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Tuesday, August 24, 2010

[ALOCHONA] Redemption and Risks



Redemption and Risks
 
by Ayesha Kabir   
August, 2010
 
All is quiet on the army front in Bangladesh these days, with the khaki remaining safely in the barracks. The democratic government of Sheikh Hasina has been in power for just over a year and a half and the uniforms have hardly been visible at all. Is this silence is a sign of stability or a lull before the storm?
 
Why should this question be raised at all? Despite intermittent spates of military rule, Bangladesh is not a military-oriented society. Its army is respectful towards democracy.
 
Their interventions have been for the sake of crisis management, not on political grounds.
 
The military takeovers by the late General Ziaur Rahman and General Ershad were instances of immediate and effective crisis management. The only military intervention with political motivation by a General Nasim turned out to be an aborted coup. The army backed caretaker government which took over on January 2007, came when political turmoil was at its zenith.
 
The aim of the caretaker government was to hold a free and fair election, but it outstayed its 90-day mandate and remained in power for nearly two years during which it ran an anti-corruption drive, coming down hard on political parties and the business community. Top politicians and business persons found themselves behind bars.
 
So when Awami League was elected and formed a government in 2009, there was a sense of relief at the restoration was democracy. But the relief was short-lived. In February 2009 a most ghastly massacre took place, purportedly a mutiny by troops of the para-military Bangladesh Rifles (BDR). As many as 57 senior officers of Bangladesh Army were killed. Bloody reprisal from the army was expected, but as Irtiza Nasim Ali, Managing Editor of International Herald Tribune Bangladesh, says, "This was perhaps the greatest test for the army. So many officers had been killed in cold blood, but the army showed unparalleled restraint."
 
Bangladesh Army does not nurture links with fanatical religious factions. The officers and soldiers are practicing Muslims, but are not motivated by religious fanaticism. This spirit has been enhanced with their exposure as UN peacekeepers where they work closely with persons of other faiths. If extremists had hope of cashing in on the BDR incident, they were disappointed.
 
The government too dealt with the incident effectively. The initial heat subsided and the ashes were effectively swept under the carpet. The trial for the BDR killing is on, but in a very low-key manner.
 
However, a potential crisis has been created by the BDR massacre. Under normal circumstances, disruption in law and order would mean intervention by the police. If the police fail, the armed police, RAB (Rapid Action Battalion) and BDR are called in. Only as the last resort would the army be summoned. But with BDR effectively out of the way, a vital link has been removed.
 
Anyone following the course of events in Bangladesh would see all signs of a crisis ensuing, particularly in the readymade garment sector, the country's main economic bloodline. Labor unrest has been simmering long (genuine grievances fanned by motivated instigation). The government-backed student front has unleashed a reign of terror on the campuses.
 
Crime and corruption is on the rise again. The police are proving unable to handle the situation. If the army has to be called in, this would be most unfortunate. While the people have little regard for the police, they view the army with respect. Pitching them directly against the workers would seriously diminish this respect. Just having redeemed itself after a controversial caretaker term, the army itself may not be willing to step in. This would also exacerbate the situation. If they come in, it's bad, if they don't, it's bad too - Catch-22.
 
The cantonments remain silent, but observers cannot help but feel a tinge of unease. Will the government be able to control the situation or will the army once again find itself between the proverbial rock and a hard place?
 
The writer is Editor of the Dhaka-based PROBE News Magazine.
 


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[ALOCHONA] RMG MINIMUM WAGES :Nearly 350 factory owners lodge dissents




 
The Minimum Wage Board is scrutinising submissions from individuals and organisations regarding proposed revision of the minimum wages for garment workers.
   A total of 343 factory owners have submitted their observations on the proposed revision of minimum wages while similar submissions were made by some 22 labour organisations.
   Sources at the Minimum Wage Board told New Age that at least 327 factory owners opposed the proposed increase of minimum wages which they felt was much higher while workers' organisations said the proposed wage increases were very inadequate.
   Most of the factory owners proposed a minimum wage for seventh grade worker to be between Tk 2000 and Tk 2,500.
   The board unanimously proposed the minimum monthly wage for a seventh grade worker at Tk 3,000, up from the exiting wage of Tk 1,662.
   Most of the workers' organisations said minimum wage of a seventh grade worker less than Tk 5,000 would not be adequate for minimum standard of living.
   'We are scrutinising the submissions and plan the next meeting of the board in the first week of September,' board chairman Ikteder Ahmed told New Age.
   The gazette of the draft of revised minimum wages for garment workers was published on August 1.
   The board sought submissions as the law allowed either of the two parties, the employers and the workers, could go to the board to lodge their dissent, if any, against the proposed wage structure within two weeks of its declaration.
   After six months of negotiations the Minimum Wage Board on July 27 proposed an upward revision of the existing minimum wages for garment workers, suggesting 67 to 108 per cent increase of wages of workers in different grades.
   Under the proposed pay structure, an entry point worker (a helper) placed at grade-7 would get Tk 3,000 a month from November, up from Tk 1,662, set in 2006.
   A grade-6 worker would get Tk 3,210, up from Tk 1,851; grade-5 — Tk 3,455 up from Tk 2,046; grade-4 — Tk 3,763 up from Tk 2,250; grade-3 — Tk 4,120 up from Tk 2,449; grade-2 — Tk 7,200 up from Tk 3,840 and a grade-1 worker would get Tk 9,300 up from Tk 5,140.
   Declaration of increased minimum wages triggered several days' of protests by the workers who were also irked by the declaration that implementation of new wages would start from November 1.
 


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[ALOCHONA] Nokshi Katha, Jamdani etc are also lost ?



Nokshi Katha, Jamdani etc are also lost ?
 
 


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[ALOCHONA] Fw: [KHABOR] Enforced Disappearances Must Be Halted



Please read shocking report on "Enforcement Disappearance Must Be Halted" below.

Anis Ahmed

---------- Forwarded Message ----------
From: "Mohiuddin Anwar" mohiuddin@netzero.net

We must do somerthing to be more civilized nation.

