and when they're when you remember there were forty thousand plus polling stations so if he were going being it fifteen or nineteen that's all there is if you go your friends organization looked at fifty seats and forty seven of the i don't have a regular i am yet that's not in there i can't get out of the top ninety five percent it's like your margin of victory isn't the problem the human rights watch describes how opposition members have been arrested killed and even disappeared in the months running up to the election there was a quote atmosphere of fear one hundred fifty opposition members were arrested just two weeks before the election surely that cripples your election campaign if the government keeps arresting your members these were people who committed arson and killing. in in the months of again really to mark two thousand and fifteen after that they went underground they did at that time of the election. there were allegations criminal charges against them and so when they resurfaced they were

arrested by the sort of deal with some of the people you put criminal charges against in the opposition you said that a man called min to come on a dark a dark or b.n.p. leader was charged with blocking a road in september twenty eighth seen the problem is he died in two thousand and seven. isn't this embarrassing for going it is embarrassing you're throwing criminal charges off of the members who are dead on such charges that it is. embarrassing but one knows that in police investigation in many societies in developing countries often have these shortcomings it's not just the opposition that have been on the brunt of your government the media have had some issues i think it's fair to say you let me quote you you said civilization cannot flourish without freedom of expression intensity ship never works which is a good line but in practice there have been numerous examples of media crackdowns perhaps the most famous case is out of the photo journalist. who was dragged from his house by police after documenting

a student protest in august and then criticizing your government on this channel actually on al-jazeera english should have seen your prime minister described him as quote mentally sick do you think he is mentally sick or is he just a journalist trying to do his job. those who are familiar with the media in bangladesh will know one thing it is free it is vigorous shy had the alarm was not arrested for appearing and. and making a comment he was arrested for spreading misinformation which was inciting violence shahid is my very close friend of the law and told reporters outside court in august that he was beaten so badly by police that his tunic needed washing because of all the blood he was jailed for one hundred seven days and said he was tortured is that how you treat your friends i. have not said a word about his treatment all i have stated he is a close friend of mine and when he was arrested i took it on myself to make sure

that he was given proper medical treatment his family was able to carry food for him ok and while he will need medical treatment well not because of the beating that you said you are denying that he was beaten by the police i did not deny that but i cannot deny it because i do not know what happened to your friend mentally sick no one of the prime minister say he's mentally sick i have no idea about that . i don't know what she was at in our mind but if somebody. spreads distant from the should we endangers life with inside all wireless information just before we move on to the bad there were several people killed and dead bodies very hidden and i one we leave office in in the on monday remain where raped i don't know desk or don't know although even if it was false you think it's worth looking at i stand by my court and i will go to my death saying the same thing that without

freedom of expression our civilization will collapse on the other hand the government has responsibility to protect citigroup let's bring in our panel who are waiting patiently to come in here i'm joined by swedish bangladeshi journalist author of july death squads and state terror in south asia do you think it's fair to say that it is turning bangladesh into a one party state into an authoritarian state as many journalists are claim especially in the west yes magician a casino has not only turned the country into a one party state and she has very successfully done that she has the key people in phases like to to risk be who would come on international television and very low currently you know try to defend her but the truth remains that bangladesh is a country where people are picked up from their homes they're ducted they're kept in secret detention there is a program of enforced disappearances people are really cute people

are imprisoned in thousands i mean we saw during the recent elections and even. anyone who the regime things that is a problem the guru after him or har with absolute viciousness and just on his point about free and fair media everyone in this hall would agree it's a free for vigorous media you're a journalist you no longer live in bangladesh what's your view well bangladeshis ago. we were journalists are beaten marsalis lead by the goons of the student wing of. the league we have video footage of course you would say oh well one or two journalists getting beaten up that's nothing to care about maybe but it's a very very dark situation before i bring back in going to go to so you don't monitor bangladesh's high commissioner to the u.k.

