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10 WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, <strong>2017</strong> DT News New Rohingya refugees face extortion looking for shelter • Abdul Aziz, Cox’s Bazar CRISIS Moyamoya: A disease well fought in Bangladesh • Nawaz Farhin HEALTH In Japanese, the word “Moyamoya” means “puff of smoke,” but the disease it represents is a rare and progressive cerebrovascular disorder caused by blocked arteries at the base of the cranium. The meaning also describes the look of the tangle of tiny vessels formed to compensate for the blockage. Although Moyamoya is not very well known in Bangladesh, there are quite a number of patients who have been treated successfully at the National Institute of Neurosciences and Hospital (NINSH) in Dhaka’s Agargaon. Until now, 30 patients have undergone bypass surgeries in NINSH while only one of them has died. The first known Moyamoya patient in Bangladesh was diagnosed at Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujib Medical University hospital in 2012, according to a case report published in the Journal of Bangladesh College of Physicians and Surgeons that year. However, NINSH had its first patient in 2014 when seven-year-old Mohona Aktar from Kushtia was brought in. In the initial stage, the child was frequently suffering from sudden A group of Rohingya refugees living in Bangladesh are extorting the newly arrived refugees by providing them accommodation in seven new makeshift camps in different areas of Cox’s Bazar and Bandarban that they have set up with the locals’ help. These vested quarters, along with the so-called landowners, have been charging heavy sums for building small shanties occupying the forest lands. The new shelters have been built in Balukhali Dhalar Mukh, Taznirmarchhara, Shafiullah Kata and Hakimpara areas in Ukhiya, Hoai Kang and Noikhyang area in Teknaf, and in Naikhongchhari. More than 100,000 newly arrived Rohingya, who fled to Bangladesh following the latest military crackdown in Myanmar’s Rakhine state, have already occupied 450 acres of forest lands in a bid to set up residence. Thousands of refugees are thronging towards these new shelters as the existing camps are already overcrowded. Farid Miah, 45, one of the refugees who came from Myanmar’s Maungdaw province, told the Dhaka Tribune that he was charged Tk2,000 to get the permission to build a small hut with bamboo and polythene. Ali Kabir, divisional forest officer at Cox’s Bazar south zone, told the Dhaka Tribune that some muscular weakness, one of the first symptoms of the disease. She used to feel better after resting for a while, her family said. But two weeks later, she suffered temporary paralysis on one side of her body. Her family had taken her to several state-run hospitals in Kushtia, one of which later referred her to NINSH where she underwent brain surgery twice in the next two years. The second patient with Moyamoya disease who came in at NINSH one year later was another child named Jannatul Ferdousi Nupur, 9, from Bogra. Her father Jahidur Rahman told the Dhaka Tribune: “Three years ago, one day, Nupur had fallen on the school grounds after having a seizure and couldn’t speak. Since then, this started happening to her from time to time. She was also having constant severe headaches.” Nupur was also treated initially at different local hospitals, doctors at one of which had told her parents about Moyamoya’s possibility. They also referred them to NINSH. Jahidur said: “Doctors had said Nupur will have to undergo brain surgery. In the last two years, doctors operated on her head twice. Nupur is better now and has also resumed school.” Dr Sudipto Kumar Mukherjee, local syndicates have been building slums for the Rohingya in the name of shelters. “We have been conducting drives to evict such newly-built slums. The existing camps have already acquired more than 600 acres of forest land. So, the latest occupation has become a matter of serious concern for the administration,” the forest department official said. the assistant professor at NINSH’s Department of Pediatric Neurosurgery, told the Dhaka Tribune: “In Nupur’s case, the disease was hereditary. We found out later that her mother had Moyamoya too. The symptoms and how The rare idiopathic vaso-occlusive disease is characterised by progressive irreversible occlusion, or blockage, of main blood vessels to the brain as they enter into the skull. Apart from muscular weakness, in children the first symptoms include stroke, or recurrent transient ischemic attacks (commonly referred to as “mini-strokes”), or paralysis affecting one side of the body, or seizures, according to National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS) at Maryland in the US. It says adults can also experience these symptoms, but more often suffer a hemorrhagic stroke due to bleeding into the brain from the abnormal vessels. NINDS says about one in 10 individuals with Moyamoya has a close relative who is also affected; in these