The New Nation - Internet Edition

BSS, Dhaka

India has decided to waive the ban on export of rice to Bangladesh for an additional five lakh tonnes of rice and proposed its willingness to undertake rehabilitation programme in ten severely affected coastal villages.

Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee yesterday informed it to Chief Adviser Dr. Fakhruddin Ahmed while he (Pranab Mukherjee) called on him at his office here.

Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee yesterday said ties with Dhaka continued to improve while his Bangladesh counterpart Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury expected it to reach a level to be "stabilised permanently".

"Our relation is improving and it showed some reflections in bilateral trades," Mukherjee said in a brief statement after nearly an hour long talks with Chowdhury at the state guesthouse Padma here.

The External Affairs Minister, who earlier arrived here on a one-day visit to witness the cyclone devastation in southwestern coastlines, said the "huge trade" largely in favour of India was a major concern in bilateral ties but a process is underway to reduce it.

He said the recent agreement allowing Bangladesh to export 80 lakh pieces of readymade garments without citing previously needed "origin of certificate" is a major step towards that end.

Mukherjee said New Delhi is also expecting to announce a package for least developed regional countries including Bangladesh shortening its "sensitive list" for imported products later this month.

The Indian External Affairs Minister said the two countries were also expected to witness direct railway links after resolution of some "technical issues" while the two countries reached a consensus to resolve all other issues through bilateral talks.

"The bilateral relations are on progress in a smooth manner and we will take it to a level when it will stabilise for a permanent period," Iftekhar Chowdhury said reciprocating his counterpart.

He appreciated prompt Indian response for the cyclone survivors offering succor, waiving a ban on rice export up to 500,000 tonnes and conveying concerns.

Earlier, during his talks with Chief Adviser Dr Fakhruddin Ahmed, the Indian external affairs minister offered his country's assistance for total rehabilitation of 10 cyclone ravaged coastal village reconstructing the communication lines and power systems and the affected infrastructures including schools under a "comprehensive and integrated" approach.

Foreign Adviser Dr. Iftekar Ahmed Chowdhury received the Indian External Affairs Minister when an Indian air force plane carrying him landed at the airport.

Among others, Secretary, Ministry of Disaster Management and Food Dr. Ayub Miah and Indian High Commissioner Pinak Ranjan Chakravarty were present.

Mukherjee said, " With Bangladesh, we share not only a common history of struggle for freedom and liberation but also enduring feelings of civilisational, fraternal, linguistic and cultural ties."

He made two announcements which are- India has decided to waive the ban on export of rice to Bangladesh for an additional five lakh tons and his country would propose to the government of Bangladesh its willingness to undertake programme in ten severely affected coastal villages for rehabilitation.

Mukherjee said, he would be discussing the details of these in his meetings later on the day. He said he was thankful to Foreign Adviser Dr. Iftekhar Ahmed Chowdhury for receiving him personally at the airport.

Referring to the cyclone Sidr which battered Bangladesh on November 15, Pranab said, " On behalf of the people and the government of India, allow me to express our deep sadness on the devastation caused to life, property and infrastructure in Bangladesh by the cyclone."

Pranab Mukherjee said as a mark of respect for those who lost their lives, and as a symbol of the shared sense of loss that , "We as a nation, feel with your people, our Parliament expressed it sorrow in a resolution on November 19 and observed a moment of silence."

The external affairs minister said India's total relief assistance to Bangladesh this year so far amounts to more than Taka 270 crore. India, he said, has already rushed some relief goods like medicines, ready to eat meals, blankets, tents and portable water purifiers worth about Taka 11 crore.

In addition, he said, 20,000 tons of rice is being sent by sea to Chittagong. Pranab Mukherjee said," I bring the solidarity of my country in your hour of need, and an assurance that as a friendly neighbour, India would always be interested in a stable, prosperous and democratic Bangladesh."

Our Correspondents

As part of his daylong tour of Bangladesh, Indian External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee distributed relief goods among cyclone-hit people at Rayenda in Sharankhola upazila yesterday.

While talking to cross-sections of local people, mostly rendered pauper by the devastating cyclone, they requested the Indian foreign minister to take steps so essentials could be brought here from his country.