and ireland when you hear speaking there. literally thousands behind bars extrajudicial killings in force disappearances must make your job quite hard defending bangladeshi government here in the west doesn't even live in mind that is so you know he's. just like you do why doesn't he live in no idea. what i'm saying is that. bangladesh definitely you know in the history of violation press freedom if you look at the seventy's eighty's ninety's in two thousand even until two thousand there was just one private t.v. channel like no sheikh hasina between two thousand and two thousand and eighteen has opened up the media and thirty two private t.v. channels every day ninety political talk shows she has seen has been criticized left and right there are newspapers criticizing she can stay in the parliament she's been criticized so why wouldn't they have press freedom she doesn't need to put any just voice doubt interoperable being arrested for criticizing her to was just there only for a little bit let's hope there's a restaurant that's a fraction this is small fraction that doesn't mean that money doesn't oppress

freedom before bringing about. why don't you live in bangladesh as a journalist i can operate independently in the country i would be abducted be tortured like michael egan when i was that which period did he leave the country before she has and i came into office but he's given many examples where let me bring in. south asia analyst at the university previously worked for amnesty international for more than thirty years i must be mentioned in force disappearances or something i'm going to bring a girl. if you back on it can you shed some light on what is going on about english with these claims being made about people disappearing what is happening in bangor on the government's watch is really very unacceptable in terms of democracy all the independent institutions of the state are going to come to parliament and become an extension of the government and all of these things have happened by the support of people intellectuals like mr grant visibly who are actively thousand

fighting the nation the nature of the issues now to just go back to the forest disappearances the way top of that group plainclothes officers go to the house of the people to collect them they take them away and then the police the security agencies and all of those people they just say that they don't have any knowledge of them to a result i think if you are saying abbas that this is the government policy i fear you are mistaken government does not need to disappear people government have authority to arrest people if this field somebody has done nothing but grow out of this anger to protect and to remind them are you denying the people like me are mad because some. who would in front of their families in many cases were taken by plainclothes police of on c.c.t.v. in one case i would they not taken i am going to say again denying. me for

a little bit more was deplorable if this is true this were to happen what are their names that are also given the things that of people have resurfaced and are openly moving around in this is high but not all of them have the british government and the u.s. government and amnesty international and human rights watch and bangladeshi human rights groups are all saying you people are being disappeared how do you invest telling me about this of course we will investigate and that ok i want to ask about the war crimes tribunal set up in two thousand and ten by the bangladeshi government to bring justice for the atrocities that were committed during the war of independence and i did. seventy one first these tribunals were welcomed by the international community however in recent years the un amnesty international human rights watch the international center for transitional justice they've already in serious concerns about the fairness of these trials in particular the use of the death penalty you claim to be part of a progressive party but you're overseeing tribunals that the international commission of jurists says do not here to international standards of a fair trial and due process let me first ask you is why every time i ask you

a question you want to also i want to ask you because this was not because because you have raised the question of international practice international standards you know like international no no no i'm going to ask you is there. international gold standard no there is it what exists is in every country that countries have set up their own schools and when you compare the code is with the law and the appellate division was the process followed in the tribunals in any way inferior to our high court and our supreme court no bungler this was the only country which tried criminals and gave them full right of representation full evidence was placed into the hands of their defense lawyers they were allowed to bring in as many defense lawyers as were necessary as witnesses what about

witnesses who were abducted from outside the court protest over there i don't know about that particular thing you and i in the international commission of jurists as defense witnesses have been abducted and intimidated and there are credible allegations of collusion between the government prosecutors and judges isn't it the case the ship has seen or just wants to get guilty and therefore cut corners first you first you tell me it is not of international standards when i tell you that the standards followed in bangladesh were higher than what that happened in nuremberg trial. is as good as i don't remember anyone accusing the nuremberg trials of abducting witnesses outside the court of law at the international tribunal gave an opportunity for appeal not only appeal it also be a battle of the rules give an opportunity for judicial review if after all these things you say i'm not saying these are international jurists are saying it who know their stuff ok let's move on there's a lot of opposition between quote unquote secularists and islamists and british in

