DHAKA, 11 December 2022, (TON): Finance Minister AHM Mustafa Kamal said
the International Monetary Fund (IMF) in 'an open mind acknowledged' the outstanding achievements of Bangladesh in socio-economic progress.”

Kamal said “this while speaking as the chief guest at the National VAT Day event, held in a hotel in the capital. Chairman of the National Board of Revenue (NBR) Abu Rahmatul Muneem presided over the function.”

Kamal said “the success of Bangladesh is not the only achievement of the government. This achievement has been possible with the involvement of the people of this country, so we owe it to the taxpayers.”

Jasimuddin, president of FBCCI, complained that a businessman had paid Tk 1.0 crore as VAT last year. This year he will have to pay Tk1 crore VAT - the VAT officials put him under such pressure.

By R Hassan, TON Bangladesh

Despite US sanctions against the Rapid Action Battalion(RAB) members went to Britain to receive mass surveillance training. The Bangladeshi RAB has been accused of extrajudicial killings, torture and forced. Several members of a Bangladesh anti-crime unit accused of human rights abuses travelled to the United Kingdom in 2022 to receive security training, Al Jazeera’s Investigative Unit (I-Unit) reports.

Members of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), a law enforcement unit dubbed a “death squad” by human rights organizations, went to the UK in May and October 2022 for a cybersecurity course and training on the use of mass surveillance equipment. The instruction by British law enforcement experts happened despite the RAB being sanctioned by the United States for its alleged involvement in human rights abuses such as extrajudicial killings and forced disappearances.

Previously, the US and UK received the same evidence regarding the Rapid Action Battalion’s alleged involvement in forced disappearances and extrajudicial killings, but only the US decided to sanction the RAB. As the United Kingdom was also set to impose sanctions on Bangladesh’s anti-terrorism Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) in 2021 but held back for reasons that remain unexplained.

A lot of times, when the US government considers sanctioning someone or an entity like this, they may reach out to the UK, or Canada and the European Union to see if there’s interest in taking joint action together. However, the UK decided at the last minute to not implement sanctions that were to coincide with the restrictions by its closest ally. Al Jazeera was able to confirm with several sources who said they heard accounts of the plan being pulled at the eleventh hour.

The US implemented sanctions against the RAB and seven high-ranking current and former members on December 10, 2021, for alleged human rights violations such as torture and forced disappearances. The RAB has been likened to a “death squad” by several human rights organizations. It is unclear why the UK government decided not to sanction the RAB. If it had, the 2022 training trips would likely have not happened, but the sanctions were inexplicably not implemented by the UK despite the US doing so.

RAB is approaching to US partner countries to get the kind of training and tools and resources that they need to be a more ‘effective’ force back at home in Bangladesh.  According to supervising staff lawyer for accountability at human rights NGO Human Rights that they’re going to further engage in repression in Bangladesh.

In May this year, at least five Bangladeshi officers travelled to the UK to receive a Cyber Incident Response Management Foundation Training Course and a Cyber Security Practitioner Training Course from Irish company IT Governance, according to the documents. The training took place over several days and cost more than 15,000 euros ($15,800) in total, an invoice sent to RAB shows.

The expectation was that the UK and US, being strong allies, that they would be collaborating with each other by announcing back-to-back sanctions. The US did that on the 10th of December, the UK didn’t. The US used that evidence to sanction the RAB as an organization and seven current and former high-ranking officials from the unit under the Global Magnitsky Act, citing evidence of alleged involvement in at least 600 forced disappearances since 2009 and more than 600 extrajudicial killings since 2018.

The Bangladesh government has denied those accusations, saying the deaths were the result of so-called “crossfires” not summary executions with the “criminal” being killed when he got caught in the crossfire between his gang and the RAB.

Under the Global Human Rights Accountability Act, which was created to penalize human rights abusers by freezing their assets, American companies and individuals are prohibited from doing business with those sanctioned. According to supervising staff lawyer for accountability with human rights organization Human Rights First, the fact that the British government did not go through with the sanctions was “surprising and disappointing”.

By Fatima, TON Sri Lanka

With Sri Lanka still facing its worst ever socio-economic and political crisis since independence in 1948, the incumbent President is striving to pull the country out of its debt crisis. The cost of living is soaring and millions of families are in the poverty trap finding it hard to deliver two if not three meals a day, rudimentary healthcare services and a suitable education for their children. The parents know that higher education is vigorous for their children because it would play a key role there and determine their status in society.  

It was the South Asian country’s first default since becoming an independent country in 1948. Sri Lanka isn’t alone: Several other countries are in similar and disastrous financial straits.During the Covid-19 pandemic, there has been a dramatic increase in national debt levels across the world, with reported cases of downgrading sovereign debt ratings and difficulty of fulfilling debt obligations heavily concentrated in low and middle-income countries. In this situation, the unfolding sovereign debt crisis in Sri Lanka has attracted worldwide.

The Sri Lankan crisis encompassing both the sources of vulnerability to the Covid-19 shock, and debt arranging and stabilization improvements after the debt failure. When the Covid-19 shock triggered the crisis, the Sri Lankan government treated it as a modest balance- of-payments trouble that would dissipate together with the epidemic, while overlooking the systemic challenge of dealing with the massive debt overhang evolved over the previous two decades.

After the default, Sri Lanka’s policy challenge is to transform the ‘twin deficit’ economy, characterized by ‘stop-go’ growth cycle, into a vibrant, outward oriented economy that can distribute sustainable, equitable growth. The prime focus of the standard IMF approach to economic stabilization is on fiscal consolidation. It is necessary to combine fiscal consolidation with clear expenditure switching policies to redress the long-standing anti-tradable bias in the incentive structure that has reinforced the susceptibility of the economy to external tremors.

