital that apparently resulted in the death of a nurse said Tuesday that it would do-nate at least 500,000 Australian dollars (US$524,000) to a fund for the nurse’s family. Jacintha Saldanha apparently committed suicide after being duped by the prank call from two DJs seeking information on Prince William’s pregnant wife, Catherine.
HSBC fined $2 billion Global banking giant HSBC will pay $1.92 billion in a record settlement with U.S. regulators to resolve money-laundering allegations, the bank said Tuesday. The deal includes a deferred prosecution agreement with the Department of Justice. No charges will be brought against the bank provided certain conditions are met. As part of the settlement, HSBC is required to take further actions to strengthen its compliance policies and proce-dures. HSBC expects to reach an agreement shortly with the United Kingdom Financial Services Authority (FSA).
Snakes invade China uni Students at a university in the southern Chinese city of Guangzhou were given a scare last week, after dozens of snakes invaded the campus. The Guangzhou Daily reported Monday that animal control experts had caught around 40 live snakes on Saturday after a number of the reptiles were spotted writhing along a road in Guangzhou University City. Around 60 snakes were also found dead, most squashed by traffic. “On the way to the li-brary I saw a green snake lying on the road in the sun, about 50 cm long,” the newspaper quoted one student as writing on Sina Weibo, China’s Twitter.
This Week
News37
This Week
13 December 2012
IT savvy youngsters are learning the ropes in digital marketing and web devel-
opment, thanks to a deal struck by Tower Hamlets Council.
Fresh from school or col-lege, the 16 to 19 year olds have started a one-year paid apprenticeship with IT and business services firm Agil-isys, providing them with hands-on practical experience and an NVQ Level 3 qualifica-tion, leading to employment.
Open exclusively to Tower Hamlets teenagers, the local Arch apprenticeship scheme currently has 24 recruits, with a further 12 starting in Janu-ary 2013 and future cohorts planned. In all, 250 apprentice-ships will be delivered over the life of the seven year contract.
Each apprentice undergoes a rigorous assessment pro-cess and foundation course before being put through their paces at a placement with an external business.
The scheme is just one ele-ment of an adult learning and employment programme ne-gotiated by Tower Hamlets Council with Agilisys, as part of the company’s delivery of the council’s IT services.
Last week (22 Novem-ber), Mayor Lutfur Rahman
met the apprentices to find out how the scheme is going.
He said: “We’re work-ing hard to ensure that wher-ever possible, council con-tracts include benefits for the borough and local people.
“As part of my commit-ment to supporting residents into training and employment, this scheme is giving young people an alternative avenue into the world of paid work and
careers in modern technology.”He was joined by Cllr
Shafiqul Haque, cabinet mem-ber for jobs and skills, and Cllr Aminur Khan, ward councillor for Whitechapel at the meeting.
Naima Bihi, 19, a former pu-pil of Mulberry School and Arch apprentice, gave the group an insight into why the scheme is so popular with school-leavers.
She said: “I decided an ap-prenticeship would be the best
option for me because it would allow me to gain valuable ex-perience and insight into an in-dustry that I was interested in.
“I didn’t want the £27,000 debt from university fees on my head so I decided to look at other options.
“Apprenticeships give you the opportunity to experience learning in a different way and give you valuable skills and ex-perience that employers want.”
Her colleague, Atef Salam, completed a year of sixth form before changing direction and starting his apprenticeship.
He said: “I decided A-levels weren’t for me and wanted to get into doing some hands-on work.
“Working for Agil-isys is really fun and excit-ing – working on projects which will actually be recog-nised is a great motivation!”
In exchange for their time, the Tower Hamlets-based ap-prentices receive a salary equal to the London Living Wage and are given access to an online career planning portal, which puts them in touch with key contacts in the IT world so they can start to forge their careers.
Chairman of Agilisys, Charles Mindenhall said: “It’s great working in part-nership with Mayor Lutfur Rahman and Tower Hamlets Council and to be given the chance to be an anchor em-ployer in Tower Hamlets.
“Our apprenticeships are giving young people the skills that employers all over the world are demanding.”
The partnership between the council and Agilisys will also deliver 250 real jobs, 4,000 skills assessments and funding for 1,050 people to study recognised qualifi-cations – all of which will be offered to local people.
To find out more about the apprenticeship scheme, visit www.agilisys.co.uk/careers/ap-prenticeships
A Labour Party appeals panel has upheld the decision to expel 5
councillors from the Labour Party following their support for opposition candidates at a by-election earlier this year.
