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BEIJING (Reuters) - China smothered Tiananmen Square with police on Thursday to prevent commemoration of the crackdown on pro-democracy protesters 20 years ago and the United States demanded Beijing account for those killed. Tanks rolled into the square before dawn on June 4, 1989, to crush weeks of student and worker protests. The ruling Communist Party has never released a death toll and fears any public marking of the crackdown could undermine its hold on power. China has changed dramatically in the past two decades. Market reforms have lifted hundreds of millions out of poverty and transformed China into the world's third-largest economy, making similar protests on the same scale highly unlikely today. But wary of any sign of political dissent, Beijing has tried hard to erase any mention of the Tiananmen protests. In a sign of Beijing's mix of confidence and caution, Tiananmen Square was open to visitors on Thursday, with hundreds of police and guards present. On the 10th anniversary of the crackdown in 1999, it was closed to the public. Chinese crowded the square to watch the dawn flag-raising ceremony that is now a fixture of official patriotic ritual. Many were visitors from outside Beijing and appeared oblivious to the sensitive date. There were no gestures of protest. But some people came quietly to the square to mourn. "Today is June 4, so we came here to commemorate it," said a man surnamed Wang. Tens of thousands in China-ruled Hong Kong attended a candlelight vigil on Thursday night to mark the anniversary. Organizers estimated a record 150,000 people had attended, as crowds overspilled from six football pitches in a downtown park. "In 20 years, the knot of June 4 has not been untied," said Reverend Chu Yiu-ming, one of the organizers. "CRUDE MEDDLING" The 1989 killings strained ties between Washington and Beijing and the reverberations were evident on the eve of the anniversary. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called on China to release all those still imprisoned in connection with the protests, to stop harassing those who took part and to begin a dialogue with the victims' families. "A China that has made enormous progress economically and is emerging to take its rightful place in global leadership should examine openly the darker events of its past and provide a public accounting of those killed, detained or missing, both to learn and to heal," Clinton said in a statement. China denounced the comments as "crude meddling". "We express our strong dissatisfaction and resolute opposition," Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said. Clinton's demands reflect views Washington has long held but represent a tougher stance on China's human rights record than Clinton has taken in her first four months in the job. Clinton's call was echoed by Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, a Mandarin-speaking former diplomat once posted in Beijing. "All people around the world were affected by those events and they still have resonance today," Rudd said. Authorities blocked access to the social messaging site Twitter (www.twitter.com), online photo sharing service Flickr (www.flickr.com), as well as briefly to email provider Hotmail. Foreign newscasts about the anniversary have been cut. "The leaders would rather just avoid this topic," said Zhang Boshu, a philosopher in Beijing who has urged a public reckoning with the killings. "They know that the 1989 crackdown, shooting their own citizens, was a terrible blow to their legitimacy." Foreign reporters were barred from the Beijing courtyard home of late reformist leader Zhao Ziyang, in a quiet alley crawling with plainclothes police. Security officials also tightly controlled access to Beijing universities. Dissidents have been detained or harassed, including Zeng Jinyan, wife of detained AIDS activist Hu Jia. Some Chinese activists and intellectuals recently urged the government to repent for the killings and start on a course of political liberalization. But China's leaders have shown no appetite for such steps, often saying that top-down political control is needed to guard economic growth. The president of Taiwan, a self-ruled island claimed by China, told Beijing to face up to the truth. "This painful period of history must be faced with courage and cannot be intentionally ducked," President Ma Ying-jeou said in a statement. While mention of the crackdown is taboo in Chinese media, dissidents have again been trying to get the government to reassess its official verdict on the incident, which is that it was a counter-revolutionary plot. This year's anniversary fell as the economy is slowing due to the global financial crisis. The government has reacted quickly, unveiling a 4 trillion yuan ($585.8 billion) stimulus package and other measures to tackle rising joblessness. "I don't think students would go to the streets to demonstrate against the Chinese government in the same way as the students of the 1980s," said Bo Zhiyue, a Chinese politics expert at Singapore's East Asian Institute. ($1=6.828 Yuan)
Maruf Mallick
bdnews24.com environment correspondent
Dhaka, June 5 (bdnews24.com)—With the global temperature gradually on the rise, Bangladesh being a tropical delta has also been experiencing comparatively higher humidity and temperature through the past couple of decades, threatening agriculture, climatologists have observed. The country's average temperature recorded an increase of 1 degree centigrade in the past 30 years, which, if continued, may cut the boro harvest per acre by 20 to 50 percent towards 2050, a study of the Bangladesh University of Engineering and Technology said. "To determine the possible impact of climate change trends on our agriculture in the 2030s, 2050s and 2070s, we researched with the climate data on precipitation, temperature and sunlight collected from SAARC Meteorological Research Centre," professor M Ashraf Ali of BUET civil engineering department, the guide of the study, told bdnews24.com. He said temperature changes will very much affect the cropping patterns. For example, the yield of the boro varieties now cultivated will be slashed by 20-50 percent due to higher temperatures. The north-western region will be specially affected, he said and added sowing a bit earlier might save losses to a minimum though. Ali said salinity-tolerant paddy species have been developed by Bangladeshi scientists. Bangladesh Rice Research Institute is working on species which will grow withstanding increasing temperatures too. Dr Nazrul Islam, head of synoptic division of SMRC, told bdnews24.com that Bangladesh would have to adopt region-specific planning to cope with the climate change menaces, because some regions might suffer from drought whereas zones may experience heavier rainfalls resulting in flash floods. The mean temperatures or other values will not be good to work with just at any place. The innovations instead have to be locale specific. The years 2013 and 2014, for example, will experience less rainfall on average, Islam said. Again, 2018 will have five percent more precipitation, the future scenarios indicate. Dr Jiban Krishna Biswas, another BRRI scientist, told bdnews24.com that the agricultural scientists have been working on developing crop varieties to suit the changing climate.
