On October 29, Reuters and The Independent published interviews with former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Other media, such as Al Jazeera and France24, reported on the interviews. She did not directly respond to any questions from Bangladeshi media.
Several things were remarkable about the interviews. First, as noted in the Independent article and in related coverage by the Daily Star, she refused to apologize for her role in hundreds of deaths in July/August 2024, which she blamed on rogue elements within, and mistakes by, the police and paramilitaries. However, there is considerable evidence that she was in fact complicit.
For example, The Daily Star reported that its own “…investigations found that Hasina had personally authorised the use of lethal weapons. This newspaper had reported on a phone recording from July 18, 2024 where Hasina tells her nephew, former Dhaka South Mayor Fazle Noor Taposh, ‘I have given instructions, now I have given direct instructions; now they will use lethal weapons. Wherever they find them [protesters], they will shoot directly.'”
At the time of the killings, the mainstream media and leading human rights groups condemned the Hasina-led government’s actions. The Independent article notes, “Bangladesh’s crackdown on protesters last year shocked the world. Amnesty International’s deputy regional director, Babu Ram Pant, said at the time: ‘The rising death toll is a shocking indictment of the absolute intolerance shown by the Bangladeshi authorities to protest and dissent.'”
All that prevents the Awami League from starting its rehabilitation in the eyes of the Bangladeshi people is for her to take responsibility for at least some of her government’s many misdeeds, including a long list of human rights abuses committed prior to the July/August protests.
Another noteworthy aspect of her interviews was that she refuses to return to Bangladesh to face justice. The Dhaka-based International Crimes Tribunal is in the process of trying her in absentia for her role in the killings of 2024. This stands in stark contrast to the fact that Professor Muhammad Yunus remained in Bangladesh during more than a decade of legal actions against him, repeatedly showing up at court hearings and being willing to accept any verdict, however unjust it may have been, handed down against him.
One error in the Independent’s story is that it says that after Hasina fled to India, Yunus returned from “de facto exile” to lead the country. In fact, he returned on August 8, 2024 from a short trip to Paris as a guest of the International Olympic Committee. During his 14 years of being persecuted by Hasina’s government, he never went into exile despite many opportunities to do so, though he did travel internationally from time to time.
What most Bangladeshis and friends of Bangladesh are taking away from this interview is that Hasina remains defiant, unapologetic, and unwilling to face justice in her native land. It is therefore understandable that Bangladesh is moving on without her. Hopefully, one day soon the Awami League will reemerge under new leadership and reclaim its place as a respected Bangladeshi political party.
