Govt. must play Rohingya card intelligently

Bangladesh is possibly the most stable country in South Asia, both politically and economically.  It is also definitely has the most religious tolerant population in the region.  Bengali Muslims in this part of Bengal have, through ages, accepted the culture and traditions of other religious and ethnic groups, who co-habited with them in this country.  This was not very easy as other religious and ethnic groups did not accept the culture and traditions of the Bengali Muslims although the Muslims have been in this country for over a thousand years.

 

 

There was a brief interlude during the Pakistan era when non-Bengali refugees who migrated to this country played up the emotions of the Bengalis to create sectarian unrests.  The overwhelming majority of the Bengalis did not support this, the non-Bengali-dominated Pakistan government could not do much either and remained largely silent bystanders.  The main purpose of these sectarian unrests was to drive a wedge between the Muslims and Hindus of this country.

The Pakistanis were however not very successful as the Bangladeshis, through the War of Liberation, chose to remain united across the religious barriers and forge ahead to create the nation of Bangladesh.  It definitely goes to the credit of the people that Bangladesh today is the most stable country in the region with complete religious and ethnic harmony.  Apart from the Ershad era military rule there has been no major religious unrest in this country’s post Liberation period.  The few incidents of political backlash following elections, though regrettable, were exceptions rather than the rules.

 

 

Recent developments in Myanmar, where the Rohingyas are facing ethnic cleansing, may put serious pressure on the will and determination of a majority of the people of Bangladesh to remain a liberal Muslim majority nation.  The incident in Myanmar is totally counter to the stream of events taking place there.  The military regime in that country had isolated the Rohingyas and made them stateless.  With the winds of democracy blowing in that country, it was expected that the Rohingyas would be assimilated in the Myanmar society.  Not only this is not happening, the exact opposite is taking place there, the majority Rakhine are resorting to wanton destruction of the Rohingya life and property; the Rohingyas being Muslims of Bengali descent.

 

 

These are testing times for countries with Muslim majority populations.  Countries such as Turkey, Egypt, Tunisia, etc., where there were popular perceptions that their governments, though secular, were in office to serve the interests of the West rather than their own people, faced popular political upheavals and were overthrown and replaced by Islamic oriented parties.  Such changes may not be in the interest of these countries as parties based on theocracy tend to inhibit social and economic progress.

The Rohingya issue is seriously testing the will of the Bangladeshis.

 

 

While on the one hand it is a humanitarian issue, Bangladesh should not be the only country to suffer.  Ethnic cleansing pursued by Myanmar is totally despicable and the entire world should come forward to force them to allow their own people to settle down honourable in their own country.  This was done in Bosnia and more recently in Kosovo.  Myanmar, like Serbia, will only listen to words of wisdom when they are strongly uttered, like the NATO bombings in the former Yugoslavia or the occupation of Northern Cyprus by Turkey when the ethnic Turkish Cypriots were being massacred by Greek Cypriots.  Bangladesh can not and should not try this option but should urge the world community, particularly ASEAN, to bear upon Myanmar not to murder its own citizens.

 

 

On the other hand, in our country where the Prime Minister has herself issued a warning that the ruling party is facing a serious slide in popularity, any inaction in the case of the Rohingyas will be deemed to be a weakness.  This may blow wind in the sail of the Islamists in their campaign to show that the government puts the interests of other countries ahead of its own.  Transit and Tipaimukh being the cases in point.

 

 

Bangladesh has come a long way since the days of being a basket case.  We are one of the fastest growing countries in the region where, excepting the human rights concerns, we are the leaders in all social and economic indices.  A prosperous Bangladesh may not be welcome to those countries whose dreams of economic progress have been dashed by the global economic slowdown.  It is in the interest of these forces to keep the Rohingya issue alive.  The Rohingya issue must be handled carefully as allowing it to continue will put our society as a modern liberal progressive Muslim majority country at risk.

 

BY :   M.I. Ali.

Will Delhi support Tareque’s return to Dhaka politics?

Keen Bangladesh-watchers are beginning to detect signs that in the tricky flux of Bangladesh politics, Indian interests appear increasingly to coincide with that of the BNP. The ultimate objective of both is to keep US involvement and influence in the region to an absolute minimum.