A helicopter of Bangladesh Air Force carrying Mukherjee from the capital, Dhaka, landed at Rayenda helipad at about 3:40pm. He went to an army camp at Rayenda School, where local army commander Lieutenant Colonel Sayeed Siddiqui briefed him about the losses caused by cyclone Sidr in the district. The Indian leader visited affected areas in

Rayenda and distributed relief goods from his country among the victims. He also inquired about the losses caused by the cyclone.

Mukherjee said, "I came here to convey the sympathy to cyclone-affected people in Bangladesh on behalf of my government."

He expressed his hope that victims would be able to overcome the

losses.

Mukherjee also visited an army-run water plant at Rayenda. He left here for capital by helicopter at about 4:08pm, concluding his relief mission.

Communications Adviser Major General (Retd) MA Matin, Foreign Secretary Mohammad Towhid Hossain, Indian High Commissioner in Bangladesh Pinak Ranjan Chakrabarty and Jessore GOC Major General Rafiqul Islam were, among others, present during the Indian minister's visit.

Earlier, reaching at Barisal Airport Indian Foreign Minister Pranab Mukherjee said that the government and people of India expressed their solidarity with the government and people of Bangladesh at their hours of disaster and crisis.

Expressing profound sympathy for the cyclone affected people, he said that India would stand by the side of the distressed people of Bangladesh until they are rehabilitated.

Pranab arrived at Barisal Airport in the afternoon by a helicopter to visit cyclone-affected areas.

He was accompanied by Indian High Commissioner Pinak Ranjan Chakrabarti, joint secretary TS Trimurthi of High Commission of India in Bangladesh, Director of External Affairs Ministry of India Bikram Misri, Foreign Secretary and Food Secretary of Bangladesh and other dignitaries.

The Indian foreign minister was received at Barisal Airport by Communications Adviser and Coordinator of Central Relief Activities Maj Gen (Retd) MA Matin, GOC of 55 Division Major General Rafiqul Islam, Brig Gen Rashiduzaman of the Bangladesh Army and other senior civil and military officials.

Maj Gen Matin and Brig Gen Rashiduzzaman in their brief speeches at the airport gave a hearty welcome to the honourable guests from India recalling the friendly relationship between the two countries.

They also recalled the assistance provided by India in the hours of need of Bangladesh.

They also expressed their gratitude and thanked the government and people of India for coming forward with assistance for the cyclone-affected distressed people of Bangladesh at this hour of crisis.

The Indian Foreign Minister and his team left Barisal for Sharankhola of Bagerhut district to see the extent of damage and devastation of cyclone Sidr and the plight of people.

The Indian delegation was expected to return Dhaka in evening after taking an aerial view of the Sidr affected area of Patharghata of Barguna district.

Barisal Correspondent

Adviser for Communications and Coordinator for Relief and Rehabilitation Work for the cyclone Sidr victims Maj Gen (Retd) MA Matin yesterday appealed to the United Nations and other international agencies for immediate help in constructing adequate number of cyclone shelters and protective dams as well as repairing damaged embankments to avoid loss of lives and property during storm and tidal waves in future.

He also called for assistance in developing sustainable preventive measures against the damages of natural calamities by implementing long-term projects.

Matin made the appeal while talking to visiting Assistant Secretary General of the UN Jane Holl Lute at Barisal Airport yesterday.

The UN Assistant Secretary General visited the relief and rehabilitation centre for the Sidr victims at Barisal Airport after being received by the Communications Adviser.

Brig Gen Rashiduzaman briefed the UN official about the devastation and relief operations during her short stay at Barisal Airport. The Communications Adviser apprised the UN Assistant Secretary General about the necessity of immediate support for implementing sustainable projects in constructing and repairing cyclone centers and embankments.

Damages in road communications and power supplies are also being restored and repaired. As winter is knocking at the door and temperature is falling in the Sidr affected areas, there is an urgent need of winter clothes, blankets and housing materials, Matin also informed the UN official.

In response the UN Assistant Secretary General said, "We're aware of the needs and problems of the Sidr affected people of Bangladesh. All possible help would be provided to them and Bangladesh would not be left alone in this moment of crisis."

The UN team left Barisal Airport by a helicopter for Sidr affected areas to witness the devastations caused by the cyclone and relief operations being carried out there.

