Bangladesh - some good news

Lord Avebury – Chairman, International Bangladesh Foundation and Vice Chair Parliamentary Human Rights Group, said today:


On behalf of the International Bangladesh Foundation, I welcome the speech of the Dr Fakruddin Ahmed, the Head of the Interim Government. It is very much in the interest of everyone in Bangladesh that the political parties should co-operate with the interim government to achieve a free and fair election. In particular, racial or religious hatred and communalism must be avoided during the campaign.

Over the past two years the International Bangladesh Foundation has organised conferences, seminars and meetings to discuss the violence and intolerance, the political slanting of key appointments, and the gross flaws in the electoral register, which would have made free and fair elections virtually impossible. The major political parties, including representatives from the immediate past government have contributed to these events, and we hope they played a constructive role in identifying the way forward, now being charted by Dr Fakruddin Ahmed, his colleagues in the Interim Government and the new Electoral Commission.