Bangladesh's Descent Into Authoritarianism

Stratfor Analysis May 31, 2016

Forecast

• The ruling Awami League will continue to pursue legal charges against the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party, pushing Bangladesh toward one-party, authoritarian rule.
• Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina will use religion selectively to expand her support.
• Political strife has given rise to extremist attacks, which Hasina will blame on the opposition.
• A lack of government deficit and debt reduction and the deteriorating international perception of Bangladesh because of extremist attacks will limit investment, preventing Dhaka from reaching its target of 7.3 percent economic growth.

Analysis

Two trends will shape the future of Bangladesh, the world's seventh-most populous nation. The first is its descent toward single-party authoritarianism. The second is increasing insecurity brought about by extremist attacks.

When it comes to authoritarianism, Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, leader of the center-left Awami League party, has employed four tactics to marginalize rival politician Begum Khaleda Zia, chairwoman of the center-right Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). First, in 2013, the Supreme Court under Hasina's administration banned Jamaat-e-Islami — the country's largest religious party and an ally of the BNP — from participating in elections on the grounds that the party's charter is illegal. (The charter did not invest sovereignty with the people; it promoted Jamaat-e-Islami as a religious party, which are banned in Bangladeshi politics; and it is considered foreign, since it was created in India.) In response to the ban, clashes broke out in which 150 people were killed. Though Jamaat-e-Islami was not a major parliamentary force, its grassroots organizational abilities helped the BNP mobilize voters.

Second, Hasina fulfilled a campaign pledge and instituted the International War Crimes tribunal, a court charged with prosecuting crimes committed during the 1971 Bangladesh war for independence, during which an estimated 300,000 to 3 million people died. Jamaat-e-Islami opposed the division of Bangladesh — then known as East Pakistan — from West Pakistan, and the party's leader, Atiur Rahman, was accused of leading an anti-nationalist militia during the war known as Al-Badr that was responsible for the deaths of scores of people. Since December 2013, four senior members of Jamaat-e-Islami have been hanged (including most recently Motiur Rahman Nizami). In creating the tribunal, Hasina weakened Jamaat-e-Islami by exploiting an issue that still resonates in the Bangladeshi national consciousness and solidified her party's stance as the sole torchbearer of the 1971 independence movement. Even so, though there is support for addressing war crimes, the trials have been criticized for being unfair. For instance, the defense is allowed to present only four witnesses while the government can present an unlimited number.

Third, Hasina took advantage of the BNP's boycott of the January 2014 elections, ensuring an Awami League victory, even though the election had the lowest voter turnout in the country's history. Hasina's Grand Alliance coalition currently holds 280 of the 300 seats in parliament, granting her a monopoly on legislation. Moreover, because the parliament is unicameral with seats decided through proportional representation, the most populous state, Dhaka, has the strongest representation. The urban interests of Dhaka thus take precedence over rural interests, exacerbating the inequality between different parts of the country. Villages are left with a governance deficit that continues to be filled by nongovernmental organizations, the private sector and religious organizations, some of which harbor extremist views.

And fourth, Hasina's government is pressing charges against various high-ranking BNP members as well as influential members of the media. In January, Zia, the BNP's chairwoman, was charged with sedition because she questioned the death toll figures from the 1971 independence war. (Hasina asserts that the 3 million figure, the most liberal estimate, is correct, while Zia suggested the figure might be less, though within the range of figures that have been estimated.) Then on May 11, Zia and 27 BNP members were charged with arson for their alleged role in the firebombing of two buses in Dhaka in 2015. Other opposition figures are also facing trial: Mahfuz Anam, editor of the Daily Star, the country's largest English language daily, is being tried on 79 separate charges (including 17 acts of sedition and 69 acts of defamation) for publishing corruption allegations against the military. Matiur Rahman, the editor of Prothom Alo, was charged with sedition in February for "hurting religious sentiments."

Rising Militancy

In addition to this growing authoritarianism, the second trend — an increase in violent attacks against writers, activists, religious minorities and other members of society whose rights are meant to be enshrined in a secular state — will determine the future of Bangladesh. Notably, Bangladesh has suffered extremist attacks before. In August 2005, Bangladeshi Islamist militant group Jamaat al Mujahideen detonated 400 bombs nearly simultaneously across the country. But unlike past attacks designed to inflict mass casualties, the recent ones targeted individuals. On April 24, Rezaul Karim Siddique, an English professor at Rajshahi University, was found hacked to death. On Feb. 21, assailants beheaded Jogeshwar Roy, a Hindu priest, in the northern district of Panchagarh. And on May 14, Mongsowe U Chak, a 75-year-old Buddhist monk, was found hacked to death in a village in the district of Bandarban. The Islamic State has claimed these attacks, but Hasina has vigorously denied the presence of the militant group in the country, presumably because she wants to maintain foreign investment — especially in the country's garment-export industry, which after China is the world's largest, accounting for 80 percent of the country's export revenue. Moreover, she has shrewdly blamed the BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami for the attacks, giving herself a pretext to further marginalize both groups in the name of enhancing security.

