ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, March 31, 1996 TAG: 9604010050
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A7 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: NEW DELHI, INDIA
SOURCE: LOS ANGELES TIMES
With thousands of protesters massing in the streets, Bangladeshi Prime Minister Khaleda Zia finally gave in to pressure and resigned Saturday to end a political deadlock that has hobbled her nation's economy for the past two years.
President Abdur Rahman Biswas dissolved Parliament and appointed a former Supreme Court chief justice to head a nonpartisan caretaker government and prepare for new elections.
The developments were a triumph for Bangladesh's opposition, which had mounted a ruinous campaign of strikes and violent demonstrations to force Zia, 50, the widow of assassinated military ruler Ziaur Rahman, from power.
Sheik Hasina Wajed, the main leader of the three-party opposition coalition, proclaimed Zia's resignation a victory for the ``people and democracy.'' Tens of thousands of Bangladeshis danced, sang and cheered in the streets of Dhaka, the capital.
Zia was sworn into office March 19 but immediately faced bitter protests that the Feb. 15 elections that returned her and her Bangladesh Nationalist Party to power were rigged.
The opposition boycotted those polls and launched a ``noncooperation movement'' three weeks ago to force Zia out on the grounds that her government, which originally took office in March 1991, was too corrupt to hold free and fair elections.
Shortly after Zia stepped down, Wajed called off the protests.
Deadly street clashes and a series of general strikes since March 1994 have torpedoed Zia's ambitious dream of wooing outside investors to prime the pump of the Bangladeshi economy.
On Saturday, thousands of government employees went into the streets to join in the clamor for Zia's departure. Her portraits were removed from many offices on the grounds that she was an ``illegal prime minister.''
Wajed's Awami League, the country's largest opposition party, called on its followers to besiege the presidential palace unless a neutral interim government, which the three major opposition parties have insisted on to ensure fair elections, was in place by noon.
LENGTH: Short : 49 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: headshot of Zia colorby CNB