Staff Reporter

Ten crates containing 189 rare and invaluable archeological artifacts of Bangladesh which were taken to the Zia International Airport from the National Museum on Friday were sent to France yesterday in spite of strong protests from art connoisseurs and artists.

These artifacts, representing Bangladesh's ancient history, are destined for Guimet Museum in Paris. They were sent through an Air France cargo flight (AF 6731) early in the afternoon yesterday from the ZIA.

The artifacts were collected from five different museums in the country--National Museum in Dhaka, Barind Research Museum in Rajshahi, Mahasthangarh Archaeological Museum, Mainamoti Archaeological Museum and Paharpur Archaeological Museum. Amongst the objects are one copy of Prajna Paramita (Buddhist manuscript), terracotta heads dating back to the 4th century, bronze sculpture of Lokanath of the 8th century, stone sculptures of Nataraj, Mahamaya, Chamunda, Kalyansundar, Panchamukha Shiblinga, Surja, Nabagraha, Shyamatara, Marichi and others of the 10th century.

The artifacts also include a wood sculpture of Lokanath of the 11th century and headgear of the 2nd Shah Abbas of Persia of the 18th century.

Breaking the emergency rule on Friday, hundreds of protesters assembled in front of the National Museum gate at Shahbagh learning that the artifacts were being removed secretly.

Witnesses said the artifacts were removed through a large covered van and forklift truck of Homebound Packers and Shippers at the order by the French Embassy in Dhaka.

Trucks and forklift went to the National Museum premises secretly in the early hours of morning for shifting the artifacts to the airport amid heavy police presence. But the news was leaked and protesters assembled outside the museum.

Amid heavy police presence, Homebound vehicles (Dhaka Metro Uma 11-0814, Pho 11-3634, U 14-0187) and forklift truck, bearing "Save The Children Cyclone and USAID Sidr Emergency Relief" signs were used to take away the priceless items.

At one stage, the protesters, including artists, archeologists and students of the nearby Fine Arts Institute locked in a clash with police when they tried to intercept the Homebound covered van from leaving the museum premises with the artifacts. Police also charged batons on the protesters to disperse them.

Staff Reporter

The government yesterday ruled out any possibility of food shortage or crisis in the country but acknowledged that Cyclone Sidr has damaged crops worth about Tk 2,000 crore on some 5.53 lakh hectares of land in 30 districts. Of the damaged crops Aman paddy was damaged on 4.18 lakh hectares of land, which will bring down this year's farm output by 8 lakh tones, said Agriculture Adviser CS Karim at a press briefing at the PID conference room.

The Adviser said the country now needs to import a total of 19 lakh tones of rice and the government has already moved for the import of 5 lakh tones while the donors have promised to provide another 5 lakh tones.

"We hope, the rest 9 lakh tones would be imported by the private sector," he said.

Agriculture Secretary Abdul Aziz said the total food production is likely to go down to 3.08 crore tones from the targeted 3.20 crore tones due to the recent floods and devastating cyclone.

At present, he said there are 7.26 lakh tones of food in stock and the country needs a total of 19 lakh tones of food to ensure food security.

Joint Secretary of the Food Ministry Shafiqul Islam said Tk 1,500 crore has been allocated for the import of 5 lakh tones of food. "So, there will be no monetary problem for the import," he added.

He said the special VGF programme, which was scheduled to be launched in the cyclone-affected areas on Saturday, could not be started.

He, however, could not confirm when the special VGF programme will start. "We've started listing names of the cyclone victims and it'll take days to complete it," he said.

Director General of Seeds Wing of the Agriculture Ministry Anwar Faruque said the government has taken up a comprehensive programme for the cyclone-affected areas to distribute seeds of 10 high value crops as part of rehabilitation move.

Under the programme, he said the affected farmers would get seeds of various vegetables and other crops for immediate cultivation.

BSS, Gazipur

Adviser for Land and Law and Information Barrister Mainul Hosein yesterday said a process is underway to amend and reform the existing land-related laws to make them modern and acceptable to the people.

"Modern land management is important for ensuring the country's economic development as well as peace in public life," said Mainul while inaugurating the survey and settlement programme of 2007-08 for BCS officers.

