Bangladesh
Shahriar Alam Dhaka calls 13 Western Missions, expresses dissatisfaction
Dhaka, July 27: The Ministry of Foreign Affairs has expressed its displeasure by summoning the ambassadors and diplomats of 13 Western missions for giving a statement on the alleged attack on Ashraful Hossain Alam alias Hero Alam, an independent candidate for the Dhaka-17 by-election. They have been informed that Bangladesh is dissatisfied with the behaviour of making a sudden statement.
Ambassadors and High Commissioners of the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, Switzerland, Spain, France, Netherlands, Norway and the European Union appeared at Rashtriya Bhawan Padma on Wednesday afternoon on the invitation of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Besides, high level officials of Canada, Denmark and Sweden embassies also came.
Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Shahriar Alam briefed these diplomats of the western mission who gave a statement about the attack on Hero Alam.
Later, the state minister spoke to the journalists at the Foreign Service Academy. He said, "In view of an unexpected incident, we called the ambassadors of the embassies in Dhaka who issued a joint statement to the media, breaking diplomatic norms. We have expressed our displeasure at their un-diplomatic behavior. As we have said, this is an isolated incident that cannot be used to judge the day's peaceful, fair and free elections."
Shahriar Alam said, "We told them that there was no violence in that election. Hero Alam observed the election by roaming around freely with his teammates throughout the day. He did not suffer any untoward incident or make any complaint till the end of the polls. The other candidates also did not complain of any kind of violence or any other irregularities."
He said, "We told them that a last-minute isolated incident presented by a few delegates never reflects the peaceful election of the day. As I said, they did not give due importance to the objectivity of their assessment while reacting quickly."
When asked what was the reaction of the ambassadors and diplomats of the western mission, Shahriar Alam said, "They said, they did it (statement) to help us. They did not make this statement for any other purpose."
Stating that calling ambassadors and diplomats is not a summons, the state minister said that calling them today is not a summons in any way. We called to explain our position. However, in this incident, the UN Acting Resident Coordinator was called, that was a summons. Because, according to the structure of the United Nations, there is no opportunity to make such a statement.