And by marginalizing Zia, the BNP's conservative constituency no longer has a party to represent its interests. Hasina, who wants to capture this electorate, will pragmatically adopt conservative positions, especially on matters of religion. It explains why she recently said people should respect the religious beliefs of others, in response to secular Bangladeshi bloggers, who are critical of Islam. It also explains Hasina's silence regarding the Supreme Court's recent motion to revoke Islam as the official state religion. The court ultimately turned down the motion on the grounds that the petitioners were unable to prove that the law recognizing Islam as the state religion harmed them.

Hasina has made the political calculation that if she can sustain the country's 6 percent rate of growth while creating jobs, reducing poverty and increasing health care access, then the electorate will overlook single-party rule and reward the Awami League during the 2018 elections. Despite public unrest, she has had success. Zia attempted to derail the economy through nationwide strikes in 2014, but the economy has still grown by 6 percent. By comparison, Pakistan's economy, which has not faced nationwide strikes, is growing at 4.5 percent. Under Hasina's administration, inflation has fallen, debt and poverty have been reduced, and foreign exchange reserves have spiked. Even so, until Hasina can lower government deficits and debt accumulation (the administration will unveil a new value-added tax in July), draw greater foreign direct investment and implement infrastructure development, economic growth will fall short of the administration's 7.3 percent growth target. But since the BNP and Jamaat-e-Islami are being marginalized, their power to launch protests and nationwide strikes to dent the economy is restricted.

Bangladesh at the crossroads

By Scott Gilmore / The Boston Globe

LAST MONTH IN DHAKA, the capital of Bangladesh, six men pounded on the door of Xulhaz Mannan, an employee of the US embassy. When he opened, they hacked him and a friend to death with machetes. A group affiliated with Al Qaeda claimed responsibility, condemning the men for their gay rights activism.

Brutal attacks like this are increasingly common in Bangladesh. According to a recent internal memo from the United Nations Department of Safety and Security, there have been 30 similar extremist attacks since January 2015, resulting in 23 deaths and more than 140 injured. Western governments are increasingly worried, saying the country of 168 million people is starting to come undone.

As a state, Bangladesh is not very old. It was born by breaking away from Pakistan in 1971 in a brief and violent civil war. In that conflict, the Pakistani army or its proxy Islamic militia Jamaat-e-Islami killed 300,000 to 500,000 people by independent estimates. After that, Bangladesh largely slipped off the radar screen for most of the Western world. Only the occasional cyclone would grab our brief attention.

Yet, as unlucky as the country seemed, the last 40 years have been good to Bangladesh on many fronts. It is not blessed with many natural resources, but it does have people. Their low wages began to attract garment manufacturers who built factories and paid taxes. The GDP per capita tripled. Hospitals were built, and schools improved. Life expectancy increased by a stunning 20 years, and child mortality rates dropped by a factor of four.

Politically, Bangladesh did not do as well. Each newly elected government competed to out do the last in terms of corruption and nepotism; their efforts only interrupted by the occasional coup and counter-coup. Not surprisingly, Transparency International ranks it among the world’s most corrupt countries, and the Social Progress Index places it near the bottom for personal rights and freedoms.

Nonetheless, Bangladesh has been a relative success story in comparison to much of the rest of the Muslim world. While Indonesia was wracked by ethnic violence, the Middle East and Afghanistan suffered through war after war, and Pakistan descended into chaos, Bangladesh quietly stumbled forward, just functional enough to lift 60 million people out of extreme poverty.

MY FIRST TRIP to Dhaka was over a decade ago, as a diplomat. My agenda was overwhelmingly focused on aid — how much western money should be sent to help the country leave the ranks of what the World Banks calls the “Least Developed Countries.” Then the city was large, sprawling, and flat. There were no high-rises, few visible factories, and more rickshaws than automobiles.

The sprawl was still there when I returned last month but so too were shiny glass-shod hotels, towering office buildings, and large garment factories. The streets were clogged with traffic, the airport was busy, and almost no one was talking about aid or poverty. The topic now is economic growth: Is it moving fast enough? Will it continue? And will the new violence threaten this progress?

A fire requires three elements: fuel, heat, and oxygen. In the last two years, all three have come to Bangladesh, and the resulting flames are starting to get out of control.

The oxygen is coming from the collapse of the democratic process. Since the civil war, the Bangladesh Nationalist Party, or BNP, and the Awami League have dominated politics. The BNP are an Islamist party, and these are not good days for them. They boycotted the last election, which handed the Awami League a massive majority. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina is using her newfound power to crush all opposition groups — to such an extent that some observers argue Bangladesh can no longer be considered a democracy.

Hasina has jailed journalists, closed TV stations and newspapers, charged opposition politicians with sedition, corruption, and fraud. Perhaps most notably, Hasina decided it was time to settle scores dating back to the civil war and launched a war crimes trial against leaders of the now banned Jamaat-e-Islami movement, men who had since been rehabilitated into politicians.

