June 20, 2007	Wednesday	Jamadi-us-Sani 04, 1428

DHAKA, June 19: The United States is opposed to any political role for the military in emergency-ruled Bangladesh which has a history of army coups, the outgoing US ambassador to Dhaka said on Tuesday.

“Certainly we do not want to see military involvement in politics. I have made this point before that the military should not take any sort of political role,” Patricia Butenis said in an interview with private UNB news agency.

“Again, we have been pretty straight forward saying that any military personnel can retire or resign from the military and decide to take up politics. That is their business, but a direct military role in politics will be a mistake,” she said.The US envoy, who leaves the post on June 23 after 14 months, said she trusted assurances by army chief General Moeen U. Ahmed that the military had no interest in politics and only offers logistical help to an emergency government led by former central bank governor Fakhruddin Ahmed.

The two men are not related.

The military however has assumed several key duties since the president in January imposed the emergency and cancelled planned polls with 60,000 troops deployed across the country and top generals and officers on government decision-making bodies.—AFP