just three years between twenty thirteen and twenty sixteen as you know there were ten brutal murders of atheist bloggers as well as other activists and this is zero tolerance for extremists who kill bloggers from your government indeed yes then why did the after the death of one blogger roy in february twenty fifteen why does she has seen a son an advisor to the government he said your government quote can't come out strongly for him as they don't want to be seen as atheists another minister sharia said that while these attacks are not acceptable at the same time we expect people to stop criticizing the prophet from a supposedly secular government that's a pretty intolerant some would say cowardly approach to the murder of your own citizens i'm not going to defend the statements made by those you can as them but they your colleagues are what i am going to hear dirty solo what al gore is here are they going to tell him no this is what i am going to say to you is government does take very strong action against all crimes including crimes against bloggers were what is often not recognised is that there is also another law in the country

with sais that you can be punished for insulting religious belief or religious sentiment is that your version of a blasphemy law that is where a blasphemy law is how can you say you're a secular government secular country of course you are thank you look at your bloggers for offending religious sentiments how is that secular. i don't know as the head of the blogger has been arrested for russell purvis the blogger who fled to japan after being arrested was he arrested for blue. religious sentiments. if you are if you are going to if you are going to incite violence by ins no no no no come on there's no reason that i ask you is are you a secular country if you lock up bloggers for offending islam yes or no i do have to as a member of the government ok if public safety is endangered governments have a responsibility. to many governments use you say that you're

a secular party and secular government you say your opponents the b.n.p. the bangladesh national party a theocratic you say they're in bed with jamaat e islami quote unquote islamists but some would say that you've gotten into bed with some pretty extreme groups to the his father to islam movement you've given into some of their pretty extreme demands you even refused your party to condemn them when they recently attacked the education of teenage girls among the dish why now of maybe compare like with like your mark is a political party. the father this is not a political irrelevant to my question no it is relevant i was asking a sailor it is. a family holiday i mean that i'm into that because it is a student's movement so i was a part of our students movement there are one point four million students studying in in madras has controlled by the half hour the group the government is trying to bring them out to modernize their curriculum to make them employable ok

to train their own of modern science has an education so that they become employable and keep away from radical and no one saying you should talk to them and that is what america giving into their demands you say that your modernizing their curriculum they seem to be having more impact on your curriculum they are for seventeen stories and poems to be removed from school textbooks you agreed they asked to move a female statue representing justice from the supreme court you agreed they condemn the education of teenage girls your minister said that's fine it's free speech you just appeasing the more telling the world you're secular does it not. there to reflect on the fact that there are more women today in secondary or bribery schools than there are men is that a restoration so do you condemn i saw a group officer to you you condemn the mother saying the college girls should our policy is condemning them know that i'll never really get into education refuse to get the he said who has made the comment is i am going to meeting you here and i am

saying that it is exactly against the government policy ok let's go back to our panel. do you accept that this is about bringing the mother and bringing these groups forward modernizing getting jobs. what's your position on the relationship to slum came to prominence back in two thousand and thirteen after the marder of a blogger and their demand was capital punishment for anyone who would criticize islam and this they would carry placards seeing that you know he is like you would kill dogs and cats that is have that the slum and now because he has been declared as the mother of call me students in bangladesh who have very questionable ideas i'm not sure how islamic they are even so you don't monitor slimmers here the high commission and what's your response when you hear for example it's not just atheist bloggers there are many minorities among others who are upset the secretary of the bangladesh buddhist federation said that when hindus

