Word: ershad
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...know why God should punish us like this," sighed the weary President of Bangladesh, Hussain Mohammed Ershad, as he looked out a helicopter window at the devastation below. Even by the standards of his perennially destitute country, the punishment this time seemed inordinately cruel. As much as three-quarters of Bangladesh -- a country the size of Wisconsin crowded with 110 million people -- lay under water after it and neighboring India, Bhutan and Nepal were pelted by what may have been the heaviest monsoon rains in 70 years. An estimated 30 million Bangladeshis were left homeless. Many hundreds perished, though...
Throughout the 16-year history of Bangladesh, unrest and martial law have seemed to be an almost permanent part of political life. Since late October, President Hussain Mohammad Ershad has arrested some 2,000 opposition figures, including the women leaders of the two main opposition parties, for calling for his overthrow. Last week, unable to negotiate an end to the protests, Ershad completed the cycle by declaring a new state of emergency in his troubled country of 105 million people...
Thousands of people flooded Dhaka's streets last week to mark the first anniversary of President H.M. Ershad's civilian rule -- but hardly in a way he would have liked. To cries of "Torch the throne of Ershad!" an estimated 20,000 demonstrators clashed with police over three days. On Saturday, at least two dozen homemade bombs rocked the capital. Altogether, three civilians and one policeman were killed, scores injured, and 2,000 arrested. The biggest casualty, however, was Bangladesh's meandering course toward democracy. Ershad ordered the arrest of Protest Organizers Begum Khaleda Zia, 43, and Sheik Hasina Wazed...
Three times he had scheduled general elections, then canceled them after the opposition threatened boycotts. This time martial law Ruler Lieut. General Hossain Mohammed Ershad, who seized power in a 1982 coup, promised that the first voting in Bangladesh in seven years would take place in a "free, fair and peaceful atmosphere." It did not quite work out that way. At least twelve people were killed and 400 arrested last week amid blatant vote rigging, intimidation and violence, most of it committed by supporters of Ershad's Jatiya Party. At week's end the official count gave Jatiya 82 seats...
Throughout the campaign, Ershad made it clear that he would brook no nonsense from his adversaries. When one opposition leader, Begum Khaleda Zia, the widow of a former President who was slain in an attempted military coup in 1981, called for an election boycott and seemed to hint that the armed forces should distance themselves from the government, Ershad slapped her under virtual house arrest. He then declared that anyone urging a boycott would go to prison for up to seven years...