Paramilitary Killings in Bangladesh Dragged into the Light
New York. What is a journalist to do when simply providing information
is not enough to bring about the desired change? Why, turn to art, of
course.
That is how Bangladeshi photojournalist Shahidul Alam tackles the
issue of "crossfire," the extra-judicial killings that his country's
paramilitary Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) are believed to be
responsible for, claiming over a thousand lives in the last four years
alone.
"The information is clearly in the public domain, but when it doesn't
do what you'd hoped it would do, you need to re-think your strategy,"
Alam told IPS in New York where he had come for the exhibition launch
last month, in an attempt to highlight the urgency of
internationalizing the issue.
"I didn't know how effective this show would be, but I wanted the
issue to be seen in a different context," he said.
The result is a series of beautifully lit, symbolic images in a show
titled "Crossfire", which just concluded a run at the Queens Museum in
New York– "a physical experience that aims to evoke rather than
inform," as Alam puts it in the exhibition brochure.
In so doing, the show raises a human rights issue that is relevant to
any state that allows extra-judicial murders to take place with
impunity.
"Through Wikileaks, we learnt that the US and UK have been involved in
training RAB. Hopefully this exhibition will provide food for thought
about US special training being provided to Bangladesh security
forces," said Alam, a pioneering photojournalist and activist, founder
of the multimedia Drik Picture Library and the not- for-profit photo
agency Majority World.
"Waterboarding was a new concept for us in Bangladesh," he added.
In addition to training, the US and Britain have also been providing
arms to RAB. The issue has been raised in the British Parliament, but
not in the US, something Alam hopes will change.
When it was first launched in Dhaka in March 2010, the Bangladesh
government sent riot police to shut "Crossfire" down, on its opening
day — an action seen around the world as the organizers strategically
live-streamed the event. Alam recalls that he was in fact on a Skype
call with the Reporters Without Borders secretary general when the
riot police surrounded the gallery.
The widespread negative publicity and protests at the exhibition being
shut down highlighted the issue and led to an initial decline in
"crossfire" killings. However, since then, disappearances as well as
killings have risen.
Although symbolic rather than literal, the photographs evoke a dark,
sinister feel. An underwater photo with bubbles, a cycle rickshaw on a
deserted university road, a rice paddy field, a "gamcha" (sarong) on
the ground.
Combine these images with the word "crossfire" in the context of
Bangladesh, and you have a clear political statement about
extra-judicial killings in that country.
"This one's clearly about waterboarding," commented Pramilla Malick of
Manhattan, stopping in front of the water bubbles photograph at Alam's
show. "It gives me the chills."
"The idea of the concept of 'crossfire' rather than showing bodies is
very potent," said documentary filmmaker Brian Palmer, who has been to
Bangladesh and worked with students at Alam's Drik institute. "We're
so bombarded by an avalanche of images that it can be more powerful to
interrupt and pause."
Each photograph represents an actual case, based on solid research
about every known case of crossfire death.
Each photo was taken in the middle of the night, lit by torchlight,
"because that's how survivors and victims' families recall these
incidents," Alam said. "They take place in the dead of night, people
wake up to torchlight shining in their faces, and then they're taken
away."
"Even a child knows what 'crossfire' means," comments a passer-by,
whom Alam video-interviewed outside the gallery after the government
shut down the show in Dhaka.
"You use these images with that word, everyone will know that that's
where a crossfire happened," comments a policeman.
One passerby angrily said that "those putting on this show are the
ones who should be 'cross-fired,' " because the police are "only
trying to make the country safer for the citizens by getting rid of
criminals."
However, most passers-by commended the organizers for bringing this
issue to the public. "Those who are killed are not just criminals,"
said one young man. "Some are just ordinary people on their way to
work, their families never even get their bodies back."
The interviews, playing on a subtitled video, are part of the
Crossfire show at Queens Museum.
The exhibition in Dhaka and in New York is supported by the Open
Society Institute, which also funded a series of posters based on the
images that human rights organizations in Bangladesh had agreed to
exhibit.
However, NGOs all backed out at the last minute, says Alam, perhaps
due to fears that the Bangladesh government would not renew their
licenses to operate as non-profit organizations.
Drik, an independent media organization that is not subject to such
restrictions, has persisted with the exhibition. "We're also
risk-takers," grins Alam.