There are four important factors at play that is bringing India and the BNP closer together: (1) Private US expressions of a deep and abiding aversion to Tareque Rahman’s involvement in Bangladesh political life; (2) Western displeasure and vocal criticism of the present AL government which could eventually lead to it’s downfall or a massive elections defeat in 2014; (3) US military presence in the South Asian region could potentially ignite geopolitical tensions which neither India or the BNP would find desirable at this point in time or at any time in the near future; (4) A military role (albeit limited like in 1/11) in Bangladesh politics (which could actually aid US military interests in the country) that neither India or the BNP would find acceptable and which could become a distinct possibility if the country continues on the present destructive path chosen by a highly irrational and vindictive Awami League. Let us examine all four factors.  

US on Tareque

The most explicit expression of US distrust of Tareque Rahman came in a disclosure by a AL delegation of a private conversation with US Congressman Joseph Crowley, co-chairman of Bangladesh Caucus, who is reported to have stated that Tareque should have no future in Bangladesh politics. Some days later Congressman Crowley flatly contradicted the report that he had made any such comments regarding Tareque Rahman’s involvement in politics. It is most likely that Congressman Crowley was deeply annoyed that a comment made in private should have been made public requiring him to issue a rejoinder but that he had made some assertion or remarks regarding Tareque still remains a high possibility. Since at least 2006 Americans in private have been expressing doubts about Tareque and their tolerance of his torture during 1/11 suggests that they would prefer him not to make a comeback. The BNP has thus far remained silent about Tareque’s plans but has not ruled out his return. It is widely believed that Khaleda Zia desires a role for Tareque in Bangladesh politics, to perpetuate the Zia dynasty in power in Bangladesh.

AL Govt’s criticism 

In recent weeks there has been an avalanche of criticism heaped on the AL administration from a number of venerated Western institutions, organizations and agencies such as the World Bank, the European Union, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, WOAT (World Organization Against Torture) and the State Department. There have also been a number of adverse reports disseminated by the Associated Press, Reuters and the BBC on the abysmal AL performance in government and which has then been distributed and published in The Washington Post and the Los Angeles Times as well as a dozen other media and press outlets in the West.  There have in addition been a number of independent news reports appearing in The New York Times, The Economist and The Guardian on the brutal and vindictive regime of Sheikh Hasina focusing in particular on the abduction and murder of labour leader Aminul Islam and BNP Organizing Secretary Ilias Ali. It was, however, on May 24th that the government took the hardest hit with three simultaneous but separate reports published by Amnesty International, the State Department and The Economist which left no doubt about the mood and trend of Western opinion regarding the Awami League and its dismal showing during the last three years.

The Amnesty International Annual Report 2012 made the following observations regarding human rights conditions in Bangladesh, 

‘Extrajudicial executions’ 

RAB allegedly killed at least 54 people in 2011, bringing the total number of people killed since 2004 – when RAB was formed – to more than 700. RAB injured or tortured scores more. In many cases, family members told Amnesty International that victims died after being arrested by RAB and not in an encounter as RAB claimed. The authorities failed to investigate these incidents credibly.

In May, the International Crimes Tribunal, a Bangladeshi court set up in 2010 to try people accused of large-scale human rights abuses during the 1971 war of independence, began to address procedural shortcomings that were rendering its trials unfair. Its amended Rules of Procedure provided for bail, presumption of innocence before guilt is proven, and measures to ensure the protection of witnesses and victims. However, a constitutional ban on the right to challenge the jurisdiction of the Tribunal remained in force.

At least three people died in police custody, allegedly after being tortured. The government announced that criminal charges would be brought against any police personnel found responsible for these deaths. However, no one was charged or prosecuted by the end of the year. The government did not commit to bringing to justice police, RAB or other security personnel who allegedly tortured thousands of individuals in their custody throughout the year.”

The State Department Country Report on Human Rights Practices, for 2011 in Bangladesh was no less castigating.

Executive summary

....human rights problems included abuses by security forces, which were responsible for disappearances, custodial deaths, and arbitrary arrest and detention. Prison conditions at times were life threatening, and lengthy pre-trial detention continued to be a problem. An increasingly politicized judiciary exacerbated problems in an already overwhelmed judicial system and constrained access to justice for members of opposition parties. Authorities infringed on citizens’ privacy rights. There were instances in which the government limited freedom of speech and press, self-censorship continued, and security forces harassed journalists. The government curbed freedom of assembly, and politically motivated violence remained a problem. Widespread official corruption remained a serious problem.