Earlier this month, a trial that Human Rights Watch described as “neither free nor fair” found the 73-year-old head of the party, Motiur Rahman Nizami, guilty of genocide, rape, and killing intellectuals during the civil war. He was hanged just days after the verdict. His supporters and other opponents to the government have been effectively pushed off the public stage, onto the streets, and into the shadows.

Fuel for the conflagration is unemployed young men. In Bangladesh, one of the lowest rates of employment is found among well-educated (and therefore relatively well-off) youth. While economic growth has been impressive, it has only barely kept up with birth rates, and opportunities for more advanced careers beyond the garment factories are too few.

And the ignition is coming from the Middle East. Saudi-funded Wahhabi mosques and madrassas have been preaching the same radical theology that has set Pakistan and Afghanistan alight. Bengali diaspora working in Saudi Arabia and other gulf states, have returned with more conservative religious views and brought Al Qaeda and the Islamic State.

IN A RECENT article published by the Islamic State’s English language magazine Dabiq, the “Amir” in Bangladesh explained the country’s strategic importance as a launch pad for jihad against the Indian “masses of cow-worshiping, pagan Hindus” to the west and Burmese Buddhists to the east. ISIS believes the barriers to achieving that goal include the Bengali government, moderate Muslims, foreigners, and any religious minority.

A senior Western ambassador in Bangladesh described al Qaeda and ISIS to me as “the sexiest thing going” for radicalized youth who have seen the traditional opposition organizations crushed by the government. The fundamentalist propaganda coming from the Middle East, increasingly being published in Bengali, offers them the dramatic promise of a more meaningful life fighting the enemies of Islam. That is far more interesting than supporting a local political candidate who will probably end up in jail on well-earned corruption charges.

The results of all this have been sporadic but noticeable and deadly. Many of the first attacks used knives and machetes. In January of last year a Hindu lecturer at a medical college was stabbed to death by four young men as she waited for a rickshaw. Her crime had been to insist that her students obey the institution’s dress code and not wear hijabs.

But guns have begun to emerge as well: In September of last year an Italian aid worker was shot while jogging through Dhaka’s diplomatic quarter. Five days later an elderly Japanese businessman was killed while visiting his rural agricultural business in northern Bangladesh.

The violence continues to escalate. A series of bomb attacks have been launched against Hindus and minority Shias. Only one of these was a suicide attack, but in recent months police have begun to find suicide vests when raiding radical cells.

The government has moved slowly to douse the flames. In public they downplay the violence and adamantly deny the presence of the Islamic State and al Qaeda. Even in private, they will only go so far as to concede there may be “sympathizers.” A UN security analyst based in Dhaka explained that this was likely due to two factors. The government does not want to lose face by admitting they have a problem on their hands, one that they have evidently not been able to contain. They may also be motivated by a desire not to open a second front with Bengali Islamists who are already being agitated by the war crimes tribunals.

BANGLADESH IS A fragile state, and it could crumble easily. The government systems are not especially robust. While they inherited the same British colonial system that India did, Bangladesh was never more than an outlying province of the Raj and was neglected accordingly. Since independence, the judiciary, and the police in particular, have struggled to develop.

Against this backdrop of fragility, the unwillingness of Bengali officials to acknowledge the growth of violent extremism in Bangladesh or to do much about it looks like a disaster, according to western diplomats. They fear a strategy of ignoring it and hoping it will go away or of more deliberate appeasement will only end badly. As a result, there has been a steady flow of American, Canadian, and European officials to Dhaka, hoping to cajole the government into action.

In late March the United States Department of Homeland Security and the Federal Aviation Authority sent senior officials to push the Bangladesh government towards more cooperation. Earlier this month it was the turn of US Assistant Secretary of State Nisha Desai Biswal. She was also there to talk about improving collaboration on counter-terrorism and extremism.

There are also reports Canada (which is increasingly concerned about the radicalization of their Bengali diaspora) recently sent the head of its intelligence agency to Bangladesh. In March, the United Kingdom banned cargo on direct flights from Dhaka, and the Australian Embassy has been designated “non-accompanied” meaning it is no longer safe enough to bring families.

While things in Bangladesh could likely get worse, few predict it will get as bad as Pakistan or Syria for example. Bangladesh is a relatively homogenous country, and there are few social, cultural, or religious divides large enough to threaten widespread violence.

But the growing extremism is scaring investors and threatening the economy. Bengalis have grown accustomed to high levels of economic growth (predicted to reach 7 percent this year) that has given people the constant hope of greater affluence, renting a bigger apartment, or purchasing a new motorbike. If that promise of a better life evaporated, one of the precious few islands of peace in the Muslim world could be completely destabilized.

-       Scott Gilmore is a senior fellow at the Munk School of Global Affairs, the founder of the nonprofit Building Market, and a former diplomat.

