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Bangladesh
Area: 147,570 sq km (91,695.75 sq mi)
Population: 135 million (2003 estimate)
Capital City: Dhaka, 11 million (2005 estimate)
People: Bengalis (98%), and small numbers of tribes people.
Languages: Bangla, and some tribal languages. English quite widely spoken by those with education.
Religion(s): Islam (89%), Hinduism (10%). Buddhists and Christians make up about 1% of the population
Currency: Taka
Major political parties: Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh, Jatiya Party (N) (JPN), Islami Oikya Jote. Main Opposition parties - Bangladesh Awami League (AL); Islami Jatiya Oikya Front -Jatiya Party (E) (JPE), Islamic Constitution Movement (ICM); Jatiya Party (M) (JPM); Sramik Krishak Janata League
Government: Bangladesh is a Parliamentary Democracy with a non-executive President elected by Parliament. Parliament and President are both elected for five years. The Government of Bangladesh ended its mandated term in October 2006. A Caretaker Government will hold office until a new administration is elected to power.
Head of State: President Professor Dr. Iajuddin Ahmed
Chief Advisor of the Caretaker Government: Fakhruddin Ahmed
Membership of international groupings/organisations: Commonwealth, SAARC, UN, Organisation of Islamic Countries (OIC).
GEOGRAPHY
Bangladesh has roughly the same land area as England and Wales. It is enclosed by Indian territory except for a short south-eastern frontier with Burma and borders the Bay of Bengal in the south. Most of the country is formed by the alluvial plain of the Ganges-Brahmaputra river system - the largest delta in the world; water flow is second only to that of the Amazon. To the east of the delta lie the Chittagong Hill Tracts. Flooding is normal and life has adapted to take account of this. But occasionally excessive flooding, as in 1988, 1998, and 2004 causes widespread destruction and loss of life. Arable land is extremely fertile. Bangladesh's principal natural resource is natural gas.
The climate is tropical and governed by the monsoon winds which in summer (June to September) bring very heavy rainfall (up to 200 inches), often accompanied by cyclonic storms. The short winter is mild and relatively dry. In winter the mean temperature is about 16 degrees centigrade (53F) and in summer 27 degrees centigrade (80F).
HISTORY
Before the independence of India and Pakistan, the territory formed part of the Indian provinces of Bengal and Assam. Following partition in 1947, East Bengal, with a Muslim majority population, emerged as the eastern wing of Pakistan.
During the period of East and West Pakistan there was a growing sense of Bengali nationalism, stimulated in part by the insensitivity of the central Government in West Pakistan, particularly on language (Urdu was declared the official language although few in East Pakistan spoke it).
In the 1970 general elections the Awami League (AL), a Bengali nationalist party led by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, won a landslide victory in East Pakistan. Since the East had the larger population this gave it an absolute majority in the national parliament. After West Pakistan failed to recognise the AL's majority, Sheikh Mujib launched a secessionist uprising. The Pakistan Government responded with vicious military tactics, including the targeted murder of “intellectuals” (including many Hindus) and mass rape. This eventually led to the intervention of the Indian army and the new state of Bangladesh was declared independent on 16 December 1971.
Sheikh Mujib became the first President and then Prime Minister of Bangladesh. His AL government introduced a secular and democratic constitution in 1972. In December 1974, facing growing economic difficulties, the government declared a state of emergency and a month later amended the constitution, replacing parliamentary rule with an executive presidency and providing for the introduction of one party rule.
Sheikh Mujib, who had assumed the role of President, was assassinated in August 1975 in a military coup. The Army, under its new Chief of Staff General Zia ur Rahman, took control. Zia became President in 1977 and set up his own political party, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). In May 1981 he too was assassinated by a group of army officers. The Vice-President, Abdus Sattar, was elected the new Head of State a few months later.
President Sattar was overthrown in a bloodless coup by the Chief of Army Staff, Lt Gen Ershad, in 1982. Ershad suspended the constitution and re-imposed martial law. He founded his own political party, the Jana Dal and declared himself President in 1983. The following year he began talks with the two opposition alliances - one led by Sheikh Mujibur daughter, Sheikh Hasina, and the other led by Begum Khaleda Zia, Zia ur Rahman's widow. In 1986 Ershad's renamed party, the Jatiya Party, won parliamentary and presidential elections and martial law was lifted. Ershad was forced to step down in December 1990 when he lost army support after massive protest demonstrations by the main opposition political parties.
