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Tuesday, August 17, 2010

[ALOCHONA] Re: Prothom Alo exclusive reports on US complicity in 15 August killings



 
On Tue, Aug 17, 2010 at 1:58 PM, Isha Khan <bdmailer@gmail.com> wrote:
 
On Mon, Aug 16, 2010 at 3:18 PM, Isha Khan <bdmailer@gmail.com> wrote:
Prothom Alo exclusive reports on US complicity in 15 August killings
 
 
 




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[ALOCHONA] The State of Democracy and Political Freedom in Bangladesh



The State of Democracy and Political Freedom in Bangladesh

 
By Shimul Chaudhury

The Bangladesh Awami League (BAL) currently in power in the country has a murky, mixed past. Though the party is generally given the credit of leading the liberation war of 1971, its democratic credentials are quite unimpressive and dubious to say the least. While BAL leaders, intellectuals and activists revel in the political credit scoring on 1971 upheavals, they cannot deny the fact that the first BAL regime signaled a darkest period for democracy in Bangladesh.

On 16 June 1975, Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's government imposed a one-party rule in the country in the name of BAKSAL and shut all newspapers except for those under government control. That was the worst time for freedom of expression as well as for journalists of the country many of whom lost their jobs because of the closure of their newspapers. I am not a great fan of President Ziaur Rahman, the founder of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP), but we must admit that it was him who later on nullified those black laws and re-established press freedom in the country. Unfortunately, mainly because of the preponderance of the adulation of a ‘national father’, this great step of President Ziaur Rahman is now largely forgotten; so is shrouded in obscurity the fact that he was a great hero of the 1971 liberation war.

In the 1980s during Ershad's rule Bangladesh witnessed another gloomy chapter of political repression though the regime was not as hard on the press as was the first Awami regime. In the early 1990s Bangladeshi people celebrated a new beginning of democracy in the country by electing the BNP to power. All hoped that 1975 and the 1980s would not be repeated in Bangladesh. Sheikh Mujibur Rahman's Awami League and Ershad's Jatiya Party apparently seemed to have relinquished their undemocratic propensities. However, their marriage in 2008 general election proved all of us wrong.

Soon after Awami League and its allies came to power in early 2009, its student wing Bangladesh Chhatra League took no time to establish domination in educational campuses, as such control of colleges and universities generally ensures them unlawful financial benefits especially though ˜admission business, ˜tender business, ˜seat business and money extortion. One non-monetary return is sexual advantage over vulnerable young women, as Chhatra League cadres have reportedly established ˜rape houses is different parts of the country.

Thousands of students belonging to opposition political groups have had to leave their legitimate accommodation at dormitories of various universities. Many of them even cannot come to attend their classes, and not even exams. When this process of getting rid of rival student groups was over, affiliates of Chhatra League turned on themselves, as fighting and killing seems to be the only way to vent their malice, cruel taunts and a sense of achievement. As a result, many educational institutions have thus far become terror zones; and the students who go to colleges and universities for knowledge have become the ultimate casualties of Chhatra League hostilities.

When Chhatra League thus confirmed absolute domination and lawlessness on campuses with the support or complicity of the police, the parent organization in power started its repression on opposition parties. We may mention a number of undemocratic practices of Awami League in the scope of one article, but no list will be exhaustive of the total picture of political oppression of the last few months in Bangladesh. The jails of Bangladesh are now overcrowded with people of an Islamic party.

The regime has not banned religion-based politics yet (apparently at the behest of its foreign patrons), but the ground reality is worse than political proscription. Party offices of that Islamic political party are being ransacked; and its leaders and activists are being detained and tortured in police custody. Police forces are being used to thwart any political gatherings, and indiscriminate arrests from party offices and houses (especially through nocturnal raids) have become the norm now. In many cases, police reportedly carried arms and ammunition during nocturnal raids, accused the detained as possessing illegal arms and then branded them as ˜militants and ˜Islamic radicals. The implicit message from the regime to opposition political groups is that: DO NOT PROTEST!

This reminds us of the BDR carnage where about 60 bright senior army officers were slaughtered with alleged government connivance. Some of the surviving army officers and their colleagues vented their anger, in the presence of the Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina, over government ˜failure to save so many precious lives. The result was gradual forced dismissal or forced retirement of those who protested the death of their colleagues and family members. Similarly, on the political front, currently protests over political repression are routinely met with arrests, tortures in police custody and false lawsuits.

