India calls 'ceasefire' on border crossings
By Syed Tashfin Chowdhury
DHAKA - Efforts to transform the India-Bangladesh border from a 4,000 kilometer long zone of terrorism, smuggling and human trafficking into a peaceful barrier punctured by numerous trade corridors took a big step forward last week with a pledge that India's Border Security Force (BSF) would no longer shoot people crossing from one country to the other.
Indian Home Minister Palaniappan Chidambaram made the promise in Dhaka after signing of comprehensive border management deal on July 30.
"Let me make it very clear ... we have issued strict instructions to our Border Security Force that under no circumstances should they fire upon anyone trying to cross from either Bangladesh to India or India to Bangladesh. The message has gone down to the last jawan [private soldier]," he told a press conference.
The BSF has killed 20 Bangladeshis and wounded 50 so far this year, according to Bangladesh-based human-rights organization Odhikar. Chidambaram said seven people had been killed at the border this year, and 33 last year. As many as 930 Bangladeshis were killed from 2000 to last September, according to Human Rights Watch, citing Odhikar data.
"The only situation in which we have said firing may be justified is when a gang actually attacks a BSF jawan or an office," said Chidambaram. "Then he has to protect himself and fire in self-defense."
The director general of Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB), Major General Anwar Hussain, and the director general of the Indian BSF, Raman Srivastava, earlier signed a "Bangladesh and India Coordinated Border Management Plan" to stop cross-border crimes such as terrorism, drug smuggling and human trafficking. The sides agreed to cooperate on security and expressed their resolve to jointly combat insurgency, militancy and terrorism.
Chidambaran's visit precedes a trip to Dhaka early next month by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh when a series of border-related agreements are expected to be finalized, an indication of the increasingly warm ties between the two countries.
At the end of last month, a border weekly market, or haat, was allowed to operate in Meghalaya district for the first time since 1971, and also in July the Indian Supreme Court gave the go-ahead to a ground-breaking cross-border cement project agreed to more than 10 years earlier.
Bangladesh has meanwhile taken a "political decision" to give transit to India as the "current government wants to establish all modes of connectivity in the region", Foreign Minister Dipu Moni said last month. One goal is to ease transit across Bangladesh's northern and eastern borders to improve sea access for India's far northeastern states.
India also wants improved road and railway routes that would allow it better access from Kolkata, the commercial capital of eastern India, across the Ganges Delta to the important port of Chittagong.
Chidambaram said outstanding issues concerning 6.5 kilometers of border demarcation, the transfer of enclaves and disputed land possession may be resolved during Manmohan's visit. As many as 51,000 people, 17,000 of them Bangladeshis, live in the 162 enclaves and exclaves that dot both sides of the border areas.
Asked whether the residents would be provided the opportunity to choose citizenship, he said the fate of the inhabitants would be decided by the countries' prime ministers when they met in Dhaka.
At a meeting of officials, Bangladesh's State Minister for Home Affairs, Shamsul Hoque Tuku, expressed "deep concern over the killing of innocent Bangladeshis by BSF, trafficking of women and children and smuggling of phensedyl from India to Bangladesh".
Phensedyl is an intoxicating cough syrup banned in Bangladesh and manufactured at factories along the Indian side of the border. Bangladeshi Home Minister Sahara Khatun told the meeting the factories had now been closed.
According to a recent United Nations Children's Fund report, about 400 women and children in Bangladesh are trafficked each month from Bangladesh. More than 300,000 Bangladeshi women and children had been trafficked to India in the past decade and another 200,000 were sold in Pakistan, the report said.
One issue that may continue to test relations is Dhaka's determination to secure the capture of Captain Abdul Majed and Risaldar Mosleuddin Khan, two fugitives found guilty of being involved in the 1975 killing of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the country's first president. The Bangladesh government believes the two, who have been sentenced to death, are in India.
Bangladeshi Home Minister Sahara Khatun told the press conference that Bangladesh had sought India's cooperation in the search for the two men. Chidambaram said they may be in India and his government would "leave no stone unturned to apprehend the convicts" although they will need more information and intelligence from Bangladesh on the issue.
On the general border issue, Bangladesh would "hand over a list of vulnerable border points being used for criminal activities", the Daily Star reported, citing a Home Ministry official. At least 700 kilometers of the border, on rivers and other points, are unfenced.