With the support of all opposition parties, Chief Justice Shahabuddin Ahmed assumed the post of Acting President, appointed a neutral caretaker government and conducted general elections in February 1991. Khaleda Zia's BNP won a surprise victory and she took office as Prime Minister. The constitution was amended and a return to Parliamentary rule approved in a referendum in September 1991. Abdur Rahman Biswas was elected to the now largely ceremonial office of President, while Shahabuddin Ahmed returned to his post as Chief Justice (he was re-elected as President in 1996).
The next general elections, in February 1996, were boycotted by all the main opposition parties. Although a new BNP government was sworn in, opposition agitation increased, bringing the economy near to collapse. The government resigned in March following a constitutional amendment which provided for a caretaker Government. Fresh elections were held on 12 June under a caretaker Government. These elections were conducted peacefully, with a high turnout of voters. The AL won most seats and formed the Government with Sheikh Hasina becoming the Prime Minister.
In the summer of 1997 the opposition staged a walk-out from parliament, complaining about harassment of BNP members and about their treatment in parliament where they claimed they were not getting their due in terms of speaking time and seats on select committees. The government and the BNP reached an agreement in March 1998 which led to the return of the BNP to parliament, but they subsequently staged further walk-outs and political strikes or hartals. This pattern continued on and off throughout the next three years. Efforts by the Speaker to get the Opposition to return to parliament failed and public invitations by the Prime Minister to the Leader of the Opposition were rejected.
In the elections held in October 2001, the BNP-led 4 Party Alliance won an overall majority with 219 seats out of 300 (BNP – 196 seats; Jamaat-e-Islami –17 seats; the JPN – 4 seats; and the IOJ – 2 seats). The Awami League won 58 seats. International observers reported that the election was generally free and fair although there were reports of election-related violence, ballot rigging and other election malpractice. However the AL publicly refused to accept the result. From 2001 – 2006 AL attendance in Parliament has been sporadic, and AL MPs complain of discrimination by the BNP Speaker.
Professor Dr. Iajuddin Ahmed, the BNP candidate, was elected President, unopposed (without the need for an actual vote) and sworn into office on in September 2002.
Longer Historical Perspective
POLITICS
Recent Political Developments
Since summer 2006 opposition parties, led by the Awami League (AL), claimed that the BNP-led government was seeking to manipulate Bangladesh’s electoral infrastructure and announced in January 2007, a boycott of the general election. Against this background of serious differences between the two main parties - the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), which formed the previous government, and the Awami League (AL) and civil unrest, on 11 January 2007, the President declared a state of emergency and resigned his supplementary role as Chief Adviser. He retains the Presidency of Bangladesh. On 12 January Fakhruddin Ahmed a former governor of the Bangladesh Central Bank was sworn in as the new Chief Adviser of a reconstituted Caretaker Government.
Political violence has increased generally over recent years. In August 2004, 20 were killed, including Woman's Affairs Secretary Ivy Rahman in a grenade attack on an AL political rally in Dhaka where Sheikh Hasina was speaking. Over 100 were injured. On 27 January 2005, the former Finance Minister, Shah Kibria, was assassinated along with four colleagues and over 70 were injured in a grenade attack at an AL rally in Northern Bangladesh. In Autumn 2005 there was a series of over 400 co-ordinated incendiary explosions throughout Bangladesh. Two people were killed and 50 injured in the attacks.
Political violence has increased generally over recent years. In August 2004, 20 were killed, including Woman's Affairs Secretary Ivy Rahman in a grenade attack on an AL political rally in Dhaka where Sheikh Hasina was speaking. Over 100 were injured. On 27 January 2005, the former Finance Minister, Shah Kibria, was assassinated along with four colleagues and over 70 were injured in a grenade attack at an AL rally in Northern Bangladesh. In Autumn 2005 there was a series of over 400 co-ordinated incendiary explosions throughout Bangladesh. Two people were killed and 50 injured in the attacks.
Bangladesh has been ranked worst on Transparency International's Corruption Perceptions Index for the past four years. An Independent Anti Corruption Commission was et up in the second half of 2004 after concerted donor lobbying but has yet to become fully effective. There has been little progress made on other key reforms, such as the separation of the Judiciary and Executive in lower level courts, and the formation of an independent Humans Rights Commission.