International organizations like the International Monetary Fund, the Paris Club, USAID, and the World Bank are aware of Sri Lanka’s debt crisis but do not intend to extend further investments. The World Bank said in May that it does not plan to offer new financing but is repurposing resources to help vulnerable families. Countries like China are also being asked to consider restructuring high-interest loan repayments as they have done for other countries. However, the country has not confirmed that vicissitudes will be made.

While economic distress is weighing down all South Asian countries, some are managing better than others. The reappearance of tourism is helping to motivate growth in Maldives, and to a smaller extent in Nepal both of which have active services sectors. The combined effects of COVID-19 and the record-high commodity prices due to the war in Ukraine took a heavier toll on Sri Lanka, worsening its debt woes and reducing foreign reserves. As Sri Lanka is in its worst-ever economic crisis since independence.  Sri Lanka’s real GDP is expected to fall by 9.2 percent this year and a further 4.2 percent in future.

Sri Lanka has for decades had an economy that is very vulnerable to domestic as well as global shocks. Since independence, the country has run into numerous balance of payment crises and sought IMF assistance many times to escape such difficulties. This time, however, the situation is very diverse and more intricate, as Sri Lanka was compelled to suspend debt repayments to foreign creditors for the first time in its history. Protecting the vulnerable is critical as Sri Lanka fast tracks deep reforms to navigate the deepening economic crisis. The crisis calls for immediate action to protect the poorest and most in need while also focusing on strengthening the social protection system.

DHAKA, 10 December 2022, (TON): International community and States Parties of Rome Statute need to stand resolutely with Bangladesh in securing sustainable return of the Rohingya people to their homeland, Myanmar, speakers told a discussion in the city.

A press release said “they underlined it at an event during the 21st Assembly of the States Parties of the International Criminal Court in the Hague.”

The event titled “Justice for the Rohingyas and No Peace without Justice” was co-hosted by the Bangladesh Embassy to the Netherlands, the Government of Gambia.

DHAKA, 10 December 2022, (TON): Chinese ambassador to Bangladesh Li Jiming paid a farewell call on speaker of the Jatiya Sangsad Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury in the capital.

Yan Hualong, minister counsellor of the embassy, was also present.

During the meeting the speaker recalled her meeting with Chinese president Xi Jinping during the latter’s visit to Bangladesh in 2016, the talks with her Chinese counterpart Li Zhanshu earlier this year, and the experience of attending the past sessions of the China-South Asia Exposition.

She lauded the interactions between top leaders and parliaments of the two countries.

ROME, 10 December 2022, (TON): Italian legislators have strongly condemned repression in Iran and called on the EU to act against a regime which denies freedom and democracy.

Members of all political parties from the Chamber of Deputies, along with senators, assembled in the Senate for a conference attended remotely by Maryam Rajavi, president of the National Council of Resistance of Iran.

Sen. Marco Scurria said “It is a duty of the Italian Parliament to express support to the Iranians who have been courageously demonstrating against the regime which has already killed nearly 700 people, mostly young.”

We do not ask for Iran to become a Western country; we only call for the right of the self-determination of Iranian people.

UNITED NATIONS, 10 December 2022, (TON): The United Nations Security Council adopted a resolution on Friday to allow humanitarian aid to continue unhindered into countries targeted by UN sanctions, particularly frozen assets.

The text states that payments of funds, economic resources or the provision of goods and services necessary to ensure the timely delivery of humanitarian assistance are permitted and are not a violation of the asset freezes imposed by this Council.

The resolution applies to UN agencies as well as humanitarian organizations participating in UN humanitarian work.

DHAKA, 10 December 2022, (TON): Swedish Minister of Foreign Trade and International Development Cooperation Johan Forssell has said “sustainability will be an important part of their future bilateral ties with Bangladesh and they look forward to enhancing their partnership within the green transition.”

With the celebration of 50 years of bilateral relations between Bangladesh and Sweden as a backdrop, the Swedish minister said that Sweden wants to continue their common journey ahead.

He made the remarks (digital introductory remarks) at the first policy dialogue held within the newly launched initiative called the “Sustainable Fashion Platform” by Sweden in Bangladesh.

The event held focused on scaling up the Sweden-Bangladesh partnership in renewable energy within the RMG sector.

MOSCOW, 10 December 2022, (TON): Russian President Vladimir Putin said “Moscow could adopt what he described as a US concept of using preemptive military strikes, noting it has the weapons to do the job, in a blunt statement amid rising Russia-NATO tensions over Ukraine.”

Putin said “we are just thinking about it. They weren’t shy to openly talk about it during the past years.”

For years, the Kremlin has expressed concern about US efforts to develop the so-called Conventional Prompt Global Strike capability that envisions hitting an adversary’s strategic targets with precision-guided conventional weapons anywhere in the world within one hour.

Putin said “speaking about a disarming strike, maybe it’s worth thinking about adopting the ideas developed by our US counterparts, their ideas of ensuring their security.”

RAMALLAH, 10 December 2022, (TON): The UN has expressed concern about an Israeli decision to refuse entry visas to its staff.

The organization warned that that the move may affect humanitarian work in Palestine and the ability of the humanitarian community to support Palestinians.

UN spokesman Stephane Dujarric said “the decision significantly impacts the humanitarian community’s ability to support Palestinians.”

Dujarric said “we are, of course, still in contact with the Israeli authorities on this matter, and we hope it will be resolved.”