A border too far for Bangladesh
By Syed Tashfin Chowdhury
DHAKA - Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's government last week showed its
determination to maintain improved ties with New Delhi, defying public
anger over the torture of a young Bangladeshi man by Indian border
guards while signing with India a US$1.5 billion power plant deal that
threatens Bangladesh's most famous natural asset, the Sundarbans.
Even as the furor continued over the videoed treatment of 22-year-old
Habibur Rahman by Indian Border Security Force (BSF) personnel, who
stripped him, lashed his arms to a bamboo pole across his back, and
thrashed him about the body and on the soles of his feet, the BSF on
Friday handed over the body of another young man, Saiful Islam, 25.
Saiful's elder brother said the BSF had tortured his sibling with
sharp weapons before killing him. The BSF denied the claim, saying
they had recovered the body at Lalpur, about two kilometers inside
India the Bangladesh border, the Daily Star reported on Sunday.
The BSF's savage treatment of Bangladeshis, often related to bribes
for smuggling cattle, has been a long-running sore, but the video of
the torture of Habibur Rahman, made public in mid-January, has
increased demands for an end to the brutality. Habibur told Asia Times
Online that after an hour of torture in the end-of-year attack, and
before losing consciousness, the BSF members discussed bathing him "in
petrol and then putting him on fire".
The Bangladesh government is "not worried about these incidents", Syed
Ashraful Islam, general secretary of Hasina's ruling Awami League and
minister for local government, rural development and cooperatives,
told the press on January 19 after the video clip became public. Days
later, Bangladesh Finance Minister A M A Muhith and Indian Power
Secretary P Uma Shankar attended the signing of the power plant
agreement in Dhaka.
The Indian government's reaction to the video of the border thrashing
was immediate once it was made public. Eight BSF jawans were suspended
on January 18 for their alleged role in the incident and the next day
the government said a full investigation had been ordered. The Indian
media also reacted angrily to the behavior of the country's border
guards. The Hindu urged an "unreserved apology" to Bangladesh for the
"brutal conduct" of BSF personnel.
Yet it was not until January 23, as public anger rose, that Bangladesh
Prime Minister Hasina told the Foreign and Home Affairs ministries to
take up the issue with the Indian side. The next day, State Minister
for Home Affairs Shamsul Haque said the Bangladesh Border Guards were
on "high alert" and had been asked to "take steps for a meeting with
BSF at the director-general level in February, before its scheduled
meeting in March".
More than 900 Bangladeshis and 164 Indians were killed along the
border by the BSF between 2000 to 2010, according to New York-based
Human Rights Watch.
The issue looked set to improve after India and Bangladesh agreed last
March to avoid using lethal weapons in dealing with illegal activities
on the frontier, and in July Indian Home Minister Palaniappan
Chidambaram said India had ordered the BSF not to shoot, except in
self-defense.
Yet between April and December, 16 Bangladeshis were shot dead by the
BSF, seven others were tortured and three more were killed through
other methods. In January alone, two Bangladeshis were killed by the
BSF, nine were injured and three were allegedly abducted, according to
Dhaka-based human rights organization Odhikar.
The body of one, 22-year old Saddam Hossain Babu, was recovered from a
river bank on January 24 with torture marks on his hands and neck. He
had been picked up by BSF personnel three weeks earlier. Last year, 31
Bangladeshis were reportedly killed, 61 injured and 23 abducted.
Habibur, a day laborer, told Asia Times Online he had earlier crossed
into India after bribing Bangladeshi border guards 20 takas (US$2.33)
to get work as a cattle smuggler. Due to a lack of cattle-handling
experience, he failed to get a job and was returning to Bangladesh
when Indian border guards picked him up late on December 9 and took
him to a BSF camp. Out of cash, he was unable to pay any bribes. "They
beat me for half an hour ... as I did not have any money or mobile
phone," he said.
"Around dawn on December 10, they again asked for money from me," said
Habibur, who at the start of the video can be seen tied to a stake on
the far left of the picture as cattle and their drivers pass through.
"As I could not pay up, they stripped me naked, tied my hands and
legs, jumped on my chest and beat me with thick sticks," said Habibur.
"Some BSF personnel were witnessing my torture while sipping tea.
Another recorded the whole incident through a mobile camera.
"They probably thought I was dead after I fainted, as they threw my
naked body into a mustard field, from where other Bangladeshi
cattle-runners rescued me and brought me back to Khanpur in
Bangladesh."
