Canada to deport Bangladesh founder's fugitive assassin

CANADA HAS agreed to deport Noor Chowdhury, one of 12 former army officers sentenced to death for the 1975 assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, a senior official of Bangladesh disclosed after his recent visit to Ottawa.

"Canadian authorities have seized Noor Chowdhury's passport for residing illegally in the country. They have decided to send him back to Bangladesh," law minister Shafique Ahmed told reporters.

Returning to the country after a 10-day visit to Canada, the law minister also informed journalists that Chowdhury had sought both a residency permit and asylum, but the Canadian government refused his application.

"At present, Noor Chowdhury has to report to the police there once every week," said the law minister.

Dismissed Major Noor Chowdhury and his trigger happy colleague Major Bazlul Huda opened fire from automatic weapons to silence the lion who gave a call of independence in March 1971.

"He is also trying to appeal against the Canadian decision. If the petition is rejected, there will be no barrier to bringing him back."

Answering a question on the whereabouts of Shariful Haque Dalim, another fugitive in the case, Shafique said, "I have learnt that he was in Canada for a while. But he has reportedly left the country."

The minister said that the foreign ministry was trying to bring back all the fugitive convicted killers.

Bangladesh's founding father Sheikh Mujib was killed, along with most of his family members, on Aug 15 1975, just four years after the country gained independence from Pakistan.

On Nov 19 this year, the Supreme Court, in a long-awaited judgement on appeals by five convicted former officers, upheld their death sentences in the murder case.

Bazlul Huda, Syed Faruk Khan, Sultan Shahriar Rashid Khan, Mohiuddin Ahmed and AKM Mohiuddin Ahmed had appealed to have their death penalties commuted from behind bars.

Another six convicts also sentenced to death in the case—Abdur Rashid, Shariful Haq Dalim, Noor Chowdhury, Moslemuddin, Rashed Chowdhury and Abdul Majed—are fugitives.

Interpol has issued arrest warrants for their capture.

A twelfth who also received the death penalty, Abdul Aziz Pasha, died as a fugitive in Zimbabwe. #
First published by BDNews24.com on November 30, 2009

Unmasking of Gen. Ziaur Rahman in the aftermath of Bangabandhu murder case verdict

SHABBIR AHMED

THE ARROGANT killers of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman including his family members and many other relatives have finally been awarded capital punishment through the due process of law. The Appellate Division of the Supreme Court had finally delivered the judgment on Bangabandhu murder case on November 19, 2009. The Judges unequivocally upheld the High Court verdict with confirmation of the death sentence to twelve killers. All these killers and their patrons including a few supporters thought that they were above the law; consequently, untouchables. The masterminds, conspirators, and patrons gave them indemnity by disregarding a horrendous breach of human rights, rule of law, and right to get justice. As it appears now, these vicious forces have failed measurably and with all pride, the people of Bangladesh can now claim victory over the killers and conspirators. A few of the naked and unabashed supporters will still try to defend the killers, conspirators, and the masterminds up to the bitter end. Their actions in the Internet remind me of the adage “the dogs will be barking, but the caravan will pass.” Now is the time when finally justice has prevailed. All the signs are there in the deltaic land of 165 million where the people are eagerly waiting to see the killers get the punishment to the fullest that they deserve for committing heinous crime and bloodletting, which changed the political demeanour of the nation. However, the change as it seems now was short-lived.

By the killing of the father of the nation Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the nascent secular democratic process in Bangladesh was obstructed no doubt. It was he, who envisioned the progress of Bangladesh under a parliamentary democracy that is devoid of theocracy and militarism. One should appreciate his foresightedness for trying to get us out of the consequence of the theocratic and military rule in Pakistan. It is easy to visualize the sorry state of present Pakistan.

Unfortunately, the struggle for our independence under the leadership of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman did not go well for the political Islamists, who used to trade religion in the disguise of politics. The agents of the religion traders and their national/international patrons found Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman on their way to bring back the communal sectarian politics as it were practiced in Pakistan under the patronization of the military, fundamentalists, and the elite pan-Islamists. For this, the vicious conspirators and their patrons executed a heinous plan by killing the most progressive leader of our country and our founding father Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. The killers were so ruthless that they did not even spare his wife, sons, and newlywed daughter-in-laws. The killing spree of the hyenas did not have any bound. They killed nine-year old Sheikh Russell, the youngest son of Bangabandhu. The blood thirsty hyenas carried out their mission of killing in two more houses. They killed Mr. Sheikh Fazlul Haque Moni and his pregnant wife Mrs. Arzu Moni. In another house, they killed a member of the cabinet Mr. Serniabat and others. Even the life of a four-year old grandson of Mr. Serniabat was not spared by the killers.

