Foreign Minister Dipu Moni on Sunday alleged that a section of media had launched an “orchestrated” campaign against her by publishing “untrue and baseless” news items on her trips to foreign countries.
“We are politicians and you can criticise us, but that has to be based on proper information and it must be objective,” she told reporters at her ministry.
While replying to a question on media reports on her foreign travels, the foreign minister claimed that the reporters concerned had not contacted her for comments or verification. Dipu said she was an honest politician and would take steps as a citizen to establish her rights. She, however, avoided the question if she would sue any newspapers.
The foreign minister said she had undertaken 114 foreign trips which accounted for 31% or 514 days of her total 1,660 days in office. Of those 114 trips, 36 were with VVIPs and 62 were bilateral visits.
Dipu claimed that her visits had brought the country many successes.
Reports were published recently comparing the foreign minister’s trips across the world with those of the US secretary of state.
“The US secretary of state uses his own jet, I do not,” said Dipu.
“I have to take two to three flights to visit some countries in central Asia or Africa. I have to wait even six to eight hours for transit,” she said, adding that it automatically raised the number of her travel days.
The foreign minister said she had spent about 50 days attending meetings at the UN but attending those meetings was not a foreign visit for the US secretary of state as he only had to take a flight from Washington to New York.
On reports that she had travelled to London to see her son, Dipu Moni said her son had returned to Dhaka in June 2009, nearly six months after she had assumed office.