The five councillors, Ka-bir Ahmed, Rofique Ahmed, Shahed Ali, Abdul Asad and Shafiqul Haque all appealed their expulsions but failed to turn up to the appeals panel meetings last week. After reviewing the evidence the panel this week announced that the expulsions should stand stating that there was “no reason to challenge the
convincing evidence that had led to the original decision.”
All five were found to have violated numerous Labour Party rules by actively cam-paigning against the Labour Party candidate during the Spitalfields by-election earlier this year. They will now be ex-pelled from the party for a pe-riod of five years. A sixth man, Motiur Rahman was also ex-pelled for campaigning against the Labour Party candidate.
Responding to news of the expulsions, Leader of the Labour group, Cllr Joshua Peck, said: “The case against the five was always very
clear: they consistently vot-ed and campaigned against the Labour Party and they are now paying the price.
“I hope that today’s rul-ing will send a crystal clear message that the Labour Party rules cannot just be ignored. You cannot cam-paign against the Party and expect to remain a member.”
Chris Weavers, Chair of the Tower Hamlets Labour Party, said: “Tower Hamlets Labour Party has learnt from the mistakes of the past and is 100% committed to play-ing our part in cleaning up local politics in the borough.
“Residents need to know that when they vote for a La-bour councillor that’s what they will have for the whole four years of a council – not someone who will switch loyal-ties and views as it suits them.
“Earlier this year resi-dents had the opportunity to elect a Labour team – peo-ple who would really help the people of our borough.
“Instead of working with us to secure this, these coun-cillors chose to support La-bour’s political opponents. Local people deserve bet-ter and Labour is commit-ted to doing the right thing.”
Five ex-Labour councillors lose expulsion appeal
Young apprenticeships nurture tech talent
‘We’re working hard to ensure that wherever possible, council contracts include benefits for the borough and local people’
British ethnic mix increases The number of foreign-born residents in England and Wales has risen by nearly three million since 2001 to 7.5 mil-lion people, the 2011 census shows.That means about one in eight - 13% - of residents were born outside the UK. The most common birthplaces outside of the UK for residents are India, Poland and Pakistan. The number of ethnic white British people is down to 80%.London has become the first region where white British people have become a minor-ity. Some 45% (3.7 million) of people in the capital described themselves as white British, down from 58% (4.3 mil-lion) in 2001. The Office for National Statistics said the findings showed a “diverse” and “changing” picture. More than half the rise in the popula-tion of the England and Wales was due to migration.
CofE banned from gay union The Church of England and Church in Wales will be banned in law from offering same-sex marriages, the gov-ernment has announced. Other religious organisations will be able to “opt in” to holding ceremonies, Culture Secre-tary Maria Miller said. But she added that the Church of England and Church in Wales had “explicitly” stated strong opposition and would not be included. The plans are due to be introduced before the next election, in 2015.
PM offers new snoop powerNo 10 says the PM remains committed to giving police and security services new powers to monitor internet activity, despite criticism of current plans. The prime minister’s spokesman said he accepted the criticism from MPs and peers of the draft Communi-cations Data Bill and would re-write it. Deputy PM Nick Clegg had threatened to block it unless there was a “rethink”.No 10 said bringing in new powers was a “government commitment” and everyone was “committed to fixing this problem”.
Baby born 1,000 ft in airA baby has been born in the Shetland Coastguard helicop-ter while it was 1,000ft in the air. A doctor on Unst, the most northerly inhabited island of the UK, called for assistance in the early hours.Cllr Joshua Peck
Mayor Lutfur Rahman congratulates some young people after they achieved technical qualifications
[email protected] 13 December 2012
Features
A Bangladesh war crimes tribunal has accused the British magazine The Economist of hacking the computer of its presiding judge to record con-
versations and read emails he exchanged with a lawyer.The magazine did not directly address the charges, but said it was
in possession of conversations and documents that raised serious questions about the workings of the tribunal.
The tribunal is trying 10 opposition politicians on charges of arson, rape and other atrocities committed during the country’s 1971 war of independence from Pakistan.
Bangladesh says that during the war, Pakistani troops, aided by their local collaborators, killed 3 million people and raped about 200,000 women. International human rights groups have called for fair and impartial proceedings and raised questions about how the tribunal is being conducted.
New York-based Human Rights Watch has complained about flaws in the tribunal and expressed concern about a police raid on defense lawyers and the disappearance of a witness at the courthouse gates who had reportedly been preparing to testify for the defense.
In an order passed last week, the tribunal accused The Economist of computer hacking and asked it to explain how it got emails and
heard Skype conversations between Presiding Judge Mohammed Nizamul Huq and Ahmed Ziauddin, a lawyer of Bangladeshi origin living in Brussels, Belgium. The order was issued to Adam Roberts, South Asia bureau chief of the magazine, and Rob Gifford, its Asia specialist, the tribunal said in a statement.
