JPRS ID: 9917 USSR REPORT EARTH SCIENCES

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• Collection: JPRS
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP82-00850R000400080029-8
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• Original Classification: U
• Document Page Count: 10
• Document Creation Date: November 1, 2016
• Sequence Number: 29
• Content Type: REPORTS

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_ JPRS L/10175
10 December 1981
South and East Asia Re ort
p
- C~OU~ 6/81)
y
Fg~$ FOREIGN BROADC~4ST INF~RMATION SERVICE
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JPRS L/10175
10 Becember 19E1
SOUTH AND EAST ASIA REPORT
(FOUO 6/81)
CONTENTS
BANGLADESH
Bangladesh's Ershad Interviewed on Military's Role
(Peter Niesewand; THE GUARDIAN, 8 Oct 81) 1
INDIA
~ Report on 'ASAHI SHIMBUN' Interview With Indira Gandhi
(Indira Gandhi Interview; ASAHI SHII~UN, 23 Sep 81)........... 4
- a ~ [III - ASIA - 107 FOUO]
~ F(1R /1FFT('~ e 1. T?,SF. ONLY
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BANGLADESH
BANGLADESH'S ERSHAD INTERVIEWED ON MILITARY'S ROLE
PM081125 London THE GUARDIAN in English 8 Oct 81 p 10
[Peter Niesewand Dispatch: "Bangladesti Arrny to Seek Greater P.ole in Politi,cs"]
[Text] Dacca--The chief of staff of the Bangladesh Army, Lieutenant-General H. M.
Ershad, has called on politicians to consider important constitutional changes which
will actively involve the military in the country's affairs and ward off the possi-
~ bility of future coup attempts.
In a forthright interview at his home in the Dacca Cantonmenr, Genera]. Ershad point-
ed out that sections of the army had assassinated two Bangladeshi presidents--Shaykh
, Mujibur Rahman in 1975, and Ziaur Rahman in May this year. There had also been
other coup attempts.
~ "My army has got involved," General Ershad said. "It is my responsibility. Obvious-
~ ly, we have to approach the next president. In a developing nation, the army does
j play a very high role in the stability of the country. To stop further coups, if
j the army participates in the admiiiistr.ation of the country, then they will probatly
-i have a feeling they are also involved, and they will not be frustrated."
' General Ershad stressed that while he was prepared to take an initiative after the
; presidential elections on 15 November, any constitutional changes that resulted have
to bz endorsed and carried out by the civilian government.
~ Although General ErsY:ad said that morale in the army was "absolutely all right," it
' is now clear that last month, in the final weeks before the hanging oi ~2 officers
f~r mutiny leading to the assissination of President Zia, a dangerous situation ha3
arisen within the ranks.
On 7 September, General Ershad ordered that a message be read to soldiers assuring
them that the officers would be executed.
The chief of staff maintains that his "order of the day" was not a challenge to the
high court or the supreme court, which at the time were considering petitions asking
them to rule that they had jurisdiction over the fate of those tried and sentenced
by the secret court martial.
However, restless Jawans who listened to his message would have been forgiven for
thinking that General Ershad was promising to hang the officers, regardless of the
findings of the civilian judiciary.
1
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- In his message, General Ershad said: "I want to assert again that we consider it
against our constitution that a matter concerning military affairs should be dragged
into the high court, and we consider it also a threat to the discipline of the armed
forces. We really hope that law will take its own course. I would like to tell our
soldiers in all ranks that the sentences given by the court martial will be i.mple-
mented. Let there be no doubt of suspicion about it."
1'he messsge also said he would not permit "the activities of the armed forces to be
used for political purposes. The wrongdoers must be punished," he added. "We hope
God will give us courage to perform our responsibilities."
In the event the cc~urts ruled that they had no ~urisdiction to intervene, and heli-
copters immediately took off from Dacca to the differ~nt gaols where the condemned
officers were being held, carrying with them signed death warrants. The hangings
were over in 12 hours.
In his interview General Ershad explained: "It was my internal ~roblem. It was an
order of the day to say 'just have patience, I am sure the high court and the supreme
court will give the correct verdict, and whatever judgment is passea by the army they
will not do anything against it."'
Asked if he would have hanged the officers anyway if the courts had ruled differently,
the chief 4f staff laughed and said: "This is a very difficult question."
Informed sources said that "the basis of the Jawans' unrest was nat only their love
- for the assassinated president, but also the feeling that if ordinary soldiers had
been respoiisible they would have been executed with little ceremony, and possibly--
as has happened before--not even a court martial.
And the chief of staff told me: "I had to give them this message. This was an
'officers versus the other ranks.' Most of the pec~ple punished were officers, and
there was a feeling that just '~ecause they were officers we were going to protect
them."
General Ershad defended his decision to tr}� the officers for mutiny--which allowed
him to hold a secret court martial--rather than f~r murder, which would have been
dealt with by an open civilian court.
"A trial in a civil court takes a very, very long time," General Ersh~d said. "A
trial for murder would have taken months and months and months, and I would have had
a grear prob lem with the army. Ultimately it would have been very dangerous for
the country. The president was very much loved ty the troops, and naturally
the feeling of the troops was very high."
On a possible future constitutional role for t~,e army in Bangladesh, he said that he
had discussed the merits of tk~e Turkish system with the late President Zia. "But
ultimately we discarded it," he said. "We are a different nation. Our people are
politically very, very conscious. I should say it is a volatile nation."
General Ershad said that the military was "absolutely neutral" in the presidential
election, although he did admit having intervened personally to persuade the sick
and reluctant acting president, Justice Abdus Sat Tar, to stand as a candidate.
2
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He said he had done this merely to ensure that, during tre vital interregnun, the
rulir.g Bangladesh natioualist party did not fall apart while bickering over rival
candidates.
It would have been possibJ.e for the army to have declared *~artiai law, General
Ershad went on, but they wanted the constitutional process to conti.nue.
"Martial law is never the answe~," General Ershad said. "Pakistan of course is con-
- tinuing with o~e after another. But does it ultimately pay? It does not. The
army's rale is different from running an administration. If you get involved in
this, ultimately you destroy the army."
COPYRIGHT: Guardian Newspapers Limited, 8 Oct 1981
= CSO: 4220/23
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INDIA
REPORT ON 'ASAHI SHIMBUN' INT~tVIEW WITH I1.