---------- Forwarded Message ----------
From: Isha Khan bdmailer@gmail.com
 

Enforced Disappearances Must Be Halted
The Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) has previously made numerous submissions to the Human Rights Council (HRC) concerning a range of human rights issues in Bangladesh, including mass arbitrary arrests, endemic torture and widespread extra-judicial killings. The ALRC has noted in the last year a new trend that is of serious concern: an increase in the number of forced disappearances being reported in the country. It is understood that due to increased local outcry and international attention being given to the hundreds of extra-judicial killings that have been committed by Bangladesh?s law-enforcement agencies, these are now increasingly resorting instead to forced disappearances, as this practice makes it harder to find those killed, identify the methods used to kill them or those responsible. In a justice system already crippled by impunity, the practice of forced disappearance makes it even harder for justice to be served.

The ALRC recalls that Bangladesh is a long-standing member of the Human Rights Council and despite it pledges to the international community given as part of its election to the body and the requirement for the HRC?s members to uphold human rights to the highest standards, Bangladesh has allowed widespread and grave human rights to be committed by state agents with total impunity. It is feared that the recorded increase in forced disappearances now marks a new phase in this regrettable record of abuse of rights that are enshrined in the country?s constitution as well as its international legal obligations, and of non-cooperation with the Human Rights Council.

Bangladesh acceded to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) on September 6, 2000, that prohibits the grave violations of rights highlighted above. According to Article 6 and 2 of the ICCPR, Bangladesh respectively has the obligations to ensure the right to life of its people and to ensure prompt and effective reparation where violations occur. It is also obliged to bring legislation into conformity with the ICCPR. Article 32 of the Constitution of Bangladesh protects the fundamental right to life and liberty, stating that: "No person shall be deprived of life or personal liberty, save in accordance with law." In reality, this has not been implemented and this most fundamental right is being repeatedly violated with complete impunity.

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), the ALRC's sister organisation, has documented several recent cases of disappearances that speak to the increase in this practice. These examples should serve as an early warning concerning a problem that, if unchecked, will likely flourish, taking on the dimensions of other related grave abuses such as extra-judicial killings, in the country. The Human Rights Council is there urged to take appropriate action to ensure that Bangladesh puts a halt to this practice and ensures that the whereabouts of the disappeared are located, accompanied by adequate punishment to the perpetrators and redress for the victims and their families.

Case-1:
Mr. Mohammad Salim Mian, a fruit-trading businessman, was picked up by the members of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) from Salim's relative's house at Pirojpur village under the jurisdiction of the Kapasia police of the Gazipur distirict early in the morning of February 19, 2010 along with two other persons. The members of the paramilitary RAB force handcuffed and blindfolded the three persons and took them away in vehicles. The three persons were detained in unidentified places for several days without any publicly available official record of their arrest. Later, the other two co-detainees, Mr. Mainul and Mr. Mohammad Ali Hossain, stated that Salim had been held in the custody of the 4th Battalion of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB-4) at Paikpara, in the Dhaka Metropolitan city jurisdiction.

On February 28, the RAB-4 officials handed over Hossain to the Kafrul police, who fabricated a case against Hossain before producing him before the Chief Metropolitan Judicial Magistrate Court of Dhaka, which released him on payment of a monetary penalty. Mr. Mainul was handed over to the Cantonment police, who charged Mainul in murder and illegal arms possession cases and detained him in prison.

Salim's whereabouts remain unknown. Upon repeated refusal by the local police to record a formal complaint regarding the incident, a Habeas Corpus writ case (Petition No. 2851 of 2010) was registered with the High Court Division Bench of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh. The Court heard the case once on 15 April. The country's Attorney General's office claimed before the Court that according to the official records of the RAB-4, Mr. Salim was not arrested or detained by them. After hearing both parties the Court issued a rule1 against the government and ordered seven respondents to explain the matter before the court within three weeks. However, the case has not been heard again and Mr. Salim remains disappeared to date.

Case-2:
Mr. Sujon, a businessman and political activist, was allegedly kidnapped by the members of the RAB-2 from a Dhaka city street on March 24, 2010 and remains disappeared to date. When the family attempted to register a case after learning of his abduction, the police refused to record the complaint as the allegations were against the members of the RAB-2, which enjoys impunity by default in the country. Later, following changes to the complaint, in which the RAB was no longer mentioned, a complaint was registered against unidentified persons.

According to the police investigation, three officers of the RAB-2 including Lieutenant Farhad, who was deputed to the RAB-2 from the Bangladesh Navy, and two Deputy Assistant Director (DAD) Rafique and Samsu used a prostitute to lure Sujon to a restaurant in the Farmgate area of Dhaka Metropolitan City, where they arrested, leading to his disappearance.

The police investigation found that from March 19 to 25 the prostitute had 25 conversations with Lieutenant Farhad, 17 conversations with DAD Masud and 3 calls to DAD Samsu's official cell phone numbers. After the allegation Lt. Farhad was sent back to the Bangladesh Navy, however, the issue has not proceeded any further. The police were allegedly forced to stop their investigation regarding this matter, according to anonymous sources within the police. The family of the disappeared person has not yet received any information regarding the whereabouts of Sujan.

Case-3:
Two brothers, Mr. Jalal Uddin and Mr. Lal Babu, were arrested by heavily armed the members of the RAB-4 at around 2 am on March 18, 2010, from an area known as Bihari Camp, where so-called "Stranded Pakistani" families are housed in the Dhaka Metropolitan City. The RAB-4 members cordoned the whole neighbourhood, according to the eye-witnesses of the scene of arresting Jalal Uddin and Lal Babu. The arrests were made without any explanation or the production of any arrest warrants. The local police refused to record a formal complaint by the victims' family members regarding the arrest and disappearance of the two brothers, stating that they "had nothing to do with the complaints against the RAB."

