Wikileaks
Hasina showed character
Leaked US cable discloses how she ignored intimidation, advice of colleagues to meet furious army officers at Darbar Hall couple of days after bloody BDR mutiny
Defying suggestions from her senior cabinet colleagues, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina attended a gathering of about 500 army officers at Dhaka Cantonment immediately after the 2009 Pilkhana carnage to ultimately suffer repeated verbal abuse from some of the officers, a recently leaked US diplomatic cable said.
The grievance was so pressing that seven officers were dismissed later for "disrespectful conduct" in front of the PM on March 1. The prime minister reportedly ordered the officers' dismissal after the government received evidence that they continued to agitate against the civilian government in the months after the mutiny, according to the cable made public by anti-secrecy website WikiLeaks on August 30.
Mid- and senior-level army officers shouted at the PM and tore off insignia on their uniforms in protest of her handling of the BDR (now BGB) mutiny on February 25-26 in 2009 and showing anguish at the loss of their comrades.
"Although the meeting was closed to media, several sources said some officers demanded the removal of two senior government officials who led the negotiations with Bangladesh Rifles rebels, Home Minister Sahara Khatun and State Minister for Local Government, Rural Development and Cooperatives Jahangir Kabir Nanak. Some particularly agitated officers reportedly broke chairs and hit their heads against the wall during the meeting. Others demanded BDR rebels' trial convene immediately and those found guilty of murder be hanged in public," noted another cable.
Hasina was accompanied by her Security Adviser Maj Gen (retd) Tarique Ahmed Siddique and Agriculture Minister Matia Chowdhury during the two-and-a-half hours closed-door meeting.
Tarique said he recognised many diehard anti-Awami League officers among the crowd, many of whom appeared to be drawing from "talking points" in the session with Hasina. After an extremely hot exchange of words, the meeting ended more calmly with recitation of prayers.
The adviser was surprised to see the PM was not harmed.
The premier decided to face the army officers after taking a number of steps including formation of a special tribunal to immediately try murder suspect rebels, formation of a committee to probe the mutiny and cash grants to the families of the slain officers. These steps failed to calm the cantonment, mentioned the cable.
The cabinet urged the PM not to attend the meeting, Tarique told the US envoy in Dhaka.
Another leaked cable said Foreign Minister Dipu Moni admitted during her talks with Ambassador Moriarty that she and a number of her cabinet colleagues had not been comfortable with the decision to meet the army officers and had tried to convince the premier not to go.
"In response, the prime minister had told them she was not only the head of the government and defence minister, but also "daughter of the Father of the Nation," and as such had a duty to know the grievances of her people," reads the cable.
Many officers believed Hasina should have immediately ordered an army attack on the rebels instead of offering a general amnesty and expressing support for their grievances about pay, benefits and alleged corruption among the BDR's army leadership.
Most of the casualties occurred at the beginning of the revolt, and the PM has been credited by local media and the international community for avoiding further bloodshed.
In another cable on March 5 Moriarty noted that the March 1 meeting had appeared to dampen immediate concerns and anger in the army about the mutiny.
The PM's leadership during the crisis received broad public support. Military subservience to civilian control remains tenuous but has prevailed, at least for now, added the envoy.
"Hasina's dramatic appearance before hundreds of irate officers on March 1 appears to have eased at least some of the tension between the civilian government and the military officers shocked by the brutality of the deaths of their colleagues," Moriarty observed.
To assuage military anger, Hasina agreed to several demands including allowing the army to take a leading role in the hunt for the absconding mutineers.
While army chief Gen Moeen U Ahmed appeared to have consulted with the PM and followed her orders during the two-day ordeal, the relationship between her government and the military remained complex.
During a two-hour meeting at the PM's residence, Moeen and his senior colleagues briefed Hasina on complaints from within the army regarding the government response to the crisis.
In the mutiny's aftermath, many in the army also criticised Moeen for following PM's directives in handling the mutiny.
One of Moeen's last acts as the army chief was dismissing the seven officers for disrespectful conduct towards the PM.
Reaction within the army to the officers' dismissal was muted. Even among those who believed the punishment was too harsh, many apparently understood the dismissed officers had crossed the line with their behaviour in the meeting with Hasina.
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