[afro-nets] World Bank and IMF in Bangladesh

[Dr. Shamim ul Moula <shamimul.moula@gmail.com>]

World Bank and IMF in Bangladesh
--------------------------------

World Bank and IMF are continuously pressurizing the poor coun-
tries and Bangladesh is one of the worst sufferer. Once upon a
time, Bangladesh had the highest jute production and export in
the world and yielded very high amount of foreign currency.
World Bank pressurized Bangladesh to close almost all the Gov-
ernment jute mills and obliged to handover others to the private
hands. Now Bangladesh produces and exports much less amount of
jute than many countries and the jute industries are almost de-
stroyed.

After 1975, World Bank and IMF along with their other notorious
acts like Flood Action Plan (FAP) and destruction of the natural
ever green forests and mangroves (they tried to import pulp
yielding foreign vegetation and destroyed the Chokoria Sundar-
ban, one of the once largest mangrove). Also they destroyed in-
digenous Sal vegetation in the region of Madhupur Garh by pre-
scribing import of Malaysian Rubber trees and as a result, all
the flora and fauna of the area is totally destroyed.

With FAP, the obstructed normal land forming mechanism of lower
Himalayan river flows and thus water drainage became unnatural
and sluggish, rain water could not drain to the rivers creating
permanent water logging of the paddy grounds and the rivers beds
were silted and failed to contain the income coming water. Then
in some places people cut the dams and went to court against
World Bank. In the recent times, World Bank tries for immunity
in Bangladesh and they deploy their local agents to achieve
that. However the civil society in Bangladesh is in street to
defend the act. Please see below. Sincerely


Dr. Shamim ul Moula
Dhaka, Bangladesh
mailto:shamimul.moula@gmail.com


--
*Campaign Against World Bank Immunity Launched in Bangladesh*

*Civil society statement*

1. The government of Bangladesh has drafted a law regarding giv-
ing Immunity to the World Bank from all legal procedures of the
country, which will be presented in the next September session
of the Parliament for its approval. The law will be named as The
International Financial Organization (Amendment) Act-2004.

2. In order to operate in the partner-countries Word Bank has to
follow an Article of Agreement, which has approval from it's
Board of Directors. As per this article a law in the name of The
International Financial Organization (Amendment) Act-1972, is
already exists in the country. Under this law a variety of fa-
cilities have been made available for the World Bank. For exam-
ple, world bank does not need to pay tax to the countries for
it's income and properties, no legal action can be taken against
any staff if he or she carries any activities as per the order
of the world bank, no immigration laws can be applied for it's
non-local staff.

3. Now World Bank is creating pressure on Bangladesh to have
more absolute immunity as an institution from all legal proceed-
ings of the country even which is not a statutory requirement or
obligation of the countries where the Bank operates according to
its article of agreement. And which is not within the frame of
The International Financial Organization (Amendment) Act-1972.
And this pressure has a link with the penalization of a case
(case no-225/2000) by the ex-world bank Dhaka Based officer Is-
mat Zerin Khan. She was an employee of the Bank who was termi-
nated. Zerin Khan than made an appeal to word bank Staff Asso-
ciation Tribunal that stated that there is a number of weakness
and injustice in the dismissal. She fields this case in local
court.

4. Despite facing the trial properly, World Bank has been making
pressure on Bangladesh to immune himself or herself from any
sort of legal procedure. But the article-8 The International Fi-
nancial Organization (Amendment) Act-1972 and article-3 of 7 of
the Article of Agreement state that World Bank will not get im-
munity but as per article 8 of 7 it's staff will get the same as
they have carried out the order. World Bank has been exerting
the pressure since 2001 i.e., from the time of caretaker govern-
ment.

5. This amendment, which is proposing immunity to the Bank as an
institution, is totally different from other partner countries
of World Bank and as a result no citizen or state can file a
case against World Bank if they are losers by the later. So it
is violation of basic rights as mentioned in the constitution of
Bangladesh and even if it is the violation universal human
right.

We feel the Bank is a public institution although in spite of
difference in relation to the voting power in the World Bank
management system due to difference in yearly subscription and
sharing in investment. Since partner countries invest those sub-
scription and share out of public tax money, our demand World
Bank must show accountable and transparent to the local people.

6. Although the Bank show the slogan "world without poverty" but
World Bank and its supported institutions like IMF, IDA, and
IBRD in fact have been working for protection the interests of
the multi national countries of the rich nations. In the name of
financial assistance to the developmental project World Bank is
serving the interests of a few vested people of the developing
nations and so called advisors and intellectuals hired from rich
nations.

7. We believe that the poor people, who are the victims of World
Bank's sponsored projects, have the rights to sue them for com-
pensation. To demand for legal justice from a public institution
is a basic right of the people. We have achieved this constitu-
tional right at the cost of our ancestor's blood in Bangladesh.
We request to the government to dignify our constitutional
rights by preventing World Bank enjoying such immunity from any
legal implications.

In the same way we demand government to reconsider the law of
immunity extended to the Asian Development Bank. Because this
practice will encourage other donor agencies and multinational
companies to come out with such demand of immunity which will
destroy our entity as a sovereign nation.