buddhists and christians face abuse in bangladesh there is no one to turn to for justice that's quite damning isn't it for minorities in this i think she is seen as a party has been the most secular party that bangladesh has ever witnessed it's very clear that her policies in her previous government she had five cabinet ministers who are hindus and christian and buddhist and in this cabinet is at least three cabinet minister put up with mr who are hindus and buddhists after the runway incident if you recall she casino has rebuilt nineteen which is temples has myanmar built one temple one must remember as if what i'm saying is that benchmark for me is actually very close not really serious trouble but i thought well what is there is buddhist leaders hindu leaders christian leaders they're all saying we feel i want to follow that i would agree with that why does she empower women she empowers women to marginalize extremist forces and that is how bangladesh is doing so well it cannot be equally about. what do you make of the result human but the government has tried its best high commissions argument it has improved things in terms of

protections for minority protections for atheist bloggers is that fair have there been massive improvements to the recent protection from the mine no it is no because i'm dumb enough to talk with tell me how many people have been. tried and convicted for setting fire on the homes of the christians for attacking hindu minorities or yes none have been brought to justice you have raised a very important issue minorities have often been. victims of persecution but to say that under this government there has been persecution of minorities please i urge you to go back to your sources i urge you to go back to the most of it if voiced on this is. hindu buddhist christian association they are told and i don't know what they have go to do they have come

to the prime minister and they have thanked her never in the history of bangladesh minorities have and yard looking like freedom just to be clear the number though it just was the number of convictions that i don't know but i can tell you one thing when you are a mechanism being palca ok i will be glad. i'm not note we're going to have to take a break do join us on head to head for part two when we were going to be talking about the writing issue and we're also going to hear from a very patient audience here in the oxford union after the break. march on out just. maggie has sun debates discusses and dissects the big issues of our times and head to heads five years after the revolution is in ukraine will have a chance to offer a verdict on what's come since. in a powerful new film residents of occupied east jerusalem share their thoughts on

its past present and future. leaders will gather for the thirtieth arab league summit in tunisia join us for coverage and we examine the development of an unusual alliance between radical buddhist months and the military and me and my. march on i'll just sierra. i'm sorry is a down window with a look at the headlines here in al-jazeera at least seven people have died in cross border shelling between india and pakistan in the disputed kashmir region indian officials say a mother and her two children were killed when pakistani artillery fire hit a house in indian administered kashmir pakistan says indian fire killed two

civilians and two soldiers along the line of control where latest fighting comes after pakistan released an indian pilot modest is calling a gesture of peace wing commander i mean and then bottom line was welcomed at the border his plane was shot down in kashmir two days ago kurdish forces in syria say they expect the battle to retake isis last held the area to be over sued u.s. backed syrian democratic forces launched the final push against isis in the village of buchholz on friday the taliban has claimed responsibility for an attack on an army base in afghanistan which killed at least twenty three afghan soldiers the defense ministry says twenty attackers including eight suicide bombers were killed it happened as high level talks between the u.s. and taliban the resumed in the u.s. envoys ziad says an earlier round ended with unprecedented progress to end the

seventeen year war hundreds of thousands of people have rallied across algeria over a president that devises would have leakers planned to run for a fifth term next month police fired tear gas some protesters in algiers or the demonstrations were mostly peaceful. space x. has launched an astronauts capsule into space for the first time it's like. nasa has asked space x. and boeing to come up with technology to allow it to resume manned space flights the unmanned test flight is a milestone for the company owned by billionaire fuel on mars. in france yellow vest demonstrators are marching for the sixteenth weekend in a row calling for the president to resign we'll hear live pictures coming out of paris the protests began in november over a proposal to raise fuel taxes the movement has since grown into anti government

rallies micron has been holding what it calls a grand debate nationwide. back at the top of the hour. what about to head to head on al-jazeera english my guest tonight is going to reveal international affairs adviser to the bangladeshi prime minister sheikh hasina in recent years ago one of the biggest challenges bangladesh has had to face has not come from the inside out from the outside from neighboring myanmar more than a million muslim rohingya refugees have fled into bangladesh it's very admirable that your country has taken in so many refugees but here's what i don't get you've called what's happening in myanmar ethnic cleansing your boss the prime ministership are seen as called it quote tantamount to genocide and crimes against humanity and yet your solution to the crisis seems to be to try and send the refugees back to me and it makes no sense really that is the eggs solution that

