EX-PRESIDENT ERSHAD LEADS DHAKA MARCH, 1998-08-10 (photo)

Bangladesh's former president Hossain Mohammad Ershad (C) raises his hands while leading a street march by thousands of activists of his opposition Jatiya Party in Dhaka August 10. Ershad, who served six years in jail after being deposed in December 1990, called for "rule of law, independence of judiciary and democratic rights of all people." Ershad criticised the government for "failing to arrest spiralling food prices and to mitigate sufferings of the people affected by worst floods in ten years." Ershad, who seized power in a 1982 bloodless coup, was in power when Bangladesh's worst flooding in recent history in 1988 killed more than 5,000 people. AN/CC