Immediately after killing in the morning of August 15, 1975, the killers declared Bangladesh as an Islamic Republic. It was reported that the mastermind behind the killers later changed their strategy for the gradual Pakistanization of Bangladesh. Gradually, the prime/principal conspirators and godfather of the killers emerged onto the surface. We observed how the command of the army went to Gen. Zia within days of the killing of Bangabandhu. Within months, the sun-glass clad petit dictator took over the command of the whole country holding three vital posts: President, Chief Martial Law Administrator, and Chief of Staff of Army. This demon dictator patronized the killers and started taking Bangladesh into the path of Pakistan quite shamelessly. The conspirators and the godfathers of the killers under the leadership of Gen. Zia changed the secular characteristics of the constitution. The recent rise of Islamic terrorists under the patronization of Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) and Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) is the result of Pakistanization done by Gen. Zia.

It can be concluded that the masterminds used the killers to fulfill their objectives of getting to power and transform Bangladesh from a growing secular democracy under civilian rule to a theocratic system under the influence of semi-Islamic and fundamentalist parties. Finally, the arrogant killers, who erroneously thought that they were above the law, are finally facing both ignominy and punishment. The clock is ticking and there is not much time left for them for expiating for their ruthless crimes. In the aftermath of the carrying out of the punishment, it would be our demand that the masterminds, conspirators, and the patrons who are still alive be identified and brought to justice. The people of Bangladesh should know the real culprits behind the scene.

Our people in Bangladesh should however be aware of certain charlatans who are the supporters of the killers and General Ziaur Rahman. They already have started campaign in the Net to project a good image of the sagging popularity of the ruthless army dictator. The truth about the army general is finally coming out and this is causing concern among them. I must point out after reading editorials and Op-Ed columns of both the English and vernacular newspapers that the people of Bangladesh have finally realized that our democratic movement was derailed by the killing of Bangabandhu, his family members, close relatives, and trusted lieutenants in the months of August and November 1975. It took 34 long years for the smoke to be clear. The sun is shining again all over the nation. The nation finally had heaved a long sigh of relief. Future looks too bright for our huddled masses. It is surely a new beginning. #

Finality to the unfinished business in Bangladesh after 34 long years!

A.H. JAFFOR ULLAH

THE NATION of Bangladesh with its teeming 160 million people will be anxiously waiting to hear the final verdict of Sheikh Mujib killing case after 34 long years of waiting! The old axiom “Justice delayed is justice denied” uttered by one-time British MP William Gladstone is very much applicable in this case. A brigand of junior officers who were goaded by some senior military officers and a coterie of powerful civilians who did not accept the dismemberment of Jinnah’s united Pakistan conspired in the confine of Kurmitola cantonment. In the wee hours of August 15, 1975, these rogue military officers brought tanks out of the cantonment and headed towards Dhanmondi to annihilate the entire family of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. They not only assassinated the democratically elected head of the government but also killed the entire family members barring the ones who were out of the country. They also killed Sheikh Mujib’s nephew and other family members. Such were the viciousness of their crime.

The rogue junior military officers were not alone in their misadventure. They must have had tacit approval from the senior military officers and some disgruntled Awami League leaders or else this task would not have been completed so facilely. However, every attempt to uncover the conspiracy and bring finality to this heinous crime had failed miserably because the military ruler who was waiting in the wing to grab the power in the most opportune time had played a diabolic role in the post-killing period. The military ruler, General Ziaur Rahman, had aided the killer to leave Bangladesh and settle in far off places. To add insult to injury, the same military dictator also helped to pass an infamous indemnity bill to give a legal protection to the killers of Sheikh Mujib and his family members. If this is not a blatant display of arrogance and acknowledgement of the guilt by the military ruler, then I have to opine that the ruler was not a thinker-type of politician.

General Ziaur Rahman and his cohort from civilian side must have had heaved a big sigh of relive knowing that the killers who did the dirty job for them indeed have a legal cover to roam freely in and out of the country. They wrongly thought that the nation will always be ruled by the military from who they will receive both protection and impunity. But how wrong they were!