…Impunity continued to be a serious problem in several areas. Most members of the security forces acted with impunity, the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) in particular. The government did not take comprehensive measures to investigate cases of security force killings. Widespread official corruption and related impunity continued. Punishment of officials who committed abuses was predominantly limited to officials perceived to be opponents of the AL-led government.

Official corruption 

The law provides criminal penalties for official corruption, but the government did not implement the law effectively, and officials frequently engaged in corrupt practices with impunity. The Anti-Corruption Commission (ACC) is the government agency charged with fighting corruption. On February 23, the government appointed a former bureaucrat and a retired judge, both publicly identified with the ruling AL, as commissioners of the ACC. According to a 2010 report by the World Bank, the government tried to undercut the authority of the ACC and severely hampered the prosecution of corruption throughout the country. The reports stated that the government had filed far fewer corruption cases than the caretaker government and that a government commission had recommended that the ACC drop thousands of corruption cases, mostly involving AL members. Members of civil society stated that the government was not serious about fighting corruption and that the ACC was used for politically motivated persecutions. Transparency International Bangladesh asserted that political interference in the ACC’s operations had rendered it a “toothless tiger.”

Both reports received wide and extensive coverage in the Bangladesh press and media revealing to the world the complete and utter failure of the Awami League to govern with any semblance of effectiveness, efficiency or a modicum of competence. The reports instead reveal the AL perchance for brutality, authoritarianism and an autocratic leadership style. It was, however, the article in The Economist entitled, ‘Banged about’ that exposes the venality of the AL regime.

“A young BNP politician abducted a month ago and very probably murdered. Two others killed earlier. Some 33 opposition figures, including senior MPs, dumped in jail this month over a trumped-up case of arson. In all, [Khaleda Zia] says, 3,000 BNP members have been arrested. “It is to intimidate, to create a sense of fear.”

There is plenty more darkness about. In recent months Bangladesh has endured a spate of other mysterious killings—a Saudi diplomat shot dead; a trade-union activist tortured and murdered; a pair of journalists butchered after investigating corruption. This correspondent was trailed in Dhaka by a pair of secret-service men on a motorbike. A rumour of a bizarre coup attempt, in January, was used by the government to get closer political control over the army.

One of the country’s best known figures, Muhammad Yunus of Grameen Bank, has been harassed for some time. An increasingly paranoid Mrs Hasina sees him as a political threat. This month in Dhaka Hillary Clinton, America’s secretary of state, met the Nobel laureate and assured him of her support. It brought no relief. Ministers snipe at him, and the government has just ordered yet another official review of his bank.

Engine trouble

The list of gripes against the government is long. Corruption is pervasive enough for donors to be alarmed. The World Bank has scrapped funding for a bridge over the Padma river. Japan, the largest single giver of aid, has just sent its deputy prime minister to Dhaka to demand a clean-up. In a case of recent graft, a railway minister, who quit after police found sacks of cash in his aide’s car, was suddenly cleared by an internal inquiry of any corruption and reinstated to the cabinet. Meanwhile, strong doubts persist about the fairness of democracy. The United States’ ambassador in Dhaka this week repeated Mrs Clinton’s warning that the next election must be “participatory”, i.e., run fairly so the opposition will take part.”

Anyone reading this litany of corruption and abuse and gross violations of human rights might conclude that the government is likely to face imminent downfall as a consequence of a popular uprising or massive defeat in national elections if freely and fairly held. In these circumstances the Indians are likely to start reconsidering their options instead of just backing a losing horse and this process appears to have already begun with New Delhi also calling for participatory polls with the inclusion of all the main opposition parties.

The Economist next raises the tantalizing prospect of a change in Indian strategy in regard to Bangladesh:

“Most telling would be a shift in India’s attitude. Long a close ally of Sheikh Hasina’s Awami League—cheering her crackdown on Islamic extremists and insurgents from India’s northeast, and being open to more trade—India’s ruling Congress party may now, sensibly, be hedging its bets. Pranab Mukherjee, India’s finance minister, called on Mrs Zia recently, inviting her back to Delhi. Mrs Zia chuckles that she will go after Delhi’s summer heat is past. She also calls the neighbour a “friend”, a possible hint of change in a party that often seeks popularity by bashing India.”

