 | Former Premier of Bangladesh Is Barred From Returning Home
23 April, 2007
LONDON, April 22 (AP) — Bangladesh’s former prime minister was blocked from boarding a flight home from London on Sunday after her country’s military-backed interim government barred her from returning.
The former prime minister, Sheik Hasina Wazed, had vowed to go home from a private trip abroad to fight charges of corruption and abetting the killings of four protesters during riots. But last week, the Bangladesh government barred her return and asked airlines not to allow her on any flight to the country.
“This is my country, and I don’t understand why they should stop me,” Sheik Hasina said in an interview after British Airways denied her a boarding pass at Heathrow Airport in London.
“I want to face the case,” she said. “This is totally fake, false. I didn’t commit any murder, so it is absolutely false case, and that’s why I’m going to face it.”
British Airways said it and other airlines were notified by the Civil Aviation Authority in Bangladesh that a passenger was barred from entering the country. “As a result we’re not able to accept them for travel,” the airline said in a statement, without elaborating.
Bangladesh’s government moved last week to force both Sheik Hasina and former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia — longtime rivals who have dominated Bangladesh’s politics for 15 years — into exile. Many Bangladeshis blame the women’s feud for exacerbating the country’s widespread poverty and corruption.
Mrs. Zia and Sheik Hasina lead the country’s largest political parties. Their supporters fought deadly street battles that prompted an interim government to adopt emergency rule in January and to delay national elections.
A friend of Sheik Hasina’s, Abdus Sobhan Golap, who accompanied her to Heathrow, said that Sheik Hasina argued for an hour and a half with airline officials, who showed her documents issued by the Bangladeshi government.
In Bangladesh, officials with Sheik Hasina’s party, the Awami League, said they would fight the government’s decision.
Release link:http://www.nytimes.com/2007/04/23/world/asia/23bangladesh.html?ref=asia
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