Jointly organised by Land Record and Survey Department at the Telecommunication Staff

the inaugural session was addressed also by Land Secretary Mosleh Uddin, Chairman of Land Reform Board Monirul Islam, Director of Survey Department Rafiqul Islam and Deputy Commissioner Mizanur Rahman.

Director General of Land Record and Survey Department Mahfuzur Rahman presided.

The Adviser said the Government has taken various steps to make the land record and management system transparent, timely and modern for reducing the land-related complexities to a large extent.

Barrister Mainul said the planned and optimum use of every inch of the land should be ensured as presently more than one thousand people live in an area of one square kilometre on an average.

He said the land-related complexities are increasing in the country day by day as most of the people lack required knowledge about it.

Later, the dviser visited the Survey Training block and saw for himself the use of different machines of land measurement.

Thirty-five officers of the first batch of administration and police cadres are attending the about one-and-a-half-month training programme.

Staff Reporter

The livestock and fisheries sectors have suffered colossal losses in cyclone SIDR and large-scale assistance is urgently needed to revive the sector, business leaders said.

Frozen food industry, the country's second-largest foreign exchange earner, suffered an estimated loss of around Tk 350 crore in the deadly storm.

According to the Department of Livestock Services, over 10,000 cattle and 22 lakh poultry were killed alone in four severely affected districts in the coastal area.

A total of over 45 lakh cattle and 270 lakh poultry were affected in the devastating cyclone in 12 southern and southwestern districts. A large number of cattle and poultry are feared to have died due to various post-cyclone infectious diseases.

According to a report of the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations, more than 3.50 lakh ruminants including cattle, buffalo, sheep, goats and also poultry have been lost.

Serious damage has been observed in the fisheries and shrimp aquaculture sectors. In Morelganj and Sharankhola upazilas, important shrimp producing areas, some 5000 shrimp enclosures were destroyed.

In Bagerhat district some 90 per cent of the shrimp enclosures along the River Baleshwar were destroyed and flushed by tidal waves, sources concerned said.

Shrimp farms in Satkhira and Khulna were severely ravaged by Sidr and are likely to suffer 70 per cent or Tk 175 crore (about US$ 25 million) of the estimated loss.

The cyclone damaged structures of 45,559 water bodies on 154,000 acres (about 62,370 hectares) in eight districts is estimated at Tk 3.18 crore (about US$ 454,000).

Approximately 63 lakh kg of fish worth Tk 2.51 crore (about US$3.6 million) and 4,460 kg of shrimp worth Tk 809,000 (about US $11,557) were washed away in these districts.

Huge fish fries were also washed away incurring a loss of about Tk 6.27 crore (about US$896,000).

Hundreds of shrimp production fields in the southern and southwestern coastal areas were washed away by the cyclone.

Shrimp farmers usually receive loans from shrimp exporters and are committed to sell their products to the exporters. The farmers will not be able to sell their products to the exporters now as the cyclone washed away nearly 30 per cent of the country's shrimp farms.

"We need interest-free bank loans so that we can provide more loans to the farmers," Kazi Belayet Hossain, president of the Bangladesh Frozen Food Exporters Association (BFFEA) said. "Additionally, the government should offer direct support to the farmers immediately," he added.

BSS, Dhaka

Bangladesh and American relief efforts in support of the Sidr victims are in high gear, succeeding on a number of fronts, according to the US Marine leading American military efforts in Bangladesh.

"This relief effort is running on all eight cylinders," said Brig Gen Ronald Bailey, 3rd Marine Expeditionary Brigade (MEB) commanding general, here yesterday. The 3rd MEB is leading military efforts in support of a larger United States response to aid victims of the November 15 cyclone that killed nearly 3,300 people.

The overall United States effort is being led by the State Department and the US Agency for International Development, a US embassy press release said.

"When our operational forces first got here on November 23, the most critical need, according to the Bangladeshi government, was fresh water," said Bailey. All told, we delivered more than 47,000 liters of water in less than a week," it said.

Though water was the MEB's first priority, after a recent coordination meeting with Bangladeshi counterparts their main focus has now shifted to food. "We're using all of the resources we can to get food out to the areas the Bangladeshi government says they need it the most, said Bailey.

