BANGLADESH 26 Mar 2011 Bangladesh observes 40th Independence Day

Bangladesh marks its 40th anniversary during a lull in decades of blood spilling, with the leadership looking both forward and back. Bangladesh's Vision 21 program aims to turn former East Bengal into a digital, middle income country by the 50th anniversary. Meanwhile, a new war crimes tribunal will revisit the country's darkest days. Independence Day is the country's biggest festival. Ceremonies honoring Bengalis who died in the country's creation add a somber note. Protests are expected. When the British left the subcontinent in 1947, according to the Encyclopedia Britannica history of Bangladesh, the area that was East Bengal became the part of Pakistan called East Pakistan. Bengali nationalist sentiment increased after the creation of an independent Pakistan. In 1971 violence erupted; some one million Bengalis were killed, and millions more fled to India, which finally entered the war on the side of the Bengalis, ensuring West Pakistan’s defeat. East Pakistan became the independent country of Bangladesh. Much of the devastation caused by the war remains, and political instability, including the assassination of two presidents, has continued. The Bangladesh Awami League presented its “Vision 2021: Digital Bangladesh” as part of “Charter for Change” in its election manifesto in 2010. The war crimes tribunal was also one of the election pledges of the Grand Alliance led by Awami League. On the eve of the 39th Independence Day this year, the government instituted a three-member war crimes tribunal, seven member investigation agency and a 12-member prosecution panel to bring individuals suspected or accused of war crimes in the nine-month independence struggle to trial. On Independence Day, thousands will attend ceremonies at the Savar National Memorial near Dakha. President Mohammed Zillur Rahman and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will lay wreaths. The protesters will be the country's indigenous Chakma people, demonstrating in the capital against what they describe as government appropriation of the lands. The Chakmas are Buddhists in the predominantly Muslim country, and much of their struggle with the government has been caused by their own quest for independence. (WRITTEN Jan 2011) STORY SUPPLIED BY NEWSAHEAD CORRESPONDENT C.BALAJI, WHO IS AVAILABLE FOR FREELANCE ASSIGNMENTS IN INDIA AND THE REGION