All these undemocratic practices in Bangladesh are happening when a ˜gonotontrer manoshkonna (democracy incarnate) is its Prime Minister. Awami League's spin doctors coined this noble term for Sheikh Hasina perhaps when she was an opposition leader in the late 1980s or early 1990s. People of the country (though bewildered because of the democratic credentials of her father) did not question the appropriateness of this appellation for her, as they had not seen her in power yet. This time when Sheikh Hasina is in power, I think, the authors of the term ˜gonotontrer manoshkonna have no clue how to define it.

Lastly, I repeat what I said in one of my previous writings: If the West overlooks Awami League's undemocratic practices for the fact that the party uses the secularism slogan, and helps demonize Jamaat-e-Islam for its Islamic leanings, that will be catastrophic for the future of the poor nation, Bangladesh, and the people of the country will have to bear the brunt of all consequences.�

--------------
Shimul Chaudhury
E Mail : Shimul Chaudhury
http://newsfrombangladesh.net/view.php?hidRecord=331517


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[ALOCHONA] Deaths by Cross Fire : Extra-Judicial Killings



Deaths by Cross Fire : Extra-Judicial Killings
 

By Ziauddin Choudhury

In Bangladesh we became familiar with a term called "Crossfire" during the previous political government when accidental deaths of "rogue "individuals were reported when confronted by police. However, this was no ordinary police. A special force was created by the government to combat crime especially in big cities. According to a report provided by this agency to the media, 60 people were killed in such encounters or Crossfire in 2009, and 83 people in the year before

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The Central Bureau of Investigation of India (CBI) arrested recently Amit Shah, a close aide to the Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi in connection with a fake police encounter case leading to the death of one Sohrabuddin Sheikh. Shah was the Home Minister of the State until he resigned from the job recently after the accusation surfaced. The Sohrabuddin case is as follows.

In November 2005, Sohrabuddin was picked up by the police of Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh from a bus on their way from Hyderabad to Sangli in Maharashtra, along his wife Kauser Bi and another person. He was later gunned down in a fake encounter by the Gujarat police's Anti-Terrorist Squad which claimed he had come to the city to eliminate Modi. The accused policemen also killed Kauser Bi and their accomplice Tulsi Ram Prajapati to destroy evidence.

The matter remained under wraps for some time and no one really knew about this case. In 2007, nearly two years after the incident, Rubabuddin, Sohrabuddin's brother, filed a petition before the Indian Supreme Court claiming that that the Gujarat police's encounter was fake and demanded to know his sister-in-law Kausarbi's whereabouts. In March 2007, an inquiry was ordered, and on March 23, the Gujarat government admitted that the encounter was fake and the senior police officers involved would not be spared.

On April 24, the Gujarat police arrested its Deputy Inspector General (Border Range) D G Vanzara and Rajkumar Pandian, superintendent of police with the Intelligence Bureau, and M N Dinesh Kumar (Rajasthan police) on the charge of murdering Sohrabuddin Sheikh. Rubabuddin asked the SC judge to direct the Gujarat government to produce Kausarbi in court. On April 30, the Gujarat government admitted before the Supreme Court that Kauser Bi, wife of fake encounter victim Sohrabuddin Sheikh, has been killed and her body burnt. In addition to the senior police officers to date another six police officials have been arrested and named as co-accused in the case.

Police encounter is a euphemism used widely by police in India when explaining the death of an individual at their hands who was deemed by them to be a militant or "subject of interest". In reality these are extra judicial killings or executions not authorized by a court or by the law. Earlier such encounters went by the name of "staged encounters", where weapons were planted on or near the dead body to provide a justification for killing the individual. The National Human Rights Commission of India reports that since 1993 there have been 2560 cases of such police encounters in India, of which 1224 cases have been fake encounters.

In Bangladesh we became familiar with a term called "Crossfire" during the previous political government when accidental deaths of "rogue "individuals were reported when confronted by police. However, this was no ordinary police. A special force was created by the government to combat crime especially in big cities. According to a report provided by this agency to the media, 60 people were killed in such encounters or Crossfire in 2009, and 83 people in the year before.

This special or elite force to combat crime is actually a formal institutionalization of the ad hoc measure that the government took in 2003 called Operation Clean Heart to crack down on crime. The operation jointly launched with all branches of armed forces and police that lasted about four months reportedly led to arrest of several thousand alleged criminals and 44 deaths either in custody or at the time of encounters with law enforcing agencies. The governments halted the operation after four months citing success, but actually due to severe criticism by the Human Rights watch groups both internally and externally. I do not think there were any later follow up of the charges of extra-judicial killings that period. Instead we had a new force to deal with crime and criminals.