The "horrific images of torture ... show what rights groups have long
documented: that India's Border Security Force is out of control,"
Human Rights Watch South Asia director Meenakshi Ganguly said. "The
Indian government is well aware of killings and torture at the border,
but has never prosecuted the troops responsible. This video provides a
clear test case of whether the security forces are above the law in
India.
"Whenever offenses attributed to the BSF occur, its leadership insists
that there will be an internal inquiry and action taken," said
Ganguly. "But secret proceedings and suspensions or transfers won't
end the abuses. Torture is a serious crime that should be prosecuted
in the courts."
Much of the BSF violence is against smugglers of cattle, whose export
is banned by India. While the present Bangladeshi government is
unwilling to strain ties with India, international trade experts and
cattle traders in Bangladesh say it also does not want to disturb
trade involving influential smuggling rings that has prevailed for
over three decades.
"Both governments are subtly tolerant particularly toward cattle
smuggling," Manjur Ahmed, adviser to the Federation of Bangladesh
Chambers of Commerce (FBCC) and Industry, told Asia Times Online.
The trade is good for Indian traders as smuggled cattle is sold "at a
price 35% to 40% more in Bangladesh than in India", said Shahin Miaji,
a cattle trader and butcher shop owner in Dhaka. It is also good
business for the government. Shahin estimated that nearly 65% of
Bangladesh's total cattle supply, ranging between 20,000 to 25,000
cattle daily, comes from largely Hindu India, where the demand for
beef is negligible. Some media reports in Bangladesh say cattle worth
$81,000 is smuggled into Bangladesh daily.
Once the cattle are brought in from India, the smuggler tells
Bangladesh customs officials that he found them near the border and
that they were probably trafficked. The customs officer takes the
cattle, whatever the number may be, then lets the "good Samaritan" buy
them back at 500 takas (US$6) per cow - making them legal livestock.
Akbar Ali Khan, a former chairman of the National Board of Revenue
chairman, last week said the payment system was set up by the
Bangladesh government in 1993 so it could take in revenues from
already established smuggling networks.
Once the cattle are sold in the markets, the money they garner is
channeled back to Indian businessmen through the illegal hundi,
foreign currency payment system, which itself is nourished by gold
smuggled from Bangladesh to India.
"Drugs, phensedyl and light arms are also smuggled into Bangladesh
across the border. We hardly hear of the BGB [Border Guard Bangladesh]
apprehending these smugglers," said Ahmed of the FBCC.
Illegal trade has long been "accommodated" and "the killings and
torture of Bangladesh cattle fetchers at the border are actually due
to botched negotiations between the cattle trafficking rings and the
BSF," he said.
The treatment of Habibur was made public through an 11-minute video,
apparently taken by a BSF member and released, according to some
reports, as a cautionary tale to other smugglers. The video was posted
on YouTube by Banglar Manabadhikar Suraksha Mancha, a Kolkata-based
non-governmental organization.
India is Bangladesh's second-most important trading partner, trailing
only the European Union, but issues arising from their 4,000 kilometer
common border have blighted their relationship, most recently
involving a brief armed conflict in 2001.
Matters have recently improved, leading to a state visit to Bangladesh
by Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last September, when Premier
Hasina signed a "Framework Agreement on Cooperation for Development
between India and Bangladesh". The pact was seen to make important
headway on issues such as shared water systems and cross-border trade.
Yet since then, concern in Bangladesh has grown that India seems
prepared to press ahead unilaterally with construction of the
Tipaimukh dam, which may threaten the livelihood of millions of
Bangladeshis, and no progress is seen on implementation of border
realignments intended to remove dozens of troublesome enclaves in both
countries.
A $1 billion loan by India to Bangladesh under an August 2010
agreement remains virtually untapped. On January 16, the government in
Dhaka said it planned to abandon eight of 21 projects planned under
the loan due to "tough conditions".
Terms of the loan require Bangladesh to procure from India 85% of the
goods, works and services involved in any project. Only one project,
initiated by the Bangladesh Road Transport Corp, is going ahead
smoothly, while 19 others are stuck due to procurement complications,
the Financial Express reported.
Syed Tashfin Chowdhury is the Editor of Xtra, the weekend magazine of
New Age, in Bangladesh.
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/South_Asia/NB07Df01.html
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