SHEIKH HASINA TO TRAVEL TO THE U.S.

C O N F I D E N T I A L DHAKA 000423

SIPDIS

SIPDIS

E.O. 12958: DECL: 03/13/2012
TAGS: PREL KDEM BG
SUBJECT: SHEIKH HASINA TO TRAVEL TO THE U.S.

Classified By: A/DCM D.C. McCullough, reason para 1.4 d.


1. (C) Summary. Sheikh Hasina told us that after a three-week
visit with family in the U.S., she will return to Bangladesh,
even if she has to smuggle herself across the border. End
Summary.


2. (C) On March 13, Awami League President Sheikh Hasina came
to the Embassy to renew her visa and pay a courtesy call on
Charge. She was accompanied by party Presidium Member Kazi
Zafarullah and retired General Tariq Siddiqui, a Hasina
relative by marriage and her chief of security. A/DCM also
sat in.


3. (C) Hasina stated that she and Zafarullah would depart
Bangladesh early March 15 to arrive in Washington on the
following day's British Airways flight from London. Her plan
is to spend one week in Virginia visiting her son and his
wife, who has just had a cesarean section delivery followed
by emergency gall stone surgery that was not a success. The
second week, she said, would be spent in Miami visiting her
pregnant daughter, and the third week would be back in
Virginia. Hasina expressed great concern for the health of
her daughter-in-law and her desire to help care for her now
that the daughter's mother has had to return to her own
family elsewhere.


4. (C) Asked if she had any concerns that she would be
prevented from returning to Bangladesh or if she had sought
assurances from the government that she would be allowed to
return, she replied, "Why should I?" She insisted she has
done nothing wrong, that corruption charges filed against her
by the previous government were baseless, and that she would
return to Bangladesh, even if she had to go to India and
smuggle herself across the border.


5. (C) Hasina credited the current government with some
positive actions, but criticized it for failing to move
toward elections. The constitutional oath used to swear in
the government advisers on January 12, she said, limits their
tenure to 90 days, but clearly this provision would not be
respected. She predicted the Bangladeshi people would lose
patience and turn on the government if they were denied an
election.


6. (C) Hasina twice urged the USG to convey to the GOB its
support for prompt elections, its opposition to the now total
ban on political activity, and its rejection of the
military's growing role in government affairs.


7. (C) Comment: Zafarullah and another Hasina confidant,
political secretary Saber Chowdhury, had advised her that her
departure from Bangladesh now would look like flight and
surrender to widely perceived military pressure for her to
leave the country. Publicly and to us, however, Hasina's
line is she is just going temporarily to visit family.
PASI