TASEK PAUH blogspot

Al-Jazeera, Nov 19 - Up to 10,000 people are feared to have died in Bangladesh's worst cyclone in more than a decade. "Based on our experience ... and reports from the scene I would guess the death toll may be as high as 10,000," Mohammad Abdur Rob, the chairman of the Bangladeshi Red Crescent Society, said.

Relief workers are working on Monday to get aid to millions of people left homeless by cyclone Sidr which struck on Thursday. The storm's 250kph winds wrecked tens of thousands of homes across the south and centre of the country, creating a six-metre high tidal wave that flooded the regions.

"The death toll has already reached 3,000 confirmed dead," Mohammad Rob said.

Death toll rising

Heather Blackwell from Oxfam told Al Jazeera: "The numbers of the death toll is rising and there has been a sharp increase in the last 24 hours.

"There are a lot of areas we still haven't reached."

Owen Fey, an Al Jazeera correspondent reporting from the remote southern village of Harimpala in Bangladesh, said, "as soon we arrived here the scenes of devestation were everywhere.

"Their entire rice crop for the year has been destroyed.

"We could hear the sounds of women wailing as we walked in. Men described scenes of the cyclone itself, how the water levels rose to their throats, washing children away."

In southern Bangladesh, the bloated corpses of people and animals dotted the landscape, raising fears of disease, while untold numbers of survivors were short of food and water.

Many of the deaths were caused by the tidal wave and by flying debris and falling trees that crushed flimsy bamboo and tin homes, the best that many people in the country can afford.

Abdul Zabbar, a teacher in Barguna district, 200km south of the capital Dhaka, said survivors might not be able to hold out for long.

"There is no food and drinking water. Bodies are still floating in the rivers and paddy fields," he said, adding the rice harvest, representing four months of food, had been washed away.

Sattar Gazi, another farmer, said: "I lost six of my family members in the cyclone. I am afraid that the remaining three of us will die of hunger."

Race against time

Relief workers were racing to get aid to stricken areas five days after the storm hit.

Soliders have been drafted in to help the relief operation but many roads have been blocked or washed away by the tidal wave that broke across the coast along with cyclone Sidr.

"In the remote areas it is slow-going," said Douglas Casson Coutts of the World Food Programme.

"They are almost chopping trees as they go along."

The massive rescue effort has attracted help from around the world, but relief items, including tents, rice and water, were slow to reach many survivors.

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Labels: Bangladesh, Luar Negeri

DHAKA, Nov 18 (AP) - The death toll from a cyclone that devastated Bangladesh has surpassed 2,200, officials said Sunday, while rescuers struggled through blocked paths to reach hundreds of thousands of survivors awaiting aid in wrecked homes and flooded fields.

The government deployed military helicopters, naval ships and thousands of troops to join international agencies and local officials in the rescue mission following Tropical Cyclone Sidr. The U.S. and other countries also offered assistance.

At least 2,206 people have died since the storm struck Bangladesh on Thursday, said Selina Shahid of the Ministry of Food and Disaster Management. The toll could rise still higher as more information comes in from battered regions.

Disaster Management Secretary Aiyub Bhuiyan met Sunday with representatives from the United Nations and international aid groups to discuss the massive relief effort. more here

Labels: Bangladesh, Luar Negeri

May 21 - A special court in Bangladesh has sentenced the political secretary of a former prime minister to three years in jail, an official has said.

Harris Chowdhury, who has been on the run since the government launched its crackdown on corruption, was found guilty of failing to submit details of his financial affairs as demanded by the authorities.

Chowdhury was Khaleda Zia's political secretary during her second term as prime minister, from 2001 until October 2006.

Golam Fattah, public prosecutor, said: "Judge Ashraf Hossain of special court number five gave the verdict today."

Crackdown

The special courts were set up by the military-backed government last month to try dozens of high-profile political figures charged with corruption.

Chowdhury was ordered to account for his wealth by the anti corruption commission after the military-backed government took power following the imposition of emergency rule in January.

Many others ordered to make similar submissions have been in detention for several months.

Among those arrested are Zia's influential elder son, Tareque Rahman, as well as former ministers and MPs of both Zia's Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and rival Sheikh Hasina Wajed's Awami League.

At least half a dozen former ministers are due to be tried at the special courts set up at the national parliament building in the capital.

Chowdhury is the first BNP member to be given a jail sentence.

Last month Shamim Osman, a former Awami League MP, was jailed for three years for failing to submit his financial details.

The new government has vowed to clean up Bangladesh's corruption-riddled politics before holding elections by the end of 2008. Agencies

Labels: Bangladesh, Luar Negeri

The Crafty Project: Christianization of Bangladesh

Western non-governmental organizations are operating in all parts of the world. Many are doing great work in alleviating poverty and helping with development efforts. Unfortunately, some have hidden agendas. Presently Bangladesh has the NGO density of 3.5 foreign NGOs per square mile. Most of the foreign NGOs, under the banner of "development partner", are working to remove poverty and to bring education, and progress to the country. Their failure to do so has instead brought about an increase in tensions and social problems in Bangladesh.

Their hidden agenda is now evident. Their activities can best be described as 'the revived form of imperialism' and 'neo-colonialism', a great threat to the entire nation and its majority Muslim population, estimated at 86%.

These organizations bring billions of dollars to help the poor people, but only 5% goes to the target group. The rest of money is spent to materialize their hidden agendas; to convert the indigenous population to Christianity.

In the 190 years of colonial rule in united Bengal, only 111,426 people were converted to Christianity. Out of this converts, about 50 thousand were citizens of Bangladesh. The number of Christians in the territory had risen by 400% from about 50,000 in 1947 to 200,000 in 1971. According to one estimate, in the period between 1971 and 1991, the number of Christian converts in Bangladesh has risen from 200,000 to 400,000.

Christian sources tend to underplay their numbers, but it is reported that their goal is to increase the Christian population to 10-12 million in the next 20 years.

Labels: Bangladesh, Kristianasasi, Ummah