Combating terrorism with US assistance

Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Moudud Ahmed said that the new act would be enacted into a law in the next session of the House to ensure awarding of speedy punishment to the godfathers behind terrorists, and the militants: "The clause of sedition would be inserted into the new act and the act will be used against those individuals, groups and organizations which have been financing, patronising and provoking activities of the militants and terrorists in the country."

There is no sedition clause in the existing laws of the country other than the clause 124(A) of the Penal Code which is now being regarded as the clause of sedition. As such, the law enforcers are unable to frame charge of sedition against terrorists and their godfathers and try them even after their arrests on specific charges. All the cases relating to militancy and terrorism will be tried in the Special Tribunal if the Anti-Terrorism Act is enacted into a law. In accordance with the proposed act, an offender could be awarded with punishments like death sentence and the cases that will be filed under the act will also be non-bail able.

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The US Under Secretary for Political Affairs Nicholas Burns, who has changed his travel plan to exclude Bangladesh during his South Asia tour, said the US government wants that the Bangladesh government to respond vigorously to violence and religious extremism. "In Bangladesh, we'd like to see the government to respond vigorously to the challenge of violence and of religious extremism that have been all too evident in Bangladesh over the last several months," he told the press at the American Center in Mumbai on January 18. The US Assistant Secretary of State for South Asian Affairs Christina Rocca is likely fly in Dhaka on a 3-day visit to Bangladesh on January 26 to discuss critical issues of counter-terrorism and the next general election. Rocca may also carry a letter from the US government appreciating the government's anti-militancy crackdown.

Terrorism could not make much headway without the help of money laundering. So the government is also going to enact tough laws to check money laundering and terrorist financing in the country. The cabinet at its weekly meeting held on December 19, with Prime Minister Khaleda Zia in the chair, discussed the draft of the proposed Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Prevention Act-2005, aiming to stop sending illegal money to Bangladesh and prevent terror financing.

The draft Money Laundering and Terrorist Financing Prevention Act 2005 provides for a Financial Crime Investigation and Prosecution Office and allows the government to take foreign assistance. The law drafted by the Bangladesh Bank defines terrorist acts and prescribes harsh punishments including life imprisonment and death sentence for them. The new law to replace the existing Anti-Money Laundering Act 2002 was penned at the suggestion of the US in the wake of 9/11 and in the context of the worldwide rise in terrorist activities to prevent and crush money laundering and funding terrorism and militancy.

Bangladesh is likely to be able to strengthen monitoring of bank accounts and fund transactions to detect terrorism financing effectively from now on, as the country has since acceded to an international anti-terrorism convention. Except the International Convention for Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism, Bangladesh had earlier acceded to 11 other anti-terrorism conventions, adopted by the United Nations General Assembly on December 9, 1999. The country delayed to accede or ratify that particular convention for several years because of its reservation about some of the clauses in the convention. However, the government has recently decided to accede to the International Convention for Suppression of the Financing of Terrorism realizing its significance in the context of present global situation.

The US forces have killed some more innocent people in their search for the leaders of Al-Qaida. At least 18 people have perished in a bomb attack made on a Pakistani village on the country's frontier with Afghanistan on January 13. Earlier, quite a large number of people were killed; some at wedding receptions, when US planes dropped bombs on what they thought were gatherings of Al-Qaida or Taliban in Afghanistan. It does not appear that such blunders have embarrassed the George W. Bush administration, which goes on pretending that all the innocent people killed are collateral damage and therefore is something that is inevitable in a war. Now, on this latest blunder, the US administration is not even ready to apologize, but rather has made it clear that they are ready to launch more such attacks with a view to wipe out the roots of Al-Qaida, as the US and Pakistan have been working together to fight against the terrorism.

America's fight against the Al-Qaida, though seen as helping to safeguard the authority and sanctity of national governments, is also considered as a clear violation of state sovereignty as in the case of the American invasion of Afghanistan. While focusing the US "war on terrorism" almost entirely on the Middle East, Iraq and Al-Qaida, Washington's current war in Colombia, a war in which the United States is actually supporting military forces that are terrorising the population, is hardly mentioned. The people of conscience in the US have to ask themselves if they really want their country to be supporting with funds and men a military in Colombia that is terrorising the population in order to protect oil interests.

The US government expressed its interest in considering new proposals to expand cooperation in counter-terrorism drive in Bangladesh in the wake of the threat to blow up the US and European mission in Dhaka which came from Al-Qaida members. One does not require much wisdom to understand that the types of terrorism we are experiencing in Bangladesh differ from the contemporary terrorism in US or UK with vastly different ideologies. In many parts of the world, freedom fight or retaliatory actions are being termed terrorism by some quarters of vested interest.

After the terrorist attacks on Twin Towers, the US government enacted the Patriot Act and following the London blasts the UK government enacted the Prevention of Terrorism Act 2005 with a view to punishing both the terrorists and those who provoked people to indulge in terrorism. But the wide-spread public perception in most of the Asian countries is that, in the name of war against terrorism Bush is conducting terrorism worldwide. Steve Engelken, the Director of the office of Bangladesh and Pakistan Affairs in the US State Department said US is cooperating in enhancing Bangladesh's capability to fight against terrorism. He said it while answering some motivated questions of a few newsmen that had an Internet chat with him recently.

According to media reports, the government is contemplating to set up a counter terrorism unit with US assistance for $100 million. Besides, US intelligence unit CIA and British intelligence unit MI-6 have been providing assistance and training to our intelligence units. But ironically Bangladesh was not provided assistance under the US government's Millennium Challenge Account (MCA), though the country met most of the criteria for MCA. So the significance of such assistance for fighting terrorism needs to pondered.

The issues of Islamic militancy and extremism have soiled our national image abroad. Growing of any sort of extremism is not necessarily confined within one's territory, but has international ramifications. The country is already under foreign pressure to check the rise of Islamic militancy in the country. If the government was prompt in taking appropriate measures without denying the reality, the subversive activities of the enemies within could have been nipped in the bud. Though the definition of terrorism remains to be contested in the US and elsewhere, it has no ambiguity in Bangladesh. So it is imperative to determine our own strategy to be used in counter terrorism particularly in the situation we are confronted with.

The writer is a freelance contributor