It accused the magazine of “interfering into the work of the tribu-nal and violating the privacy of its presiding judge.”
The tribunal threatened to bring contempt charges against the pair unless they give a satisfactory reply within three weeks. In an article published Saturday, The Economist said it has heard 17 hours of recorded telephone conversations and seen over 230 emails between Huq and Ziauddin.
“These emails, if genuine, would indeed raise questions about the working of the court and we are bound to investigate them as fully as we can,” the article said. The Economist rejected the tribunal’s demand that the emails and recorded conversations be returned to it without being published. “This material is confidential and we are bound by law and the British press’s Code of Conduct not to reveal such information except in matters of the most serious public interest. We did not solicit the material, nor pay for it, nor commit ourselves to publish it,” it said.
But the tribunal said the materials were obtained illegally and accused the magazine of calling the judge for comment, adding that interviewing a sitting judge is illegal and tantamount to contempt. Under Bangladesh law, a contempt conviction carries up to six months in jail.
Most of those on trial belong to the Islamic Jamaat-e-Islami party, which in 1971 campaigned against Bangladesh’s war of sepa-ration from Pakistan. The party stands accused of supporting or in some cases taking part in atrocities committed by Pakistani troops. If convicted the defendants could be hanged.
The chief judge of the Bangladesh war crimes court resigned on Tuesday
after calls over the Internet in which he shared details of cases were published in the press.
“Judge Nizamul Huq tendered his resignation to the law secretary. He has cited per-sonal reasons,” Bangladesh’s deputy law minister Quamrul Islam told AFP.
Huq stepped down after unidentified hackers last week posted on YouTube 17 hours of conversations which were then published by Amar Desh, a pro-opposition newspaper.
In the calls, Huq allegedly suggested that he was under pressure from the government to reach a quick verdict in the ongoing 1971 war crime cases against the country’s senior opposition leaders.
He was quoted as telling a legal expert that the “govern-ment has gone mad and it wants a verdict”, according to a transcript printed by Amar Desh. Huq presides over the International Crimes Tribunal (ICT), which was created in 2010 to try war crimes sus-pects.
It has been widely criticised as being a political tool for the ruling Awami League govern-ment to target its opponents.
Nine leaders of the Jamaat-e-Islami, the nation’s largest Is-lamic party, and two from the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), are being tried for genocide and crimes committed in the libera-tion war against Pakistan.
Both Jamaat and the BNP have dismissed the court as a show trial.
Muslim-majority Bang-ladesh, which was formerly called East Pakistan, won its independence from then-West Pakistan after a nine-month long struggle in 1971.
The current government says up to three million people were killed in the war, many murdered by locals collaborat-ing with Pakistani forces.
Bangladesh accuses The Economist of contempt
Top judge in Bangladesh war tribunal resigns
Dilwar Hussein Sayedee is allegedly being targeted by the top judge in the war crimes trial – Judge Nizamul Haque, who discussed confidential details of the case with a Brussels-based lawyer
‘The tribunal accused The Economist of computer hacking and asked it to explain how it got emails and heard Skype conversations between Presiding Judge Mohammed Nizamul Huq and Ahmed Ziauddin, a lawyer of Bangladeshi origin living in Brussels, Belgium’
The Economist is being accused by Bangladesh of contempt of court because it apparently eavesdropped on a conversation between the presiding judge in the war crimes tribunal and a lawyer in Brussels
[email protected] 3913 December 2012
Features
On 6th December 2012 the presiding judge of Bang-ladesh’s International Crimes Tribunal, Mohammed Nizamul Huq, passed an order requiring two members
of The Economist to appear before the court, demanding that they explain how we have come by e-mails and conversations between himself and Ahmed Ziauddin, a lawyer of Bangladeshi origins based in Belgium. The tribunal was established in 2010 to consider accusations of war crimes committed in 1971, dur-ing Bangladesh’s war of independence from Pakistan.
The Economist has heard 17 hours of recorded telephone con-versations and seen over 230 e-mails between the two men. This material is confidential and we are bound by law and the British press’s code of conduct not to reveal such information except in matters of the most serious public interest. We did not solicit the material, nor pay for it, nor commit ourselves to publish it.
These e-mails, if genuine, would indeed raise questions about the workings of the court and we are bound to investigate them as fully as we can. It was in the course of those investigations
that we contacted the two men. Our investigations are continu-ing. Once they are concluded and if we consider the allegations contained in them to have merit, we will publish them. Mean-while, we are publishing a short account of our dealings with Mr Huq and Mr Ahmed. These, we believe, have a bearing both on the tribunal’s proceedings and on the order of December 6th.
