Thierry Meyssan
September 3rd, 2024
On August 4, a series of demonstrations and street riots led to the sudden overthrow of Sheikh Hasina, who had ruled Bangladesh for 15 years and was considered a champion of democracy. The new regime accuses her of having transformed her government into a dictatorship. The legislative elections – boycotted by the opposition – had provided her with a largely favourable parliament. This year, the demonstrations that marked the months of July and August were violently repressed, with 250 deaths, perhaps 650.
But, as always, appearances can be deceptive and the major media reports have ultimately turned out to be black propaganda campaigns.
On May 24, 2023, the US State Department banned several Bangladeshi leaders from entering the country in order, according to official sources, to force them to organise “free and fair elections” [1].
First anomaly: interference from the United States and the European Union
On January 6, the day before the general elections boycotted by the opposition, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova denounced the interference by the European Commission and the US State Department in the organisation of Bangladesh's elections [2]. According to the Washington Post, India intervened with the State Department to ensure that the regime change in Bangladesh would not be violent.
It is now known that the American International Republican Institute (IRI) and the National Democratic Institute (NDI) were deeply involved in the preparation of the legislative elections in Bangladesh. These two American partisan organisations, both also linked to the CIA, received several million dollars for this from the equally American National Endowment for Democracy (NED).
In June, the Supreme Court of Bangladesh reinstated the quota system in the attribution of public jobs. These positions are reserved for veterans of the 1971 war of independence and their descendants, which favours members of the ruling Awami League, which led the war of independence. But at the same time, young people who finish their studies are finding themselves without job prospects. This led student unions to organise a peaceful strike, which was interrupted by the Muslim holiday of Eid.
Just after the elections in January 2024, an American diplomat warned Sheikh Hasina that she would be overthrown if she did not agree to several demands, namely, the installation of a foreign air base on the island of Saint Martin, the giving up of a portion of Bangladesh's territory and allowing the creation of a Christian state that would include part of neighbouring Myanmar. On 24 May, two weeks before the start of the movement against her government, Sheikh Hasina gathered the leaders of the 14 political parties that make up her government coalition to warn them about the existence of the plot [3]. The warning proved useless.
Second anomaly: operations to destroy symbols of Bangladesh
From the very beginning of the strike, individuals attacked and defaced monuments that paid tribute to the memory of Mujibur Rahman, the founder of the nation, who was assassinated in 1975. This is strange, since there had been no criticism of this national historical figure before. But it turns out that Mujibur Rahman is not only the father of the nation (Bangabandhu) but that he is also the father of the head of government, Sheikh Hasina. Moreover, this is exactly the same pattern of unrest that was seen in Syria in 2011, when unidentified people attacked statues of the late President Haffez El-Assad (1930-2000) – in reality it was not about questioning the legacy of that historical figure but of destroying symbols of the Syrian state and delegitimising his son and successor, President Bashar al-Assad.
The international media did not give much importance to these acts against public monuments. Those actions were apparently carried out by members of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), founded by Ziaur Rahman, who was president of the country from 1977 until his assassination in 1981. The Bangladesh Nationalist Party is pro-Islamist while the Awami League is secular. The entire history of Bangladesh's half-century of existence as a country is marked by the struggle between Islamists and secularists. The BNP chairwoman and former ruler of the country (1991-1996 and 2001-2006), Khaleda Zia, is currently in prison for embezzlement. Her son, Tariq Rahman, has taken her place at the head of the party... from London, the former metropolis for Bangladesh, where he currently lives in exile.
Through the firm Blue Star, in May 2023, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party hired Hunter Biden - the son of US President Joe Biden. The contract states that, in addition to lobbying expenses, Hunter Biden will receive $100 million when the party returns to power in Bangladesh.
In that country, Islamists are represented by the Jamaat-e-Islami party, founded by Sayyid Abul Ala Maududi and Said Ramadan, a well-known figure of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood. The Islamists are against the national state and demand that Bangladesh become part of Pakistan again.