Much of that food is from the government of Bangladesh food stocks that are flown by C-130 aircraft from here to the southern city of Barisal.

From there, the press release said, it's flown by helicopter to areas it's needed the most. As of November 30, MEB forces had delivered more than 73,000 pounds of food and supplies.

Along with food, water, and other supplies, the MEB has also provided urgently needed medical care. On November 26, an 18- person MEB Army medical team deployed to the city of Patuakhali to support the district hospital there.

The team took with them an Interagency Emergency Health Kit that contained essential medicines and medical devices urgently needed in a disaster situation. The IEHK is designed to support the health needs of 10,000 people for a period of three months.

Two days after the Army team deployed, four MEB Navy medical teams began visits to different remote sites to provide immediate health care needs for persons in those areas.

"On the medical side, we've had success on three main fronts," said Cap David Lane, 3rd MEB surgeon. "First, we've partnered very well with the host nation medical system. That includes district civil surgeons, permanent non-governmental organisations, and, of course, the Bangladeshi armed forces.

"Secondly, our mobile medical teams have provided active disease surveillance that will help the Bangladeshi government target appropriate preventive water and sanitation services after we depart," said Lane.

"Finally, by delivering direct primary care, we've improved the short term health of people we've cared for," he added. As of November 30, the medical teams had treated more than 1,738 medical cases, 131 dental patients and 133 veterinary cases.

"We're doing what we came here to do," said Bailey," and that is to meet the critical needs of the Bangladeshi government. Once that is complete, It will be time for us to go home."

When the III MEU departs, he said, other elements of the United States Government, including the Department of State, USAID, and Pacific Command will continue to develop and implement recovery and rehabilitation programms as part of their ongoing activities in Bangladesh.

Staff Reporter

Bangladesh is already affected by the global climate change impacts and fears to be hit even harder in coming years. This changing climate has shown its devastative power on November 15 as the super cyclone Sidr, left trail of destruction all over the south and southwestern coast of Bangladesh.

According to current scientific climate change understanding, survival for countries like Bangladesh and its people will be under serious threat from changing climate, over the coming decades. Extreme weather and events like cyclone, flood and storm surges will intensify and become more frequent and unpredictable. As its impact, temperature changes and rainfall pattern will be significant, with grave implications on our natural resource, putting agriculture and related livelihood at serious risk.

As Bangladesh is going through the cyclone aftermath, the concerned experts have forecast more drought and fresh foods, untimely hailstorm more frequently.

In addition, changes that take place gradually over years and sometimes decades, such as salinity intrusion, desertification and sea level rise will compound our risks and national development goals, particularly poverty reduction, experts added.

Considering all these aspects, adaptation strategies are seriously being discussed in Bangladesh and rest of the world.

Super cyclone Sidr appeared as an eye opener to many countries, particularly when Bali Conference gets off to a start.

Australia's newly elected leader Kevin Rudd made global warming a priority for his government. "Newly elected leader Kevin Rudd moved quickly to bring Australia into international talks on fighting global warming, and to head off potentially thorny relations with the United States and key Asian neighbors," reported Associated Press.

The day after sweeping to power in general elections, Rudd went straight into work mode, holding meetings with government officials about the mechanics of signing the Kyoto Protocol on cutting greenhouse gas emissions, as reported.

Britain's Prime Minister calls for new climate change targets as well. Prime Minister Brown of Britain said he is determined to raise Britain's already ambitious targets for cutting carbon emissions and to push the nation to the forefront of global efforts to tackle climate change, AP reported. Britain has already committed to cutting carbon emissions by 60% of 1990 levels by 2050, though lawmakers have warned that the country will likely miss a steppingstone target of a 20% reduction by 2010.

The Canadian government set aside 25 million acres of wilderness, about 11 times the size of Yellowstone National Park, for conservation. Its is explained as a move that environmentalists called one of North America's most important acts of nature preservation.

Beside that, over a 100 Million trees are to be planted in Rwanda, announced by the Ministry of Lands, Environment, Forestry, Water and Mines during the annual tree-planting campaign that started last month.

