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Khaleda Zia to be exiled from Bangladesh: aides

Bangladesh's former prime minister Khaleda Zia is to be exiled as part of a major drive against rampant political corruption by the country's military-backed government, officials said yesterday.

Close aides to Zia said she was being forced to leave quietly in return for leniency for her two sons, both of whom are facing graft and extortion charges.

Senior government officials were widely quoted by the press as saying Zia, 61, would be leaving for Saudi Arabia in the coming days as part of a deal that will reshape politics in the emergency-ruled South Asian country.

NO RUSH

"Zia has agreed to leave the country but she is taking her time," an aide to the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) told reporters on condition he was not named.

"The army held several rounds of negotiations with her. The release of Arafat Rahman and halting of the case against Tareque Rahman were part of that process," the aide said, referring to Zia's sons.

Zia, who was prime minister until her five-year term ended in October, has been under virtual house arrest since last week.

Officials confirmed her son Arafat was released from custody overnight, while Deputy Attorney General Abdur Rouf said that an extortion case against Tareque had been "stayed" for six months.

"Initially, she will be leaving with a one-month visa to perform umrah [a pilgrimage] and her permanent residence there will be finalized upon reaching the kingdom of Saudi Arabia," the Star newspaper quoted a top government source as saying.

"The message was conveyed to Saudi Arabia through its embassy in Dhaka that she agreed to leave the country," another source was quoted as saying.

Bangladesh's military-backed interim government took power in January after President Iajuddin Ahmed declared a state of emergency and canceled planned elections following months of political violence.

At the heart of the political turmoil was Zia's BNP and the opposition Awami League led by her arch rival Sheikh Hasina Wajed, also a former prime minister.

The two women's respective family dynasties have dominated the country's politics since independence from Pakistan in 1971, but they are said to hate each other and earned the nickname "the battling begums" -- begum being an honorific Muslim title.

Their rival factions have frequently paralyzed the country with strikes, blockades and violent street protests, with each side apparently viewing political power as a key to making huge amounts of money.

RIVAL CHARGED

Hasina, 60, is currently on holiday in the US and has already been charged in absentia with extortion and the murder of four political activists last October.

Authorities have warned she faces arrest if she dares to return home.

Hasina has dismissed the charges as "fake and false" and has vowed to fight them, although a scheduled return was canceled last week.

News of Zia's impending departure comes just two weeks after Bangladesh's powerful army chief called for a clean sweep of the political landscape, saying previous democratic governments had bred corruption and crime.

Emergency rule has been popular among Bangladeshis, who appear to be in no hurry to return to destructive political infighting. Nearly half the country's 144 million population lives on less than a dollar a day.

The secular, Muslim-majority country of 144 million has a history of coups and counter-coups since winning independence from Pakistan in 1971.

But the army-backed interim government, headed by former central bank chief Fakhruddin Ahmed, has promised new elections will be held by the end of next year.
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