The Economist repeats the mantra in yet another article titled ‘Hello, Delhi’ (published on its website on May 24th) suggesting that it is time India abandon its blind support for the AL noting, “India now seems to be hedging its bets between the two parties. But if it still wants to have a functioning democracy next door, it needs to speak out far louder in favour of it.” It is interesting that anti-Indian rhetoric emanating from the BNP has been much reduced in recent weeks and was in any case always half-hearted with the party preferring accommodation with New Delhi rather than direct confrontation. In a recent speech in Gazipur, Khaleda Zia said her party would be able to resolve the long running issues between Bangladesh and India through discussions on the basis of equal respect and mutual benefit. She also referred to her recent meeting with Indian Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee in Dhaka on May 6th. Khaleda said that Pranab had told her that India wants to build up relations with the people in Bangladesh, not with any particular party. She said the Indian Finance Minster made the remarks as he understands that the people are the source of power. Khaleda also remarked that the AL had thought that they have a last shelter (in India) but they are now losing that. (The Financial Express - BNP to resolve problems with India thru’ dialogue: Khaleda, May 13, 2012).

 Notably the meeting between Khaleda Zia and Pranab Mukherjee took place a week after the AL delegation met with US Congressman Joseph Crowley in which he allegedly denied a role for Tareque Rahman in the political future of Bangladesh.

If a grand bargain could be reached between India and the BNP it is patently obvious what the conditions of New Delhi would be to reaching such an agreement and it would not be too onerous a task for the BNP to deliver on these demands as half the task has already been accomplished by the AL. If the BNP were to strike a deal with New Delhi this could mean a guaranteed path to power with the party’s only condition being that Tareque Rahman be allowed back into political life, ideally positioned to lead the country, even if this incurs the wrath and animosity of the United States which would not be of too great a concern to India which would like some distance and distrust to exist between Dhaka and Washington. This political solution also holds out the added benefit for New Delhi as Tareque Rahman is equally distrusted by Beijing for his role in allowing the opening of a Taiwanese diplomatic and trade centre in Dhaka during the last BNP government. 

US military presence 

It is now no secret that the United States policy of pivoting towards the Asia Pacific region has given new strategic importance to Bangladesh in the minds of decision makers in Washington. PROBE news magazine reporting on a discussion programme organized by Bangladesh Institute for Peace and Strategic Studies, quotes the US Ambassador Dan Mozena who spoke warmly of Bangladesh’s growing importance to America, “Bangladesh is now of deep strategic interest to the US. This is the biggest change in US Bangladesh relations over the last 10 years.”

Most crucially, Ambassador Mozena appeared to reject any speculation that the US may be interacting through a third party, India, in Bangladesh. He said US engagement with Bangladesh was direct. They didn’t have to deal with Bangladesh through India, he added. The formulation of US foreign policy independent of Indian influence will probably be of some concern to New Delhi, especially where it relates to the South Asia region. It would, therefore, be of some interest to compare contemporary attitudes and perspectives of Indian analysts and their American counterparts and how they view their respective countries roles and strategic interests in the wider South Asia and Asia Pacific region.

America’s renewed interest in South Asia and Asia Pacific region is based on its pivot policy that was neatly explained in a recent article in The Diplomat, (How U.S. Must Adapt in Asia, May 23, 2012).

“… [The] Obama administration has recently announced its policy toward the Asia-Pacific region, which emphasizes a “pivot” in U.S. foreign policy. This reflects the rediscovery of the importance of the trans-Pacific axis in the 21st century, from security to the economy. It seems that two words – engagement and enlargement – capture the basic direction of the Obama administration’s policy toward the Asia-Pacific region. This is quite similar to that of the Clinton administration of the mid-1990s.

The U.S. policy contains the following five elements: strengthening traditional alliances; strengthening partnerships with other regional countries; managing and developing a cooperative relationship with China; participation in and working with multilateral regional mechanisms; and developing and strengthening trade relations (KORUS, FTA and TPP). How the Obama administration will implement its Asia policy remains to be seen, but a number of concerns should be taken into account in the implementation process.”