As relations have improved, and amid Bangladesh's repeated requests to India to stop killings and torture at the border, the BSF has resorted to more unusual methods, as widely reported in the Bangladesh media this month.
Bangladeshi cattle trader Rafiqul Islam was killed on July 2 while crossing the Saniyazan River with cattle, after being hit by stones thrown by BSF jawans. BGB officials later confirmed the killing.
Two days earlier, a 25-year-old Bangladeshi farmer, Selim Hossain, while working at a paddy field on the Bangladesh side of the border, was allegedly dragged into Indian territory by BSF jawans who had crossed the border in Chuadanga district, locals said. An hour later, people found Selim's body hanging from an electrified barbwire fence on the Indian side of the border.
Residents in dangerous areas will be hoping that the BSF will abide by Chidambaram's order from now on.
Syed Tashfin Chowdhury is a senior staff writer at New Age in Dhaka.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/MH04Df03.html
End killings, abuses, HRW asks BSFRights watchdog Human Rights Watch (HRW) has asked the Indian government to carry out investigations into fresh allegations of killings, torture and other abuses by its Border Security Force (BSF) on Bangladesh border.
Saying that killings and severe abuses continue to take place despite India's stated commitment to abide by international principles and exercise restraint at the border, the New York-based organisation asked the Indian government to ensure prosecution of those found guilty of such crimes.
In December last year, a HRW report titled 'Trigger Happy' prompted the Indian authorities to announce steps to stop killings at the border, including the use of rubber bullets instead of more lethal ammunition, a HRW news release said Monday.
The report outlined extrajudicial killings, arbitrary detentions, torture and mistreatment of both Bangladeshi and Indian nationals by the BSF over the past decade.
Although there has been a significant decline in the number of deaths caused by shootings at the border this year, at least 17 Bangladeshis have allegedly been killed by BSF soldiers since January, according to Odhikar, a Bangladeshi non-governmental organisation.
Local groups documented several cases of deaths as a result of severe beatings by BSF men, as well as cases of aggressive intimidation.
Earlier this year, Odhikar reported two separate incidents where cattle farmers died as a result of excessive violence.
Mizanur Rahman, 25, was allegedly beaten to death by BSF men after he crossed the border into India. His body was later dumped into the Saniyazan River. The BSF also killed Rekatul Islam, 17, as he and his accomplice tried to smuggle cattle into the neighbouring country.
Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director of the HRW, demanded an end to the longstanding impunity for abuses along the border.
"The [Indian] government has issued some positive new directives, but it needs to prosecute those who commit abuses so the soldiers will understand they can't act with impunity," she said.
The BSF is responsible for addressing illegal activities at the border, such as narcotics smuggling and human but in most cases victims were cattle rustlers, farmers, or labourers hoping to supplement their meagre livelihoods by working as couriers in the illegal cattle trade at the West Bengal border.
The HRW press release concluded that Indian authorities need to do more to ensure accountability for violations committed by their border force men and to ensure compliance with international laws.
http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/latest_news.php?nid=31095
-------------
Human Rights Watch
(New York, July 25, 2011) – The government oof India should undertake a speedy, fair, and transparent criminal investigation into fresh allegations of killings, torture, and other abuses by the Border Security Force (BSF) at the border with Bangladesh, Human Rights Watch said today. Those against whom there is credible evidence of culpability should be prosecuted as part of an effort to end longstanding impunity for abuses along the border.
In December 2010, Human Rights Watch released a report, Trigger Happy, documenting extrajudicial killings, arbitrary detention, torture, and ill-treatment by the BSF. In the past decade, the BSF has killed Indian and Bangladeshi nationals. After the release of the report, Indian authorities assured Bangladeshi officials that these killings would be stopped. The government announced that it would order restraint and encourage the use of rubber bullets instead of more lethal ammunition, steps welcomed by Human Rights Watch.
While the number of deaths due to shooting has substantially decreased in 2011, the Bangladeshi non-governmental organization Odhikar has documented at least 17 alleged killings of Bangladeshis by the border force and other instances of severe abuse since January. Local groups have documented several cases of deaths as a result of severe beatings by the BSF.
