'The state is conniving with the situation'
Adilur Rahman Khan, secretary of human rights organisation, Odhikar, tells Saad Hammadi, how the state is suppressing extrajudicial killing in the form of enforced disappearances
At least 35 incidents of enforced disappearances were reported in the country in less than two years. Why do you think people are being abducted this way?
It's taking place for two reasons. We have a very weak criminal justice system. There is no protection for the victims and witnesses. Therefore, when they go to the court to depose against someone or as a complainant, they feel scared. When they come back after deposing, they are threatened by the elements against who they deposed. The problem is that because of a weak criminal justice system, the people relied on the high handedness of certain law enforcement agencies at certain times. By taking that advantage, some sections of the law enforcement agencies capitalized on extrajudicial killing. Since there is a massive campaign against extrajudicial killing, the killings have taken a new form. Hence, we see the rise of disappearance. You don't kill someone when you are wearing a dress of a law enforcement agency. You cause the situation of the disappearance directly or indirectly. So the purpose is same. The person who has been targeted is eliminated or is not there for a very long period. So that is why disappearances are taking place.
Up to September this year, Odhikar recorded disappearance of 17 people. But this is the minimum. There are allegations that more people are disappeared but since we don't have direct evidence or effective knowledge, we did not record them in our report.
Three people were found dead after they were abducted this year. Does Odhikar have any insight about what usually happens after they are abducted?
Last year, 17 people disappeared altogether. This year 17 more people are missing only up to September. In most cases, these people are feared dead. We have come to know of only one person who was released recently. However, he is in a situation that he does not want to talk to anyone. He is afraid of his security. We tried to contact his family but the families are also scared. Something is happening when they are in detention. Although there are three dead bodies received by the family members, we still do not have any information about 14 other persons abducted this year. We don't know what happens to them like we don't know what happened to Chowdhury Alam last year.
Enforced disappearance is not something new in this country.
During the liberation war, there have been incidents of disappearances. Many of our intellectuals were disappeared and their bodies could not be found. Immediately after liberation, one of our famous filmmakers Zahir Raihan became disappeared. His family couldn't find his body. In between 1972 and 1975, the Jatiya Rakkhi Bahini and special branch of the police abducted many radical left activists, and many were killed. About 30,000 radical left activists were eliminated during that time. After the change of political situation in 1975, during coups and counter coups, and even after that, many incidents of abductions were committed by various civil and military intelligence agencies.
In the Chittagong Hill Tracts, many cases of disappearances have been reported. In 1996 Kalpana Chakma disappeared. The Hill Women's Federation is campaigning for clarification about her whereabouts.
Why do you think the government is not taking any action despite the concerns being raised?
As a human rights defender I will say that the state is also conniving with the situation directly or indirectly by allowing impunity to the perpetrators. They are trying to hide something. No action taken means connivance of the state.
Does that mean the government can get away without being answerable?
It appears like that. The earlier governments did the same thing. All the governments have blood in their hand. No one can say that their hands are clean.
Few days back five Indians were abducted. Do you think external forces are given tacit collaboration?
We have been reporting on disappearances and their handing over of the liberation fighters of the North East Part of India. These Kashmiri students and teachers reportedly abducted from Bangladeshi soil were taken to India for interrogation and one or two are still kept in detention. This is a very serious concern for our sovereignty and the failure of our state and our intelligence agencies. Bangladesh was not liberated for the foreign operations to be conducted on the sovereign soils of Bangladesh. Bangladesh was liberated because people of Bangladesh would determine their lives and control the land of Bangladesh.
Given the current situation what is your understanding of the state of human rights in the country?
Bangladesh's state of human rights has never been very good. Successive regimes failed to improve the situation. It is turning from bad to worse with all the extrajudicial killing, custodial torture and disappearances. Not only in the front of civil and political rights, also in the socioeconomic cultural rights' front, there is massive gap in respect among people's income and resources.
This is a gross violation of human rights. People should have their right to food, shelter, education, health and a peaceful life, which they don't have under the present condition. We are failing time and again to protect the people, to provide them with constitutional guarantee. In fact our constitution has become a cumbersome one. So people's right and establishing social justice is a fundamental struggle and that we will have to continue for establishing rights of the people which was visualized by our liberation fighters.
http://www.newagebd.com/newspaper1/magazine/content.php?date=2011-10-28
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