Case-4:
On March 19, 2010, at around 4:30 pm, timber-trader Mr. Akbor Ali Sharder was arrested along with one of his business partners, Mr. Bipin Chandra Sarker, from a sawmill in Thakurgaon district town by plain-clothed persons who identified themselves as being members of the RAB-5. When Akbor's wife, Ms. Parvin, went to the Thakurgaon police station to file a complaint the police detained her and blamed Akbor's business partner Bipin for kidnapping Akbor. Later, the police forced Bipin's younger brother, Mr. Robin Chandra Sarker, to file an abduction case against Akbor and claimed that they had detained Parvin as the spouse of a suspected criminal.

The following morning Bipin returned home and described that 13 plain-clothed persons arrested him and Akbor. The abductors blindfolded them and tied their hands behind their backs and transported them away in a microbus. The conversations among the plain-clothed persons reportedly identified them as being members of the RAB-5. The abductors demanded 3 million BDT (around 43,000 US$) from Akbor and Bipin.

Akbor remains disappeared to date. Akbor's elder brother, Mr. Ayub Ali Sarder, has told the AHRC that he has lodged a petition case with the Chief Judicial Magistrate's Court of Thakurgaon district and has addressed special complaint letters to high-ranking officials of the government, including the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Inspector General of Police. However, the authorities have not taken any visible actions regarding the disappearance of Akbor.

Ayub Ali reportedly held press conferences on two occasions accusing the RAB of having abducted his brother. According to eyewitnesses, Ayub Ali and a business partner, Mr. Abdur Rahman, were arrested on May 19, 2010, from Banosree area by a group of persons wearing black uniforms that resemble the uniform of the RAB, and also remain missing to date.

Case-5:
Mr. Chowdhury Alam, a counsellor of the Dhaka City Corporation, was stopped by a group of plain clothed persons at around 8:30pm on June 25, 2010. The plain clothed persons introduced themselves as members of the RAB. Alam was dragged out from his car and taken away in a microbus.

When Alam's son went to the local police to register a case regarding the abduction by the members of the RAB, the police recorded the compliant without including the name of the RAB. As Alam has remained disappeared, a Habeas Corpus writ petition was filed by Alam's son; however, as there was no official record found in favour of the incident of arrest by any of the law-enforcement agencies of the country, the Habeas Corpus was not accepted in the High Court Division of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh.

None of the above-mentioned cases have been credibly investigated by the authorities. The law-enforcement agencies, particularly the Rapid Action Battalion that is thought to be responsible for many of the abductions, continue to enjoy impunity. There has been no official record made publicly available regarding the arrests and detention of victims; all the allegations of abduction or arrest have been denied by the RAB; the police have refused to register formal complaints against the RAB regarding the disappearances and have further harassed the complainants and recorded erroneous information regarding the incidents. This obstructs attempts by relatives to locate their loved ones and seek justice concerning these abuses. Habeas Corpus applications cannot be registered, as the law-enforcement agencies do not maintain or provide any official records regarding the abduction or arrests, detention and whereabouts of the persons.

As there is no information or evidence regarding the victims? deaths, including dead bodies, the relatives cannot file murder charges against the perpetrators. If petition cases are registered with Magistrate's courts, they are investigated by police officers who only cover up crimes by their colleagues. Given Bangladesh?s seriously flawed criminal justice system, there is little hope of achieving justice concerning abuse perpetrated by state-actors for victims or their relatives.

Moreover, when the media and human rights defenders have attempted to document cases of enforced disappearances they have been seriously intimidated, obstructed and harassed by law-enforcement agencies and top officials of the government, including the office of Prime Minister, the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Ministry of Information, showing top-level complicity in the growing problem of forced disappearances.

Bangladesh has failed to show adequate cooperation with the HRC?s Special Procedures, including by failing to grant requests for country visits, inter alia, by the mandates on the independence of judges and lawyers, on extra-judicial killings or on the freedom of expression, all of which have had requests pending for several years. The Human Rights Council is urged to take all necessary steps to ensure that its membership improve their cooperation with its mechanisms. Bangladesh must be urged to halt the growing phenomenon of enforced disappearances and show its commitment to do so by ratifying the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance without delay and producing and implementing in full domestic legislation in line with the provisions of this instrument.

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO1008/S00381/enforced-disappearances-must-be-halted.htm



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[ALOCHONA] NY Times - 1971 Bangladesh War's Toll on Women, Undiscussed

August 24, 2010
War's Toll on Women, Undiscussed
By NILANJANA S. ROY
New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/25/world/asia/25iht-letter.html?pagewanted=print

NEW DELHI — The numbers are in dispute, but the story they tell has remained the same for four decades: 200,000 women (or 300,000, or 400,000, depending on the source) raped during the 1971 war in which East Pakistan broke with West Pakistan to become Bangladesh.

The American feminist Susan Brownmiller, quoting all three sets of statistics in her 1975 book "Against Our Will: Men, Women and Rape," compared the rapes of Bangladesh with the rapes of Chinese women by Japanese soldiers at Nanjing in 1937-38.

Accepting even the lowest set of figures for Bangladesh forces a horrifying comparison — the 1992-95 Bosnian war saw one-tenth the number of rapes as did the Bangladesh war. The rapes of Bosnian women forced the world to recognize rape as "an instrument of terror," as a crime against humanity. But so far no one has been held to account for the sexual violence against Bangladeshi women in 1971.

As the 40th anniversary of the 1971 war approaches, the Bangladeshi government has set up an International Crimes Tribunal to investigate the atrocities of that era. But human rights advocates and lawyers fear that the mass rapes and killings of women will not be adequately addressed. They hope to ensure they are.

"There has been a denial by certain political groups of the history of the war, and a failure to account for the crimes of sexual violence against women," said Sara Hossain, a human rights lawyer based in Dhaka.

For years, the experiences of women — the independence fighters, the victims of rape, the widows — during the war received little attention, their stories seldom told, the violence they experienced rarely acknowledged.

"As a young teenager in 1971, I had heard a lot about female university students, young village girls and women being raped and held captive, effectively forced into sexual slavery, in the military cantonment. But after the war, very soon, one heard nothing more," said Irene Khan, former secretary general of Amnesty International.