cases researchers think that this disease is the result of inherited genetic abnormalities. In the rural areas in Bangladesh, villagers try to treat such problems Ukhiya Upazila Nirbahi Officer Md Mainuddin said no more camps or shelters would be allowed to be set up in the upazila. “The new Rohingya will be rehabilitated to the existing camps in Kutupalong and Balukhali,” he added. Some 123,000 Rohingya have fled to Bangladesh since the latest eruption of violence in Myanmar’s Rakhine state in late August. • Mahmud Hossain Opu through superstitions. Even local doctors, who have not heard of Moyamoya disease, feel confused under the circumstances, experts said. Tackling Moyamoya Three years ago, the Dhaka hospital was unable to treat Moyamoya patients let alone conduct surgeries. The hospital then sent Dr Sudipto Kumar Mukherjee to South Korea for higher studies on the disease with the sole aim to treat Moyamoya patients here. The government, in an admirable initiative, is also bearing all costs of the surgeries that are happening at NINSH every now and then. People from Bangladesh used to go to India and spend at least Tk30 lakhs on such operations and treatment three years ago. According to NINDS of the US, there are several types of surgeries that can restore blood flow to the brain by opening narrowed vessels or by bypassing blocked arteries. Without the surgery, most Moyamoya patients will experience mental decline and multiple strokes because of the progressive narrowing of arteries. Without treatment, this disease can be fatal as the result of intracerebral haemorrhage (bleeding within the brain). • Rohingya crisis: Yunus wants UNSC intervention • Tribune Desk CURRENT AFFAIRS Nobel laureate Dr Muhammad Yunus has urged the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to intervene to end the crisis in Myanmar’s Rakhine State. The Grameen Bank founder and social entrepreneur sent an open letter to the UNSC president and its members, warning that the situation for the Rohingya was “deteriorating very fast”. According to a press release issued by the Yunus Centre in Dhaka and reported by UNB on Tuesday, Dr Yunus called for the immediate intervention of the security council to solve the crisis. “The human tragedy and crimes against humanity have taken a dangerous turn in the Arakan region of Myanmar. I call on UNSC to intervene immediately by using all available means,” Dr Yunus wrote. “I request you to take immediate action for cessation of indiscriminate military attacks on innocent civilians that is forcing them to leave their homes and flee the country to turn into stateless people.” Dr Yunus said complete villages had been burned, women raped, many civilians arbitrarily arrested and children killed in the military crackdown which has followed Rohingya attacks on police and army bases in Rakhine on August 25. “Unless constructive efforts to build a lasting peace is taken, the situation will get worse, which in turn may pose serious security threat to the neighbouring countries,” Dr Yunus wrote. He called for a “bold change in approach” from the UN and the international community towards the Myanmar government of fellow Nobel laureate, Aung San Suu Kyi. “The government of Myanmar needs to be told that international support and finance was conditional on a major change in policy towards the Rohingya,” Dr Yunus wrote in his letter. “The world is waiting to see that the UNSC has played its role in bringing an end to a humanitarian crisis and building peace in the region.” •
Multinationals to pass decision on offloading shares to parent companies News 11 WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, <strong>2017</strong> DT • Asif Showkat Kallol BUSINESS The Ministry of Industries (MOI) has asked multinational companies, including Unilever Bangladesh Ltd, to place proposals to their parent firms to offload their shares, an inside source has confirmed. The decision was taken at a meeting with representatives of multinational companies presided over by MOI Senior Secretary, Md Mosharraf Hossain Bhuiyan. In addition to Unilever Bangladesh, Sanofi Bangladesh Ltd and Novartis Pharma Ltd were also present. The source said the ministry will inform all the stakeholders and arrange a high-level meeting for offloading the shares, if the Financial Institutions Division takes an initiative regarding the move. In the meeting, the representative of Unilever Bangladesh Ltd said the ministry’s proposal cannot be fulfilled unless Unilever’s parent company in the United Kingdom allows it. “The proposal needs to be approved by the parent company’s board,” he said. “We will give a written statement to the ministry after our managing director gives his consent.” The representative said Unilever Bangladesh does not need extra funds from the stock market due to its nature operation in Bangladesh, and that it is also not possible to offload its shares in the stock market because there is a shortage of existing paid-up capital. The Novartis Pharma Limited