            

Families demand return of their disappeared dear ones within the month of Ramadan

May 27, 2016 / PRESS RELEASE OF ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION

Members of families of 19 disappeared victims once again took to the street, yesterday, 26 May 2016. They formed a “human chain” in front of the National Press Club in Dhaka to demand the return of their loved ones within the month of Ramadan. Prominent human rights defenders, members of the civil society, and academic scholars joined the families to express solidarity.

Many disappearances occurred before the controversial Parliamentary Elections on 5 January 2014. Political dissidents were the main victims. In 2013, a total of 24 people were disappeared from Dhaka. None have since returned. On one day alone, i.e. on 4 December 2013, eight young men were disappeared from different areas of Dhaka City. The whereabouts of these men remain unknown. Parents, siblings, and wives of these 19 people do not know whether their loved ones will ever return. However, the agonising wait continues.

A little girl, Aroya, was one of the participants in the “human chain”. She was two years old when her father disappeared. Now she is five. She still stares at her father’s photo, wondering when he will come home.

The condition of the parents of the disappeared is far worse. Ms. Marufa Islam, elder sister of Sajedul Islam Sumon, who was disappeared by the Rapid Action Battalion on 4 December 2013, stated that her mother’s tears have dried up with all the weeping. “She prays for the return of her son. In all these 19 families, the parents are waiting for their children every day – every single second”, said Ms. Islam.

The families took to the street prior to the holy month of Ramadan and Eid. They miss their dear ones much more during such festive occasions. They do not know whether the victims are still alive. They ask the State of Bangladesh the following questions: “What was the crime for which they were disappeared? Has the State ever considered the situation of those families whose dear ones are disappeared? How long do they have to wait to know the whereabouts and return? Does plights of the families really matter to the country’s Prime Minister?”

Most of the disappeared persons were students. They studied in different colleges and universities in Dhaka. Some were the only breadwinners of their families.

Victim family members have met with high profile government officers on several occasions, hoping that their intervention would enable the return of their disappeared family members. A number of habeas corpus writ cases have been filed with the High Court Division of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh. However, there has been no effective remedy available from the highest judiciary to returning the victims to their relatives.

The Asian Human Rights Commission urges the Supreme Court of Bangladesh to order the government to open an office headed by a retired Supreme Court Judge to address the grave problem of enforced disappearances.

Such an office should act on the allegations of enforced disappearances across the country. Many nation-states in the world have established similar entities to address matters related to enforced disappearances and missing persons.


The following 19 persons are the victims who have been disappeared from Dhaka since late 2013:

1. Sajedul Islam Sumon
Father- Late Hazi Mafijul Islam
Mother- Hazera Khatun
Address-553, Shahinbag, Dhaka- 1215

2. Jahidul Karim Tanvir
Father- Golam Jakaria (Jhunu)
Mother- Nilufar Begum (Putul)
Address- Basundhara, Dhaka

3. Abdul Kader Bhuiyan
Father- Md. Rafikul Islam Bhuiyan
Mother- Ayesha Akhter
Address- 336/G, East Nakhalpara, Tejgaon, Dhaka- 1215

4. Majharul Islam
Father- Md. Aminul Haque
Mother- Jahida Begum
Address- 499, West Nakhalpara, Tejgaon, Dhaka- 1215

5. Asaduzzaman Rana
Father- Abdul Razzak
Mother- Ayesha Khatun
Address- 31/1, North Mugda, Kamlapur (East)

6. Al Amin
Father- Ahmed Uddin
Mother- Jenmin Begum
Address- North Badda, Bara Beraid

They were all picked up by RAB- 1 on 4 December 2013, at around 8:30 p.m. from Basundhara Residential Area.

7. M.A. Adnan Choudhury
Father- Ruhul Amin
Mother- Kaniz
Address- 640, Shahinbag, Tejgaon, Dhaka

8. Kawsar
Father- Bilal Hossain
Mother- Kamala Akhter
Address- 742, West Nakhalpara, Tejgaon, Dhaka- 1215
They were picked up by RAB from their homes on 5 December 2013, at around 2 a.m.

9. Selim Reza (Pintu)
Leader, Student wing of BNP
Father- Md. Soleman Reza
Mother- Hasina Banu
Address- Sutrapur, Dhaka- 1000

Some people dressed in civilan clothes, who introduced themselves as people from the “Administration”, picked him up from his house at Pallabi.

10. Khalid Hasan Sohel
Father- Firoze Uddin
Address- 30 Joy Chandra Ghosh Lane, Banglabazaar, Dhaka- 1100

11. Samrat Mollah
Father- Rafiq Mollah
Mother- Taslima Begum
Address- Sutrapur, Dhaka- 1100

These two were picked up by Detective Branch (DB) Police from the jail gate of Dhaka Central Jail on 28 November 2013.