Economic loss understood to be huge; thousands still marooned
The death toll from Cyclone Aila rose to 121 yesterday, as thousands of people marooned in the coastal areas were battling to survive the aftermath with little food and drinking water. The storm that ripped through the southwestern coast Monday has left at least 32 people killed in Satkhira, 25 in Noakhali, 20 in Khulna, 13 in Bhola, nine in Barisal, seven in Patuakhali, six in Laxmipur, two each in Bagerhat, Chapainawabganj and Cox's Bazar, and one each in Magura, Natore and Lalmonirhat, said sources from the affected districts. The food and disaster management ministry however puts the death count at 91. According to reports from our correspondents, tidal waves churned by strong winds have inundated vast swathes of land. Heavy rains coupled with gales flattened huge tracts of standing crops and washed away numerous fisheries. They also caused extensive damage to embankments and levees in the coastal districts. The HSC and equivalent examinations scheduled for the next two days have been postponed in nine upazilas--Ashashuni and Shamnagar of Satkhira, Koira, Paikgacha, Botiaghata, Dumuria and Dakop of Khulna, and Mongla and Rampal of Bagerhat district. Jessore Board Controller Amirul Islam told The Daily Star that dates for these examinations would be declared later. Food Minister Abdur Razzak yesterday visited different cyclone-hit areas. He distributed relief among the locals at Panpatti village under Galachipa upazila in Patuakhali district. Our Barisal correspondent adds: In Barisal division, Bhola appears to have borne the worst of the cyclone. Road and water communications between seven upazilas in the district have been snapped for two days now. Local sources said Aila has destroyed thousands of hectares of crops including Aus, Aman and Boro rice, and vegetables. Manpura flood control embankment has been breached at many points. Strong current has carried away a 10-km stretch of the dam, and onrushing tide levelled hundreds of homes. People in the remote flood-affected areas were suffering from an acute shortage of drinking water. Our staff correspondent from Khulna reports: At 5:00pm yesterday, the death count in the cyclonic storm stood at 22, according to official sources. Of the dead, 20 were in Khulna district and the other two, women, in Bagerhat district. The storm and tidal surge have destroyed almost 80 percent of the forest camps in Chandpai and Sharankhola ranges, said Mihir Kumar, divisional forest officer in charge of the Sundarbans east wing. According to Khulna district control room, Aila has left around 30,000 houses in ruins. The number could be even higher once a damage full assessment is done. Unofficial sources said over three lakh people in Khulna and Bagerhat districts have remained marooned as of filing this report at 7:00pm. At least 90 percent of shrimp enclosures and flood control dams in Khulna and Bagerhat districts have been washed away. Cargo handling at Mongla Port, which was suspended on Sunday night, resumed yesterday morning. Our correspondent from Satkhira said at least 32 people including children were killed in Cyclone Aila. Shyamnagar and Assassuni upazilas were the worst affected. At least 90 percent of thatched houses and mud huts have been demolished by Aila-fed tidal surge, forcing thousands of people to take shelter in nearby buildings and cyclone centres. Those in cyclone shelters were passing hard times for scarcity of food, drinking water and medicines. The local administration was yet to launch any relief efforts. Meanwhile, fears were growing of an outbreak of diarrhoea and other water-borne diseases. Our Patuakhali correspondent reports: The number of people affected in Cyclone Aila is over 11.50 lakh. 400 Km flood control embankment and 75 km roads of LGED have been damaged. The district had at least 30,000 hectares of crops including Aus damaged in the storm. Our Gopalganj correspondent said hundreds of mud houses and trees were uprooted during the cyclone on May 25. The affected areas had been without electricity for over 24 hours. Land phone connections and mobile network were yet to start functioning.