ECONOMY
Basic Economic Facts
GDP: US$ 50,929 million (Bangladesh Bank 2003)
GDP per head: US$ 381
GDP Growth: 5.3% for 2003 (forecast for 2005 is 5%)
Consumer Price Inflation: 6.1% (2004)
Principal Exports: Garments and knitwear, frozen seafood, jute goods and leather. Exports are dominated by garments and knitwear, currently 73% of export earnings.
Major trading partners: Main destinations of exports in 2003 were: US (23%), Germany (13.6%), UK (9.7%), France (5.9%). Main origins of imports in 2003 were: India (15.4 %), China 11.3%), Singapore (10.8%), Japan (5.9 %), Hong Kong (4.5%).
Aid & development: The Department for International Development (DFID) has one of its largest programmes in Bangladesh with a budget of £125 million for 2005/6.
Bangladesh has made strong economic progress over the past 15 years, with resulting sustained reductions in the overall level of poverty. However, roughly half the population still lives on less than $1 per day; and evidence shows that some 20% of the population - 30 million people - live in extreme poverty and are cut off from the benefits of national growth.
DFID's support to Bangladesh is set out in its Country Assistance Plan (CAP) which, in line with the Government of Bangladesh's Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper, seeks to eliminate poverty and address the Millenium Development Goals through a programme promoting growth, better governance and human development, emphasising the multi dimensional nature of poverty and its particular relevance to women and girls. DFID also strives to ensure that wider UK Government and Bangladesh Government policies consistently support poverty elimination.
DFID is focussing its programme on seven key areas prioritised in the Government of Bangladesh's own Poverty Reduction Stategy (PRSP)
¦ primary education;
¦ health care;
¦ water and sanitation;
¦ livelihoods of the poorest;
¦ private sector development and economic infrastructure;
¦ governance; and
¦ disaster preparedness and climate change.
Recent programmes include:
- Health, Nutrition and Population Sector Programme - To create a sustainable improvement of health, nutrition and family welfare status to the population of Bangladesh, especially for those most vulnerable, e.g. the poor, women, children and the elderly. £98 million over 4 and a half years.
- Prosper - To promote a sustainable micro-finance sector in Bangladesh offering greater access to diversified financial services for the poor, small enterprises and farmers. £32.8 million over 7 and a half years.
- Bangladesh Remittance and Payments Partnership - To improve access to and reduce costs of remittances for the poor in Bangladesh. £7.5 million over 3 years.
- Bangladesh National Election Programme - To encourage free and fair elections in Bangladesh. £1.2 million over 9 months.
The present CAP 2003-2006 is in the process of being revised. The next CAP is being developed jointly with the World Bank, Asian Development Bank, and Japan, and is due to be launched in early 2007.
Exchange rate: The Bangladesh Central Bank announced a move from an exchange rate pegged to the US dollar to a managed floating exchange rate on May 31 2003 (a pre condition for an IMF Poverty Reduction Growth Facility (PRGF) loan). Since the float, the taka has remained stable.
INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS
Bangladesh's Relations with its Neighbours
The relationship with India is of great importance to Bangladesh for geographical and historical reasons. Despite the Indian role in securing Bangladesh’s independence the relationship has often been troubled. One of the biggest issues is security; the Indians claim that Indian separatists are present in Bangladesh, a claim denied by the Bangladeshis. Other difficult issues are water-sharing, (more than 50 of Bangladesh's rivers cross the border). Illegal immigration and transit rights. Bangladesh and India are both members of the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC). Bangladesh and India have spoken of establishing a Free Trade Area, but there has been little progress on this so far.
Bangladesh's Relations with the International Community
Bangladesh is a member of the Commonwealth, the UN, SAARC and the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC). Bangladesh is a major troop contributor to UN peacekeeping operations and currently has more than 6,000 troops deployed in UN missions.
Bangladesh does not have a good human rights record. Bangladesh signed the UN Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in September 2000 and was elected to the UN Human Rights Council in 2005. She is also a signatory to the other five core human rights instruments. An independent website that focuses on human rights in Bangladesh can be found at: On coming to power the BNP-led government pledged to take a number of actions to improve human rights during its term in office. However significant steps including the separation of the judiciary and the executive in lower level courts, and the establishment of an independent Human Rights Commission and Ombudsman have not been taken.
