Staff correspondent :<\/p>\n
The foreign ministry today called ambassadors of 13 western nations and missions and expressed Dhaka\u2019s resentment for \u201cviolating diplomatic norms\u201d as they issued a joint statement over assaults on out-of-tune singer Hero Alam, who took part in the recently held parliamentary by-election in the capital.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe had called ambassadors who issued a joint statement in the media violating diplomatic norms and practices over an undesirable incident on July 17 involving independent candidate (of by-election) in Dhaka 17 constituency\u201d, state minister for foreign affairs Shahriar Alam told reporters.<\/p>\n
He added: \u201cWe have expressed our dissatisfaction for their behavior going beyond the diplomatic decency.\u201d<\/p>\n
Alam, however, said \u201cWe had invited them, we are not calling it \u201csummon\u201d to convey the Bangladesh\u2019s resentment, unlike the case of UN Resident Coordinator in Dhaka who was \u201csummoned\u201d on July 20 over his tweet about Hero Alam.<\/p>\n
The western diplomats including the US ambassador Peter Haas and British High Commissioner Sarah Cooke entered the State Guest House Padma one by one shortly before 3 PM while the meeting lasted for 50 minutes ending at 3.50 PM.<\/p>\n
Alam briefed the journalists at the nearby Foreign Service Academy emerging from the meeting with the envoys.<\/p>\n
Asked how the foreign diplomats responded to Dhaka\u2019s dissatisfaction, the junior foreign minister told reporters that they tried to explain their joint statement as an effort to cooperate Bangladesh\u2019s electoral process and they were not led by any other intention.<\/p>\n
According to Alam four or five envoys spoke during the interaction when they said their statement was part of their continued engagement with Bangladesh.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe countered their logic saying the Vienna Convention (on diplomatic relations) clearly stated that the first point of contact of any ambassador should be the ministry of foreign affairs,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Alam added: \u201cWe always appreciate their contacts with the media, but they should contact us first regarding making any comment on any (such) issue.\u201d<\/p>\n
According to Alam the foreign ministry handed the envoys copies of Dhaka\u2019s written reaction, while Dhaka would reach the copies to the capitals of the concerned 13 countries through its diplomatic channels.<\/p>\n
Asked if Dhaka\u2019s reaction could complicate ties with the countries concerned ahead of early next year\u2019s scheduled elections in Bangladesh, Alam replied in the negative.<\/p>\n
He said effective diplomatic ties could progress even if there were difficult or burning issues among countries which could be seen among neighbourhood as well and \u201cin no way this issue will disrupt our relations with the countries concerned\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cBangladesh has good relations with every (of these 13) countries, we have businesses, people to people contacts with them and communications are there at think tank levels . . . all these factors will carry forward our relations with them,\u201d \u00a0the junior minister said.<\/p>\n
Alam, however, said different quarters or groups might have attempts to complicate issues ahead of the elections which could have yielded the diplomats\u2019 joint statement.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt could have happened due to over enthusiasm of some people which we assume had happened in the case of the local representative of the United Nations,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
Alam, without any elaboration, said there was at least one instance in the past, the statement of an ambassador did not reflect the stance of the capital of the envoy\u2019s own country.<\/p>\n
Diplomatic experts said it was a rare incident when Bangladesh\u2019s foreign ministry called such a high number of foreign ambassadors simultaneously to lodge any protest.<\/p>\n
But there were numerous occasions when the envoy of a country was summoned or called to express Dhaka\u2019s discontent on certain issues.<\/p>\n
The US embassy in Dhaka had issued the joint statement of the 13 envoys including that of the European Union that called on the government to conduct a full investigation and take legal steps against the perpetrators of attack on Hero Alam.<\/p>\n
“Violence has no place in the democratic process. We call for a full investigation and accountability for the perpetrators. Everyone involved in the upcoming elections should ensure that they are free, fair, and peaceful,” the statement read.<\/p>\n
The envoys of Canada, Denmark, France, Germany, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Spain, Sweden, and Switzerland in Bangladesh are among the other signatories.<\/p>\n
The out-of-tune Bangladeshi singer with a huge internet following, Hero Alom, an independent candidate in Dhaka-17 by-polls, was assaulted at a polling centre in Banani on the polls day.<\/p>\n
But, the state minister said, the joint statement contained some \u201cfundamental flaws\u201d as they could not acknowledge the fact that the day before they issued it, two of the perpetrators of the attack were arrested and \u201cwe have informed them about their shortcomings\u201d as well.<\/p>\n
Ahead of taking the reporters\u2019 questions, Alam read out a written speech at the briefing which said the diplomats in their statement did not reflect the daylong peaceful atmosphere on that day.<\/p>\n
It said they just focused on an isolated incident at the last moment of the polling while \u201cthey did not give appropriate importance on the objectivity in their evaluation for issuing a quick reaction\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Staff correspondent : The foreign ministry today called ambassadors of 13 western nations and missions and expressed Dhaka\u2019s resentment for \u201cviolating diplomatic norms\u201d as they issued a joint statement over assaults on out-of-tune singer Hero Alam, who took part in the recently held parliamentary by-election in the capital. \u201cWe had called ambassadors who issued a joint statement in the media violating diplomatic norms and practices over an undesirable incident on July 17 involving independent candidate (of by-election) in Dhaka 17 constituency\u201d, state minister for foreign affairs Shahriar Alam told reporters.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2070,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"limit_modified_date":"","last_modified_date":"","rop_custom_images_group":[],"rop_custom_messages_group":[],"rop_publish_now":"initial","rop_publish_now_accounts":[],"rop_publish_now_history":[],"rop_publish_now_status":"pending","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2069","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-bangladesh"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyenglishtimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2069","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyenglishtimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyenglishtimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyenglishtimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyenglishtimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2069"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/dailyenglishtimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2069\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2071,"href":"https:\/\/dailyenglishtimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2069\/revisions\/2071"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyenglishtimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2070"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyenglishtimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2069"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyenglishtimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2069"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyenglishtimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2069"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}