Word: ershad
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...roof had been removed as part of a repair program and that rain had weakened the ceiling underneath. A plan to demolish the old structure had been postponed because of a shortage of funds. Two engineers supervising the repair work were suspended. The President of Bangladesh, Lieut. General H.M. Ershad, appointed a commission to investigate...
...wake of the tragedy, the entire country was stunned into shock and silence. Proclaiming a day of national mourning, Bangladesh's President, Lieut. General Hussain Mohammad Ershad, postponed a planned state visit to China and hurried to Urirchar. After traveling through winds so fierce that his helicopter had to land before continuing, the President gave drinking water and biscuits to a few children, handed out clothes and looked on as bodies were buried. He could find no words adequate to the tragedy. "The devastation," he said simply, "is beyond description...
...days that followed, the country struggled to resuscitate itself. Ershad established a special relief coordinating committee headed by his second-in-command, Rear Admiral Sultan Ahmed, and ordered Bangladesh's 150,000-man armed forces put on a "wartime footing" to help cope with the disaster. Some 20,000 military personnel and 50,000 civilians were enlisted for relief operations. The President also appealed to other nations for $50 million in emergency aid; he specifically requested cash rather than supplies, so that the stricken could be given immediate relief. "So many of the survivors have lost everything," he said...
President Ershad set up camp on Urirchar to take control of rescue operations and relief efforts. Nearby, many of the island farmers, having laid their kin to rest, bravely set about rebuilding. Yet even as reconstruction got under way, floods 200 miles away battered the northeastern regions of the ill-starred country and 300,000 more Bangladeshis lost their homes...
...Ershad has promised to return the country to parliamentary democracy, though no timetable has been announced. Although he was once considered relatively lenient with students and the press, he has, however, cracked down on anyone suspected of subversion. Since the beginning of the year, more than 200 dissidents have been jailed. Last week 30 top opposition leaders were arrested at the home of Kamal Hossain, a former Foreign Minister and the author of the country's constitution. All were charged with holding an unlawful political meeting and encouraging student unrest...