Successive governments in Bangladesh have failed to curb serious human rights violations arising from the use of legislation and widespread practices in the law-enforcement and justice system which violate international human rights standards. These violations include torture, deaths in custody; arbitrary detention of government opponents and others; excessive use of force leading at times to extrajudicial executions; the death penalty; sporadic attacks against member of minority groups; acts of violence against women; and harassment of journalists.
Police
The police are frequently accused of a wide range of human rights violations, of failing to prevent human rights abuses, of breaking a number of laws and of Corruption.
Deaths in police custody are high. In October 2002, facing a deteriorating law and order situation, the government deployed some 40,000 troops in a surprise move to round up suspected criminals (known as Operation Clean Heart). According to official sources, over 11,000 people including about 2,500 listed criminals were arrested during the drive and 2,000 illegal firearms were seized. Operation Clean Heart concluded in January 2003. The initiative was welcomed by the Bangladeshi public, however concerns have been raised over the treatment of those detained, with unconfirmed reports that over 40 people died following detention. A bill indemnifying all actions of the Armed Forces and law enforcing agencies taken under Operation Clean Heart was passed by Parliament in February 2003. It included an amendment that allows the military to take internal action against those responsible for wrong doing during the Operation.
Crossfire incidents where criminals have died in the course of their arrest have risen significantly since the formation in 2004 of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), a joint civilian/military unit that has wide Bangladeshi government and public support but which continues to be involved in “cross-fire” incidents which have often resulted in the death of suspects being apprehended.
Chittagong Hill Tracts
There have been internal tensions since the 1960s between Bengali settlers and the tribal inhabitants of the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT), some 40,000 of whom were living in camps in India until the end of 1997. The Bangladesh government initiated discussions with representatives of the tribal inhabitants in December 1996 which resulted in Peace Accord being signed in December 1997. However, there are concerns by some of the tribal population who consider it flawed, and would like it to be renegotiated. There has been little progress on implementing the Peace Accord, and on settling land disputes (at the heart of many of the tensions between tribal inhabitants and Bengali settlers). At the Bangladesh Development Forum held in Dhaka in May 2004 donors urged the government to fully implement the Peace Accord.
Religious Minorities
There have been attacks on religious minorities since the BNP government came into power in October 2001, including Hindus and the Ahmadiyya community. Towards the end of 2003, anti-Ahmadiyya groups grew more vociferous, demanding that the Ahmadiyyas be declared non-Muslim, and attacking Ahmadiyya mosques. AI has criticised the Bangladeshi government for not taking action against the hate campaign and for the January 2004 banning of Ahmadiyya publications. The police have recently proved more effective at preventing some of the threatened sieges to mosques, but attacks continue to take place.
Death Penalty
Another area of concern is the death penalty. Despite UK and EU lobbying, Bangladesh retains the death penalty. A new faster trial court was introduced in 2003 which has lead to a rapid increase in the numbers on death row. In September 2004 there were 531 prisoners on death row, an increase from some 375 in June 2003. According to media reports, 11 people were executed in 2004, in comparison to 25 executions over the past 17 years.
HEALTH
Malaria is not prevalent in Dhaka. It is, however, common in some parts of Bangladesh. There is a risk of dengue fever throughout Bangladesh.
Hygiene and sanitation standards are poor throughout the country and intestinal diseases are common. Drinking water should be boiled and filtered.
The high levels of humidity during certain times of the year and pollution in downtown Dhaka can cause problems.
Local clinics and hospitals are generally of a poor standard. There are no adequate psychiatric services in Bangladesh.
A growing concern for many Bangladeshis is the presence of arsenic in groundwater supplies. The scale of the problem is not yet fully understood, but some people fear that it will be the most significant health problem in Bangladesh in the coming years.
DID YOU KNOW?
- The Sundarbans in south west Bangladesh is one of the largest Mangrove forests in the world.
- Bangladesh is the most densely populated major country in the world.
- Bangladesh has some of the largest NGOs in the world and has played a major role in developing micro-finance schemes to help poor people.
- Bangladesh instigated the process in the UN that led to the establishment of International Mother Language Day.
- Bangladesh gained its test status in cricket in 2000
- Bangladesh has the 3rd largest Muslim population and the 8th largest overall population in the world.
- The Bengali Tiger is the national animal.
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