As Bangladesh comes to terms with the violence that followed the recent mutiny of border guards, eyewitness and reporter Mark Dummett asks why events spiralled out of control so dramatically.  The regular army was deployed to BDR headquarters after gunfire erupted | The headquarters of the Bangladesh Rifles was built in the days of the British Raj. Though surrounded by the congested streets of the capital Dhaka, this huge compound still has a colonial atmosphere. It is a green and pleasant oasis of neatly mown lawns, palm trees, rose gardens and even a small zoo. But the deer in the zoo are dying of hunger because the men who normally feed them have either been killed, or have run away. This was the scene of the mutiny that became a massacre. 'On the rampage' The bodies of officers were dumped in mass graves, dug hastily into a vegetable garden. Some corpses were thrown into fast flowing sewers. Later, after the revolt collapsed, navy divers were lowered into the dirt and the dark to search for them. The mutineers - paramilitary border guardsmen - had gone on the rampage.  |  If the men really were after a pay rise, then why were they so brutal?  | They trashed the rooms of their commanding officer, who was one of the first to die. The blood of his wife, who they also murdered, covered the walls. There were smashed frames of family photos, clothes, books and ornaments lying scattered on the floor. Differing accounts This apparently started as a dispute over pay. Two of the mutineers called the BBC at our bureau in Dhaka. They complained that their salaries were miserably low, while their well-paid officers always mistreated them. They also accused the officers of siphoning off money that should have gone into a huge, nationwide food- for-the-poor programme the Bangladesh Rifles operated last year. Well the men, apparently, had had enough. The violence started after thousands of riflemen and their top brass gathered for their annual get-together. Accounts differ as to what exactly happened, but one officer involved in the investigation told me that a group of armed men entered the room from the side and started firing. The gunfire went on for five hours. Scale of violence From my vantage point on a roof close to the compound's perimeter, I heard one of the mutineers call out to his men through a megaphone: "Brothers, let's stay together. The army is trying to come in but we will hold them back by any means." Like other journalists, I assumed we were hearing the sounds of a battle. But after the revolt had ended and the death toll was added up, we learnt that at least 56 officers had been killed and just six Riflemen. In other words, the shooting had been mostly in one direction. If the men really were after a pay rise, as they said they were, then why were they so brutal? It is a question which has perplexed and shocked Bangladeshis, many of whom were initially sympathetic to the mutineers demands. After all, many people in the country complain of being badly paid and abused by corrupt bosses. Was this revolt evidence then of what can happen when the frustrations and anger of the Bangladeshi man boil over? Or was the whole affair more complicated and more political than that? 'Evil game' The police have now issued more than 1,000 arrest warrants for mutineers who were somehow able to escape before their revolt collapsed. This happened when the prime minister promised to look into their demands, while threatening to send in the army to crush them if they did not lay down their guns. Tanks had roared through the streets of Dhaka to get ready for the final assault, which thankfully never happened.  Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina offered an amnesty to the mutineers | The civil servant leading the government's inquiry said he will report back next week but his boss, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina has already given her theory of what happened. It was a conspiracy, an "evil game", she called it, to foil the country's democracy, independence and sovereignty. The plot is still on, she added. All will have to remain alert. For a while after the mutiny it did indeed seem as if democracy in Bangladesh was in danger. We had reports from soldiers that the army was angry with how the prime minister had handled things. But tempers soon cooled and the army chief pledged his allegiance to the government. Attempted coups So who might want to destabilise Bangladesh at this time? Sheikh Hasina's Awami League won a massive majority in elections in December and took over from an army-backed caretaker government. She has promised warm relations with neighbouring India, to tackle extremist groups, and to prosecute people - including some prominent opposition politicians - who are accused of war crimes and of collaborating with Pakistan during the 1971 war of independence. Bangladesh has, of course, been here before. In its 38-year history, the country has been rocked by 20 coups and attempted coups. Sheikh Hasina's father - the country's first president, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman - was gunned down along with most of his family in 1975. The current opposition leader, Khaleda Zia, lost her husband, the then President General Zia Rahman in 1981. If the record of the past is anything to go on, then the facts that emerge over the coming days about the mutiny will be partial and contested. The ringleaders will probably not be punished and there is a chance that bloodshed will follow bloodshed. |
