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DHAKA: Police fired teargas and used stun grenades and batons to disperse protesters outside Bangladesh’s national Parliament complex Friday, as tensions soared over the interim government’s new political charter.
Some protesters vandalized a police vehicle and makeshift tents, and others clashed with soldiers and security officials in the capital Dhaka. Witnesses said several people were injured.
The clashes broke out after several hundred people, who described themselves as those whose protests ousted former Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, started demonstrating Friday. They expressed anger that their concerns were not addressed in the new charter, despite their loved ones dying during last year’s mass uprising against Hasina.
The interim government, headed by Nobel Peace Prize laureate Muhammad Yunus, has invited the country’s main political parties to sign a new political charter Friday to pave the way for a raft of political reforms.
The “July National Charter,” named after the national uprisings that started in July 2024, outlines a roadmap for constitutional amendments, legal changes and the enactment of new laws.
A National Consensus Commission formed by the Yunus’ government prepared the charter after a series of talks with the major political parties, except Hasina’s Awami League party.
The Bangladesh Nationalist Party, headed by former Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, and eight like-minded parties said they would sign the charter.
Hasina, who was toppled last August after huge protests, is in exile in India and is being tried in absentia on charges of crimes against humanity. The United Nations has said that up to 1,400 people may have been killed in the weeks-long uprising last year.
Yunus has promised to hold the next national election in February. But questions remain whether the election would be inclusive without Hasina’s party and its allies in the race.
The country’s largest Islamist party, Jamaat-e-Islami, has remained undecided about signing the charter, while a newly-formed student-led party, National Citizen Party, said it would not take part.

TOKYO: Japan’s former Prime Minister Tomiichi Murayama, who was known for his 1995 “Murayama statement” apologizing to Asian victims of his country’s aggression, died Friday. He was 101.
Murayama died at a hospital in his hometown Oita, southwestern Japan, according to a statement by Mizuho Fukushima, the head of Japan’s Social Democratic Party.
As head of what was then known as the Japan Socialist Party, Murayama led a coalition government from June 1994 to January 1996.
A historic apology for Japan’s actions in World War II
He is best remembered for the “Murayama statement,” an apology he issued on the 50th anniversary of Japan’s unconditional surrender ending World War II on Aug. 15, 1995. It’s seen as Japan’s main expression of remorse for its wartime and colonial past.
“During a certain period in the not too distant past, Japan, following a mistaken national policy, advanced along the road to war ... and, through its colonial rule and aggression, caused tremendous damage and suffering to the people of many countries, particularly to those of Asian nations,” he said in the statement.
“In the hope that no such mistake be made in the future, I regard, in a spirit of humility, these irrefutable facts of history, and express here once again my feelings of deep remorse and state my heartfelt apology.”
A government marked by controversy
Murayama was first elected to parliament in 1972 as a socialist lawmaker after working for a labor union and serving in a local assembly.
When he became prime minister in 1994, he broke with his party’s longtime opposition to the Japan-US security alliance and Japan’s Self-Defense Forces, recognizing them as constitutional in a speech given in the face of yelling by angry members of his party.
In 1995, Murayama dealt with two major disasters: a massive earthquake in the western port city of Kobe that killed more than 6,400 people, and a Tokyo subway gas attack that killed 13 and injured more than 6,000 people. He came under fire for slow responses to both.
He resigned early the following year in an unexpected announcement that came as he returned to work after the 1996 New Year holidays. Murayama said he had done what he could in a year marking the 50th anniversary of the end of World War II. He said he made the decision while looking at the blue sky in the new year.
Murayama criticized his successors for questioning Japan’s wartime guilt
Murayama was active in politics even after his retirement in 2000, frequently criticizing attempts by his more nationalist successors to back away from responsibility for Japan’s wartime action.
The Murayama statement set a standard followed by all prime ministers for nearly two decades, until nationalist Prime Minister Shinzo Abe stopped apologizing in 2013 as members of his Liberal Democratic Party said it interfered with Japan’s national pride. That included Abe’s protege Sanae Takaichi, who was recently elected party leader and is now poised to become prime minister next week.
This year, outgoing Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba expressed “remorse” over the war, marking the first time a Japanese leader has used the word in their annual Aug. 15 address since Abe shunned it.
Murayama also criticized the government’s reluctance to acknowledge that the Japanese government during World War II systematically forced Asian women to provide sex for Japanese soldiers at military brothels.
“A historical view saying Japan’s war was not aggression, or calling it justice or liberation from colonialism, is absolutely unacceptable not only in China, South Korea or other Asian countries but also in America and Europe,” Murayama said in a statement in 2020.
He also stressed the importance of Japan establishing a lasting friendship with China, noting the “tremendous damage” his country caused to its neighbor because of its past war of aggression. “In order to build peace and stability in Asia, we must build stable politics, economics, cultural interactions and development.”