The pivot policy inherently contains another more nefarious policy of encirclement of China which is admitted to by the author Kang Choi, “Against this backdrop, China sees some of this as an effort to encircle it, and four of the five elements of U.S. policy toward the Asia-Pacific region could be considered encircling measures.” Indian analysts prefer to use the word containment and are less coy about what they expect from US foreign policy in South Asia. Indian analyst Subhash Kapila in an article for SAAG initially puts forward the China containment policy as the principle reason for US engagement with Bangladesh (and Myanmar) but that US military involvement in the South Asia region is also the cause of intense discomfort to India is only vaguely alluded to:    

“The Eastern Flank of the Asia Pacific rested on three countries—-Myanmar, Bangladesh and India. While the United States had a Strategic Partnership with India of sorts, there was no such linkage with Myanmar and Bangladesh. Notably, Myanmar in American military perceptions was a military-client state of China and Bangladesh too was indebted to China as countervailing power to India. Strategically, it would be a strong American policy imperative to unloosen Myanmar and Bangladesh from their strategic linkages with China.


Further, for successful implementation of the US strategic pivot to Asia and its corollary of China Containment Strategy, the American security architecture had to incorporate Myanmar and Bangladesh in that architecture … Bangladesh figures in the strategic calculus of the United States militarily in the Navy and Air Force domains. In the United States China Containment Strategy, with Bangladesh strongly in its fold eventuality exists where the US Navy and US Air Force could use Bangladeshi bases. Politically, our policy planners view offshore oil-blocks only in economic perspectives. But United States policy planners view these in strategic and military terms. The United States strategic formulations would be to deny to China access to and use of respective offshore oil-blocks of Myanmar and Bangladesh in the Bay of Bengal. It must be remembered that an important component of US China Containment Strategy would be the ‘energy strangulation’ of China.” (South Asia Analysis Group, May 21, 2012)

This is certainly provocative thinking and it is clear that the pivot policy of the United States is only acceptable to India in so as far as it serves Indian interests i.e. the containment of China. According to current Indian thinking the pivot policy can be adequately implemented in South Asia through joint cooperation between the US and Indian militaries and bilateral agreements or arrangements with third countries in the region are therefore unnecessary. This is the actual import of Subhash Kapila’s concluding paragraph:

“India has to note that the United States has for years militarily activated the Arabian Sea; the United States is now in the process of militarily activating the Bay of Bengal hitherto fore viewed by Indian policy establishment as exclusive military backwaters of India. The military connotations of such move whether in complementary role to US strategies or even in terms of India’s independent strategic postures need to be seriously contemplated by India’s policy planners.”

Such subtlety of language and euphemistic expressions are often lost to American readers but the general meaning of the paragraph can be interpreted as ‘Stay the hell away from the Bay of Bengal. This is our little lake to piss in not yours.’ Presumably if the Indians could install a Prime Minister in Dhaka thoroughly distrusted by the United States it would thwart any deeper military engagement between Bangladesh and America and thereby keep the US military some distance from the Bay of Bengal or force them to act exclusively through the Indian navy.  As I have mentioned elsewhere, the Indians consider South Asia its exclusive zone or sphere of influence, and both China and the US are seen as mere interlopers. This is only now being understood by American policy makers and military strategists. 

Politics and military 

A military intervention in Bangladesh is the least desirable outcome for not just the Awami League but also the BNP and India. On one side it would keep the present crop of aged leaders out of politics for several years and in all probability eliminate them entirely from the political scene. In the Indian perspective, the military option is anathematic as the Bangladesh Army is inherently anti-Indian in outlook and still holds a deep and lasting grievance over the Pilkhana mutiny and massacre that occurred in 2009 and which many blame on the Indian external intelligence services (RAW) for having orchestrated. A military government in Dhaka would also likely be more open to the American and Chinese advances and would likely try to deepen engagements with both countries leaving the Indians out in the cold.