General Ziaur Rahman had met his fate in May 1981 when his colleagues from military conspired to finish him off when he visited Chittagong. The army dictator who followed in the footsteps of General Ziaur Rahman was least interested to apprehend those criminals and conduct a case with the intention to send them to gallows. And the same goes for Khaleda Zia whose party came victorious in 1991. Her administration was least interested to bring those criminals to docket. To add insult to the intelligence of 100 million Bangalees, she started celebrating August 15 as her birthday! The killers of the founding father of the nation roamed freely in Bangladesh, some of them were appointed as diplomat, some even tried to become lawmakers in Bangladesh. Such were the insolence of these rogue killers. Well, all of these were made possible because a major political party that ruled two terms once from 1991 through 1996 and another term from 2001 through 2006 showed no interest whatsoever to bring a closure to the extra-judicial killing of August 1975. To show her arrogance, Mrs. Zia even appointed one of the killers in an embassy abroad.

The Awami League finally came to power in 1996 through an adult suffrage. Sheikh Mujib’s eldest daughter, Sheikh Hasina, who escaped the August 1975 killing spree because she was on a goodwill tour with her sister Sheikh Rehana, became the prime minister in the aftermath of election victory in 1996. In the first year or so, Sheikh Hasina and her deputies were able to enact law to outlaw the infamous indemnity bill, which was the handiwork of Khaleda Zia’s husband, the founder of Bangladesh nationalist Party (BNP). Later, the case was heard by the judge(s) in the High Court. The court came out with the verdict but the sentencing was never done. In 2001 parliamentary election, the BNP came out victorious while they ruled the country for the next 5 years. During this time, for whatever reasons the judges of the High Court refused to sentence the convicted killers. Undoubtedly, the judiciary was pressurized not to give the sentencing. The lame excuses the judges offer were both deplorable and ridiculous. Life went on as usual and the justice was delayed indefinitely. The convicted killers some of them who were already in jail in Bangladesh probably thought that the sentencing will never take place while the killers who are in overseas thought they are untouchable and no harm will ever come to them. However, one convicted killer, who was living in America, had to face the ignominy in 2007 when he was expelled from America and handed over to the Bangladesh authorities in Dhaka. The wheel of justice kept moving in the right direction. The military-backed caretaker government had other pressing job before them; consequently, the Sheikh Mujib murder case was put in the back burner.

In late 2008, the much anticipated parliamentary election took place in which the Awami League headed by Sheikh Hasina came out victorious by a landslide vote. The main opposition party, BNP, was only able to garner enough votes to beg only 30 parliamentary seats. This happened because during the caretaker government’s rule for nearly 2 years, the floodgate of corruption-related stories was unearthed. Khaleda Zia was able to convince the caretaker government to send her two incorrigible sons to abroad on the plea of restoring theirs poor health. It is doubtful however if any of her sons would ever return to Bangladesh anytime soon.

As soon as Sheikh Hasina came to power, she made it very clear that she would try to bring finality to Sheikh Mujib murder case. The case finally went to the Supreme Court’s Appellate Division this year. The Appellate Division of Supreme Court (SC) comprising Justice Mohd. Tafazzul Islam, Justice Mohd. Abdul Aziz, Justice BK Das, Justice Mohd. Muzammel Hossain, and Justice SK Sinha will deliver the verdict of this high profile murder case on November 19, 2009.

The momentous day is almost there and the government is taking all the steps to make sure that the sympathizers of the killers will not be able to disrupt the court proceeding on that day. Some intelligence officers in Bangladesh had opined that the supporters of the killers may try to foment trouble in the wake of the Supreme Court verdict. And the law and order department is taking adequate precaution to avert any such incidents. The PM has requested the citizens to remain calm but alert. My feeling is that no untoward incident will happen in Bangladesh because the political power that had aided the killers is now in disarray. Also, the prevailing mood in the country is in favor of the finality in this long overdue case. Furthermore, when supporters of the killers tried to assassinate one lawmaker, Sheikh Fazle Noor Taposh, whose father Sheikh Moni was assassinated by the same military bunch in August 1975, not too long ago, Bangladesh’s citizens were awed by the criminality of the coward bunch who wanted to foil the due process. This botched assassinated attempt on Mr. F.N. Taposh shook the entire nation. There is an overwhelming sympathy for the families that lost their loved one in the dark days of August 1975.

Bangladesh’s people should be contended now knowing that the finality will come to this national tragedy. The killers who are now in the central lock up should face the verdict firsthand. Also, the killers who are on the loose in Pakistan and elsewhere should be ashamed to know that they are condemned by their countrymen. As soon as the verdict is given, the court should move in full gear to try the case of November jailhouse killing of Awami League’s four leaders. That is also an unfinished business.

