Bangladesh Human Rights Networks

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Human Rights Watch World Report 2006 -- Summary

Political and security conditions deteriorated in Bangladesh in 2005.
The country saw nearly daily bombings throughout the year. On August
17, more than 400 bombs went off simultaneously in sixty-three of the
country's sixty-four districts, all of them targeted at government
institutions. The country's human rights record, already of pressing
concern, worsened, as Bangladesh's security forces continue to commit
numerous abuses, including extra-judicial killings, excessive use of
force, and custodial torture. Human rights defenders and journalists
who report on the abuses continue to be harassed and intimidated. A
culture of impunity, reinforced by 2003 legislation largely shielding
the security forces from legal challenge, and by government praise for
the Rapid Action Batallion (RAB), a specialized "anti-crime" unit
responsible for many of the unlawful killings, means that abuses go
largely uninvestigated and unpunished.

Authorities also continue to do little to protect the rights of
religious minority communities, including Hindus and members of the
Ahmadiyya community (a heterodox religious group that considers itself
part of the larger Muslim world), even as Muslim extremist groups
continue to target such groups. Tensions between the two main
political parties, the Bangladesh National Party (BNP) and the Awami
League (AL), continued, with frequent clashes between the two sides,
as well as with police.

Corruption remained a serious obstacle for reform. For the fifth year
in a row, Bangladesh headed Transparency International's list as the
most corrupt country in the world.

Extrajudicial Killings and Custodial Torture

The BNP came into power in 2001 with an anti-crime mandate. In 2003,
the government established the RAB, an elite "anti-crime" unit
comprised of armed personnel from various security branches. Since the
establishment of RAB, there have been consistent allegations of a
surge in extrajudicial killings and custodial torture. Between January
and October 2005, an estimated 300 persons were killed at the hands of
the security forces, largely in so-called "encounter" killings. Of
these killings, 223 were committed by the police and other law
enforcement agencies, and seventy-eight by RAB. RAB often operates
together with other armed units, such as the Bangladeshi Rifles, or
paramilitary units such as Cheeta and Cobra.

Human rights groups and journalists have documented many of these
killings and have demanded an inquiry into each death, but the
government has refused. The government defends the actions of RAB by
stating that, since its establishment, serious crime in Bangladesh has
dropped by half. When the European Parliament issued a strong
resolution in April 2005 condemning RAB, the government responded
dismissively, arguing that "encounter killings" happen in all parts of
the world.

RAB and other security agencies have also been accused of engaging in
torture during custody and interrogation. For example, on July 15,
2005, members of RAB at Jasimuddin road, Uttara sector-7, Dhaka, and
of the RAB–1 Office at Uttara in Dhaka severely tortured a young man.
This man had been arrested for protesting the assault on an elderly
man by plain-clothes RAB agents on the street. On July 27, 2005, the
Boalia police in Rajsahi District tortured Azizur Rahman Shohel and
his younger brother Atiquer Rahman Jewel. The brothers were beaten
with batons and given electric shocks. Both were hospitalized. The
police also reportedly asked for money from the boys' family.

The government's history of tolerating abuses is not new. Operation
Clean Heart, a nationwide anti-crime operation that ran from October
2002 to January 2003, was marked by a severe disregard for the right
to life and due process of law. Some sixty people were killed in
eighty-eight days, three thousand were maimed or injured, and upwards
of forty-five thousand were arrested. On the day the government
announced the end of Operation Clean Heart, it passed an ordinance
precluding lawsuits or prosecutions for human rights violations
committed during this period, shielding the armed forces and police
from any liability for their actions under the operation.

Persecution of Minority Communities

Bangladesh is a party to the International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights, which ensures the rights to freedom of religion and
expression, but has tolerated violent assaults by extremists on
religious minority communities.