Despite orders from New Delhi to end killings and abuse and to exercise restraint in dealing with people crossing the border, new deaths and other serious abuses are being reported, said Meenakshi Ganguly, South Asia director for Human Rights Watch. The government has issued some positive new directives, but it needs to prosecute those who commit abuses so the soldiers will understand they can't act with impunity.
MASUM, a Kolkatta-based non-governmental organization that conducts fact-finding in the border areas, reports that while the number of shootings at the border has significantly reduced, BSF soldiers have been brutally beating and torturing suspects. Indian residents in the border area, while expressing relief that the indiscriminate shootings have stopped, have complained about aggressive intimidation and beatings.
In one recent example, MASUM reported to the National Human Rights Commission of India that on July 13, a group of soldiers from the 91st battalion of the border force threatened a local human rights worker, Kanai Mondal, in the village of Char Rajanagar, holding a gun to his head to demand that he take down posters calling for an end to torture. The soldiers also threatened other activists and confiscated posters, MASUM said.
On June 30, BSF forces killed Mizanur Rahman, 25. According to Odhikar, he had slipped into India along with four other cattle rustlers, when border guards intercepted them. The others escaped, but the soldiers allegedly beat Rahman to death and dumped his body into the Saniyazan River.
On June 2, Odhikar documented two cases where BSF soldiers intercepted groups of cattle smugglers. According to Odhikar, Rafiqul Islam, 35, from Satkhira, was badly beaten and then dumped inside Bangladeshi territory, where Bangladesh Border Guards found him and took him to a hospital. In a separate incident, Indian soldiers caught Fazlur Rahman and his accomplices near the Panitor-Gazipur border. While the others escaped, Fazlur was badly beaten and left unconscious inside Bangladesh.
On April 18, 2011, border force soldiers killed Rekatul Islam, 17, as he and his accomplice, Mohammad Shahdat Hossain Odhikar, tried to smuggle cattle across the border. Shahdat said they were stopped by BSF soldiers as they tried to cross the border with 10 cows. Shahdat was injured, but escaped.
On April 9, MASUM reported that Biswanath Soren, an elderly Indian man, was beaten by border force troopers he believes were intoxicated. They brandished their firearms to intimidate him and finally released him, he said. Soren sent a written complaint to the police, but no action has been taken.
The excessive use of force and the arbitrary beating of people along the border are unjustifiable, Ganguly said. These abuses call into question india's stated commitments to the rule of law.
Many people routinely move back and forth across India's frontier with Bangladesh to visit relatives, buy supplies, and look for jobs. Others engage in petty and serious cross-border crime. The border force is mandated to address illegal activities, especially narcotics smuggling, human trafficking for sex work, and transporting fake currency and explosives. It also works to stop militants planning violent attacks in India's restive northeast.
In many of the cases investigated by Human Rights Watch, however, the victims were cattle rustlers, farmers, or laborers who said they were hoping to supplement their meager livelihoods by working as couriers in the lucrative but illegal cattle trade that is rampant at the West Bengal border.
Local police forces rarely register complaints against border security and sometimes encourage the victims to drop their cases, telling them that nothing will come of it. One victim told Human Rights Watch that the police informed him that the border forces had committed no crime since they were there “to beat the people.
The Indian government needs to do more to ensure accountability for violations committed by the border force soldiers and to ensure compliance with the United Nations Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials, Human Rights Watch said.
While the Indian authorities vigorously protest attacks on fishermen who enter Sri Lankan waters, they seem unwilling to act against their own border forces when they commit crimes against Bangladeshis, Ganguly said. As a regional power, India should lead by example in South Asia to end the culture of impunity for security forces.
------------------------------------------------------
For more Human Rights Watch reporting on India, please visit:
"hrw.pr-optout.com" claiming to be http://www.hrw.org/en/asia/india
For more information, please contact:
In Mumbai, Meenakshi Ganguly (English, Hindi, Bengali): +91-98-200-36032 (mobile); or gangulm@hrw.org
In London, Brad Adams (English): +44-0-7908-728333 (mobile); or adamsb@hrw.org
In New York, Elaine Pearson (English): +1-212-216-1213; or +1-646-291-7169 (mobile); or pearsoe@hrw.org
http://newsfrombangladesh.net/view.php?hidRecord=361454
__._,_.___