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| Tuesday, 2 September 2003 |
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Hasina warns against gas exports DHAKA, Monday (Reuters) Bangladesh opposition leader Sheikh Hasina said her Awami League and allied parties would resist any "conspiracy" to export natural gas and would campaign to oust the government if it went ahead with such plans. "I urge all to stand united against any sinister move to sell gas while only four percent of the country's population have access to it," she told thousands of cheering followers at a Dhaka rally. "The corrupt, inefficient government has failed to protect lives, ensure supply of gas and electricity, win investors' confidence and improve the economy. "Now it is conspiring to sell our only natural resource to appease its mentors at home and abroad. Let us unite and resist it," Hasina said. Energy Ministry officials said last week that the government was assessing Bangladesh's gas reserves and industry demand with a view to possible limited exports. Officials said on Sunday that no decision on such sales had yet been taken. The Awami League rally came a day after Hasina, a former prime minister, appeared in court in a corruption case over the Bangladesh navy's purchase of a frigate from South Korea while she was in power. She was granted bail. In her rally speech, Hasina launched a wide-ranging attack on the ruling Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and the government of Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia. "They (the government) have pushed the economy into a shambles, while lack of security of life and property has scared away investors. Mugging, kidnapping, rape and killing have become the order of the day," she said, citing last week's killings of two opposition party members in Dhaka and southern Khulna city. "The time has come for all of us to realise that the country is being led to anarchy and towards ruination," she said. "So I urge you to prepare for a movement to oust this anti-people regime." Hasina lost to Khaleda in a 2001 election which local and foreign monitors found mostly free and fair. The World Bank and International Monetary Fund have praised Khaleda's government for the country's slow but steady economic upswing under her rule. |
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