The United States will not tell Bangladesh what to do in the current political situation, the visiting US congressman Steve Chabot has said.
“I am here as an honest observer. I am going to take back what I see to my colleagues in the US congress,” he told bdnews24.com after meeting Law Minister Shafique Ahmed in his office.
He said he came to Bangladesh as the Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia and the Pacific.
“The US has a very good relationship with Bangladesh and for a long time,” he said, describing his meeting with Ahmed as a ‘good one’.
“We discussed upcoming elections, we discussed International Crimes Tribunals,” he said.
But Chabot was quick to add: “It’s the people of Bangladesh who would decide what’s best for them.”
Chabot’s visit came at a time when Bangladesh’s politics has turned volatile and uncertain due to Opposition strikes, often violent, to push for a neutral caretaker which the ruling Awami League is opposed to.
The ruling Awami League wants all-party interim government which the Opposition has refused to accept.
The Opposition is enforcing a 60-hour shutdown, the second in a fortnight, at the moment from Monday morning.
Chabot is in Bangladesh when US Ambassador Dan Mozena is away home.
Mozena has been active in meetings with the leaders of the both parties in an apparent effort to resolve the crisis.
But Chabot, who arrived in Dhaka on Tuesday on a two-day visit, said: “It’s not the US’s position to tell Bangladesh what to do.”
According to the US embassy, he came to discuss Bangladesh’s role in the region and its bilateral relations with the United States.
He will also discuss the ongoing trials in the International Crimes Tribunals and the overall security situation in Bangladesh and the situation in the region during his meetings with the Prime Minister and the Leader of the Opposition.
Asked whether the US will help Bangladesh to bring back a war crimes convict Ashrafuzzaman Khan, the Congressman said he cannot speak for him or his lawyers. “I would not know what they are going to do.”
Khan, a war time Al Badr leader, has been sentenced to death for massacres during 1971 War of Independence.
He has been in the USA since independence. – bdnews24.com
