Dhaka, Jul 13 (PTI) Senior US official Uzra Zeya on Thursday reiterated Washington’s support for a “peaceful, free and fair” elections process in Bangladesh set for early January 2024, stressing that the country’s prosperous future depends on strong democratic institutions.
Zeya, the US Under Secretary for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights and Special Coordinator for Tibetan issues, is visiting the country on the second leg of her two-nation tour.
Before Bangladesh, she visited India.
“I’ve heard a strong commitment from the (Bangladesh’s) honourable Prime Minister (Sheikh Hasina) and all of the government ministers with whom I’ve had the pleasure to meet today in support of free and fair and peaceful elections,” the Indian-American official told a media briefing.
She said the US was willing to do “our part as a longtime partner of Bangladesh to help make this possible”.
Her comments came as thousands of supporters of the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party on Wednesday staged a huge protest in Dhaka demanding Prime Minister Hasina’s resignation ahead of elections predicting the polls to be manipulated if she remained in power.
Coinciding with the Opposition protest the ruling Awami League held a mammoth public meeting where the party leaders said the polls must be held under the incumbent government led by Hasina in line with Bangladesh’s Constitution.
“We witnessed large political rallies; thankfully, free of serious violence, and I think this is a good harbinger that we would like to see replicated,” Zeya said.
Asked if the US suggests a dialogue among the political parties in Bangladesh regarding the election issues, Zeya said, Washington doesn’t have any “direct involvement” in this but during talks with Bangladeshi leaders they discussed the need for free and fair elections.
She said Washington wanted as well to see the journalists’ ability to report without fear of retaliation or intimidation, the vital role that civil society plays in democracies advancing respect for human rights and fundamental freedoms, including freedoms of expression and association.
“A prosperous future (of Bangladesh) depends on strong democratic institutions, and the broad participation of Bangladeshis in elections and the governance of their country,” she observed.
According to a spokesman at the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), Hasina during her talks with Zeya reiterated her commitment to holding a free, fair and neutral election in the country.
Zeya is leading a top-level US delegation to Bangladesh on a three-day visit amid apparently strained Dhaka-Washington relations that some political analysts tend to see as the fallout of a global political scenario with the United States and its allies on one side and China and Russia on the other.
Zeya, who is accompanied by US assistant secretary for South and Central Asia Donald Lu, said her delegation was visiting Bangladesh to lay importance on the US partnership with Dhaka as part of its Indo-Pacific vision.
She said the US wanted a deepened bilateral partnership in line with its vision of a free and open Indo-Pacific, which is “more resilient, more connected and more secure”.
The US delegation arrived nearly two months after the US imposed a new visa policy, especially for Bangladesh, which threatens sanctions and visa bans against officials if the US determines they are “obstructing” the democratic process for the elections scheduled for January 2024.
The US also questioned the human rights situation and political inclusiveness in the country. The US last year slapped a visa restriction on several current and former officials of the elite anti-crime Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) on charges of alleged extra-judicial killings.
Hasina sternly criticised the US gesture and in a recent press conference she said she believed the US did not want her government to continue in power.
She also hinted that the US wanted military access to St Martin’s Island in the Bay of Bengal, an allegation the US State Department denied quickly saying they did not discuss taking over the offshore island and Washington respects Bangladesh’s sovereignty.
The PMO spokesman said Zeya told the premier that her country announced the new visa policy to assist Prime Minister Hasina’s commitment to hold free, fair and neutral elections.
“We don’t have any partiality towards any party. We want a neutral, free and fair election,” Zeya said.
Hasina said that Bangladesh is currently hosting more than one million Rohingyas in two different places of the country but the crisis exposed her government to a major challenge of human trafficking and anti-social activities threatening the country’s security.
The visiting US under secretary said she already visited the Rohingya camps and talked to them and promised that the US will provide some USD 74 million for the operational cost of Rohingya camps.
Zeya appreciated Sheikh for hosting such a huge number of Rohingyas in Bangladesh and also emphasised strengthening coordinated international efforts to ensure the repatriation of the forcibly displaced Rohingyas to their homeland in Myanmar.
Rohingyas fled Myanmar to Bangladesh since a military clampdown began there in August 2017 to oust a predominantly Muslim ethnic group from their homeland in Rakhine state. They now live in sprawling makeshift refugee camps.
Bangladesh and Myanmar have held talks on the repatriation of displaced Rohingya refugees back to their homeland, but they failed to resolve the issue. PTI AR NSA AKJ NSA NSA
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