Due to the strained and increasingly fraught political atmosphere in Bangladesh the AL has on several occasions warned of a series of vague and unspecified conspiracies to install a military government in Dhaka. The Economist has opined that on at least one occasion the conspiracy (involving Maj. Zia) was used by the government to get closer political control over the army. Industries Minister Dilip Barua had apprehended, some weeks ago, that another 1/11-like episode may take place again as the anti-liberation forces were engaged in conspiracies to destabilize the country. ( The Financial Express - Barua smells recurrence of 1/11, May 16, 2012)

Similarly, Sheikh Hasina has also warned of a renewed conspiracy to implement the minus-2 formula that had originally failed during the 1/11 takeover. (Daily Sun - PM must initiate dialogue with opposition, May 25, 2012) While the AL may blame the anti-liberations forces and unnamed external agencies for these threats it is clear that this present spate of trouble has been wrought by the mismanagement and mis-governance of the country by the AL. With the possibility that the AL may be removed from power through a popular uprising or in national elections (fair and freely held) it may be better for New Delhi to secretly back the BNP and Tareque Rahman rather than opt for a military takeover.

BY : MBI Munshi.

No construction on Tipaimukh dam site

India is yet to make any construction at the proposed controversial Tipaimukh multipurpose dam site on the Barak River in Manipur.

The Indian government took a group of 10 Bangladeshi journalists to the site by an Indian Air Force helicopter on Wednesday but the chopper did not land on the ground for 'technical reasons' even though the weather was good.

In July 2009, a Bangladeshi parliamentary delegation on a fact-finding mission met similar fate as they could not also land.

The newsmen had an opportunity to look at the congruence point of Barak and Tuibhai Rivers and Tipaimukh dam site 1200 feet above the ground for over 20 minutes when the helicopter gave about 70 minutes' ride from Shilchar airport to the site.

A village, Lungthulian, was seen at the top of the adjoining hill of the meeting point of the rivers.

The dam is planned 500 metres downstream from the congruence point, 210 kilometres from Sylhet border.

The Bangladeshi delegation reached India on Sunday and met Indian Water Resources Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal and Secretary of the ministry Dhruv Bijai Singh on Monday.

Drama

The delegation faced a hiccup when Indian Air Force officials told the team at 11:00am that no camera would be allowed during the visit.

The reporters instantly protested and informed the Indian authorities that they would not visit the place without camera.

After wrangling for over 2 hours, the newsmen were allowed to board the helicopter at 1:30pm Indian time with camera.

Tipaimukh dam

The Indian government plans to dam the Barak River to moderate floods during monsoon period and generate 1,500 megawatt of electricity.

The dam would submerge 302 square kilometres of area in Manipur and Mizorum and create a reservoir, which can hold 1,590 million cubic metre of water.

There is a strong protest from the local people and Bangladeshi side fearing it would have negative impact on environment.

River Barak enters into Bangladesh as the Surma and Kushiara rivers. The two rivers are lifeline for hundreds of water bodies in the greater Sylhet region. 

Source : 

 

ATTACK ON THE MEDIA : Newsmen seek protection from ‘state-sponsored terror’

“Under attack, pray for us.” is the cryptic message from a journalist colleague in Bangladesh that was received with dismay and circulated hurriedly among the Bangladeshi journalistic Diaspora across the globe. Another journalist posted a comment saying “we’re facing state-sponsored terror.”

 

As the democracy in Bangladesh encounters one of the most intractable challenges of its life time, journalists face as much random attacks and deaths as do opposition leaders and activists. Dozens of opposition political leaders have headed for imprisonment since the coming to power of the Awami League- led administration in early 2009; many were kidnapped; and, attack on journalists continued unabated.

 

 The BBC claims at least nine journalists of the bdnews24.com were injured by a bunch of knife-wielding miscreants during an attack on Monday night at the publication’s office, two of them critically. The following day, about 200 journalists staged a protest rally in front of the national press club in Dhaka. Demonstrations also took place in other press clubs around the country.

Such demonstrations have occurred almost frequently since February 11 when, in a pre-dawn attack at their residence, assailants brutally murdered journalist couple Meherun Runi, a senior reporter of ATN Bangla Television, and her husband Sagar Sarowar, news editor of Maasranga Television.

 

Although a number of media reports linked that bone-chilling dual murder with the couple’s probing into a corruption scandal involving power sector deals in which favouritism and handing of kickbacks were discovered, the investigation remained stalled and the killers are at large.

 

Likewise, the attack on bdnews24.com’s office has led to an arrest which is directly linked with a ruling party cabal. Jahidul Islam Sourav, one of the three suspects arrested on Tuesday, confessed to police of being a member of the Juba League, the youth organ of the ruling Awami League. He also admitted to attacking the journalists at the bdnews24.com office.