"Yes, we talk often of the hundreds of thousands of women who were raped, forced into sexual slavery, sexually attacked, but rarely are there any names or faces or individual stories," said Ms. Khan, who was born in Dhaka, now the capital of Bangladesh, and studied in England and the United States. "A conservative Muslim society has preferred to throw a veil of negligence and denial on the issue, allowed those who committed or colluded with gender violence to thrive, and left the women victims to struggle in anonymity and shame and without much state or community support."

In Dhaka, Meghna Guhathakurta, executive director of the nongovernmental group Research Initiatives, Bangladesh, insists that the plight of these women must not be ignored. "The issue of women's roles in the war of liberation has been foregrounded from time to time by women's groups. It cannot be evaded any more."

Later this year, the first English-language translation of an important oral history, "Women's 1971," will be published. This gathers the testimonies of women who were not just victims, but fighters like Taramon Bibi, one of only two women decorated for their combat service during the war, or who, like Ferdousi Priyobhashini, now a sculptor, used their experiences in the war as a springboard for self-transformation. Of the 19 women whose stories appear in this collection, 15 are Muslims, 2 are Hindus and 2 are Buddhists.

Ms. Guhathakurta writes in her introduction to the book: "Out of the 19 interviewees, 9 were rape victims. The rest spoke of their trials and tribulations after members of their families were killed."

The trauma of those who survived rape and other violence has been insufficiently addressed in Bangladesh, she says. "We feel it is necessary for officials, civil society and the international community to revisit the issue of sexual violence and war crimes."

Some believe that breaking the decades of denial is crucial.

"The major challenge," said Mofidul Hoque, trustee and member secretary of the Liberation War Museum in Dhaka, "is how to read the silence. I am confident we will hear lot of new voices, witness the breaking of the silence."

One of the major events planned for the 40th anniversary next year is a documentary film festival focusing on the 1971 war and human rights, with a special section on women. Another project focuses on research into the lives of the children born after 1971 to the "birangonas," or "blameless ones," as they were called by the new Bangladeshi government in 1972, in a not entirely successful attempt to persuade families to accept back the women who had suffered sexual violence.

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[ALOCHONA] VINAY LAL - The Expulsion of the Roma: France & the Anxieties of Transgression

The Expulsion of the Roma:France & the Anxieties of Transgression
by Vinay Lal
LAL SALAM BLOGPOST
August 23, 2010
http://vinaylal.wordpress.com/2010/08/23/the-expulsion-of-the-roma-france-the-anxieties-of-transgression/#comment-292

Some 150 years after the French Revolution, Chairman Mao was asked what he thought of that watershed moment in modern history. Mao is reported to have said, 'It's too early to tell'! Mao has been credited with many things, but his sardonic wit has been underestimated. What might he have had in mind? That a revolution devours its own children is something about which Mao would have known a thing or two. Could it be that the promise of the French Revolution had never been fulfilled? Whatever liberties the revolution brought to France, it diminished neither the appetite for colonies among the French nor their bloodthirstiness in suppressing the aspirations for freedom among others. Toussaint Louverture and the Haitians were among the first to be brought to the brutal awareness that 'liberty, equality, and fraternity' were intended to enrich the lives of not all humans but only those who pompously declared themselves custodians of civilization.

The French are at it again: when they are not purifying their language, or congratulating themselves for their supposed refinements – from wines and perfumes to lingerie and fashions — they are busy engaging in ethnic cleansing. Their attention has now turned to the Roma. Well might it be said that they scarcely have a monopoly on this exercise, what with Americans flying repeated sorties over the last few decades over Cambodia, Vietnam, Sudan, Iraq, and Afghanistan, to mention only some of the darker nations which have experienced the terror of American bombing, but of course no country has such fanciful ideas about its own 'civilization' as do the French. The French have never been short of overweening pride: the law of February 23 2005, before it was repealed by President Jacques Chirac in early 2006, stipulated that 'school courses should recognise in particular the positive role of the French presence overseas, notably in north Africa.' Even as the French National Assembly was pushing through this odious piece of legislation, the heavy hand of the state was coming down upon young men of North African origin who are largely viewed as inassimilable to French society.

On Thursday last week, the government of Nicolas Sarkozy expelled 700 Roma – or, in more common parlance, gypsies — from France, and many more expulsions are anticipated in coming weeks. The French police are dismantling what they describe as 'illegal camps' and deporting the Roma to Romania and Bulgaria. Some in the French government are describing themselves as surprised by the attention being given to the present round of expulsions, since they claim to have carried out 10,000 such expulsions last year without any publicity. Another predictable argument being furnished in favor of the expulsions is that the Roma are prone to theft and criminal activity, and public safety demands the removal of those who have overstayed their welcome. We might quibble about the word 'welcome', since even a modicum of familiarity with the history of the Roma suggests that they have never been welcomed in most parts of Europe. (The Roma, in varying numbers, have been expelled, quite recently, from Italy, Sweden, and Denmark.) Indeed, it is commonly forgotten that Hitler directed a ferocious campaign of extermination against the Roma as much as he did against Jews. But France has struck upon another ingenious method to ward off criticism: in the official version, the departures of the Roma are 'voluntary' and the resettlement sum of US $385 that has been given to each Roma is a testimony to the goodwill of the French. This piece of deception serves two purposes: first, it seeks to insulate the French against a legal challenge from human rights activists and, in particular, the European Court of Human Rights. Secondly, since international law specifically prohibits targeting an entire group on the basis of ethnicity, religion, sexual preferences, and so on, France can present the departing Roma as animated by individual choice.