The stories above and the statistics of extra judicial killings in India and Bangladesh are not presented to show any comparison between the two countries or to demonstrate who is ahead in extra-judicial killing. That is not the intent of this write up. It is not about how many of the killings were justified, and how many criminals were apprehended by such extraordinary measures. The point is to what extent a legally constituted and democratically elected government should go to deter crime and apprehend criminals. To what extent a legally constituted agency could go and carry out its mandate in cracking down on crime? What are the checks and balances?

In Bangladesh we had many incidents of extra-judicial killings many years prior to the creation of the elite force or the joint forces operation. Two of these that come immediately to my mind are the one in 1974—a joint army and BDR operation in 1974 to combat across the border smuggling, and the other in 1975 to combat "anti-social elements" with the newly created para military force called the Jatiyo Rakkhi Bahini. Both had led to apprehension of thousands and "accidental deaths" while the law enforcing agencies were "pursuing" them.

I have vivid memory of an incident during the joint forces operation against smuggling in 1974 in Dinajpur district. As Additional Deputy Commissioner I was the civilian coordinator of the anti-smuggling campaign in the district. One morning the commander of the operation, a Lt. Colonel of the army, informed me over phone in great agitation that he was facing an irate crowd in the area of his work and that he needed police intervention as he could not use his armed forces for crowd control. When I enquired about the reason, he informed me that his forces had gunned down some smugglers earlier at dawn, and this had enraged local people. He did not tell me whether the people gunned down were armed and if there was any armed resistance by them. I sent a magistrate along with a police contingent who brought the situation under control, at least for the time. An enquiry later revealed that the group of six that was shot to death was "suspected" of smuggling near the international border, and the group included a boy of fourteen. A "discreet" executive enquiry was held later that gave the army benefit of doubt. It was extra-judicial killing par excellence, but we let the army off for the greater good of the country through an enquiry.

The extra-judicial killings would continue in the country with the launching of similar "cleansing operations" in later years. Some we would know of through newspapers, but many we would never know. Yet, the irony of it all is that these killings are in the hands of agencies that have been officially established to protect life and property of people, not by under-world, under cover entities.

Any killing is a violation of human rights. When murders are committed by private individuals against others, there is recourse for the aggrieved persons provided by the laws of the country. The law enforcing agencies can and do apprehend the perpetrators of the crime, and prosecute them in the courts of justice. But what recourse an aggrieved party has when the crimes are committed by an agency which has been officially empowered to deter crime?

An alert and active judiciary usually would be recourse for seeking redress for these wanton activities, as has been the case cited above in India. Recently a Bangladesh court also brought to book several police men for alleged killing two years before. The court interventions and the consequent judicial convictions of the perpetrators are however small reparations for the human lives that have been lost and the impact that these have on the families they left behind. Countless lives have been lost for probably for no reason in last four decades in our country in what has been termed as encounters or cross fires. These lives would never be returned. We may bring to justice over time a few of the perpetrators, but will never be able to retrieve the lost lives.

Democracy is not simply the right of the people to elect a government they want. It is also a right of the people to live the way they want to live, and make sure that the government they elect guarantee that this right is protected by law. It also gives them the right to demand that agencies that are created by their elected government provide transparency and accountability for their actions. I have no doubt in mind that the majority of the personnel of our law enforcing agencies are guided by rule of law and respect for human life. Yet we have elements among us who may transgress the laws either in over enthusiasm in chasing crimes and criminals, or by momentary intoxication of power given by the arms in their hands. The way to address such wayward conduct is to have strict accountability of these forces in all their campaigns and transparency of these operations. In parallel we also need that our political masters do not use such forces to fight their battles. No one would want a Gujarat like occurrence where law enforcing agencies reportedly became willing perpetrators of a politically motivated "police encounter"

____________________________________________________________________________________

Ziauddin Choudhury, a former civil servant in Bangladesh, works for the World Bank in Washington DC.E Mail : Zchoudhury@worldbank.org

http://newsfrombangladesh.net/view.php?hidRecord=331527


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[ALOCHONA] Re: Successful traffic management



Severe traffic congestion causes untold sufferings
to commuters in city. The photo was taken from the Motijheel
Commercial Area yesterday



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[ALOCHONA] Errant MPs embarrass ruling party



