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Rumsfeld in Dhaka amid protests

By Haroon Habib

DHAKA, JUNE 5. The United States Defence Secretary, Donald Rumsfeld, arrived here today on an overnight trip for talks with Bangladesh leaders, with a proposal for troops contribution to Iraq and Afghanistan.

He flew in here in the afternoon from Singapore where he delivered a speech on U.S. security policy on Asia and the Pacific.

The Bangladesh Foreign Minister, Morshed Khan, greeted him at the airport.

This is the second top-level visit from the Bush administration within a year.

The U.S. Secretary of State, Colin Powell, visited Dhaka in June last when he had requested Bangladesh to consider sending troops to war-torn Iraq. However, Dhaka did not immediately respond.

Thousands of activists from Islamic groups and Left political parties staged noisy protests on Friday and Saturday against Mr. Rumsfeld's visit and against sending troops to Iraq.

Mr. Khan had said on Friday that his country would not send troops to any country "on behalf or against anyone."

Bangladesh opposed the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq and has said it would only send troops to Iraq under the U.N. auspices.

Meanwhile, the Communist Party of Bangladesh general secretary, Mujahidul Islam Selim, termed Mr. Rumsfeld a "war criminal" and said he should be tried at the International Court for war crimes, including genocide.

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