Memorandum submitted by Sujit Sen, International
Bangladesh Foundation
HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS IN BANGLADESH
1. The poor human rights condition in Bangladesh
has alarmed major Human Rights (HR) watch dogs and the issue has
been discussed at many international foras as well as within the
country. Amnesty International in its 2005 report has voiced deep
concern over the fate of the religious minority groups in the
country where collusion between politicians and criminals has
institutionalized fundamentalist violence and corruption. The
report points out that the Hindus and Buddhists in the Chittagong
Hill Tracts and the Ahmadiya Muslim community were being targeted
by the fundamentalist elements in the country. Apart from this
the government has also used the State machinery to clamp down
on peaceful demonstrations by opposition parties. Thousands of
activists of the main opposition part Awami League are under detention
without trail for the last few years. This deplorable condition
of human rights had prompted HR units in Bangladesh to file a
joint petition before the High Court in September 2004. The Court
is yet to give an opinion on this.
The main human rights violations that have
been noticed in the country include:
(ii) Extrajudicial killing.
(iii) Impunity for security forces.
(iv) Violence against women and children.
(v) Violence against journalists.
(vi) Infringement on religious freedom.
(vii) Trafficking in women and children.
RELIGIOUS INTOLERANCE
2. Bangladeshi minorities, who include Hindus,
Christians and Buddhists have been subjected to an endless State
sponsored campaign of religious and ethnic cleansing. The campaign
against the minorities, especially the Hindus, began with the
Noakhali massacre of 1946 and has to date not ceased. Successive
governments have blatantly discriminated against them by denying
them jobs and business opportunities and even employed the law
enforcement agencies to conduct atrocities against them. On 10
April 1992, when the Bangladesh Nationalist Party was in power,
the armed forces murdered several hundred tribal people in the
village of Logang in the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT). Actions
like these still continue in different forms resulting in the
minority population in the CHT being reduced to a mere 50% of
the total population of the CHTs in 1997 from 97% in 1947. The
Hindu population in the country has also dwindled from 28% in
1941 to 10.5% in 1991. Most find it easier to illegally migrate
to India rather than face inhuman living conditions at home.
3. One of the most institutionalised symbols
of anti-minority outlook of the Bangladesh government is the Enemy
Property Act that was promulgated in 1965 to seize the property
of the Hindus and redistribute them amongst the Muslims. This
Act was not repealed after the formation of Bangladesh and since
then more than 2.5 million acres of land, in a country of 56,000
square miles have been seized from the Hindus.
4. While persecution and discrimination
against the minorities have continued regardless of the party
in power, the situation has worsened under the Four Party Alliance
government, which came to power in 2001, comprising of two Islamic
hardline prties, the Jamaat-e-Islami (JEI) and the Isalmi Oikyo
Jote (IOJ) among with the BNP. This is evident from the fact that
right after the Parliamentary elections in 2001, 200 Hindu women
were gang raped in one night at village Char fashion in District
Bhola. Discrimination and persecution is taking place in the form
of interference in the performance of religious rites, desecration
and destruction of idols, razing temples and churches, looting
and burning of minority homes and businesses. In the field of
employment, minorities are sidelined and not allowed to hold important
posts in the government or any other position of power or prestige.
Immediately on taking over in 2001, the FPA government removed
the only minority who held the position of Vice Chancellor in
the history of Bangladesh.
5. The growth of Islamic militancy in Bangladesh
in the last few years have resulted in a spate of bombings, killing
of secular-minded journalists like Manik Chandra Saha in January
2004, professors like Humayun Azad of the Dhaka University. The
murder of Awami League leader and former Finance Minister SAMS
Kibria on 27 January 2005, is also a result of this growing intolerance
towards those who are seen as "enemies of Islam". The
grenade attack on an Awami League meeting in Dhaka on 21 August
2004 and the following year the serial bomb blasts in 63 districts
of Bangladesh within a span of 30 minutes on 17 August 2005 indicates
the strong base of the groups like Jamiatul Mujahideen Bangladesh
(JMB) within the country. The suicide attacks that followed in
October and December 2005, targeting two Judges in Jhalakathi
and a secular cultural organisation "Udichi" in Netrokona
district respectively further reiterate the organisational and
tactical prowess of the JMB.
