The new US ambassador to Dhaka on Monday urged Bangladesh's army-backed government to lift a state of emergency and underlined Washington's concern that democracy be reinstated by late 2008. “An election will be extremely difficult under a state of emergency and it needs to be lifted,” ambassador James F. Moriarty told reporters. The US viewed credible elections by the end of the year as “very, very important,” he added. “We do want a return to democracy and we do want that election to be held by the end of this year.” Bangladesh has been under emergency rule since January 2007 when elections were cancelled following months of political unrest over vote-rigging allegations against the outgoing ruling party. The interim government took power the following day and has pledged to hold fresh polls after completing a massive corruption crackdown. The anti-graft drive has seen scores of high-profile politicians arrested on corruption charges. They include the two most recent prime ministers - Sheikh Hasina of the Awami League and Khaleda Zia whose Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) led a coalition government until Oct. 2006. Moriarty also called on the government to address criticism of its human rights record. “I will make this (human rights) a major issue. There has not been sufficient progress,” he said. Earlier this year, Human Rights Watch reported that security forces routinely tortured detainees and were beyond the control of the caretaker government. A report by the New York-based group detailing the arbitrary arrest, detention and torture of journalist Tasneem Khalil said the government had failed to tackle the longstanding problem of state-sponsored violence. It added that it was not acceptable for the government to claim the human rights situation was no worse than under previous governments. Amnesty International in January accused the authorities of failing to protect human rights and to be accountable for its anti
