The day after the military took control of Bangladesh, President Mohammed Shahabuddin dissolved parliament. Who is General Waker-Uz-Zaman, its leader? What role could the military play in this country of more than 170 million people?
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General Waker-Uz-Zaman was unknown to the general public until his appearance on Monday, August 5, on all television channels to announce that the army would ensure the transition phase until the establishment of an interim government. This career soldier took command of the armed forces a month and a half ago, with the approval of Sheikh Hasina, who had surrounded herself over the years with trusted people. Waker-Uz-Zaman, who is related to the former Prime Minister, worked for his exfiltration, which saved his life. However, ” Sheikh Hasina was forced to flee the country because the army abandoned her “, says Jean-Luc Racine, emeritus research director at the CNRS, specialist in South Asia.
Read alsoBangladesh: Prime Minister ‘Sheikh Hasina was forced to flee the country because the army abandoned her’
With his 40-year career, the experience of the general, trained among others at King’s College London, reassures foreigners. Waker-Uz-Zaman is ” a fairly classic product of the Bangladeshi army “, since, after his military studies at Bangladesh and abroad, ” He held a number of very senior positions in the military “, underlines Nordine Drici, director of the expertise and consulting firm ND Consultance with Jelena Tomicjournalist in the international service of RFI. For the lawyer, co-author of Bangladesh: Deceptive democracy, failure of the rule of law and totalitarian excesses (editions Planète Réfugiés – Droits de l’Homme, 2022, 232 pages), Waker-Uz-Zaman has a profile ” reformer ” And ” stabilizer “. ” Today he is trying to secure this political process. ” More globally, “ the army has a stabilizing role in politics ” even if “ Since 1990, it no longer plays a real or direct political role in Bangladesh. “, the expert specifies.
Powerful military-private sector links in Bangladesh
The military is a sensitive issue in Bangladesh. It is present in all sectors of the economy, from banking to power plants, real estate and manufacturing. The military will ” wanting to keep the possibility of investing in particular in the private sector and therefore it will, I think, influence the political future of Bangladesh, but without directly taking sides “, analyzes Nordine Drici.
Overall, the army in Bangladesh still enjoys much greater credibility than the police or the mixed forces such as the Rapid Action Battalion. So there is also a certain degree of aura and credibility that the army enjoys. This also ties in with the positioning of the military: they ensure the stability of the country, even more so now, but they are not the ones at the forefront of politics. There is a very strong element of credibility. And the challenge for the army today is not only to obviously control internal security, to ensure that it is the guarantor of the process that is going to be underway – Parliament has just been dissolved – but also to guarantee security at the borders. In the army corps, there are also the Bangladeshi border guards and this is very important because, at the moment, in addition, there are rumours that thousands of Awami League supporters are trying to flee to India. And there is still a contentious area with India, so it is also an issue of security and securing the borders with India which is not so simple.
Nordice Drici: Bangladeshi army enjoys ‘a very strong element of credibility’
The Bangladeshi military also receives a lot of money from participating in UN peacekeeping missions, leading some observers to say that its role will be limited to overseeing the transition so as not to lose international financial support.
Towards the release of all those arrested during the student protests?
On Monday, hours after announcing the imminent formation of an interim government, Bangladesh’s army chief met with President Mohammed Shahabuddin. The meeting resulted in the announcement of the release of ” all those arrested during the student protests » which had started at the beginning of July.
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“All persons who were arrested between July 1 and August 5 in connection with the protests against discrimination [concernant l’accès aux emplois de la fonction publique] are about to be released, but many have already been released. “, said a presidential spokesman, Shiplu Zman, on Tuesday. On Monday, General Waker-Uz-Zaman promised to repair “all injustices “The path to justice may well be fraught with pitfalls.” Bangladeshi justice is in total disarraylaments Nordice Drici. Clientelism practices [et] Corruption is not going to change overnight. »
Quite honestly, I don’t believe it for a second. [au jugement des responsables des exactions commises pendant les manifestations]. Already a military man who speaks on the subject, that’s very good. It is a commitment, in this case, political, but behind it, justice must be able to follow. Bangladeshi justice is in total disrepair. There are a huge number of pending cases, millions of pending cases. We do not change judicial practices because we no longer have the same Prime Minister, so it will take a lot of time. There is a thirst for justice, a thirst for criminal justice, social justice, economic justice. This is also one of the causes of this student uprising. The administration’s response will take a lot of time because it also means changing a certain number of practices on the legal and judicial level, and that does not change overnight. The practices of cronyism, the practices of corruption are not going to change overnight and that is one of the keys for me, truly one of the keys: in which direction will this new Bangladeshi power go.
Nordine Drici: “Bangladeshi justice is in total disrepair”
This Tuesday, the main police union demanded ” pardon “, for shooting at students during the protests that left at least 413 dead. Waker-Uz-Zaman, for his part, was due to meet with the leaders of the student protests with a view to the upcoming formation of an interim government with all the country’s political forces, with the exception of the party of the ousted prime minister. The 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus said today that he was ready to lead such a government.
Read alsoBangladesh: Muhammad Yunus willing to lead ‘interim government’