News source: The Statesman, date: 4 April 2002
News text: The apparently Bengal friendly Japanese government - the largest
single foreign investor in the state - has now turned unfriendly towards the
Left Front. Or so it seems, after the state home secretary refused to meet
Mr. Hideo Fujita, counselor in the Japanese embassy in Dhaka.
According to officials, the Japanese consulate in Kolkata had informed the
state that Mr. Fujita would be coming to the city to verify the extent and
nature of the exodus of persecuted members of the Bangladeshi minority
community to West Bengal and other border states in India.
But the home secretary Mr. AK Deb's office conveyed a message saying due to
"unavoidable circumstances" the secretary would be unable to meet
Mr.
Fujita. The state had sent the communiqu� well before Mr. Fujita's visit,
perhaps recalling the diplomatic row broken out between Alimuddin Street and
the US embassy over an allegedly "clandestine" visit by two consulate
officials to Suchpur in Birbhum in July 2000. The US officials went there to
find out what had led to the killing of the 12 Trinamul Congress workers
allegedly by CPI-M supporters.
Alimudding Street had termed the visit a direct interference in the internal
affairs of the government, and had demanded action against the US consulate.
Eventually, the then US ambassador Mr. Rechard Celeste, had expressed regret
over the incident.
Officials say the home secretary's refusal to Mr. Fujita is inkeeping with
the Left Front government's policy not to sour its relations with the ruling
BNP-Jamat-e- Islami combine in Dhaka or get into any diplomatic wrangling
over it.
It is because of this decision- not to displease Begum Khaleda Zia's
government in any way - the Left Front has studiedly ignored the issue of
persecution of Bangladeshi minorities across the border and instructed the
police to speedily detect those who have illegally sought refugee in Bengal
and arrange for their deportation.
Taking cognizance of the issue, as in the case of the government's move to
reform madrasas, will surely result in alienating minority voters in West
Bengal, particularly in the run up to the panchayat elections. The left
Front in the stat can hardly afford that sort of a risk. Mr. Fujita's
three-day visit to the city - which ended yesterday-was unprecedented, since
he was to be here on "instructions from his government". Japan, in
fact is
concerned about the plight of the minorities since their general elections.
Jpanase scholars and aid agencies in report from Bangladesh had highlighted
the "systematic persecutions" of the minorities and Awami supporters.
Scholar Mr. Masahiko Togawa is professor with the graduate school of
International Development of the Hiroshima University. He had last November
extensively toured Bangladesh, Kolkata and the 24 Paraganas to gauge the
nature of this persecution.
Mrs miyeko Nishemeeju, Japanese vice chairman of the World Bank and the
co-chairman of the Bangladesh Development Forum, at a recent aid consortium
meet in Paris had asked the Zia government to move to stop the exodus.
During his stay in the city Mr. Fujita had visited the office of Bangladesh
Udbastu Kalyan Parishad and the other refugee organizations to ascertain the
number of the Bangladeshis taking shelter in this side of the border.
Parishad officials said it is difficult to quantify the number as most were
staying with the relatives along the border, but even by conservative
estimates the figure would "certainly run to several thousands".
-end-