Mr Huq is a Supreme Court judge and “chairman” of a trio of judges on the tribunal. There is no jury and the court can im-pose the death penalty. The verdict in its first case could come within days. Mr Ahmed is an expatriate Bangladeshi who is an academic specialising in international law who lives in Brus-sels. The two men have known each other for 25 years, as they were human-rights campaigners and Mr Ahmed’s late brother had been a student friend of the judge. Mr Ahmed is not just an international lawyer, he is also the director of the Bangladesh Centre for Genocide Studies in Belgium, which is dedicated to ending what he has called “the ingrained culture of impunity” surrounding the war crimes in Bangladesh.
The order includes a description of Mr Huq’s relationship with Mr Ahmed. It explains that the tribunal is based on “new law”, so the judges need to “take assistance of researchers from inside and outside the country”. It names Mr Ahmed as just such an expert. “During the proceedings of the trial and orders the Chairman also took assistance from him,” it says.
Speaking to The Economist in Brussels on December 4th, Mr Ahmed had said something similar, “It’s up to judges to decide where they are going to get research support or other support they need. They are quite entitled to do it. The more so when they really don’t have that research backup [in Bangla-desh]. [They ask for help] if they feel if there are people more informed about the issue, especially where [international law] is so new in Bangladesh. I’m not really advising him, but if there is a question then I try to respond.”
But the characterisation in the order and from Mr Ahmed contradicts what the judge told us in a taped interview. On 5th December, the evening before the court issued its order, Mr Huq insisted that Mr Ahmed was not helping him. He admitted that they talk, but denied that he had a part in helping prepare documents or doing anything in any official capacity. He said that for anyone to play such a role would be quite wrong.
“As judges, we cannot take help from third person and out-siders,” Mr Huq said. Asked whether they sometimes exchange e-mails about the tribunal, he says “No, no, no, regarding tribu-nal, no talks regarding the judgment or regarding the proceed-ings, no.” “Later, he said, “A Supreme Court judge, we do not talk even with our wife regarding the tribunal.”
Judges generally have to be careful if they discuss cases with third parties, because to do so could lead to bias or the im-pression of that they have come under the influence of someone who has nothing to do with the proceedings.
In his interview in Brussels on the previous day, Mr Ahmed had likewise told us that he has “no relationship whatsoever” with court. He can send the judge messages if he wants—but “generally though I don’t,” he says, “he’s a judge after all.”
Several questions are raised by all this. On what bases did the judge select the experts who would help him? Why was Mr Ahmed’s role not revealed to the court and to the public until the tribunal order on 6th December, after we had contacted him? The order refers to the presiding judge of the tribunal “receiving the support [of Mr Ahmed] on the developments on International Criminal law throughout the world” and taking assistance “during the proceedings of the trial and orders”. Why then did he tell us on December 5th that the two men had had no talks regarding the tribunal or regarding the proceedings? And why did he say that it would not be appropriate for a Su-preme Court judge to talk to others about the proceedings?
At least one person has been killed and scores injured
and detained by police as a protest organized by Bangla-desh’s largest Islamic party turned violent, with police reportedly using live ammu-nition against the rioters.
The strike was organ-ized by Jamaat e Islami in protest against the trials of the organization’s leaders, who are charged with war crimes allegedly committed during the country’s 1971 liberation war.
During the nationwide protests, rioters have set some 20 cars on fire, including one at the US Embassy in Dhaka.
Police used live ammuni-tion, tear gas and rubber bullets to quell the angry crowd across the nation, as violence was also reported in the cities of Sylhet, Rajshahi and Narayanganj.
Sixty-nine people have been arrested, according to police, while an 18-year-old was shot dead in clashes in the town of Chirirbandar, 300 kilometers from the capital.
Hospital officials con-firmed that the death was caused by live ammunition used by the law enforcement.
The government of Bang-ladesh holds Jamaat responsi-ble for much of the bloodshed caused during a nine-month war against Pakistan, in which an estimated three mil-lion people were killed.
The Economist hits back at accusation
One person killed, many injured in Islamic protest
Motiur Rahman Nizami, another religious leader targetted by the judge in the war crimes tribunal
‘These e-mails, if genuine, would indeed raise questions about the workings of the court and we are bound to investigate them as fully as we can. It was in the course of those investigations that we contacted the two men’
The Economist responds to accustaions of contempt after having seen and heard conversations between the top Bangladesh war tribunal judge and a Brussels-based lawyer. In the communications, the targetting of Dilwar Hussein Sayeedi is discussed