6. Surprisingly, while the groups like the
JMB and the Jagrata Muslim Janata Bangladesh (JMJB) were building
their network in the country the Bangladesh government preferred
to look away and deny the very existence of these groups till
as late as mid 2005. Why would any responsible government do such
a thing? The answer to this question is simple; the much feared
JMB/JMJB are the wings of the parties in power. The interrogation
of the recently arrested leaders of the two groups confirm the
links of senior BNP and JEI leaders with the terrorist groups.
The terrorists were being used by the government to eliminate
all traces of secularism from the country and move towards the
establishment of the Islamic rule. Therefore the Bangladeshi authorities
have not only failed to stop extremist repression and violence
but have colluded with religious extremist groups to violate and
usurp human rights of not only the minorities but also secular
civil society members, NGOs, journalists and members of the opposition
parties.
AHMEDIYAS
7. Discrimination against the Ahmediyas
continues in Bangladesh with the International Khatme Nabuwat
Movement (IKNM) leaders and activists constantly threatening to
attack Ahmediya mosques and houses. The government, instead of
protecting the rights of the Ahmediyas, banned all publication
of Ahmediya literature in early 2004. Nearly 20 incidents of assaults
on Ahmediyas have occurred since 2004. The community has been
threatened from the IKNM who regularly demand that the sect should
be declared as non-Muslims. There have been instances when the
police have assisted the IKNM activists to put up signboards on
the walls of Ahmadiyas Mosques, which inform Muslims that the
place is not a Mosque.
CHITTAGONG HILL
TRACTS
8. On the CHT issue the Bangladesh government
had failed to implement the Peace Accord that was signed with
the Jumma or indigenous people of that area. On the other hand
the illegal land grabbing by the government for military purposes,
forced eviction of the Jumma people and the settling of Muslim
Bengalis in this area are continuing with government support.
In June 2005, the Army and the Bangladesh Rifles launched a drive
to evict Jumma villagers in Devachari, New Lonkor, Old Lonkor,
Halimbari and Chizhok area in Rangamati district. The plan was
to settle 65 thouand Bengali families in the area. The soldiers
completely destroyed the villages rendering hundreds of Jummas
homeless. Despite demands by International Human Rights groups
to end this demographic transformation of the CHTs, the government
continues with its plans while keeping the area under military
control.
EXTRAJUDICIAL KILLING
9. Since the elite Rapid Action Battalion
(RAB) was formed in June 2004, law enforcers in Bangladesh have
killed as many as 460 people, whom they brand as criminals. Bangladesh's
present human rights (HR) record with regard to this issue can
be gauged from a statement made by the Amnesty International's
Secretary General, Irene Khan, at a conference in Dhaka in December
2005, where she severely criticised the government for the large
number of custodial deaths and its attempts to justify those deaths
in the name of curbing terrorism. She said "I hate to call
it crossfire, what the Rapid Action Battalion attributes for the
custodial deaths, as there must be two parties in any such incident.
But in reality is the just found body of the victim".
10. Apart from extrajudicial killings, the
government has resorted to arbitrary arrests and detention of
political opponents, human rights activists and members of NGOs
who do not tow the line of the ruling party. Such detainees are
also usually tortured or ill treated whilst in custody.
11. Poor governance, corruption, nepotism,
severe political tension in the country and lack of accountability
remain the main facilitators of human rights abuses. Constant
pressure on the Bangladesh government by donor countries, HR activists
would go a long way in improving the plight of minorities and
the downtrodden in the country.
Sujit Sen
International Bangladesh Foundation
December 2006
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