In Bangladesh, a Nobel Peace Prize winner at the head of the interim government?

After Prime Minister flees, military forms interim government in Bangladesh. UN calls for peaceful transition. Unrest has already claimed more than 400 lives.

For the past 24 hours, the entire country has been experiencing scenes of both chaos and celebration. On Monday afternoon, August 5, the helicopter exfiltrating Sheikh Hasina to India had barely left when, in Dhaka, crowds rushed to the residence of the deposed leader. Bangladeshis looted kitchens, posed on beds, and took away furniture, books and televisions.

Anything related to the former prime minister has become a target of popular anger. In the capital, statues representing her father, Sheikh Mujibur Rahaman, a key figure in the country’s independence in 1971, are being attacked with hammers.

Ruling party offices are set on fire, as are pro-government television stations. Parliament is invaded, with people jumping on tables and setting off smoke bombs. The demonstrators wave the national flag, dark green with a red disc in the middle. They are celebrating, they say, the end of 15 years of dictatorship.

The army, which until now has always been loyal to the regime, lets it happen. After having repressed the demonstrations with blood on Sunday, the military and the police remain in the background… And on Monday, August 5, it is a general, Waker-Uz-Zaman, who speaks on state television. He announces to the 170 million Bangladeshis that it is time to put an end to the violence.

The army announces the release of all those arrested during the protests. It lifts the curfew and authorizes the reopening of schools, universities, offices… The garment factories that drive the economy and supply clothes to the world’s biggest brands have not, however, resumed their activity.

Initially, the protest launched by the students was directed against the reestablishment of a government measure providing for the reservation of a third of the jobs in the administration for the families of veterans of the war of independence, in other words for those close to power. But it very quickly transformed into a general protest against a government that was blithely using state institutions to consolidate its power.

Nothing is written but the risks of reprisals and unrest remain very high. This Monday, August 5, deadly clashes took place in the capital, attacks and revenge against police officers, Hindu families targeted by Muslims. There are at least 110 dead.

The most optimistic want to believe in spite of everything in the scenario of a peaceful democratic transition. And the West is putting pressure. In Washington, American diplomacy “urges all parties to refrain from further violence. Too many lives have been lost in recent weeks and we call for calm and restraint in the coming days.“The United Kingdom – a former colonial power before the partition between India and Pakistan – is also calling for a return to “calm” and to the “de-escalation” in the former “East Pakistan”.

The leaders of the student protests also want the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner, Muhammad Yunus, 84, a pioneer of microcredit and currently in Europe, to be appointed head of the interim government. “We would not accept any government supported or
led by the army ” said Nahid Islam, one of the main organizers of the movement in a video posted on Facebook. Negotiations have begun.