 

Our investigation and the prima facie evidence indicate that the trend in attacking journalists is part of a move to throttle any kind of dissents in the country. 

 

Only two days prior to the attack on badnews24.com, police have attacked the court correspondents of the Bengali dailies Prothom Alo, Kaler Kantha and Bangladesh protidin in front of Dhaka’s court house. Hours before, three photojournalists -Khaled Sarker, Zahidul Karim and Sajed Karim – from the Bengali daily Prothom Alo, were beaten by police in Dhaka’s Agargaon area while covering a student demonstration.

Such intolerance of the government with all forms of dissent manifested in a brazen manner on March 12 when cable operators were compelled to block television channels ready to telecast an opposition rally live, according to a cabal company executive who insisted not to be named.

 

The attack on the media aside, at least 22 opposition political activists have disappeared during the first four months of this year, according to the rights group Ain-O-Salish Kendra. According to another rights watchdog, Odhikar, 30 persons were victims of ‘enforced disappearance’ in 2011, 18 in 2010 and 2 in 2009; a pattern that validates a plethora of media reports that human rights violations and extra-judicial killings became one of the main tools of suppressing dissents by the regime.

 

At the same time, a discernible change of policy also became evident. Enforced disappearance, locally known as goom, appeared to have replaced as a policy prescription for the much criticized cross-fire-killings by law enforcing agencies. Data shows, with the instances of enforced disappearances increasing, cross fire killing ebbed. Cross-fire killing reduced from 127 in 2010 to 84 in 2011.

 

The policy is crafty and it’s efficacy lies in the fact that none of the recent instances of kidnapping and killing of political dissents could be blamed directly on the government due to the culprits being often plain-clothed party operatives working under hand-picked security stalwarts of the regime’s inner coterie.

 

That is part of the story, as, in the media, one only hears or reads the news of high profiled murders. 

 

According to one report (The New Nation, 09 May, 2012), police have recovered 100 mutilated corpses from different parts of Dhaka and 60 other from adjoining areas during the last four months. The report cautioned, “The actual number of unidentified bodies would be much higher as all of them could not be traced after they went missing. Many of the bodies might have been dumped into rivers which were carried away by strong current.” 

 

Who has the mandate and the audacity to conduct such systematic killings within a sovereign nation? Despite denial from the government that it’s law enforcing agencies are not involved in these killings and disappearances, facts tend to contradict such an assertion. 

 

For instance, another recent high profiled incidence involving Taka 7 million discoveries in the car of a minister’s aide has met with no justice, and, the government failed to explain why and how the main witness of the case, the driver of the car, has disappeared despite being in the custody of the mighty Border Guards Bangladesh (BGB) troopers.

 

As well, two of the main witnesses in the sensational murder in early March of a senior Saudi diplomat stationed in Dhaka, Khalaf Al Ali, are missing and feared to have been forcefully abducted by the same state-sponsored cabal.

 

Even an international uproar following the kidnapping of the main opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party’s ( BNP) organizing secretary, Ilias Ali, on April 17, has made little dent in convincing the government that democratic governance entails accountability, pluralism, tolerance and rule of law. 

 

It’s pretty obvious from hindsight that Ali’s kidnapping was orchestrated to arouse the opposition’s anger and use the instability to arrest and charge main opposition leaders as the main culprits. And that’s what has happened exactly. Concocted charges have netted dozens of senior BNP leaders and most of them have been denied bails.

 

The autocratic character of the government manifested further when a number of senior leaders and ministers started hurling invectives at the US Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, following her expression of deep concerns and demand for investigation into the ‘disappearance’ of Ilias Ali and a trade union leader, Aminul Islam, during her recent Dhaka visit. 

 

Global impression about the autocratic nature of the current Bangladesh regime has also solidified in recent months as attacks on the media intensified amidst publication of stories of failed governance, subservience to foreign powers and unfettered corruption. As if the messenger is culpable for the bad message, in response, the media has been vilified, ostracized and victimized for stories that are made by rogue apparatuses and their loyalist cronies. 

 

The World Bank was compelled lately to censor a $2.5 billion funding for the construction of a bridge due to procedural anomalies created under the influence of kickbacks. Yet, the sordid chronicle of stream-rolling the media is a voluminous one by now. 