Relief and rescue
Razzaq, the disaster management minister, said prime minister Sheikh Hasina directed the MPs to visit the affected areas. As many as 42,000 volunteers along with army, navy and coast guard members are conducting rescue and relief operations in the affected areas under local arrangements. Razzaq said damage and casualties were not severe as the wind speed caused by the cyclone was less. However, the height of the surges was much higher than before, 12 to 13 feet at places, forcing many people to seek shelter on rooftops. At places dams gave in due to the surge, flooding the areas inside the dams. The government granted 1000 metric tonnes of rice and Tk 12 lakh as relief for the affected people, the minister said adding there were already sufficient stocks of relief in the affected districts. The storm battered and flooded villages, forced thousands of people from their homes, uprooted trees and knocked out power and telephone poles, officials said.
City's unsuccessful circular waterway clicks for grabbers; over 10,000 sand cargo boats make transportation cheap
Dredging of the rivers under the 'Circular Waterway' project facilitated encroachment on the rivers, riverbanks, floodplains, canals and other wetland as the grabbers could easily bring sand on cargo boats.
The Bangladesh Inland Water Transport Authority (BIWTA) dredged some rivers for developing the circular waterway. Now around 10,000 cargo boats are operating in and around the capital and most of them are serving the purpose of land developers.
The sand and soil carrying cargo boats, locally known as 'bolget', are the main transports operating on these river routes.
The housing companies used to fill up the southern and eastern side of the capital a few years ago. But now they are filling up the wetland and rivers in the northern parts. The 'bolgets' could not reach the northern parts as it was impossible for them to ply in the Turag then.
"But the government excavated the rivers for the Circular Water Way and now these boats can easily ply in there. So the riverbanks and other wetland are being filled up very quickly," says a BIWTA official speaking anonymously.
The private housing companies and earth fillers prefer 'bolgets' as each boat carries 5,000 to 10,000 cubic feet of sand at a time.
"If someone wants to carry 10,000 CFT of sand on trucks he will need at least 100 trucks," said an official working with a housing estate who does not want to be identified.
Developers say around 10,000 'bolgets' are carrying sand and earth to fill up wetland, floodplains and the rivers around the city.
Sources in the Ministry of Shipping say there are around 5,000 registered water vessels in the capital, most of which are mainly serving the purpose of 31 housing companies and private housing initiatives to fill up land.
Sometimes the cargo boats create such obstacles in the river routes that other modes of transport cannot move properly. In recent years, accidents on river routes around the capital have increased thanks to these boats.
When these boats are loaded, the upper deck almost goes down the water level. This makes it hard for other water transports to identify them at night and accidents occur as a result.
A couple of years ago BIWTA imposed a ban on plying of 'bolgets' at night so that other vessels don't face any obstacle.
No fishermen or fishing boats were visible during several visits to the Buriganga, Shitalakhya, Balu and Turag rivers in recent weeks. Only there were some dredgers and 'bolgets' either to fill up land or collect sand to fill up other parts of the rivers elsewhere.
Recently, The Daily Star published a series of reports on riverbed and riverbank filling. During investigation, it was found that all the filling was taking place by boats.
BIWTA Secretary Syed Monowar Hossain said they are taking preparations to evict all illegal grabbers.
"We won't allow anyone to illegally fill up the riverbanks, even if it is their own land. We'll go by the port act and rules and regulations applicable for the rivers," he said.
As the BITWA and other authorities sit idle, both the sides of the Dhaka flood protection embankment from Kamrangirchar to Gabtali through Rayer Bazar have meanwhile been filled up.
Some government agencies are also violating the laws and filling up the wetland.
The Rajdhani Unnayan Kartripakkha (Rajuk) has taken up its Uttara third phase project after dredging the Turag. They also dredged the river and used 'bolgets' to fill up wetland for the purpose.
Different housing estates occupied and filled up Dangurdia, Durdi, Vatara, Telikhola and Brahmankhola canals in Satarkul and Vatara unions under Badda police station in the last five years.
Rashidkhali canal, one of the most important canals in eastern Dhaka, was once 10 kilometres long and connected the Norai river. Different housing companies have filled up around eight kilometres of this canal.
The grabbers have also filled up canals from Meradia to Nandipara in recent years using the river route.
They have also made attempts to fill up areas from Gabtali to Ashulia towards Tongi.
