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The
Hague, The Netherlands. The human rights situation
in Bangladesh specifically needs to be seen
in a sequence of four perspectives, according
to Global Human Rights Defence. Information
needs to be given on the legal and constitutional
system of Bangladesh, the Bangladeshi campaign
of apartheid, crimes against humanity within
Bangladesh and the effects of terrorism on
human rights
The
first point to be addressed is the way in
which the legal and constitutional system
of Bangladesh affects the human rights situation
of minorities. In this issue it is very important
to point out the Vested Property Act. This
act in practice divests the right to the property
of the minorities only. Though the act was
incorporated by the then government of East-Pakistan
in 1965, yet the successive governments, even
after the liberation of Bangladesh, continued
with the same law in the garb of ordinances.
Under
the grand design of Islamization the preamble
of the constitution of Bangladesh has been
amended with the words "pledging that
the high ideals of absolute trust and faith
in the Almighty Allah..." and in the
process the word "secularism" has
been dropped. The constitution, in fact, makes
its beginning with the words Bismillah-ar-rahman-ar-rahim.
The
second point to be made is that the campaign
of apartheid against the minorities continues
unabated since 1947, irrespective of the change
of the governments in Bangladesh. The ethnic
cleansing coupled with forced conversion to
Islam is being encouraged by the state of
Bangladesh officially. The new Muslims are
paid cash doles through budgetary allocations
in the name of so-called rehabilitation (B.D.
government religious ministry circular number
2/a-7/91-92 dated 28/11/91). There have been
glaring instances of debarring members of
the minority community from exercising their
vote of franchise in the successive local
and national elections. The minorities remain
unrepresentative in the principal socio-economic
scenario of the state, such as judiciary (0%),
military (1%)and police (4%). The implicit
instance of constitutional isolation of the
minority community is that no member of the
minority community is allowed to become the
Head of the State.
The
third point deals with crimes against humanity.
The minorities of Bangladesh have witnessed
large-scale violence, cultural genocide and
discrimination and bias at the hands of all
the successive governments in perpetual order.
Having lost 30 million people, 2,5 million
acres of land, hundreds of homicides, vandalisation
of more than 25000 units of minority property,
scores of organised gang rapes, state sponsored
violence against women and children of the
minority community have been witnessed in
the state of Bangladesh. The communication
in 1992 send to the then Prime Minister of
Bangladesh by the 17 congressmen of United
States of America, brought to the notice of
the world the admittance of killings and destruction
of villages in Bangladesh by the military
officials of the state. During and after the
parliamentary elections in Bangladesh in October
2001, the political activists of major political
parties, including the ruling party, were
a party to large-scale violence, killings,
gang rapes and destruction of places of worship
and cultural importance. All of which are
filed together with their local press reports
and brought in the Supreme Court of Bangladesh.
In spite of the orders of the Supreme Court
of Bangladesh in January 2000 and November
2001, the state of Bangladesh did not make
any conscious attempt to stop the atrocities
against the minorities. The Public Enquiry
Commission appointed by the human rights groups
in Bangladesh admitted in their report, submitted
to government of Bangladesh, that enormous
human rights violations and crimes against
humanity have been committed against the minorities.
The report of Daily Janakantha details that
"the most telling substantiation of the
fact that the campaign of violence against
religious and ethnic minorities is to be found
in the statistical report showing that out
of 228 rapes cases reported and recorded within
the first 92 days of the present government,
225 or an overwhelming 99 percent were of
the minority community."
Under
the process of ethnic extermination of minorities
from Bangladesh, global Islamic funds and
forces have been encouraged to take their
roots in Bangladesh over the last one decade.
A galaxy of 64000 madrassas in Bangladesh
are funded officially by the State of Bangladesh.
A large chunk of jihadi fundamentalists from
various orthodox Islamic states have been
successful in establishing a terrorist regime
in Bangladesh. It is due to this development
that modern weaponry and sophisticated arms
are used at various places during mass violence.
Threatening, coercion and kidnappings are
witnessed by the members of the minority community
day in and day out. If this kind of a situation
is not brought under control forthwith, there
is a possibility of mass exodus.
The
involvement of trained terrorists from Bangladeshi
madrassas, run by fundamentalist organizations,
in the attacks on American Centre in Calcutta
and Kuta Beach Bali, speaks volumes about
the growth of Islamic terrorism corresponding
with the current pan-Islamic movement. In
Taliban camps mainly three languages were
spoken: Arabic, Urdu and Bangali, as pointed
out in the CNN interview with John Walker,
the American Taliban. In a festival mass which
was attended by a large number of people,
including the cabinet ministers of Bangladesh
in Dhaka, the cleric declared jihad against
America and wished destruction to both America
and the President Bush.
The
sorry state of affairs caused due to the design
of Muslim precedence in the Statecraft, the
Islamization plan, apartheid and Islamic terrorism
have dwindled the population of the minorities
in Bangladesh from 30 percent in 1947 to 10
percent in 2002. The figures in regard to
the Muslim majority population of Bangladesh
speak that the population of the members of
the Muslim majority community has risen from
57 percent in 1947 to 89 percent in 2002.
This fall and rise in different population
groups represent negative demographic change
against the minority community of Bangladesh.
We appeal to the global opinion makers, human
rights groups, people seated in positions
of authority, the State of Netherlands, European
Union and the United Nations to pay their
kind attention to the concerns of the minorities
of Bangladesh as soon as possible.
In
the past the previously mentioned authorities
have taken efforts to address the human rights
situation of minorities in Bangladesh. Given
the poor results of these efforts and the
present undiminished suppression of minorities
in Bangladesh, Global Human Rights Defence
appeals to all concerned to use their good
offices to impress upon the state of Bangladesh
to make all necessary measures to include
the minority population of Bangladesh in the
overall socio-political structure of the nation/state
of Bangladesh as per the provisions of International
Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and
International Covenant on Social, Economic
and Cultural Rights in consonance with the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Due
to the lack of good governance and pathetic
condition of minorities in Bangladesh, the
donor institutions and countries are requested
to put conditions on developmental aid to
the state of Bangladesh until the situation
is not reversed to the satisfaction of the
donor institutions and countries. Global Human
Rights Defence is to recommend this possibility
to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the
Netherlands during a meeting coming week.
Global
Human Rights Defence is an international human
rights organization with the aim of promoting
human rights for those areas that have been
severely affected by human rights violations,
but whereto relatively insufficient attention
has been given from the perspective of NGO's,
governments and media. The organisation is
to be coordinated from its headquarters in
The Hague- International city of Peace. Furthermore
this organization at this very moment is represented
in Afghanistan, Belgium, Bangladesh, Bhutan,
Germany, Guyana, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka,
United Kingdom, the United States of America
and Zimbabwe.
PRESS
RELEASE, Jul 8, 2003
Editor's note: For further enquiries www.ghrd.org
info@ghrd.org
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