12. Md. Jahirul Islam (Habibul Bashar Jahir)
Father- Md. Sirajul Islam
Mother- Hosne Ara Begum
Address- 38, Hazi Abdullah Sarkar Lane, Bongshal, Dhaka- 1100

13. Md. Parvez Hossain
Father- Md. Shafi Uddin
Mother- Hasna Begum

He was the President of the local unit of the student wing of BNP

14. Md. Sohel
Father- Samsur Rahman
Address- Bongshal, Dhaka

15. Md. Sohel (Chanchal)
Father- Abdul Kaiyum Kazi
Mother- Bibi Hazera
Address- Churiwala Lane, Bongshal, Dhaka- 1100

DB Police and people picked them up from the ‘Civil Administration’, Shahabag area, on 2 December 2013.

16. Nizam Uddin Munna
Father- Samsuddin
Address- 125, Udayan School Road, Molartek, Dakkhinkhan, Dhaka- 1200

He was the Joint Secretary, Airport Police Station Unit, of the student wing of BNP.

17. Tariqul Islam Jhantu
Father- Nur Mohammad Khan
Mother- Hasina Begum
Address- Molartek, Dakkhinkhan

RAB personnel dressed in civilian clothes, picked them up from Molartek, Dakkhinkhan. They were taken from in front of their relatives.

18. Mahbub Hasan (Suzon)
Father- Abdul Jalil Khan
Mother- Rashida Begum
Address- 149/4, Ahammadbag, Basabo, Sabujbag, Dhaka-1214

He was the President of the Sabujbag Unit of the student wing of BNP.

19. Kazi Farhad
Father- Kazi Khalilur Rahman
Mother- Taslima Akhtar Farida
Address- 26, Maya Kanan, Basabo, Sabujbag, Dhaka-1214

Administrative and judicial harassment: Obstacles to freedom of association

 

 

The Observatory for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders, a joint programme of the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) and FIDH, requests your URGENT intervention in the following situation in Bangladesh.

New information:

The Observatory has been informed with great concern about further acts of administrative and judicial harassment against the human rights non-governmental organisation Odhikar and its Secretary, Mr. Adilur Rahman Khan, in a further attempt to sanction and silence their human rights activities.

According to the information received, on May 25, 2016, Mr. Adilur Rahman Khan, also a member of OMCT General Assembly, was summoned to Bangladesh’s Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC), where he was interrogated by ACC Deputy Director Jalal Uddin Ahammad regarding a complaint initiated by the ACC against Odhikar for alleged “money laundering”.

On May 22, 2016, Odhikar had received a notice from the ACC under sections 19 and 20 of the ACC Act 2004, requesting Mr. Adilur Rahman Khan to appear before Mr. Jalal Uddin Ahammad over allegations of “money laundering”. The notice, dated May 18, 2016, referred to 97’000 EUR that were transferred to Odhikar’s bank account by the European Union (EU) in July 2013, in the framework of a EU-sponsored project called “Education on the Convention against Torture and OPCAT Awareness Programme in Bangladesh”, run by Odhikar and approved by the NGO Affairs Bureau (NGOAB) of the Government of Bangladesh.

During the meeting with Mr. Jalal Uddin Ahammad, Mr. Adilur Rahman Khan categorically denied the allegations of money laundering against Odhikar, and submitted documents proving that the funds referred to by the ACC had been transferred and handled in accordance with the law.

In July 2013, 97,501.07 EUR were credited to Odhikar’s bank account as the instalment for the second year of its EU-sponsored project, with the permission of NGOAB. However, after Odhikar made some initial withdrawals to implement the project activities, the NGOAB revoked its approval for the project, and the remaining amount in Odhikar’s account was frozen, preventing Odhikar from fully implementing the project activities.

Mr. Jalal Uddin Ahammad requested Mr. Khan to also submit a bank statement of Odhikar’s account where the remainder of the EU money is frozen, as well as the audit report of the EU funded project. The ACC Deputy Director stated that the submission of these documents would result in a “quick resolution” of this matter, despite the fact that these documents had already been submitted by Odhikar to the NGOAB.

The Observatory recalls that although the ACC has been investigating this matter since 2013, neither Odhikar nor Mr. Adilur Rahman Khan have received any copy of the letter of allegation outlining the grounds for the investigation.

The Observatory strongly condemns these new and baseless acts of administrative and judicial harassment against Odhikar and Mr. Adilur Rahman Khan, which take place in an already repressive context for civil society in Bangladesh.

The Observatory calls on the European Union, and the international community in general, to intervene on Odhikar’s behalf in this matter. More generally, the international community must urge the authorities of Bangladesh to take concrete steps to end the harassment against human rights defenders in the country, including by repealing or amending repressive laws affecting their work such as the Foreign Donations (Voluntary Activities) Regulation Bill 2015.

Background information:

Odhikar has been under extreme pressure since August 2013, when the authorities arrested Mr. Adilur Rahman Khan on trumped up charges in relation to a fact-finding report issued by Odhikar on the killing of civilians by security forces in May 2013.

Since then, attacks and harassment against Odhikar have been ongoing, including judicial harassment against both Mr. Khan and Mr. Nasiruddin Elan, Odhikar Director, as well as the surveillance and repression of Odhikar, its staff, and their relatives.

Odhikar is also facing great difficulties to implement its activities, since all of its bank accounts have been frozen and it has been forbidden from receiving foreign funding.