In January 2004, the government placed a ban on all Ahmadiyya
publications, in response to an ultimatum to the government by the
Islami Okiya Jote (IOJ) and the Khatme Nabuwat Movement (KNM) to
declare that Ahmadiyyas are not Muslims. The IOJ is a small coalition
partners with the BNP, while the KNM, is an extreme Islamist vigilante
and pressure group. The BNP government chose to save its coalition
rather than defend the rights of the Ahmadiyya. A court later
suspended the ban, but Islamist parties and organizations are
threatening further legal challenge.
Attacks on Ahmadiyya homes and places of worship continued in 2005.
Although human rights groups and journalists documented these attacks,
the government to date has not prosecuted any of the responsible
individuals and has not disciplined police who failed to protect
victims.

Members of other religious minorities have also come under attack.
Throughout 2005, there were persistent reports of abductions and
forced conversions of minorities, and destruction and desecration of
religious sites. There were also many reports of forced evictions of
Hindus from their properties. In some cases of reported rape of Hindu
girls, the police refused to pursue investigations.

Over the last few years, as religious intolerance across Bangladesh
has increased, several hundred thousand Hindus, Buddhists, and
Christians have fled the country.

Human Rights Defenders, Journalists, and Opposition Voices

The climate of intimidation has extended to other groups who document
or speak against the government's actions. Opposition voices are
increasingly at risk.

On January 27, 2005, senior AL member and former Finance Minister Shah
Abu Mohamed Shamsul Kibria was assassinated. Attacks on opposition AL
members are not new: Sheikh Hasina, the leader of the AL, survived a
2004 grenade and bomb blast during which twenty of AL's party members
were killed. Other senior and junior AL members have been harassed and
threatened.

On August 8, 2005, two human rights activists were attacked in public
by persons who identified themselves as BNP members. The victims,
Rabindra Ghosh and Ashok Taru Saha, were returning from conducting an
investigation into a case of torture against a member of the Ahmadiyya
community.

Journalists face tremendous risks in Bangladesh. For the third year
running, Reporters Sans Frontieres reported that Bangladesh was the
country with the largest number of journalists physically attacked or
threatened with death. The government showed little interest in
protecting journalists, while Islamist groups stepped up their
intimidation of the independent news media.

HIV/AIDS
This is a critical moment in the fight against HIV/AIDS in Bangladesh.
The number of reported cases is growing, India and neighboring
countries in Southeast Asia face major outbreaks, and there is a good
deal of migration across national borders. Rather than insisting on
rights-based measures shown effective in combating the further spread
of HIV/AIDS, the government both commits and condones rights
violations likely to do just the opposite.

Sex workers and men who have sex with men—politically vulnerable
groups at heightened risk of HIV infection—are regularly abducted,
raped, gang-raped, beaten, and subjected to extortion by the police
and by powerful criminals. Such abuses facilitate spread of the
disease. The police have dealt a further blow to Bangladesh's
anti-AIDS efforts by beating and arresting members of such groups who
work on HIV/AIDS outreach and education among their peers. Official
complaints filed by victims are largely ignored and sometimes
ridiculed.

Key International Actors

Key members of the international community, such as the United States
and the European Union, have expressed growing concern over the
violence in the country. In particular, the international community
has been pointing to the government's failure to take action against
militant groups. Only after the August bombings did the government
appear to take the threat seriously. It initiated a massive crackdown,
which resulted in an estimated eight hundred arrests. The most
significant arrestee, Mufti Abdul Hannan, reportedly has admitted to
ties with violent fundamentalist international Islamic groups.

The E.U. parliament issued a strong resolution in April 2005,
pointedly stating that the RAB was responsible for extra-judicial
killings while engaged in anti-crime operations. The United States has
recently taken the lead on expressing concern at the situation in
Bangladesh. In October 2005, sixteen U.S. lawmakers raised the issue
of increasing political violence and recommended sending a U.N. team
to investigate the allegations. India expressed its concerns as well
and, in February 2005, refused to attend the South Asian Association
for Regional Cooperation summit which was to be hosted in Dhaka,
citing, inter alia, concerns over the security situation there.

Links:
http://hrw.org/wr2k6
http://hrw.org/wr2k6/wr2006.pdf
http://hrw.org/wr2k6/pdf/bangladesh.pdf
http://www.iwrnews.org/tasneem
(Tasneem Khalil) tasneem.khalil@gmail.com | http://www.iwrnews.org/tasneem