What a joke!

By Zahid S. Nizam, Dhaka
9 March 2004, 18:00 PM
It seems there are numerous organisations to protect the journalists from violence and repression but very few to speak for the ordinary people; people who are not in power, who have no intention of being in power and are not involved in politics. Given the number of violent crimes committed in Bangladesh, which must be one of the highest in the world, relatively few journalists seem to be affected.

People of Bangladesh enjoyed a short-lived peaceful atmosphere during the Operation Clean Heart. The operation was abandoned either due to foreign pressure or internal pressure but ordinary people like us would want such an operation back again. It is much better if a few criminals suffer in the process rather than innocent people in their thousands, including innocent journalists. Foreign Human Rights organisations should concentrate on the situation now prevailing in their own countries. And when the US State Department talks of human rights, it is just a joke. No one in the right frame of mind can take that seriously.