On July 10, there was a clash between participants in an anti-government march and protesters from the Awami League. On July 19, groups of protesters attacked a detention center, freed the prisoners and set the facility on fire. A series of riots followed, costing the lives of around 100 people. On August 4, new riots left a toll of 97 dead. After two months of unrest, with the death toll already at 650, Sheikh Hasina resigned from her position as chief adviser (head of government) and fled to India in a military helicopter. From there, she denounced the role of the United States in the events that led her to resignation [4].
Third anomaly: a peaceful government unexpectedly turns into a “bloody regime”
Sheikh Hasina had never resorted to violence. So why did she suddenly unleash a bloodbath? Here in Bangladesh, the methods that the United States used and perfected during the wars in Yugoslavia are once again being rolled out, methods that I myself saw applied in Libya and Syria against the governments of those countries. Snipers conveniently positioned in strategic places would shoot simultaneously at police and protesters, so that each side believed it was being attacked by the other.
On August 6, Bangladeshi President Mohammad Shahabuddin dissolved parliament and appointed Muhammad Yunus as interim prime minister to govern the country after a series of discussions with the army and the protest leaders.
Fourth anomaly: a character returns from abroad to become head of government
“Coincidentally,” Muhammad Yunus had announced in June his intention to return to the political scene and govern the country [5]. Another characteristic of “colour revolutions” is that the winner is never who he appears to be.
The economist Muhammad Yunus (who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for his practice of microcredit) had come into conflict with Sheikh Hasina, who questioned the practices of his microcredit bank. To avoid paying taxes, Yunus had transferred 100 million dollars in grants from different countries to a family business. He also imposed high interest rates (between 21 and 37%) on poor women who used his bank [6].
Muhammad Yunus is a personal friend of Bill and Hillary Clinton and a major donor to the Clinton Global Initiative (CGI). The Clintons threatened Sheikh Hasina with opposing a 1.2 billion dollar World Bank to Bangladesh if the national government took Yunus to court. In the absence of that loan, the Bangladeshi government had to stop building a railway bridge over the Padma River.
US-funded newspapers then claimed that the Canadian company in charge of building the bridge had paid hidden commissions to Sheikh Hasina. The Canadian company denied this and accused Muhammad Yunus of being the author of the hoax. Yunus then had as his defender the former president of the World Bank and member of the Bilderberg Group's steering committee, James Wolfensohn. The then chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Court (ICC), Luis Moreno Ocampo, even went so far as to travel to Bangladesh to proceed with several indictments. Ultimately, there were never any legal proceedings against Yunus in Bangladesh, even though a Canadian court verified that there had never been any problems of embezzlement in the construction of the bridge over the Padma.
As soon as he was appointed head of government, Muhammad Yunus assigned himself 25 ministerial portfolios. At his first press conference, he said: “I have taken over a country that was, in many ways, a complete mess. In its efforts to hold on to power, Sheikh Hasina’s dictatorship destroyed all of the country’s institutions. The judicial system was destroyed. Democratic rights have been suppressed by a brutal repression that has lasted 10 and a half years.”
[1] “Controversial US visa policy for Bangladesh catches flak from India”, Ranjan Basu, Dhaka Tribune, 20 August, 2023.
[2] «Exposé de la porte-parole du Ministère des affaires étrangères, Maria Zakharova», Moscow, 6 July 2023.
[3] “China praises Bangladesh PM Hasina for refusing to permit foreign air base”, Press Trust of India (PTI), 24 de mayo de 2024.
[4] “Sheikh Hasina alleges US role in ouster, says could’ve remained in power if she surrendered sovereignty of Saint Martin Island”, Dipanjan Roy Chaudhury, Economic Times, 11 August, 2024.
[5] “No competitive politics left in Bangladesh, says Nobel laureate Yunus”, Ruma Paul, Reuters, 11 June 2024.
[6] “The Micro Debt”, Tom Heinemann, 26 January, 2011.
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