these people belong to be had by they want to go back home and their buddies go home however what we have also see is we will only send them when the when the conditions are safe and people will go back voluntarily very few governments in the world let alone a developing society horsed a million refugees and then see we we would like you to go back only when the situation is there now of course the problem doesn't lie on bangladesh side it lies on myanmar so agree and what else can bangladesh do. the responsibility lies with the international community that they must insist on myanmar save for the return agree of the in the meantime though you say we won't send them back while

it's not safe which is good to hear and yet in the very there were reports covered by international media covered by human rights groups that you were trying to send them back against their will security forces were deployed to some of the camps in cox's bazaar refugees were told that if they didn't leave they would stop receiving russians they would be blocked from working with n.g.o.s the u.n. put out a statement saying do not send them back against their will that's what you were trying to do in november let me clarify what we had said was dawes who want to voluntarily return because myanmar government criticised us saying that bangladesh is preventing the retired forcibly preventing the return of writing those who want to come back so we said if those who would like to leave voluntarily may go people refused to go voluntarily we did not push out we did not force the un referred to terror and panic in cox's bazar the imminent risk of being sent back against their will i don't know from where this statement came but you know

you a lot of us see our person from bangkok with whom i work very very very closely we work in concert there was never ever a question of any forcible repair to a new start that is the policy of the bank that is a policy and this is the policy of the prime minister has announced again and again including at the united nations there's also a plan right now a belief in the government to send thousands of these refugees to a place called bus on char an island three hours from the mainland which is particularly prone to cyclons and severe flooding human rights groups of one that it could become an island prison ok. the whole of course the region is prone to cycle and storm tidal surges so that island is not anything different from the rest of the coastal belt second thing is on the one hand we are under enormous pressure from humanitarian organizations that there is congestion in these camps these camps have become unsafe create more space for them so that they can live better we have

developed an island protections against surges we have built a cycle on shelters there but most important before we have say to these international organizations go and see it for yourself and then these people if they are voluntarily or some of them want to be relocated there they are welcome to be the guardian footage of the island or what's being built there in the number twenty eighteen they found that families will be housed in rooms which measured two meters by two and of meters which have small barred windows just kind of sound prisoners. well have you been to the coxes bizarre camp now if you if you had been to that camp i can assure you you wouldn't you wouldn't have. that because that accommodation created in boston to our is far far superior to the current existence of the temporary shelters in which they live live it ok you could

allow some other countries to take some of these refugees of your home but you don't seem to be letting the bangladeshi government refused exit visas to rohingya refugee women who had been offered asylum in canada under a specific program designed to take care of victims of sexual violence why would you do that when did this happen in twenty eighteen i don't know why this happened but let me give you a larger explanation the larger explanation is that there is a fear that if third country settlement begins to happen and we don't know how many people are canada was willing to appear there are a million people if you want to take fifty or sixty people all it does is it creates hope those who are left behind in myanmar that if you can reach the camps of bangladesh you may be resettled in the third that is the argument you made about your it's not a good argument here is that you say the people in myanmar are facing genocide if you're facing genocide you want to get out just how are you going to canada are all

ok i did not i'm saying as i said this is one another argument that has been and what about the argument you could have let more in earlier it was admirable to let in a million people in the last couple of years but refugees have been fleeing the violence there for years now as you well know and yet you were turning them back between twenty twelve and twenty sixteen bangladeshi border guards were turning away refugees in the hundreds many of those people who turned away probably died go one step back we already had three quarters of a million running the refugees in bangladesh they have been there since the late one nine hundred ninety s. . so to say that we turn some back which country has allowed so many people into there and i said that's a brutal position what i'm wondering is given you've let these people in given you said the victims of genocide in hindsight at least you look back over has been say you know what i wish we'd let all in earlier we could have saved all lives is this what happens when they came to your border guards they are trained to prevent