Enforced Disappearances in Bangladesh: An Institutional Practice

A statement of the International Coalition Against Enforced Disappearance on Bangladesh on the Commemoration of the International Week of the Disappeared 

23–27 May 2016

Every year, during the last week of May, the associations of families of the disappeared across the world commemorate the International Week of the Disappeared (IWD).

The crime of enforced disappearance has become endemic and has become a part of the trend of extrajudicial killings. Allegations by the families of the disappeared persons have been frequently raised against law-enforcement agencies. Over the years, this has been alarmingly increasing in Bangladesh. The root cause of enforced disappearance develops due to autocratic political systems and to suppress self-determination movements or peoples’ movements. In the context of Bangladesh, most of the incidents of enforced disappearances occurred due to political instability where the government uses state apparatus to gag the voices of the opponent political groups and civil society activists. Political identities of the disappeared persons entail that due to their involvement in the opposition political groups, they became victims of enforced disappearance. Thus, the acts of enforced disappearance have become an institutionalized practice of repression resorted to by the government. As this is a crime perpetrated by state actors and perpetrators enjoy impunity, state agents commit enforced disappearances without qualms.

The International Week of the Disappeared was first initiated by the Latin American Federation of Associations of Relatives of Disappeared-Detainees (FEDEFAM) in 1981 and adopted by many organizations of families of the disappeared and people’s organizations world-wide. The commemoration was also meant to step up the campaign against enforced disappearances which were then at their peak during the dark years of the dictatorship in many Latin American countries.

The International Coalition Against Enforced Disappearances (ICAED) has been campaigning for the ratification of the International Convention for the Protection of all Persons from Enforced Disappearance based on documentation of cases of enforced disappearance in Bangladesh that have occurred since 2009. In Bangladesh, from 2009 to April 2016, a total number of 258 people have allegedly disappeared. Among this large number, 37 people were found dead after being disappeared; 105 persons surfaced alive after being produced before the courts and shown as having been arrested in criminal cases, a long time after being disappeared. The whereabouts of 116 are still unknown. Families of the disappeared people allege that the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), police and Detective Branch (DB) of the police were involved in the incidents of enforced disappearance.

Till now 95 states have signed and 51 are parties to the International Convention of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance. On the International Week of the Disappeared, ICAED urges the Government of Bangladesh to put to a stop enforced disappearances and other human rights violations, conduct a thorough investigation on existing cases and bring perpetrators to justice. Moreover, ICAED demands that the UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances thoroughly investigate and act on each incident of disappearance and call the attention of the Government of Bangladesh to ferret out the truth on the fate and whereabouts of the victims.

Finally, ICAED expresses its solidarity with its sisters and brothers in Bangladesh in their call to the government to accede to the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, to establish human rights and promote the rule of law.

Ratify and Implement the Convention on Enforced Disappearances NOW!

Respect the Right Not to be subjected to Enforced Disappearance!

Details of House of Commons debate on Bangladesh

 

The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office Mr. Hugo Swire 

Photograph: Parliament TV

The following are details of a debate on Bangladesh in the UK House of Commons, May 24, 2016.

Simon Danczuk (Rochdale) (Ind):

What recent discussions he has had with his Bangladeshi counterpart on the protection of human rights in that country. [905038]

Alex Cunningham (Stockton North) (Lab):

What representations he has made to the Government of Bangladesh on violence towards lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people in that country. [905044]

The Minister of State, Foreign and Commonwealth Office (Mr Hugo Swire):

I would like to start by expressing my condolences to the families of those who lost loved ones and homes to Cyclone Roanu over the weekend. I welcome the strong leadership shown by the Government of Bangladesh.

I raised my concerns about human rights and violence against LGBT people again this morning with the Bangladeshi high commissioner. The Minister of State, Department for International Development, my right hon. Friend the Member for New Forest West (Mr Swayne), raised this with the Prime Minister of Bangladesh during his visit there in August 2015.

Simon Danczuk:

With extra-judicial killings, disappearances of political opponents and fraudulent elections, Bangladesh is quickly becoming a failed state. Does the Minister not think that it is time to start applying some form of sanctions to try to get Sheikh Hasina to hold a proper general election as soon as possible?

Mr Swire:

Like all those in this House, I was absolutely appalled by the senseless murders of the LGBT activists Xulhaz Mannan and Mahbub Tonoy, and we call on the Bangladeshi Government to bring those responsible for the killings to justice. The hon. Gentleman is absolutely right. Extremist-related murders of members of minority religious groups and those whose views and lifestyles are contrary to Islam have increased in Bangladesh since February 2015, and we are discussing this regularly with the Government of that country.

Alex Cunningham:

The Minister has said that he has talked to the Bangladeshi Government, but does he really think that that Government are taking sufficient steps to tackle the issue of violence against LGBT people?

