the ephemeral Ban Ki-moon... of whom it can be said to his credit that he is not Kofi Annan...
and U.S. Secretary of State John F.
I was in Vietnam, you knowKerry
Former Senator-for-Life from Massachussetts, self-defined war hero, speaker of French, owner of a
lucky hat,conqueror of Cambodia, and current Secretary of State...
called Bangladesh Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina
...Bangla dynastic politician and current Prime Minister of Bangladesh. She has been the President of the Bangla Awami League since the Lower Paleolithic. She is the eldest of five children of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father of Bangla. Her party defeated the BNP-led Four-Party Alliance in the 2008 parliamentary elections. She has once before held the office, from 1996 to 2001, when she was defeated in a landslide. She and the head of the BNP, Khaleda Zia show such blind animosity toward each other that they are known as the Battling Begums..
on Wednesday to stress the need for talks with the opposition to resolve an election standoff.
Hasina did away with having a neutral interim govt implement the polls. Last election the neutral govt arrested about half the BNP on charges of corruption. Guess which party would be arrested this time.
The phone calls stepped up diplomatic pressure on Bangladeshi leaders to find a solution to the stalemate amid a worsening of political violence that has left nearly 80 people since late October.
The best thing for Bangla would be for Hasina and Khaleda to be permanently banned from anything having to do with politix. The actual best solution would be to pick a Czech or Luxembourgeois legislator at random and make him/her/it prime minister.
"John Kerry emphasized (the need for) continuous talks between the two parties," and said that the U.S. "expects a peaceful solution" to the stalemate, Hasina's front man Iqbal Sobhan Chowdhury told news hounds.
"Kerry said all should refrain from violence and seek a political consensus through dialogue so the upcoming election could be held peacefully," Chowdhury said.
Ban also called Hasina, expressing his hopes for dialogue to end the row that has plunged the country into crisis, her press secretary Abul Kalam Azad told Agence La Belle France Presse.
The U.N. assistant secretary for political affairs, Oscar Fernandez Taranco, who wound up a visit to Bangladesh on Wednesday confirmed the phone calls by the world's top diplomats.
The calls came after officials from the country's ruling Awami League party and the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) held one-to-one talks for the first time in years in a bid to defuse the row.
BNP and its smaller Islamist allies have said they will boycott the January 5 polls and have called a series of crippling strikes and transport blockades.
Some 77 people have died in festivities since late October when the BNP-led 18-party opposition movement launched the protests calling on Hasina to resign and make way for the polls under a neutral caretaker government.
The opposition, led by Hasina's rival
Khaleda ZiaThree-term PM of Bangla, widow of deceased dictator Ziaur Rahman, head of the Bangla Nationalist Party, an apparent magnet for corruption ...
, has said it fears the premier will try to rig the vote in a country plagued by coups and political upheaval for decades
Hasina has rejected the demands for her resignation and is determined to hold the polls as scheduled, insisting it is a constitutional requirement.
Observers said although the two parties have held two rounds of talks, decades of distrust mean it is unlikely a deal is immediately in the cards.
U.N. envoy Fernandez-Taranco said a third meeting between the parties has been agreed but more must be done to build confidence.
"There are measures that would contribute immensely: a call by all sides to end the violence, release of opposition politicians and a mutually satisfactory solution to concerns regarding the election schedule," he told a press briefing.