Bangladesh\u2019s interim leader has refused to give a timeframe for elections following the ouster of his autocratic predecessor, saying in an interview published Tuesday that reforms are needed before polls. Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus was appointed the country\u2019s \u201cchief advisor\u201d after the student-led uprising that toppled ex-premier Sheikh Hasina in August. The 84-year-old microfinance pioneer is helming a temporary administration, to tackle what he has called the \u201cextremely tough\u201d challenge of restoring democratic institutions. \u201cNone of us are aiming at staying for a prolonged time,\u201d Yunus said of his caretaker government, in an interview published by the Prothom Alo newspaper. \u201cReforms are pivotal,\u201d he added. \u201cIf you say, hold the election, we are ready to hold the election. But it would be wrong to hold the election first.\u201d Hasina\u2019s 15-year rule saw widespread human rights abuses, including the mass detention and extrajudicial killings of her political opponents. More than 600 people were killed in the weeks leading up to her ouster, according to a preliminary United Nations report which said the figure was likely an underestimate. Her government was also accused of politicising courts and the civil service, as well as staging lopsided elections, to dismantle democratic checks on its power. Yunus said he had inherited a \u201ccompletely broken down\u201d system of public administration that needed a comprehensive overhaul to prevent a future return to autocracy. \u201cReforms mean we will not allow a repetition of what happened in the past\u201d, he added. \u2018Write as you please\u2019 Yunus also batted away criticism at the numerous politicians, senior police officers and other Hasina loyalists arrested on murder charges after her government\u2019s ouster. The arrests have prompted accusations that Yunus\u2019 caretaker government would hold politicised trials of senior figures from Hasina\u2019s regime. But Yunus said it was his intention that any criminal trials initiated against those arrested would remain free from government interference. \u201cOnce the judicial system is reformed, then the issues will come forward, about who will be placed on trial, how justice will be carried out,\u201d he said. At least 25 journalists \u2014 considered by Hasina\u2019s opponents to be partisans of her government \u2014 have been arrested for alleged violence against protesters since her downfall. Press watchdog Reporters Without Borders has condemned those arrests as \u201csystematic judicial harassment\u201d. But Yunus insisted he wanted media freedom. \u201cWrite as you please,\u201d he told the newspaper. \u201cCriticise. Unless you write, how will we know what is happening or not happening? \u201c<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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