For too long, the killers of Sheikh Mujib and Awami leaders were scot-free moving about with chutzpah. Those days are about to be over. These criminals and their godfathers thought all these years that the killers would receive impunity for the crime they committed over three decades ago. Now, they better believe that nobody is above the law. Instead of getting rewards for their criminality from General Ziaur Rahman three long decades ago, now they will face the ignominy and censure from the teeming masses. Too bad the army general, who aided this criminal bunch with a sardonic smile, won’t be here to witness the verdict given by the Supreme Court. His opprobrious conduct in this matter will become a lore in Bangladesh. #

A.H. Jaffor Ullah, a researcher and columnist, writes from New Orleans, US

Global Warming as Seen From Bangladesh

Momota Begum worries about hunger, not climate change

BJøRN LOMBORG

The following article is part of a series leading up to the December United Nations conference in Copenhagen on how ordinary people in different countries view global warming.

WHEN THE monsoon rains come, Momota Begum and her husband and children must take turns sleeping in their tiny concrete house's one bed to escape the waste and human excrement that can wash in from outside. They live in a three-decade old refugee camp in Dhaka, Bangladesh. It is run for Urdu-speaking people who found themselves on the wrong side of the border after Bangladesh won its independence from Pakistan in 1971.

Late last year, campaigning politicians and journalists visited the 20,000 residents of the camp. This visit gave many of the refugees hope that their living conditions would soon be improved.

"They saw our living conditions here," 45-year-old Mrs. Begum told a Copenhagen Consensus Center researcher in June. "It gave us hope every time these people came, but now I understand that even if people know about us, it doesn't matter."

As a cart-puller, Mrs. Begum's husband earns about $44 each month. The family has no savings. Mrs. Begum believes that education could help her children achieve a better life. But her eldest daughter dropped out of school at age 13. The family could not afford the $22 annual fee for books and uniforms. "It's better that she stays at home and helps out," Mrs. Begum said.

Bangladesh provides camp residents with water and electricity, but not proper sanitation. Mrs. Begum cooks the daily meal next to an open drain. Diarrhea is common. Mrs. Begum's family cannot afford the $2.90-$4.30 cost of going to a private health clinic when someone in the family gets sick.

In the developed world, when we consider how best to help Bangladesh, our minds quickly turn to policies that would reduce the amount of carbon emissions to lessen the risk that global warming will lead to rising sea levels over the next 50 or 100 years.

Mrs. Begum's biggest challenge is not what the sea level may do in five or 10 decades. She has a more modest request: "It would be a heaven's gift if a proper drainage system could be arranged in this area where all the drains are covered and do not overflow."

Getting basic sanitation and safe drinking water to the three billion people around the world who do not have it now would cost nearly $4 billion a year. By contrast, cuts in global carbon emissions that aim to limit global temperature increases to less than two degrees Celsius over the next century would cost $40 trillion a year by 2100. These cuts will do nothing to increase the number of people with access to clean drinking water and sanitation. Cutting carbon emissions will likely increase water scarcity, because global warming is expected to increase average rainfall levels around the world.

For Mrs. Begum, the choice is simple. After global warming was explained to her, she said: "When my kids haven't got enough to eat, I don't think global warming will be an issue I will be thinking about."

One of Bangladesh's most vulnerable citizens, Mrs. Begum has lost faith in the media and politicians.

"So many people like you have come and interviewed us. I have not seen any improvement in our conditions," she said.

It is time the developed world started listening. #

First published in The Wall Street Journal, page A17, November 9, 2009

Mr. Lomborg is director of the Copenhagen Consensus Center, a think tank, and author of "Cool It: The Skeptical Environmentalist's Guide to Global Warming" (Knopf, 2007)

Harakat-ul-Jihad-Islami Bangladesh

Excerpts from "Beyond al-Qaeda: The Global Jihadist Movement", authored by Angel Rabasa, Peter Chalk, Kim Cragin, Sara A. Daly, Heather S. Gregg, Theodore W. Karasik, Kevin A. O’Brien, William Rosenau

In Bangladesh, the principal group that has been linked to al-Qaeda is Harakat-ul-Jihad-Islami Bangladesh (HuJI B), which aims to establish a system of Islamic hukumat (rule) across the country. The organization’s roots date back to 1992, although it has emerged as a prominent militant entity only since 2000. Shauqat Osman (also known as Maulana or Sheikh Farid) leads the group, overseeing an operational cadre that is believed to number 15,000, of whom 2,000 are described as hardcore.

