Khaleda pats herself on the back

Bangladeshi Prime Minister Khaleda Zia wound up a 100-day plan yesterday to rein in violence and corruption as the opposition insisted her new government was guilty of both. Khaleda's Bangladesh Natio-nalist Party (BNP) gave itself flying colours.

"The prime minister's 100 days have been a success and most of the plan has been implemented," said BNP secretary general Abdul Mannan Bhuiyan, the Local Government minister. Khaleda is expected to address the nation today about her 100-day plan.

Newspapers gave mixed assessments of the record of Khaleda's new government, which returned to power last year after her Islamist alliance won a landslide victory over the then-ruling Awami League.

Khaleda announced the action plan on October 25, 15 days after taking the oath of office, pledging to turn around the economy, slash rampant corruption and reduce crime.

But she has been beset by protests from the Awami League, which has boycotted parliament and accused Zia of turning a blind eye to "persecution" of opposition members and Bangladesh's Hindu minority.

One area in which Khaleda has been praised from most quarters has been on the environment. Her government banned the production and use of polythene plastic bags, which have been blamed for Bangladesh's major pollution problem.

The mass-circulation Daily Jugantor listed 10 successes of Khaleda's government, including a judicial inquiry into bombings that took place during the previous government's reign, some action against corruption and the dispatch of a team abroad to increase Bangladesh garment exports.

But the newspaper also listed eight government failures, including the outbreak of unrest at universities and the inability to reopen schools shut down by the violence. The Daily Star called Khaleda's 100 days a "bitter-sweet experience".

It acknowledged the government had been successful in launching investigations of graft under former prime minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed. But it said Zia's administration had "miserably failed to make any dramatic improvement in law and order or control terrorist activities. In a number of areas, there has been no action at all".

The Sangbad daily said crime - a major issue in the October 1 election - was still on the rise, with more than 100 politically motivated murders since Zia took power. The number of killings in the country from October to December last year was 934, while it was 1,012 from July to September and 934 from April to June.

A total of 3,153 incidents of repression on women and children took place during October to December of last year as against 3,886 from July to September and 3,325 from April to June.

In the first 25 days of October, 266 people were killed and 213 cases of violation of women were recorded with police, Home Minister Altaf Hossain Chowdhury told parliament. He also said 18,563 people were killed from 1996 to June, 2001.

A total of 165 people were killed in political violence during the first three months of the present government. The number of political killings during the 75 days of the caretaker government was 131, and 68 in the last 75 days (last days) of the Awami League government.

Most of them were killed in firing during clashes between activists of the Awami League and the BNP-led four-party alliance.