Mr Swire:

Clearly I do not. We have a certain amount of leverage in Bangladesh—we are the largest grant aid donor, giving £162 million in 2015-16—so our voice has some influence there. In the past year our human rights and democracy programme has provided safety training for bloggers, and we have also funded a project promoting the rights of LGBT groups in Bangladesh, but there is a huge amount more to do. We are not shy of pushing the Government of Bangladesh in the right direction, but sometimes it takes a little bit of time and persuasion.

Nusrat Ghani (Wealden) (Con):

The human rights of secularists in Bangladesh are threatened. Last month, Nazimuddin Samad, a law student in Dhaka, was killed for blogging, “I have no religion.” Will my right hon. Friend raise this with his Bangladeshi counterparts and ensure that secularists’ rights are also protected in Bangladesh?

Mr Swire:

My hon. Friend is absolutely right. There was not only the Daesh-claimed killing on 9 April in Dhaka of Nazimuddin Samad, but the murder on 23 April of Rezaul Karim Siddique in Rajshahi, in the east of the country. This is becoming an all too familiar occurrence in Bangladesh. There is a disagreement: Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina blames the opposition ​parties for trying to destabilise the country and the victims for insulting Islam; we think the problem goes beyond that.

Richard Fuller (Bedford) (Con):

Do not the Government of Bangladesh’s inability to protect human rights and the absence of effective opposition to that Government require the UK Government, which continues to provide substantial aid to Bangladesh, to have a timetable for intervention to ensure that democracy and human rights continue in that country and do not fall under a single-party state?

Mr Swire:

I do not think my hon. Friend is suggesting that we should tie our aid, which helps some of the worst-off people in the world, with political progress, but I take on board his point. There is much more we can do in Bangladesh and we are trying, not least through the role of the new Commonwealth Secretary-General. Bangladesh is of course a member of the Commonwealth and we want the Commonwealth to take more action in that country, which at the moment is not heading in the right direction.

Dr Lisa Cameron (East Kilbride, Strathaven and Lesmahagow) (SNP):

Around 70 to 80 women and children are trafficked from Bangladesh abroad each day. Law enforcement is failing to prevent forced prostitution. What discussions is the Foreign Secretary having to press that legal systems prevail for women and girls in Bangladesh?

Mr Swire:

The hon. Lady is absolutely right, although of course it is not just Bangladesh that is affected. We have done a lot on human trafficking through legislation; we have also done a lot on the supply chain, where I know there are concerns. We continue to raise the matter, not just in Bangladesh but in countries around the world. It is something we want to erase. It is unfortunately all too common and we take it seriously.

Fabian Hamilton (Leeds North East) (Lab):

I am delighted to hear that the Minister is so concerned about the recent killings of liberal activists in Bangladesh. He mentioned the brutal murder on 25 April of Xulhaz Mannan, editor of the country’s first and only LGBT magazine, and the appalling fatal machete attack on blogger Nazimuddin Samad on 6 April. Surely the Government of Bangladesh have been far too slow to act. What additional pressure are he and the Government prepared to put on the Government of Bangladesh to ensure that these murders are dealt with properly?

Mr Swire:

The Government of Bangladesh would argue, as the high commissioner did to me this morning, that one of the victims of these crimes was a cousin of a former Foreign Minister of Bangladesh, so this is something they are taking extremely seriously. I do believe that Bangladesh has a problem, and we will continue to talk to our Bangladeshi counterparts on a range of issues, some of which are of very great concern.

Source: Hansard

Growing concerns for elderly journalist hospitalised after being held in solitary confinement

Siobhan Fenton / The Independent, UK

Shafik Rehman (center) pictured in East London last year at his book launch. Also pictured left to right: His granddaughter Prianka, daughter-in-law Bilkis Arzu, grandson Zubeen and son Shumit Photo supplied by family

An elderly British-Bangladeshi journalist has been hospitalised after being held in solitary confinement and denied medical care in prison, his family have claimed.

Shafik Rehman, 81, is a prominent journalist with dual British and Bangladeshi citizenship. He has supported pro-opposition groups in the country and was arrested on 16 April on accusations of plotting to kidnap and kill the Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s son Sajeeb Wazed.

He denies the charges, which his family have denounced as “completely farcical”.  He is the third pro-opposition editor to be detained in Bangladesh since 2013.

Speaking to The Independent, Mr Rehman’s son Shumit said his father has been rushed to hospital in Dhaka with severe chest pains and diarrhoea.

“My father is being held in solitary confinement in a maximum security cell, pending investigation. That is not how the law works at any level, certainly not at his age. No charges have been made," he said.

“For the last month, he has been made to sleep on the floor, without a fan, locked up for 23 hours a day. He has a stent in his artery and is diabetic, he needs his medicine every day. No one is providing this.”

Mr Rehman is now in a stable condition and has been moved from hospital to a Dhaka jail with medical facilities, but his family say they are increasingly concerned for his health. Shumit Rehman has called on British authorities to intervene in the case.

Amnesty International has said the conditions in which Mr Rehman is being held are a contravention of Bangladesh’s obligations under international law to detain people without “cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment".