Most of these militants are based in cells scattered along a stretch of coastline that runs from the port city of Chittagong, south through Cox’s Bazar to the Burmese border.57 Indian intelligence sources allege that HuJI B’s long-term goal specifically calls for an Islamic revolution in India’s northeast and that, with the help of the ISI and Bangladesh’s Directorate General of Field Intelligence (DGFI), the group has actively sought to cultivate links with radicals in Kashmir and Assam—including HuM, JeM, the United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA), and the National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB).58

HuJI B’s links to al-Qaeda allegedly go back to the group’s inception in 1992, when bin Laden instructed Bangladeshi mujahideen returning from Afghanistan to take up arms against the government in Dhaka and to replace it with a fundamentalist order committed to the creation of a nation of “true believers.”59 Although it is difficult to establish the veracity of this claim, al-Qaeda is known to have disseminated at least some funds to the country throughout the 1990s, much of which appears to have been channeled through the Saudi-based al-Haramain Foundation60 and the “Servants of Suffering and Humanity International” charity in Dhaka.61

Together with donations from Pakistan, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Qatar, and Oman, these financial contributions were used to underwrite a proliferating web of radical unlicensed madrassas (known as Dars-e-Nizami) throughout Bangladesh that have been linked to some of the country’s most fundamentalist religious entities and parties, including the Muslim League, the Tablighi Jama’at, the Jammat-e-Tulba, the Jamaat-ul-Muderessin, Islamic Oikya, and Jamaat-e-Islami. Indian and U.S. sources both maintain that the madrassas—which number between 15,000 and 20,000, of which at least 40 are known to be run by Afghan war veterans—have constituted an important source of recruits for extremists.62

HuJI B is also thought to have established contacts with al-Qaeda through the Taliban. Between 1996 and 2001, several hundred Harakat activists received training in al-Qaeda camps in Afghanistan.63 The precise number of recruits who were sent to these camps is unknown; however, given that several facilities were reserved only for Bengali speakers, it would appear that the overall Bangladeshi component was quite substantial.

A more concrete tie to al-Qaeda has been identified in the person of Sheikh Abdur Rahman, the leader of the “Jihad Movement in Bangladesh”—to which HuJI B belongs—and one of the original signatories of the 1998 Khost “Declaration of Jihad against Jews and Crusaders.” Apart from bin Laden and Rahman, other parties to the joint statement included Ayman al-Zawahiri, Rifa’i Ahmad Taha (also known as Abu Yasir) of the EIJ, and Sheikh Mir Hamzah, secretary of the Jamiat-ul-Ulema-e-Pakistan.64 In June 2001, a 25-member joint al-Qaeda–Taliban team was reportedly dispatched from Afghanistan to train HuJI B cadres in Bangladesh.65

It appears that this initial foray into Bangladeshi territory provided the impetus for a further expansion of logistical and operational ties between al-Qaeda and the HuJI B throughout 2002. It is known, for instance, that al-Zawahiri was in Dhaka during the first part of the year, using his time in the Bangladeshi capital to explore the feasibility of establishing a new beachhead for regional Islamic extremism in areas around the Chittagong Hill Tracts. In July that same year, Indian intelligence sources verified that a fishing vessel—later identified as the MV Mecca—had been covertly ferrying al-Qaeda operatives and weapons into Bangladesh for several months and that unlicensed madrassas funded by al-Haramain were providing training and arms to Arab and North African militants from Yemen, Algeria, Libya, and Sudan.

This was followed three months later by the arrest of Fazle Karim (also known as Abu Fuzi), a known Harakat activist and reported veteran of bin Laden’s camps in eastern Afghanistan, who admitted he was part of an al-Qaeda–Taliban team that had been secretly established in Bangladesh.66

Commenting on these developments, one Western diplomat in Dhaka remarked that by the year’s end Bangladesh had emerged as a viable haven for foreign jihadists: “If . . . militants want to come in here and buy themselves new passports and new identities, stock up on any weapons they might want and maybe do a little refresher training before heading off again, there’s nothing to stop them.”67

As in the case of the extremist groups in Kashmir, the HuJI B’s rhetoric has become steadily anti-Western in the wake of the global war on terrorism, gravitating toward an ideological agenda that now, arguably, gives precedence to internationalist over local objectives.

