Today, if it is necessary to act for my country and for the courage of my people, I will do it.said the 84-year-old economist
▲ Muhammad Yunus, pictured in 2016.Photo Ap
AFP and AP
The newspaper La Jornada
Wednesday, August 7, 2024, p. 26
Dhaka. Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, who was awarded for creating a microcredit system for the poor, has been appointed to lead an interim government in Bangladesh after the dissolution of parliament and the flight of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
The decision of form an interim government The decision by Yunus was taken at a meeting between President Mohamed Shahabuddin, military chiefs and student leaders who spearheaded protests in early July, Bangladesh’s presidency said.
I have always kept politics at a distance […]But today, if it is necessary to act in Bangladesh, for my country and for the courage of my people, then I will do it.said Yunus, who will soon return to the country from Paris, France, where he is attending the Olympics.
The 84-year-old economist is known for having lifted millions of people out of poverty by providing microcredits, an initiative for which he received the Prince of Asturias Award for Concord in 1998 and the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006. Yunus earned the enmity of Hasina, who accused him of suck blood of the poor.
Nahid Islam, a leader of the student group, confirmed the decision to reporters after a three-hour meeting at the presidency and described the talks as fruitful.
President Shahabuddin accepted that the interim government be formed as soon as possible and dismissed the national police chief following a violent crackdown on protests that led Hasina to flee.
Shahabuddin dissolved parliament, one of the students’ demands, shared by the main opposition party, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party.
Army chief General Waker Uz Zaman announced on Monday that the military would form an interim government. The army reshuffled its leadership yesterday and removed senior officers seen as close to Hasina. It also removed Ziaul Ahsan, an officer involved in the Rapid Action Battalion, a paramilitary force under US sanctions accused of human rights violations.
At least 432 people have died since the protests began, according to an Agence France Presse count based on reports from police, authorities and doctors in hospitals.
The protests began as a fight against the quota system for public jobs – which stipulates that 30 percent of jobs go to children of veterans of the war of independence – but later turned against Hasina and police repression.