By Mir Afroz Zaman, POBNEWS24, Dhaka, May 19, 2023 : US Ambassador to Dhaka, Peter D Haas, attended a meeting of Foreign Ministry for the first time after the sudden withdrawal of special security facilities and permanent police escorts in Bangladesh.
Yesterday (Thursday), he attended the lunch and diplomatic briefing at the State Guest House Padma at the invitation of Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Shahriar Alam.
The US Ambassador arrived at the venue on time like other colleagues. But he was a complete exception.
Ambassadors, High Commissioners or Charge d’Affaires entered the venue in ambassadors’ cars flying their respective national flags, but US Ambassador Peter Haas arrived in a flagless car. Neither the police nor the embassy had any protocols of their own on the front or back of the car. But only his gunman was in the front seat of the car carrying the ambassador. According to responsible diplomatic sources, Peter Haas was present and attentive throughout the closed-door briefing.
He did not utter a single word in the briefing, and stayed away from any questions till the lunch. Other ambassadors, however, spoke highly of the seasonal fruit mangoes served at the lunch.
Several government officials present at the event confirmed that during the briefing nothing was mentioned regarding the withdrawal of the round-the-clock police escort of the ambassadors of the United States, Britain, India and Saudi Arabia posted in Dhaka. However, they were fully prepared to answer questions to be raised at the time.
Since May 14, diplomats including the ambassadors of the 4 countries are not getting permanent or temporary police escort facilities. In a government decision, the special escort facility of the envoys was immediately withdrawn.
Regarding the withdrawal of escort facilities for ambassadors, Minister of Foreign Affairs AK Abdul Momen said on the same day that not only the withdrawal of the escort, but also the suspension of flying flags on ambassadors’ cars was under consideration.
Mentioning that in the name of security, the ambassadors of 4/5 countries were “exaggerating”, on that day AK Abdul Momen said, 193 countries have permanent missions in New York. Many of the mission chiefs who work there are cabinet members of their respective countries. But no one there can even think of going with a police escort.
He said, I am a minister, but I do not take any police escort anywhere. Commenting that people are not killed by attack in the streets or shopping malls in Bangladesh, the minister said that now there is no difficulty in anyone’s movement. Moreover, developed countries do not have these trends. All in all, we are improving and we need to improve our thinking. We have to come out of the colonial mentality. United States, Britain, India and Saudi Arabia were getting this benefit. Many countries including Australia wanted this type of facility.
Momen said, new demands are created day by day. In fact, security is not the main issue, many ambassadors wanted this facility to get a little extra attention with the police in front and back. Pointing out that the government’s austerity measures, the minister said that it was proposed long ago to take the escort facility for ambassadors with their own money. But not a single ambassador agreed to the government’s proposal.
The minister complained that no mission even felt the need to reply to the foreign ministry’s letter. Many foreign diplomats working in Dhaka expressed surprise at such a sudden decision.
Diplomatic and government sources say that US has already reacted angrily to the withdrawal of the police escort. Segunbagicha has been informed of that anger and frustration through the embassy.
In an immediate response, Sean McIntow, head of public affairs at the US Embassy in Dhaka, said, ‘The safety and security of our diplomatic personnel and facilities is of utmost importance. As a long-standing practice, we do not release details about US Embassy security.
According to the Vienna Convention, the host country’s obligation to ensure the security of all diplomatic missions and personnel must be upheld. He stressed that according to the Vienna Convention, any host country must “maintain its obligations to ensure the safety of all diplomatic mission premises and personnel and take all appropriate measures to prevent any attack on personnel”.