We need not waste time in asking if the French are racist. They are. Their history of barbaric conduct, whether in Indochina or Algeria, provides unimpeachable evidence of their sentiments. The question now raised by their expulsion of the Roma is a different one: just what is it about the Roma, small in numbers and living at the extreme margins of society, that arouses the anxieties of the French and others in Western Europe? Supposing it were true that the Roma are prone to criminal activity, as is commonly argued even if it is far from established, it is also clear that they largely stand charged of insolent behavior, petty theft, and conduct that fills 'ordinary' or 'normal' people with uneasiness. The Roma seem menacing; that, apparently, is their real crime. We notice how, in the dominant discourse about the Roma, they are always spoken of as a collectivity, so that every Roma stands implicated in criminal activity, something like the 'criminal tribes' invented by the British in colonial India. Supposing, again, that they were criminals, their petty crimes pale in comparison to the monstrous atrocities committed by the French in their colonies. So what is it about the Roma that disturbs the placid waters of French self-enchantment?

The history of the modern world has been shaped around the nation-state, and many historians, among them Eugen Weber in his famous Peasants into Frenchmen, have chronicled the bloody process of nation making. People have to be cajoled into constituting themselves as subjects of the nation-state, and the national anthem and the national flag exist to remind those with wavering loyalties that the nation-state is a stern taskmaster. Above all, however, the nation-state is marked by boundaries, generally well-defined and occasionally contested, and the map is enlisted to turn these boundaries into stone. Once the nation-state comes into place, it views its boundaries as sacrosanct and worthy of the highest approbation. The most characteristic feature of the Roma, of course, is the fact their entire mode of living is in defiance of the logic of the nation-state. The Roma represent a time when, in their (from the standpoint of modernity) state of un-freedom, the ancestors of those Europeans who today inhabit the various nations-state of Europe could wander around relatively unhindered. Modernity's own preferred narrative about itself is to think of modern times as uniquely characterized by extreme mobility, but such mobility is, in fact, highly restricted and bears little relationship to the nomadic sensibility of the Roma. There is, thus, in the activities of the Roma a mix of anxiety and envy that Europeans experience: envy because the Roma, forsaking the protocols of the nation-state and modern bourgeois living, embody an admirable spirit of freedom and lack of self-restraint; and anxiety because their transgressions generate acute uncertainty, a fear that the boundaries placed between the self and the other will collapse. If Europe is not to become even duller than it is, living on its museums, heritage sites, and the various affects of 'the refined life', it would do well to learn to live with the Roma.

------------------------------------

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[ALOCHONA] Invisible govt ?



Invisible govt ?
 
 
 


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[ALOCHONA] Fwd: [Dahuk]: Tony Blair's visit and some embarrassing questions



-------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Shimul Chaudhury

The New Age, Dhaka, 24 August 2010
http://www.newagebd.com/2010/aug/24/fb.html

Tony Blair's visit and some embarrassing questions

Tony Blair was given a VVIP protocol during his Bangladesh visit on 20-22 August 2010. He is not the incumbent prime minister of Britain and I very much doubt his current position justifies this high profile reception. Moreover, this overenthusiastic welcome poses some questions which are embarrassing for both Sheikh Hasina and for Blair himself.

Does Tony Blair know that Sheikh Hasina's cabinet is dominated by the Lefties whose British counterparts have been demanding for his trial as a war criminal? Do the Lefties in Hasina's government know that their friends belonging to the Stop the War Coalition in Britain want to see Blair in jail and not visiting Bangladesh?

Lastly, but most importantly, while Sheikh Hasina's government has been arresting leaders of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami on charges of war crimes during Bangladesh's liberation war in 1971, she did something totally different to an obvious and internationally known war criminal.

Tony Blair is a recognised war criminal who co-authored the deaths of more than a million Iraqis and the destruction of a country that has been Bangladesh's staunchest friend, as Saddam was Mujib's. For Tony Blair's war crimes, millions of people are there as witnesses in his own country, let alone in Iraq and the rest of the world.

So Hasina should've known that she was offering lavish reception to a murderer who has been immensely benefited financially through his war credentials (please see an article by the British writer Robin Beste at http: //stopwar.org.uk/content/view/2036/27/).

This is a strange world. More perplexing is the state of affairs with Sheikh Hasina's government.

   A citizen
   Via e-mail


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[ALOCHONA] Enforced Disappearances Must Be Halted



Enforced Disappearances Must Be Halted
 
The Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) has previously made numerous submissions to the Human Rights Council (HRC) concerning a range of human rights issues in Bangladesh, including mass arbitrary arrests, endemic torture and widespread extra-judicial killings. The ALRC has noted in the last year a new trend that is of serious concern: an increase in the number of forced disappearances being reported in the country. It is understood that due to increased local outcry and international attention being given to the hundreds of extra-judicial killings that have been committed by Bangladesh's law-enforcement agencies, these are now increasingly resorting instead to forced disappearances, as this practice makes it harder to find those killed, identify the methods used to kill them or those responsible. In a justice system already crippled by impunity, the practice of forced disappearance makes it even harder for justice to be served.

The ALRC recalls that Bangladesh is a long-standing member of the Human Rights Council and despite it pledges to the international community given as part of its election to the body and the requirement for the HRC's members to uphold human rights to the highest standards, Bangladesh has allowed widespread and grave human rights to be committed by state agents with total impunity. It is feared that the recorded increase in forced disappearances now marks a new phase in this regrettable record of abuse of rights that are enshrined in the country's constitution as well as its international legal obligations, and of non-cooperation with the Human Rights Council.

Bangladesh acceded to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) on September 6, 2000, that prohibits the grave violations of rights highlighted above. According to Article 6 and 2 of the ICCPR, Bangladesh respectively has the obligations to ensure the right to life of its people and to ensure prompt and effective reparation where violations occur. It is also obliged to bring legislation into conformity with the ICCPR. Article 32 of the Constitution of Bangladesh protects the fundamental right to life and liberty, stating that: "No person shall be deprived of life or personal liberty, save in accordance with law." In reality, this has not been implemented and this most fundamental right is being repeatedly violated with complete impunity.

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC), the ALRC's sister organisation, has documented several recent cases of disappearances that speak to the increase in this practice. These examples should serve as an early warning concerning a problem that, if unchecked, will likely flourish, taking on the dimensions of other related grave abuses such as extra-judicial killings, in the country. The Human Rights Council is there urged to take appropriate action to ensure that Bangladesh puts a halt to this practice and ensures that the whereabouts of the disappeared are located, accompanied by adequate punishment to the perpetrators and redress for the victims and their families.