In a country where the risks of speaking out include being
"cross-fired", taking such chances is no laughing matter. But for
activists like Alam, staying silent is not an option.
http://www.thejakartaglobe.com/lifeandtimes/paramilitary-killings-in-bangladesh-dragged-into-the-light/516987
On 5/9/12, Isha Khan <bdmailer@gmail.com> wrote:
> Politician's disappearance fuels Bangladesh crisis
>
> The night watchman was dozing in a wooden chair just after midnight on
> a deserted Bangladeshi street when he was startled by a scream. A
> group of men were pulling two people from a car and forcing them into
> a black microbus; "The two guys were shouting, 'Save us,'" before the
> car pulled away, Lutfar Rahman said.
>
> The abductions of an opposition politician and his driver last month
> have sparked Bangladesh's biggest crisis in years, raised hostilities
> between the most prominent leaders of its fragile democracy and
> highlighted a series of seemingly political disappearances.
>
> The opposition has blamed the government, launched nationwide strikes
> and fought with police in street clashes that have killed five people
> and injured scores. Homemade bombs have exploded on the streets of
> Dhaka, including one inside a compound housing government ministries.
> The government has charged 44 top opposition leaders in connection
> with the violence.On Wednesday, the main opposition Bangladesh
> Nationalist Party and its 17 allies would demonstrate across the
> country to restart its paused protests.
>
> No one has claimed responsibility for Elias Ali's abduction, and no
> ransom has been demanded, the usual practice of criminal gangs in
> Bangladesh.
>
> Security forces told the High Court this week they had no role in
> Ali's disappearance, and Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina accused the
> opposition of hiding Ali to create an excuse to cause mayhem.
>
> Hasina, however, later pledged to do everything possible to find Ali,
> when his wife and children met her seeking her intervention."The
> conflict is pushing Bangladesh toward a dangerous situation," said
> Adilur Rahman, secretary of Odhikar, a rights group.
>
> Hasina and her archrival Khaleda Zia have alternated in power since a
> pro-democracy movement ousted the last military regime in 1990. Zia
> leads Ali's Bangladesh Nationalist Party.
>
> The abductions of Ali and his driver as they returned home from
> meeting supporters at a hotel April 17 also has highlighted an
> increasing number of disappearances that Amnesty International and
> Human Rights Watch have blamed on security forces.
>
> At least 22 people have disappeared this year, according to a local
> human-rights group, Ain-o-Salish Kendra. Odhikar reports that more
> than 50 people have disappeared since 2010. Many of the disappeared
> were politicians.
>
> During her visit to Bangladesh last week, U.S. Secretary of State
> Hillary Rodham Clinton raised Ali's disappearance and the killing of
> labor leader Aminul Islam with the government, reflecting
> international concern over the issue.Islam, who recently led a
> campaign for higher wages for the country's 3 million garment workers,
> was found dead along a highway April 5. His family blames the killing
> on law enforcement agencies.
>
> Even before Ali's disappearance, tensions were high between Hasina and
> Zia over the conduct of the general election due in 2014.
>
> Hasina has scrapped a constitutional provision requiring the
> government to step down before polls and transfer power to a neutral
> caretaker administration to oversee the voting within 90 days. The
> government says it acted to comply with a court ruling that the
> caretaker provision was undemocratic, but it means Hasina will be
> overseeing the next balloting.
>
> Zia has refused to take part in any election overseen by Hasina,
> fearing fraud. The government says it is open to discuss alternatives,
> but the opposition says they will sit across the table only if the
> previous sytem will be restored. The government rejects that.
>
> A similar dispute in 2006 prompted the powerful military to declare a
> state of emergency that remained until the 2008 election. Both Hasina
> and Zia were put behind bars during the emergency rule.
>
> Many businessmen also were jailed pending tax evasion and fraud
> trials, and some fled to avoid arrest. But the cases were withdrawn or
> not heard when the political government took office.
>
> "We don't want to return to any emergency rule," said A.K. Azad,
> president of the Federation of Bangladesh Commerce and Industry. "What
> we want is our leaders to work together so there is no more strikes
> and clashes."Ali, 50, has lived dangerously since becoming a student
> at Dhaka University, considered a breeding ground of Bangladesh's
> politicians.
>
> He was recruited into a student political group by the country's last
> military dictator Hussein Muhammad Ershad, according to friends. He
> then joined a group allied with the Bangladesh Nationalist Party,
> sparking feuding and occasional gunfights among rival factions of
> Zia's party.
>
> He was briefly arrested, later elected to Parliament and then swept
> out in 2008 by Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina's Awami League party.The
> opposition, which suspended its street protests in a gesture of
> goodwill during Clinton's visit, has vowed to resume strikes if Ali is
> not found.
>
> His family wonders if he is even alive."We have left his fate to
> Allah," said Ali's teenage son, Abrar Elias, "The Almighty is our last
> resort."
>
> http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/05/09/politician-disappearance-fuels-bangladesh-crisis/
>
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