people from coming in that was their reaction when this came to the high level decision i was present in the meeting that day all the security forces argue that we should hold them back our prime minister said no this is a humanitarian crisis opened our frontiers let them in and i think this is the only unique example possibly angela merkel was another where a billion people legally were allowed be ok to the county fair enough let me ask you this last question before we go to our panel and then the audience you said myanmar should be referred to the international criminal court or indeed just stage do you think aung sang suu chihiro you know personally do you think she should face an international tribunal as well for her role in this genocide or at least her role in denying and covering it up who ever is involved should be faced with the international court of justice there is no doubt because this was premeditated

genocide so you think there could be a case against aung san suu kyi as well it could it would be against the entire government or any member of government that aided and abetted in this process you like to see her on trial. now you are asking me to comment on a friend. and i. have a soft spot for friends and i roared back. interesting choice of friends tonight. let's go to our panel of experts who are waiting on the oxford union i'm joined by our boss phasers of south asia analyst at u.k.'s six university previously worked for amnesty international for more than thirty years abbas as a human rights activist and specialist how worried are you about the fate of refugees in bangladesh today what's your view and it is commendable but dang that this is the but that is not enough to do so after a very strong movement within the international community to ensure that the pressure that is needed to be placed on the government of myanmar is the government

to bring that this is not doing all of that so you don't want to see him as he bangladeshis high commissioner to the u.k. and ireland you've also served on budget issues and national tossed force on the repaired tradition of the refugees abbas's you've done well but not enough we have done excellent with the only country in the world who's giving maximum protection to the. why isn't the was doing enough that should be a question of what bangladesh is doing in a bunker this is a country with me. these values the values this is a list of other ponty we are we're the most densely populated country in the world we are sharing our food and space and sovereign space with the wind as was given we've given sixty six six thousand acres of land for us we're protecting sixty thousand women who are raped and gave babies seventy thousand babies who are raped babies we're providing support and shelter to those babies we're providing health education you know health care prenatal post near to women who are sexually

violated in. states the question is why isn't the one doing enough would they you know existing would they not have kingdom be ready to take one point one million refugees where there was a kind of the question would you. let me bring. palooza swedish bangladeshi journalist author of death squads in state turned south asia to steam you're a critic of this government is very difficult to disagree with i commission is saying that they've done a lot for the ring refugees this is sheer cussedness finest hour many genocide is not something where you would just say you don't like have a competition of who has done enough and that's not not done and i'd like to ask a direct question to me here i mean you see that you want to see me and mark tried international court of justice for genocide you on record saying it is a genocide crime is. genocide now what is stopping you from refereeing these keys to the international court of justice under article nine of the genocide

convention i think the answer is obviously no we haven't done it but you've got a government which has its hand full. training feeding providing health care why the government had of course we will do of course we were going really really i like you know we're going to wrap this up but let's go to our audience raise your hands i want to bring you in as as many of you as i can go to judgment in the front i represent ahmed bin custom he was disappeared by the bangladesh special forces grab in august two thousand and sixty with all the evidence points to this being done on the direct orders of prime minister sheikh hasina he's only one of hundreds have been disappeared these disappearances have been noted by un human rights bodies international human rights organizations the international press and foreign embassies when will the bangladesh government stop pushing the ridiculous line the disappearances are not happening and women of these men be released so they can return to the family. when disappearances happen it is

deplorable. and but i have also stated that this is not a government policy of moving people so where is his client i wouldn't know since you are the lawyer you tell us where is your plan utilized just want to respond when and with with proof there is credible evidence he was being held in tucker can tell.