Case-1:
Mr. Mohammad Salim Mian, a fruit-trading businessman, was picked up by the members of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) from Salim's relative's house at Pirojpur village under the jurisdiction of the Kapasia police of the Gazipur distirict early in the morning of February 19, 2010 along with two other persons. The members of the paramilitary RAB force handcuffed and blindfolded the three persons and took them away in vehicles. The three persons were detained in unidentified places for several days without any publicly available official record of their arrest. Later, the other two co-detainees, Mr. Mainul and Mr. Mohammad Ali Hossain, stated that Salim had been held in the custody of the 4th Battalion of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB-4) at Paikpara, in the Dhaka Metropolitan city jurisdiction.

On February 28, the RAB-4 officials handed over Hossain to the Kafrul police, who fabricated a case against Hossain before producing him before the Chief Metropolitan Judicial Magistrate Court of Dhaka, which released him on payment of a monetary penalty. Mr. Mainul was handed over to the Cantonment police, who charged Mainul in murder and illegal arms possession cases and detained him in prison.

Salim's whereabouts remain unknown. Upon repeated refusal by the local police to record a formal complaint regarding the incident, a Habeas Corpus writ case (Petition No. 2851 of 2010) was registered with the High Court Division Bench of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh. The Court heard the case once on 15 April. The country's Attorney General's office claimed before the Court that according to the official records of the RAB-4, Mr. Salim was not arrested or detained by them. After hearing both parties the Court issued a rule1 against the government and ordered seven respondents to explain the matter before the court within three weeks. However, the case has not been heard again and Mr. Salim remains disappeared to date.

Case-2:
Mr. Sujon, a businessman and political activist, was allegedly kidnapped by the members of the RAB-2 from a Dhaka city street on March 24, 2010 and remains disappeared to date. When the family attempted to register a case after learning of his abduction, the police refused to record the complaint as the allegations were against the members of the RAB-2, which enjoys impunity by default in the country. Later, following changes to the complaint, in which the RAB was no longer mentioned, a complaint was registered against unidentified persons.

According to the police investigation, three officers of the RAB-2 including Lieutenant Farhad, who was deputed to the RAB-2 from the Bangladesh Navy, and two Deputy Assistant Director (DAD) Rafique and Samsu used a prostitute to lure Sujon to a restaurant in the Farmgate area of Dhaka Metropolitan City, where they arrested, leading to his disappearance.

The police investigation found that from March 19 to 25 the prostitute had 25 conversations with Lieutenant Farhad, 17 conversations with DAD Masud and 3 calls to DAD Samsu's official cell phone numbers. After the allegation Lt. Farhad was sent back to the Bangladesh Navy, however, the issue has not proceeded any further. The police were allegedly forced to stop their investigation regarding this matter, according to anonymous sources within the police. The family of the disappeared person has not yet received any information regarding the whereabouts of Sujan.

Case-3:
Two brothers, Mr. Jalal Uddin and Mr. Lal Babu, were arrested by heavily armed the members of the RAB-4 at around 2 am on March 18, 2010, from an area known as Bihari Camp, where so-called "Stranded Pakistani" families are housed in the Dhaka Metropolitan City. The RAB-4 members cordoned the whole neighbourhood, according to the eye-witnesses of the scene of arresting Jalal Uddin and Lal Babu. The arrests were made without any explanation or the production of any arrest warrants. The local police refused to record a formal complaint by the victims' family members regarding the arrest and disappearance of the two brothers, stating that they "had nothing to do with the complaints against the RAB."

Case-4:
On March 19, 2010, at around 4:30 pm, timber-trader Mr. Akbor Ali Sharder was arrested along with one of his business partners, Mr. Bipin Chandra Sarker, from a sawmill in Thakurgaon district town by plain-clothed persons who identified themselves as being members of the RAB-5. When Akbor's wife, Ms. Parvin, went to the Thakurgaon police station to file a complaint the police detained her and blamed Akbor's business partner Bipin for kidnapping Akbor. Later, the police forced Bipin's younger brother, Mr. Robin Chandra Sarker, to file an abduction case against Akbor and claimed that they had detained Parvin as the spouse of a suspected criminal.

The following morning Bipin returned home and described that 13 plain-clothed persons arrested him and Akbor. The abductors blindfolded them and tied their hands behind their backs and transported them away in a microbus. The conversations among the plain-clothed persons reportedly identified them as being members of the RAB-5. The abductors demanded 3 million BDT (around 43,000 US$) from Akbor and Bipin.

Akbor remains disappeared to date. Akbor's elder brother, Mr. Ayub Ali Sarder, has told the AHRC that he has lodged a petition case with the Chief Judicial Magistrate's Court of Thakurgaon district and has addressed special complaint letters to high-ranking officials of the government, including the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Inspector General of Police. However, the authorities have not taken any visible actions regarding the disappearance of Akbor.

Ayub Ali reportedly held press conferences on two occasions accusing the RAB of having abducted his brother. According to eyewitnesses, Ayub Ali and a business partner, Mr. Abdur Rahman, were arrested on May 19, 2010, from Banosree area by a group of persons wearing black uniforms that resemble the uniform of the RAB, and also remain missing to date.

Case-5:
Mr. Chowdhury Alam, a counsellor of the Dhaka City Corporation, was stopped by a group of plain clothed persons at around 8:30pm on June 25, 2010. The plain clothed persons introduced themselves as members of the RAB. Alam was dragged out from his car and taken away in a microbus.

When Alam's son went to the local police to register a case regarding the abduction by the members of the RAB, the police recorded the compliant without including the name of the RAB. As Alam has remained disappeared, a Habeas Corpus writ petition was filed by Alam's son; however, as there was no official record found in favour of the incident of arrest by any of the law-enforcement agencies of the country, the Habeas Corpus was not accepted in the High Court Division of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh.