UNDP has indicated ten extensive points in order to enhance communicating climate risk and adaptation. The recommendations are-

1. Develop relationships and understand specific/local setting

2. Work with the stakeholders/community to identify problems, solutions and actions

3. Identify concerned (community) groups and stakeholders

4. Identify communication needs, objectives and activities

5. Identify appropriate communication tools

6. Prepare and pre-test communication content and materials

7. Facilitate and build partnerships

8. Produce an implementation plan

9. Monitor, evaluate and document

10. Plan the sharing and utilize materials

The Climate Change Cell, under the department of Environment, GOB has established a mechanism that facilitates management of long-term climate risks and uncertainties as an integral part of national development planning.

Specific aims of the cell are to build the capacity of the government to coordinate & mainstream, to strengthen existing knowledge & information accessibility and awareness-raising, advocacy & coordination.

The Cell is currently engaged with the following activities:

Awareness raising, informing, influencing, capacity building and partnership building with agencies across the sectors and facilitating horizontal and vertical coordination.

Focal points in 34 Government agencies and academic institutions established and provided capacity building training.

Mainstreaming Climate Risk Management and leading to Climate resilient development: country framework to mainstream climate risk management and adaptation developed.

Climate impact prediction, projections of hazard scenarios, Conceptualization and Vulnerability assessment, damage assessment, environment cost of the climate changes.

Adaptation research to find options: Climate change cell supports adaptation research to find options for climate risk management and adaptation through facilitating demand driven research identification and implementation. The broader user community shall have access to these results in planning their sectoral or any level planning.

Models of good practice in CRM and adaptation: Climate Change Cell also documents good practices in risk management and adapting to climate change to promote replication

as option to CRM and adaptation.

Beside that, the Climate Change Cell collects, generate , archive and manage data, information and knowledge and provide support and services in making knowledge based decision to all stakeholders.

A Climate Change Database and a Library has been established that archives not only data but also reports and study findings in the arena of the climate change.

The cell also promotes partnership with both government and non-government agencies to service long term and immediate needs.

In this respect, a total of 34 focal points have been established in different government agencies, academic institutes, research institutes and organizations. Government officers including the Focal Points have been provided orientation on climate change concerns and responses.

Rafiqul Islam Azad

Over 100 crore (1billion) people of 100 most vulnerable countries, including Bangladesh, face a bleak future due to climate change, according to a joint opinion paper prepared by two experts.

According to the paper, 53 most vulnerable countries, including Bangladesh, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Nepal and Yemen are from the Least Developed Countries (LDCs). The other countries are from Small Island Developing States (SIDS) and African nations

The experts said human-induced climate change is likely to have the heaviest impact on small low-lying islands and coastal states, African nations, Asian mega-deltas and the Polar Regions.

They emphasised the need for taking strong mitigation and adaptation programmes by the highest emitting nations, primarily the US, EU, China and India, saying that if they fail to introduce strong mitigation measures, the most vulnerable countries will suffer catastrophic impacts over the longer term.

Saleemul Huq, Head of Climate Change at the International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED), and Jessica Ayres of the London School of Economics issued the two-page opinion paper on the 100 countries most vulnerable to climate change in London on Friday.

They said resilience of the most vulnerable nations, those contributed the least to total global carbon emission has already been eroded due to their entrenched poverty, degraded or threatened environments and other problems.

"The harsher, more frequent natural disasters that are predicted could tip them over the edge into chronic famine or forced migration," the briefing paper said, adding, "It is vital that their voices and views be heard in the negotiations to determine the post-Kyoto climate regime."

These countries form one group of 100 nations, collectively housing well over a billion people. However, their CO2 emissions (excluding South Africa's) account for only 3.2 per cent of the global total, compared to 23.3 per cent for the US, 24.7 per cent for the EU, 15.3 per cent for China and 4.5 per cent for India, they said

So, while these countries and their people (particularly the poorest communities within them) will suffer severely over the next decade or two from the impacts of climate change, they bear minimal responsibility for creating the problem.

In the case of SIDS, some may be completely inundated and disappear altogether. In other cases, the lack of capacity to cope with the impacts of climate change may result in the forced migration of tens of millions of people, for example from the low-lying and densely populated delta and coastal regions of Asia and Africa.

In the near term, these countries will need substantial funding for adaptation, running into tens of billions of dollars a year, according to the paper.