Champa Patel, director of the human rights group’s South Asia division, said: “The Bangladeshi authorities must end the prolonged solitary confinement of Shafik Rehman and ensure his well-being.

"It is absolutely shocking that an 81-year-old diabetic man with a history of heart problems is being denied the medical care he needs.”

Mr Rehman is a well-known journalist in Bangladesh and has previously worked as a speechwriter for the leader of the Bangladesh opposition party as well as chairing a pro-opposition think-tank.

He is credited with introducing Valentine's Day as a holiday to Bangladesh. He has previously worked for the BBC in London and is a chartered accountant in England. He resides in the UK for about six months a year.

His son Shumit’s MP, Matthew Offord, told The Independent that he was aware of the situation and had made representations to the Foreign Office and Secretary of State on the family’s behalf.

“All appropriate action has been taken in a difficult and sensitive situation," he said.

The British High Commission in Bangladesh did not respond when approached by The Independent for comment on the case.

What’s behind the violence in Bangladesh?

By: Simon Wilson / MoneyWeek

Two disturbing developments have seen Bangladesh attract global headlines for all the wrong reasons. First, a series of religiously motivated murders of more than two dozen secular bloggers, liberals, foreigners and others since 2013 has raised fears that Bangladesh is sliding towards Islamist extremism. In the past few weeks alone, those hacked to death by machete-wielding assassination squads include a professor of English, a gay rights activist and a Sufi cleric.

Second, this month, the 73-year-old leader of Bangladesh’s largest Islamist political party was executed for crimes against humanity during the war of independence from Pakistan in 1971. Motiur Rahman Nizami, the leader of Jamaat-e-Islami, was the fourth senior member of his party to be executed since the governing party, the Awami League, set up a tribunal in 2010. Another politician, from the main opposition Bangladesh National Party (BNP – in coalition government with Jamaat until 2009), has been executed too.

How are these events related?

Both the murders and the judicial executions have stoked international fears that Bangladesh is sliding towards authoritarian one-party rule, yet has a government that is unwilling or unable to counter the threat from domestic and global jihadism. The Awami League’s decision to set up an International Crimes Commission to prosecute those responsible for atrocities during the 1971 war was popular. Yet the tribunal has become a “witch hunt to weaken opposition to the League rather than a search for justice”, says The Economist.

This, along with an upsurge in extra-judicial killings, torture and disappearances, and an assault by the security forces and judiciary on critical voices, including newspaper editors and liberal and Islamist politicians, has eroded faith in the rule of law.

What of the jihadist threat?

Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina blames the “Jamaat-BNP nexus” for the killings, calling them “secret and heinous murders to destabilise the country”. But most commentators think the perpetrators are domestic jihadists with putative links to Islamic State or al-Qaeda, part of the wider emergence of jihadist groups in several Asian countries (see sidebar).

But despite her clarity of purpose in executing the “pro-Pakistan” war criminals of Jamaat, Hasina has given succour to jihadists by failing to stand up for secularism and pluralism; she has condemned the writings of atheist bloggers as akin to “porn”, and observed that “it’s not at all acceptable if anyone writes against our prophet or other religions”.

Next in the Awami attempt to paint its opponents as unBangladeshi is a new law making it illegal to question the official history, in which three million people are said to have died in the war of independence.

How many did die?

A 1976 study in the journal Population Studies put the number of deaths caused by the war at about 500,000, many due to disease and malnutrition. In 2008 an article in the British Medical Journal put the number of violent deaths at around 269,000.

However, in Bangladesh the accepted figure is three million – a number popularised after the war by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the then-leader of the Awami League, who became the independent country’s first president. He is a revered figure, and the father of the current prime minister.

Yet Rahman’s biographer, Sayyid Karim (also his first foreign secretary), viewed the number as “a gross exaggeration”. But the three million figure has, for many Bangladeshis, and in particular the Awami League, become a totemic element of the struggle for national liberation. Under a draft law called the Liberation War (Denial, Distortion, Opposition) Crimes Act, it will become a crime to make “inaccurate”, “malicious” or “trivialising” statements that “undermine any events” relating to the war.

Bangladesh-based journalist David Bergman, writing in The New York Times, has warned that the legislation is intentionally broad and ill-defined, and will almost certainly be used to prosecute anyone who deviates from Awami views.

Is that really likely?

Unfortunately, yes. BNP leader Khaleda Zia – Hasina’s long-term rival – is already being prosecuted for sedition for merely remarking that “there is a debate about how many hundreds of thousands were martyred in the liberation war”. Zia was also charged earlier this month with masterminding arson attacks during anti-government protests last year – the latest in a string of charges she claims are politically motivated.

Many in Bangladesh fear that Hasina’s rule has become so repressive – and the bitterness between her and Zia so poisonous – that she can never stand down for fear of reprisals by a future BNP government. “They both see this as almost a final battle,” says one economic analyst quoted by the FT on condition of anonymity. “My concern is that we may be moving into a ‘new normal’, in which there’s a high level of more or less suppressed violence, very little political space and eruptions
of unrest.”