None of the above-mentioned cases have been credibly investigated by the authorities. The law-enforcement agencies, particularly the Rapid Action Battalion that is thought to be responsible for many of the abductions, continue to enjoy impunity. There has been no official record made publicly available regarding the arrests and detention of victims; all the allegations of abduction or arrest have been denied by the RAB; the police have refused to register formal complaints against the RAB regarding the disappearances and have further harassed the complainants and recorded erroneous information regarding the incidents. This obstructs attempts by relatives to locate their loved ones and seek justice concerning these abuses. Habeas Corpus applications cannot be registered, as the law-enforcement agencies do not maintain or provide any official records regarding the abduction or arrests, detention and whereabouts of the persons.

As there is no information or evidence regarding the victims' deaths, including dead bodies, the relatives cannot file murder charges against the perpetrators. If petition cases are registered with Magistrate's courts, they are investigated by police officers who only cover up crimes by their colleagues. Given Bangladesh's seriously flawed criminal justice system, there is little hope of achieving justice concerning abuse perpetrated by state-actors for victims or their relatives.

Moreover, when the media and human rights defenders have attempted to document cases of enforced disappearances they have been seriously intimidated, obstructed and harassed by law-enforcement agencies and top officials of the government, including the office of Prime Minister, the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Ministry of Information, showing top-level complicity in the growing problem of forced disappearances.

Bangladesh has failed to show adequate cooperation with the HRC's Special Procedures, including by failing to grant requests for country visits, inter alia, by the mandates on the independence of judges and lawyers, on extra-judicial killings or on the freedom of expression, all of which have had requests pending for several years. The Human Rights Council is urged to take all necessary steps to ensure that its membership improve their cooperation with its mechanisms. Bangladesh must be urged to halt the growing phenomenon of enforced disappearances and show its commitment to do so by ratifying the International Convention for the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance without delay and producing and implementing in full domestic legislation in line with the provisions of this instrument.

http://www.scoop.co.nz/stories/WO1008/S00381/enforced-disappearances-must-be-halted.htm



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[ALOCHONA] Who cares about Pakistan?



Who cares about Pakistan?

Donations have been sluggish to the Pakistan floods appeals, as they were back in 2005 when the part of Kashmir the country administers was torn apart by an earthquake. The BBC News website asked some experts to comment on possible reasons why.

Donor fatigue

Dr Marie Lall, Pakistan expert at the Royal Institute of International Affairs (Chatham House) and senior lecturer at the Institute of Education, says: "I think there is donor fatigue all around. The [2004] Indian Ocean tsunami, the Burmese Cyclone [Nargis, 2008], the [2005] Pakistan earthquake, and [this year's] Haiti earthquake. It is getting too much; we are in a recession and people are short of money."

Camps at a displaced person's camp in Pakistan Is there a limit to our emotional response to images of suffering?

Rebecca Wynn, Pakistan specialist for UK-based aid agency Oxfam, says: "Many donors have made substantial contributions in humanitarian assistance to Pakistan over the years, particularly in response to the conflict-related displacements over the last two years. Of course, the fact that the people of Pakistan have been hit time and again by disaster is even more reason to give."

Dr Elizabeth Ferris, senior fellow at the US-based Brookings Institution, a foreign policy think tank, says: "It should also be noted that the international humanitarian system isn't set up to deal with more than one major crisis a year. USAID, for example, committed one-third of its annual budget to the Haitian earthquake response. And among the general public there may be a feeling of, 'Well, I donated to the victims of the Haitian earthquake and Haiti is a far needier country than Pakistan.'"

Corruption

Yale University economics professor Dean Karlan, an expert on charitable giving, says: "Corruption concerns may explain why giving is lower to developing countries than many would like it to be, but it does not explain why there is less money pouring into Pakistan now than does to disaster relief causes in other developing countries with similar governance issues."

Dr Marie Lall says: "People in Pakistan are sceptical the government will be transparent. But they are giving to philanthropic organisations. In the UK, I think people are sceptical of [non-governmental organisations'] overheads and costs. They don't know which ones are transparent and reliable, even though local organisations such as TCF [The Citizens' Foundation] are doing an incredible job."

Dr Elizabeth Ferris says: "People are always sceptical about their money reaching flood victims, particularly in countries with reputations for corruption. But Haiti didn't have a very good reputation in this regard. [Pakistan] President [Asif Ali] Zardari trip to Europe [during the floods] was not a good move. For a few days, that was the 'story' of the Pakistani floods, which doesn't inspire people to be generous, particularly in this economic climate."

Terrorism

Dr Marie Lall says: "British Prime Minister David Cameron's comments in India [when he said Islamabad promoted the export of terror] did not help."

Dr Elizabeth Ferris says: "People are less likely to donate to any country seen as a haven for terrorism. And more generally, the fact that so much Western news coverage in recent years about Pakistan has been negative, stressing its links with the conflict in Afghanistan. I think this is the major reason for the slow public response - the image of Pakistan in our media. There may also be a feeling, particularly in the US, that Islamic governments and charities should be stepping up to the plate to donate."

Timing

Rebecca Wynn says: "This disaster has come at a bad time, following the financial crisis and the Haiti earthquake. Many donors made huge commitments to Haiti, so may find it hard to fund another major disaster, particularly in the same year."

Dr Marie Lall says: "Timing may be a factor, but I think it's more to do with not realising the scale of the disaster, and the attitude by the British government; the UK should be leading the aid effort, given the Pakistani diaspora here and the fact that we need Pakistan for the war in Afghanistan."

'Wrong' disaster

Professor Dean Karlan says: "Sudden events seem to generate more funds. A flood (and droughts) happen gradually and build. There isn't any one single day in which news is huge. For the same reason, this pushes the story away from the media spotlight. But massive and sudden earthquakes or tsunamis draw our immediate attention and shock us."

Dr Elizabeth Ferris says: "It's important to note that in general people are likely to give more to emergencies occurring in countries geographically closer to them - although this didn't hold true for the tsunami. But when you trace contributions over time, you find that Americans and Canadians are more likely to respond to disasters in the Western hemisphere while Europeans tend to be more responsive to African countries (and their former colonies, in particular)."

