Bangladesh: Yunus’ Tussle With Army Chief Intensifies – OpEd

On Saturday, in what looks like a showdown in the offing, Bangladesh Army Chief Gen. Waqar-uz-Zaman had a close door meeting with Major-General Adil Chowdhury, military secretary to President Shahabuddin Chuppu.

According to the grapevine, the army chief may ask the President to declare Emergency, unless chief adviser Muhammad Yunus ‘stops interfering with matters military and violate its hierarchy.’ The army chief also met his intelligence chief Major General Jahangir Alam who now heads the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence ( DGFI) in long meeting to review the latest situation.

The Inter-Services Public Relations in Dhaka has banned all meetings, rallies and processions around Sena Niwas, residence of Army chief , to prevent any hostile agitprop action by Yunus’ student-youth supporters.

Quarter-Master General Lt Gen Faizur Rahman held a close door meeting with National Security Advisor Khalilur Rahman , a confidante of chief adviser Muhammad Yunus. Lt Gen Faizur has been identified as belonging to the anti-Waqar military faction for a while, though some sources said the two had patched up.

It is reliably learnt now that Gen Waqar wants to ease out from the army, Lt Gen Kamrul Hassan, Principal Staff officer, Armed Forces Division at Prime Minister’s Office. Since there is no Prime Minister now, after Sheikh Hasina’s ouster, Lt Gen Hassan reports to chief adviser Yunus and has emerged as his eyes and ears in the army.

Hassan recently met the US charge d’affairs Tracy Ann Jacobson, apparently to secure American support for the army’s top job because of the evident influence Washington has in the Yunus administration. That seems to have upset Gen. Waqar and the formation commanders close to him. They want him to get a honorable exit from the army and be given an ambassdorial posting for violating military hierarchy and discipline.

Waqar wants Early Elections

Bangladesh interim government chief Muhammad Yunus has been unsuccessfully pressuring President Shahabuddin Chuppu to replace the country’s army chief Gen. Waqar-uz- Zaman ever since he started pushing the Nobel Laureate for early elections.

Gen. Waqar has made it clear he was never interested in a military takeover which is why he initiated an all-party dialogue after PM Hasina’s ouster and installed an interim government with Yunus at the helm.

But unlike Yunus who is opposed to early elections because he wants important social, economic, political and administrative reforms and use that as an excuse to prolong his stay in power, Gen. Waqar sees the interim government as one justified by the doctrine of necessity to organise a free, fair and inclusive election for restoration of democracy in Bangladesh.

After all, there is no provision for an interim government in the Bangladesh constitution, raising serious questions about the legality of the Yunus regime. And if Hasina stands accused of rigging elections, Yunus is already facing charges of trying to stay in power without facing any election at all.

When he was away on his first overseas tour last year, Gen. Waqar announced the need for early elections, sparking apprehensions in the Yunus camp. Since then, the Nobel laureate has tried to find a replacement for Gen. Waqar who has not yet completed a year in his three-year term.

A Possible Hatchet Job

Reliable sources say Yunus is now going for a decisive hatchet job since Waqar is uncomfortable of the ban on Awami League which ends all prospects on an inclusive election.

He intends to finalise the July Declaration to encapsulate the ‘spirit of the July-August agitation’ last year and issue a proclamation that will nullify the Bangladesh Constitution. Then he can force the President to resign snd finally replace the army chief with his chosen one – Lt Gen Kamrul Hassan. Since there is no Prime Minister now, Hassan reports to Yunus who put him in this position in August last year after taking charge.

Gen. Waqar has belatedly got to figure out Yunus’ plan to replace him with Hassan. He has rallied most formation commanders, the Air and Navy chief and the director general of top intelligence agencies like DGFI, NSI snd MI. Spurred by his commanders, Waqar may now push Yunus to send away Lt Gen Hassan.

Sources close to Gen. Waqar say the army Chief has so far tried balancing all sides in Bangladesh’s fractious polity at a very troubled time He has backed Yunus but reminded him to hold early elections, so that power can be handed back to an elected government.

With the Nobel laureate in no mood to hang up his boots anytime soon, the stage is set for the possible confrontation between the military and the unelected interim govt which enjoys Western support specially after agreeing to create a supply Corridor for the UN to connect Bangladesh with Myanmar’s Rakhine province.

BDR Mutineers Release

Another major point of hitch between Yunus and the army chief is the release of mutineers of the Bangladesh Rifles . Nearly 300 mutineers of the border guard force, convicted of murdering 57 army officers and 16 others in a bloody mutiny in Feb 2009, have been released so far this year.

Islamist radical groups like Hizbut Tahrir, close to the Yunus regime, have pleaded for their release and vouched for their innocence, touching a raw nerve in the army’s officer corps. Gen. Waqar has consistently blamed the BDR (now Border Guard Bangladesh) mutineers for the mass murder of army officers and is unhappy with their release.

He and many army officers are also unhappy with the release of nearly 400 convicted Islamist radicals like Ansarullah Bangla Team chief Jashimuddin Rabbani, because it has led to a surge in militant activities.

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