The experts observed that the countries emitting the most greenhouse gases must redress the balance by establishing robust mitigation programmes and by supporting adaptation.

Referring to the Fourth Assessment of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) they said the impacts of human-induced climate change are likely to be felt in poor countries and poor communities first.

The UN Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) also

recognises SIDS and Africa as being particularly vulnerable, and adds to these LDCs.

According to the opinion paper, many African countries are also LDCs, and as noted by the IPCC, 'Africa is one of the most vulnerable continents to climate variability and change because of multiple stresses and low adaptive capacity.'

The experts suggested for making up a significant number of parties to the UNFCCC and the Kyoto Protocol and a more significant proportion of the 131 'G77'countries and emitting of a tiny proportion of the total amount of greenhouse gases from human sources and a negligible amount relative to the emissions from the major emitting countries.

The December 2007 negotiations under the UNFCCC in Bali, Indonesia, are meant to lead towards a new, global climate regime. The Bali talks are of critical importance to this very large and significant group of most vulnerable countries.

This opinion paper has been produced with the generous support of Danida (Denmark), DFID (UK), DGIS (the Netherlands), Irish Aid, Norad (Norway), SDC (Switzerland) and Sida (Sweden).

Staff Reporter

The Election Commission will not go to the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court to contest the High Court order that stayed the Commission's invitation to the reformist faction of BNP to join dialogue on electoral reform of November 22.

Disclosing this yesterday, Election Commissioner Sohul Hussain said they would appeal to the court to resolve the issue within four weeks.

"The Election Commission is not appealing against the High Court's stay order. The Court goes into vacation from December 13. We want to appoint a lawyer and urge the court to resolve the matter within four weeks," he told journalists at his office.

Sohul said, "We will face serious problems if the dialogue is not completed within the stipulated time."

"We don't want to favour any faction. We considered one of the BNP factions legitimate and invited it to the dialogue. It is good that the matter went to the court. We will obey the High Court judgment," he added.

He said the lawyer appointed by the Election Commission would reply to the show-cause notice issued by the High Court.

"We have talked to the Attorney General about it," he said.

Imprisoned BNP Chairperson Begum Khaleda Zia moved the High Court on November 18 and court stayed for two weeks the effectiveness of the invitation to Acting BNP Secretary General Major (retd) Hafizuddin Ahmed, a reformist, who was appointed by the party Standing Committee.

The court also asked the Election Commission (EC) to explain why the invitation would not be declared illegal.

The EC invited all political parties to sit together to discuss the draft electoral laws, but most of the parties refused to sit with the Jamaat-e Islami.

On the Commission's initiative on the matter, Sohul said, "We will have to have discussions excluding Jamaat-e-Islami. But we will need their opinions too. We cannot leave out such a big party."

The Election Commission is scheduled to hold talks on electoral reform with the Bikalpa Dhara today.

Staff Reporter

Hundreds of hajj pilgrims would not be able to perform hajj due to mismanagement of private hajj agencies, informed sources said.

Over 45,000 hajis from Bangladesh were supposed to perform hajj in Saudi Arabia this year. Of them about 75 per cent hajis were to perform hajj through private sector hajj agencies, who are members of the Hajj Association of Bangladesh. Bangladesh Biman, the national flag carrier,

reduced the airfare for hajjis from US 40 to 70 dollars per head, depending on flight schedules.

Biman started hajj flight from the second week of November. It was scheduled to carry hajjis by 85 flights.

But private hajj agencies could not provide adequate number of hajjis to board the planes, as those agencies did not complete residential arrangement in Mecca.

As a result, Biman started flying hajj flights keeping a number of seats vacant in each of the plane from the very beginning. In the second phase, the private hajj agencies reportedly falter in providing visas for the hajjis on time, forcing flights to fly without adequate number of hajjis regularly.

This problem forced Biman to cancel 12 scheduled flights.

So far, Biman has carried 19,099 hajis by its 46-haj flights and 10 regular flights, a Biman Bangladesh Airlines press release said yesterday.

Expressing deep concern over the lack of adequate haj passengers, Biman expressed the apprehension that there might be a 'capacity crisis' in carrying hajj pilgrims during the final phase if expected number of passengers were not available as per flight schedule.

In such a situation, many pilgrims would not be able to perform haj, an official said.