 

In April 2010, private TV Channel 1 was forced to close its broadcast. In June 2010, the Bengali daily Amar Desh faced an order to stop publication for printing reports critical of the government. The acting editor of the paper, Mahmudur Rahman, was later arrested under the Anti-Terrorism Act. 

 

Rahman disclosed during a court hearing that his captors had beaten him and the notorious Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) officers tied his hands with window bars prior to depriving him of food and sleep.

 

Other journalists were not as lucky as was Rahman, who carries the stature of being a former adviser to the BNP government and a high-profiled business magnet of the country. According to a 2011 report by the Odhikar, 15 journalists were killed, 740 injured, 299 assaulted, 911 threatened, 45 arrested and nine abducted from January 2004 to April 2011. 

BY : M. Shahidul Islam

Bangladesh Railway : Bribery, anomalies rule recruitment

Yusuf Ali Mridha, the suspended general manager (East) of Bangladesh Railway, had recruited more than 600 railway employees on back dates in just two months before an amount of Tk 70 lakh was seized from a microbus of the former railway minister's aide Omar Faruq Talukder.

Railway officials said Mridha had expedited the appointment process with direct support from Faruq, the sacked assistant personal secretary of the then railway minister Suranjit Sengupta. 

Many job seekers have alleged that they had paid money to get jobs in the railway's east zone.

The public administration ministry in August 2010 approved the recruitment of 7,275 railway staff within a year. It later extended the deadline by six months to February 11 this year, as the railway managed to recruit only several hundred staff in the one-year time frame, said the officials.

A total of 1,611 railway employees -- 1,128 in the east zone and 483 in the west zone -- were recruited between August 2010 and February this year. Of them, 624 were appointed in the east zone after the expiry of the February 11 deadline, according to a source in the railway's establishment department.

“One-third of the total recruitment was made after the expiry of the February 11 deadline, and before the seizure of Tk 70 lakh on April 9,” said a senior railway official, asking not to be named. 

Recruitment data are usually sent to the railway headquarters every month, but the establishment department did not get any recruitment data of the railway's east zone from January last year to February this year. 

“Mridha, who became general manager (east) in January 2011, did not send the recruitment data on due date, as he tried to keep it secret,” said the source.

Mridha and Faruq might have taken bribes from applicants in advance, but failed to give them jobs within the February 11 deadline, it said. 

“They had to use back dates on documents to legalise appointments.” Many in the railway are aware of this malpractice, the source said.

There have been allegations of widespread irregularities in recruitment in the railway's east zone. Many job seekers alleged that they had to pay Tk 3 lakh to Tk 5 lakh for each post of Class III and IV employees.

Railway Director General Abu Taher said none could make recruitments on back dates. “This is illegal. Punitive action will be taken if anyone is found involved in such irregularities,” he told The Daily Star.

A departmental probe headed by the railway director general last month found no involvement of Suranjit in the Tk 70 lakh scandal. In its report on May 13, the probe body said the seized money belonged to Faruq.

The probe body prepared the report based on statements of Faruq, Mridha, Enamul and some BGB personnel.

Suranjit stepped down as railway minister on April 16 following the seizure of Tk 70 lakh from the microbus of his APS Omar Faruq. Many in the railway claimed the amount of money stashed in the vehicle amounted to several crores. 

On the night of April 9, Faruq's microbus driver Ali Azam drove the vehicle carrying Faruq and railway officials Mridha and Enamul Huq to the BGB headquarters in the capital. The driver loudly told the guards that there was illegal money in the microbus.

The BGB personnel searched the vehicle and found Tk 70 lakh, reportedly collected from job seekers, stashed in the vehicle. They detained the four but released them the next day after verifying their identities.

Faruq was sacked; and Mridha and railway divisional security commandant Enamul Huq were suspended following the incident.

RECRUITMENT IN WEST ZONE

A total of 443 people were recruited in the railway's west zone in a year from August 2010 to August last year. The general manager (west zone) sent the recruitment data to the railway headquarters every month in line with the rules. 

No recruitment was made in the west zone during the extended period of six months, said sources in the railway.

The general managers of the east and west zones enjoy absolute authority to recruit staff in the railway.

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