December 03, 2008	Wednesday	Zilhaj 4, 1429

DHAKA, Dec 2: A Bangladeshi ‘people’s tribunal’, headed by a retired supreme court judge, has held the World Bank, the International Monetary Fund and the Asian Development Bank “guilty of causing enormous damage” to the country’s economy and society, asking the government to press the organisations for compensations.

The tribunal, a seven-member panel of senior citizens, also asked the WB, IMF and the ADB to immediately stop “illegal and anti-people activities” in Bangladesh. “Otherwise, they (the lending agencies) will have to suspend their operations and leave this country,” said the tribunal in its “verdict”.

The people’s tribunal announced the verdict after hearing eight “depositions” by university professors, rights activists, trade-unionists and political activists.

The tribunal “indicted” the multinational lending agencies for subjecting people to deprivation and widening disparity, ruining indigenous industries, retrenchment of workers, destruction of food and energy security, price-hike of essential items, agricultural inputs, water and electricity, commercialisation of education and health sectors, degradation of environment, creating dependency and hampering policy sovereignty.

The tribunal recommended that the accumulated losses in economic and social sectors due to lenders’ policies and activities should be calculated by a committee comprising some experts. The government was also ordered to try the “local collaborators” of the three agencies.