DHAKA, 20 June 2006 — Tropical flooding triggered by heavy rain and torrents cascading down frontier hills trapped hundreds of thousands of people in mud flat villages in northeastern Bangladesh, local officials said yesterday.

The Surma and Kushiyara rivers, both tributaries of the mighty Brahmaputra, were thrown into a spate at the weekend due to seasonal downpours. Sources in the Ministry of Disaster Management said the rain- driven floods forced the evacuation of about 150,000 people from the rice plains in four districts of the Sylhet region bordering the Indian Assam hills. “There is no emergency situation as yet, but even if there is one in the upcoming days, the government is fully prepared to meet any crisis,” said Asadul Habib Dulu, the deputy minister for relief.

Monsoon rains also wrecked a flood protection dike in the northwestern Kurigram district unleashing mudslides which destroyed 200 hamlets making about 10,000 people homeless. Swirling rivers flowing above the danger mark also eroded rice fields, coconut plantations, houses and schools in northern Sirajganj district affecting another 8,000 people, rescue workers said.

Ex-Police Chief Faces Trafficking Charges

A former Bangladesh police chief who says seven 19-month-old children living with him are septuplets has been ordered to send them for DNA tests after trafficking allegations, lawyers said yesterday.

Former deputy inspector general of police Anisur Rahman says the three girls and four boys are septuplets born to him and his wife, but a human rights group has accused him of planning to traffic them.

The High Court on Sunday ordered Rahman to have the DNA tests carried out at the Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore within four months, said lawyer Salma Ali of the National Women’s Lawyers Association which filed the petition. Two lawyers from the organization would accompany Rahman and the children to Singapore on the order of the court, she added.

The US State Department estimates that up to 20,000 women and children are trafficked annually from or via Bangladesh to India, Pakistan, Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates. The majority are from impoverished rural areas and end up working in the sex trade or as domestic helpers in slave-like conditions. Last year Bangladesh repatriated scores of children, some as young as three, who had been found working as camel jockeys in the United Arab Emirates. Some were sent from Bangladesh while others were born in the UAE to expatriate Bangladeshi workers.

Unemployment

About 38 percent of the 68.3 million strong labor force in Bangladesh is either underemployed or unemployed with a disproportionately greater incidence of underemployment among women and youth.

Almost 53 percent of women, 7.4 percent men and 63 percent youth still remained unemployed for lack of skill and the number is rising rapidly. To turn this vast majority of labor force into skilled manpower, the government of Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, with the financial assistance of United Nations Development Program, will launch a project primarily in the poverty-ridden Rangpur and Kurigram districts where the incidence of unemployment is very high.