representative expressed his company’s interest in offloading their shares but also said they do not have enough paid-up capital. After issuing two right shares, Novartis’ paid-up capital stands at Tk11.75 crore. “However, Novartis will place the proposal to offload shares as per the ministry instructions,” the representative said. The representative from the Bangladesh arm of Sanofi, a French multinational pharmaceutical company, said the Bangladesh government holds a total of 45% of their shares. “We have no choice. We have to place the proposal in our next board meeting with the parent office,” he said. No representative from Karnaphuli Fertiliser Limited, a company owned by a Japanese firm, attended the meeting so its decision was not discussed. Earlier, Finance Minister AMA Muhith said at a meeting that the government was considering the possibility of offloading 10% of its shares in Unilever Bangladesh Limited. “The government owns a 39.25% share of Unilever, but Unilever is not interested in offloading it in the local stock market,” he said. “Multinational companies, like Unilever, are also not interested to increase their share in the market, although they are making huge profits here.” • US President Donald Trump Trump family and associates to be in Russia probe crosshairs • Tribune Desk WORLD REUTERS A web of US President Donald Trump’s family and associates will be back in the crosshairs of congressional committees investigating whether his campaign colluded with Russia, as well as of the high-wattage legal team assembled by special counsel Robert Mueller, reports the Associated Press. As Congress returns from a summer recess, some of the attention will be focused squarely on the president’s eldest son, Donald Trump Jr, who will meet privately in the coming weeks with staffers on the Senate judiciary and intelligence committees. A meeting Trump Jr convened with a Russian lawyer and others in the midst of the campaign has already been the subject of testimony before a grand jury that Mueller is using as part of his investigation. The expected crush of interviews, subpoenas and testimony this fall underscores both the broad scope of the Russia probes and the certainty that they will shadow Trump’s presidency for months or even years. Even if Trump and his associates are ultimately cleared, some White House advisers worry about the president’s anger over the investigations and the likelihood that he will continue to weigh in publicly in ways that only further distract from his agenda. The president’s own legal exposure remains uncertain. He’s denied coordinating with Russia during the election or having any nefarious financial ties to Moscow. But Trump’s legal team, anticipating Mueller’s interest in probing Trump’s firing of FBI Director James Comey, is developing arguments to protect him against any obstruction of justice allegations, including constitutional defences and a contention that his actions crossed no legal lines. Family and associates The simultaneous investigations by Mueller and three congressional committees have drawn in some of Washington’s legal heavy hitters. Mueller’s 16-lawyer team is comprised of seasoned prosecutors with significant experience fighting fraudsters, mobsters and terrorists and with building cases against high-level targets by eliciting cooperation from more peripheral subjects. And more than a dozen Washington law firms have lawyers representing players in the investigation. The coming months may put a new focus on lesser-known players in Trump’s orbit, including Michael Cohen, his long-time lawyer. Cohen acknowledged last month that the Trump Organisation pursued a Trump Tower project in Moscow and that he had reached out to the press secretary for President Vladimir Putin. Another associate who could appear before Congress this fall is informal adviser Roger Stone, as well as Felix Sater, a Russia-born associate Cohen says he worked with on the Trump Tower deal. The project was later abandoned. Familiar names will also continue to face scrutiny, particularly former campaign chairman Paul Manafort and ousted White House national security adviser Michael Flynn. Manafort already has spoken privately to Senate intelligence committee staffers, and though other committees are also interested in hearing from him. •
Page 1 and 2: SECOND EDITION WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER
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Page 7 and 8: News WEDNESDAY, Why China did not f
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Page 13 and 14: Opinion 13 A dictator by any other
Page 15 and 16: Opinion 15 Brexit becomes more comp
Page 17 and 18: What’s on 17 WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER
Page 19 and 20: Sports 19 WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 2
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Page 23 and 24: Showtime 23 WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 6,

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