Dr Marie Lall says: "This was not one cataclysmic event, but one which grew over three weeks. The fact that 25% of the country was or is under water is not understood. The low numbers of dead, relatively speaking, mask the disaster on the ground. The crisis has destroyed crops, dead livestock and damaged homes and infrastructure. Food prices are through the roof and there won't be a normal harvest. It will get worse. Farmers will starve."

BBC website readers have been sending in their views. Here are some of their comments.

A lot of people I know feel that some of the very wealthy Muslim countries (Saudi Arabia etc) should step in and help those who are their religious brethren rather than always expecting the currently cash strapped countries who always give to keep on giving. Donor fatigue of some type but more that we are fatigued with always being the ones expected to help. Also celebrities such as Bono and Bob Geldof are always banging on about how we should give our money when if they each gave 50% of their money, a lot of help could be given. Fleur, Devon, UK

I believe donations from the West will perk up when we read that it has been confirmed that Muslim nations such as Saudi Arabia have donated sizeable sums. I read this morning that India, traditionally Pakistan's 'enemy' , has offered help, but no news of similar offers of help from Muslim countries. C Burns, Longfield, UK

I don't think it's necessary to donate any money to Pakistan because there's enough money - and support - available within the Islamic community (particularly from the oil-rich Gulf states and Saudi Arabia). The Saudis spend millions of petro-dollars every year to help get mosques built all over the world. I'm sure the Saudis alone could fund the whole recovery of their Islamic compatriots in Pakistan, particularly as they employ so many guest workers from Pakistan. However, I'm pleased to see that the Pakistan government have accepted aid from India. I am supporting the Haitian appeal - these desperate people don't have the support of wealthy Islamic countries. Rupert Templeman, Bournemouth, Dorset, UK

Pakistan has a long history of corruption and military rule. People of Pakistan have been suffring in general from a lack of basic necessities. After 65 years of independence it is still under developed due to bad management. The most likely reason for the slow response for help, I believe, is due to its links to terrorism. Bhupendra Shah, North Bergen New Jersey, USA

There are many good explanations as to why aid has been slow to trickle into Pakistan given the sheer extent of the disaster. However, next to Israel, Pakistan has probably the worst international image around right now. Pakistan is unfortunately associated with Afghanistan, Bin Laden and Mullah Omar. Another important dynamic not quite appreciated is that there is a significant Pakistan-rooted diaspora worldwide in many Western countries and richer Arab Gulf countries. After 9/11 there has been significant tension and unease between the Pakistan-based communities and the host countries, due to the perceived 'homegrown' terror threat. Therefore, in the West, I think the dynamic of negative views towards Pakistanis amongst their communities rather than just a negative view of the nation is at play. Raja Mohammed, Surrey, UK

Donations have been sluggish I think because Pakistan spends billions on its military and yet cries out for help because of a natural disaster. Their government needs to sort its priorities out. Yvette, Kent, UK

This is a civilised country with nuclear power and missiles. A monsoon season comes every year. It's no volcano, no earthquake, and not a one-off natural disaster. Chris Jeffery, Odessa, Ukraine

If they can afford to be a nuclear country and boast about it, then they should be able to look after their own people. Ohanes, UK

Apart from various reasons given, there is the perception that historically the Pakistani government and politicians have deliberately misdirected aid for humanitarian causes to other channels like in military projects. Obviously people and foreign governments somehow lack trust in Pakistan. Satya S Issar, Wraysbury, Staines, UK

I think the fact that Pakistan has spent great sums on nuclear weapons aimed at India instead of preparing for catastrophic monsoons is one part of the explanation why donations are so low. The rest of the world has run out of sympathy for Pakistan. Fredrik Andersson, Gothenburg, Sweden

These "experts" are so far from the mark it's hard to believe. Countries like India and Pakistan are not poor - any country that can fund a nuclear program and have the massive armed forces they have, should be able to look after themselves. Plus there's the ex-pat factor - there's a large community in the UK who think of themselves as Pakistanis first and they will be giving through other ways and means. Tony, Leeds, UK

It is very interesting to see how much fellow Muslim countries are giving in aid, if anything at all. The mega rich Arab oil states have given very little, apart from Saudi Arabia who has donated $40 million or so - which is not a lot considering how wealthy they are. A J Wawn, Bedford, UK

Any country that sends its top politician on a jolly around Europe and insists on wasting money on nuclear weapons in my opinion has money enough to look after its own. James, Cheshire, UK

Lack of media coverage and lack of heart-wrenching stories. It's all very much 'another day in Pakistan'. It needs/needed to be the first and main news story on every news channel, with numbers for people to understand the scale - e.g.,number of cattle or other animals dead, as a proportion of the number needed by the country. Satellite images detailing the flooding perhaps. The news story currently lacks 'drama'. I give regularly to charities and causes such as this but even I didn't fully appreciate the scale until this week. Loz, UK

When the Pakistani government chooses to spend their revenue funding nuclear weapons and maintaining the sixth largest armed forces in the world they have no right to plead poverty when the monsoon is heavier than normal. Haiti were already one of the poorest countries in the world when an unforeseeable earthquake hit them - they deserve charitable giving. It is hard to feel the same way about Pakistan. Dave Fulton, Seaham, UK

The 'elephant in the room' is that Pakistan is not a 'popular' country, because of its negative associations with terrorism. People may also feel negatively towards poor, developing countries which spend billions on arms, including nuclear weapons. C Matthews, Birmingham, UK

While acknowledging the floods exist, the problem is that there are simply too many people living in a flood plain. They chose to live there. The good times were good. This is a bad time. We should make provision in the good times (for the bad will always come - nature's like that). If there were fewer people, there would be more food to go round, more space on higher ground, and the aid agencies would have an easier task. It's a basic problem. Haiti was similar. C A Turner, Salisbury, UK
 


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[ALOCHONA] Khaleda Zia with Jamat leaders



Khaleda Zia with Jamat leaders
 
 


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