Errant MPs embarrass ruling party 

A section of ruling Awami League lawmakers have made themselves controversial by activities like bullying government officials and killing, torture and intimidation of their rivals in the party and the opposition in different districts ignoring party chief Sheikh Hasina's instructions to abide by the laws.
   Most of the ruling party MPs are patronising their henchmen who seem hell-bent on grabbing whatever they could in respective constituencies.
   When approached for comments on violation of laws and instructions of the party high command by a section of its lawmakers, some senior party leaders said they were embarrassed by such activities.
   The AL is planning to launch separate investigations into some of the incidents of violation of laws by the errant party lawmakers, a party leader said.
   AL lawmaker Sheikh Afil Uddin allegedly assaulted Enamul Huq, officer-in-charge of Sharsa police station, in Jessore on Sunday night for recording a murder case without his (Afil) consent. Enamul claimed that Afil had asked him to come to the lawmaker's jute mill on Sunday evening with the statement of a case filed over the murder of BNP activist Abdul Hamid.
   When he went to the mill, Afil rebuked and slapped him for arresting an accused in the case without the lawmaker's permission. Ruling party activists Musa Mahmud, Asad and Kamal also assaulted the police officer there. Enamul filed a general diary over the incident.
   Rina Akter, widow of Awami Juba League leader Ibrahim Ahmed and president of ward 14 Mahila League, said her husband was killed at AL lawmaker Nurunnabi Chowdhury Shaon's NAM apartment on Friday. Shaon was elected lawmaker for Bhola-3 constituency in the recently held by-polls.
   A Savar police outpost traffic sergeant, Shariful Islam, on July 8 filed a case with Ashulia police station accusing Awami League lawmaker for Dhaka-15 constituency Elias Uddin Mollah of beating him up while he was on duty at Ashulia on the afternoon of June 30.
   Chapainawabganj municipality mayor Ataur Rahman filed a case on April 9 against Abdul Wadud, AL lawmaker for Chapainawabganj-3, on charges of grabbing land.
   MA Latif, ruling party lawmaker for Chittagong-10 constituency, tried to force his way into a meeting of the Water Transport Coordination Cell (WTCC) in the port city in June last year. When he was prevented from doing so, he is alleged to have hurled abuses at the police officials present there and even had the premises put under lock and key, though abortively.
   Awami League lawmaker Sarah Begum Kabari allegedly slapped local daily newspaper Sitalakkhya's photojournalist Sheikh Shahidul Islam Sentu in Narayanganj on March 15, 2009 for publishing a report which she did not like. She also assaulted Fatema Manir, an upazila vice chairman, in a separate incident.
   Cronies of AL lawmaker Golam Moula Roni filed four 'false' cases against two local journalists at Galachipa in Patuakhali in a bid to avenge their reports on land grabbing on a riverbank and setting up of a market with Roni's backing.
   Awami League lawmaker for Cox's Bazar-4 Abdur Rahman Bodi assaulted Abdul Halim, executive engineer of Roads and Highways Department, on June 16 last year.
   Ruling party lawmaker Abdul Mannan of Jhenidah-4 constituency became president of the governing body of 11 educational institutions violating government rules. A person can become president of four educational institutions in his or her constituency, according to government rules.
   Zakir Hossain, AL lawmaker for Kurigram-4 constituency, assaulted Mosharraf Hossain, a land office staff in Raomari upazila, on January 6.
   Moazzem Hossain Ratan, Awami League lawmaker for Sunamganj-1 constituency, beat up Akkasuddin Ahmed, president of Jayasree High School and general secretary of Jayasree union Awami League, for not selecting the person nominated by the MP as office assistant.
   In several meetings of the Awami League Parliamentary Party, prime minister Sheikh Hasina warned her party deputies against unruly behaviour, abuse of power and corruption.
   While addressing a meeting of the AL PP on January 25 this year, Hasina, also president of the party, asked the ruling party lawmakers to abide by laws.
   The government, however, did not file regular cases against the party lawmakers concerned, excepting the case filed against Elias Uddin Mollah, for abuse of power.
   The Awami League is also yet to take action against them.
   Senior Awami League leader Amir Hossain Amu declined comments when asked about such blatant arrogance of the fellow lawmakers,. 'Forgive me,' he told New Age over telephone on August 17.
   Mahabub-ul-Alam Hanif, a joint general secretary of the party, said the party would launch investigations into the incidents.
   'Law will take its own course against the persons involved in violating law,' he said. 'Nobody is above law,' he added.
 


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[ALOCHONA] Re: Prothom Alo exclusive reports on US complicity in 15 August killings



 
On Mon, Aug 16, 2010 at 3:18 PM, Isha Khan <bdmailer@gmail.com> wrote:
Prothom Alo exclusive reports on US complicity in 15 August killings
 
 
 



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