Other parliamentarians in the government have also accused the Bangladesh Nationalist Party of wanting to sell the Saint Martin coral atoll to the United States to build a military base in exchange for victory in the upcoming elections. Claims that later turned out to be false. The United States government is pressing for the upcoming elections to be free and fair.
Dhaka () – An island in Bangladesh, Saint Martin, has become the subject of heated political debate: Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina and government allies believe that the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) wants to cede the small coral atoll to the United States in exchange for winning the next elections, scheduled for January 2024. “How did the BNP come to power in 2001? At that time, with the promise of selling gas. Now they want to come to power promising to sell Saint Martin?” the prime minister said last week during a press conference she gave after her official visits to Switzerland and Qatar.
The United States has already denied the possibility of an acquisition, but allusions to a sale of the island are not new. Similar rumors circulated about the island of Manpura in 1971, while in 1980 a well-known national newspaper, the dainik banglapublished a report with the headline: “No one will be authorized to build a naval base in Saint Martin”, after a spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs denied allusions to the fact that a foreign country wanted to build a military base in the island.
Most recently, on June 14, Rashed Khan Menon, chairman of the Bangladesh Workers’ Party, a ruling Awami League ally, took up the issue. A few days later, Hasanul Haque Inu, the chairman of Jasdar, another party in the ruling alliance, delivered a speech on the issue in the national parliament, stating that when the United States gets enthusiastic about a country’s democracy, it causes more suffering for the population. than to the government or the opposition of that country: “It is time to think: what is the reason for this sudden enthusiasm of the United States? Democracy or the island of Saint Martin?”.
The United States urged Bangladesh to hold the upcoming national elections free and fair by announcing a new visa policy: No person found to be responsible for obstructing the electoral process will be allowed to enter the country. In December 2021, the US government had sanctioned the RAB (Rapid Action Battalion, an anti-terrorist squad accused of enforced disappearances and extrajudicial executions) and other police officers for human rights violations.
The US State Department has called recent insinuations about the purchase of the island “inaccurate”: “We respect the sovereignty of Bangladesh,” spokesman Matthew Miller said during a press conference. “We have never been part of any conversation about the acquisition of the island of Saint Martin,” he specified, stressing, however, Washington’s permanent commitment to strengthen ties with Dhaka. “We appreciate our partnership with Bangladesh. We strive to strengthen our relationship by working together to promote democracy by supporting free and fair elections.” The BNP accuses Sheikh Hasina of suppressing the opposition during her previous terms as prime minister and of winning the 2018 election through voter fraud.
The island of Saint Martin, declared a marine protected area since last year, has an area of only 3 square kilometers and is located in the northeast of the Bay of Bengal, about 9 kilometers south of the Cox’s Bazar-Teknaf peninsula, near from Myanmar. Most of its approximately 3,700 inhabitants live mainly from fishing. Rice and coconut are also grown, and seaweed is collected and dried for export to Burma.