Many of the fundamentalist religious institutions to which HuJI B has been linked are open about their support of al-Qaeda’s war against the West. Indeed, Mullah Obaidul Haque, head of the national mosque in Dhaka and a known sympathizer of Harakat, is on record for pledging that “America and Bush must be destroyed,” while HuJI B, itself, now explicitly exhorts the dual refrain of Ambra Sobai Hobo Taliban, Bangla Hobe Afghanistan: “We will all be Taliban and Bangladesh will be Afghanistan.”68

Regional commentators believe that the increasingly pan-Islamic orientation of HuJI B is being fostered by al-Qaeda ideological “perches” that have been set up in Bangladesh over the last three years. At least six dedicated transnational training camps are thought to operate in Bangladesh. These camps were reportedly set up with the direct backing of renegade elements in the ISI and DGFI to offset the terrorists’ reduced operational and political space in Pakistan after September 11.69

According to one former Burmese guerrilla, three facilities located just outside the town of Cox’s Bazar have a combined capacity of at least 2,500 cadres, with the largest comprising a complex of 26 interconnected bunkers built under a three-meter-high false forest floor. The camps are allegedly complete with kitchens, lecture halls, telephones, and televisions, and all have access to a wide range of weapons, including AK-47s, heavy machine guns, pistols, RPGs, mortars, mantraps, and mines.70

A further possible indication of links between al-Qaeda and Harakat militants is manifest in the so-called Islamic Manch (IM, literally Islamic Association), which was formed in mid-2002 at Ukhia, near Cox’s Bazar. Coming under the leadership of HuJI B and representing nine other radical Islamic interests in Bangladesh, this umbrella group advocates an extremist jihadist rhetoric that closely resonates with bin Laden’s line. The movement seeks the creation of a transnational caliphate that will eventually take in all of Bangladesh, Assam, north Bengal, and Burma’s Arakan province, and has been identified as a key propaganda and logistical conduit for al-Qaeda in South Asia. Indian and Western intelligence sources fear that many of the al-Qaeda and Taliban members who entered the country between 2001 and 2002 are now training the IM and may be seeking to establish the group as a concerted operational wing for cross-regional attacks in South Asia (in essence, a version of the Jemaah Islamiyah network in Southeast Asia).71

Assessment and Future Outlook
HuJI B actions have been directed against Bangladesh’s Hindu minority as well as the country’s moderate Muslims. For the most part these attacks have been small-scale and opportunistic, which would seem to suggest that al-Qaeda has not had a significant bearing on the group’s operational agenda. That said, HuJI B cadres have exhibited at least a rhetorical willingness to act beyond the Bangladesh theater; in this context, connections to bin Laden and his global terror network begin to take on greater relevance. Indian intelligence sources have long insisted that the HuJI B has made logistical and operational arrangements with groups in Jammu and Kashmir—claims that are now being further supplemented by the assertions of independent regional observers who believe similar ties may have been instituted with militants based in Assam and Burma.72

Although there is no conclusive, publicly available evidence to verify these allegations or back the associated claim that outside contacts have been made at the behest of external extremist forces, the presence of a Harakat leader at the signing of the 1998 Khost fatwa, the group’s reported hosting of an al-Qaeda–Taliban training team, and its central role in the (explicitly transnational) IM do seem to reflect a broad jihadist outlook. According to one commentator, members of the Rohingya Solidarity Organization and the Muslim Liberation Tigers of Assam have been training in HuJI B camps since at least June 2002, while Harakat activists have traveled to Kashmir and even Chechnya to join forces with Islamist militants fighting there.73

More recently, a 2003 report by the Canadian Security Intelligence Service (CSIS) expressed specific concern over the growing extremist activism exhibited by HuJI B, hinting that this was being fostered by al-Qaeda as part of a wider policy to drive Western aid agencies out of Bangladesh.74 In February 2005, suspected Islamist extremists firebombed several such organizations, which could represent the first stages of a heightened, externally directed operational agenda of this sort.75 If Harakat militants are, in fact, moving in this direction and beginning to hire themselves out as “subcontractors” for al-Qaeda, it would represent a fundamentally new development in HuJI B targeting and mission objectives that must be factored into assessments of the organization’s future threat potential. #

Prepared for the United States Air Force (Approved for public release, distribution unlimited)

This PDF document was made available from www.rand.org as a public service of the RAND Corporation.

Footnote:
56 ICG (2005b), p. 5.
57 U.S. Department of State (2003), pp. 133–134; Lintner (2002); Lintner (2003), p. 3; “Harakat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HuJI),” Terrorist Outfits, Bangladesh, South Asia Terrorism Portal, http://www.satp.org/satporgtp/countries/bangladesh/terroristoutfits/Huj.htm (as of February 21, 2006).
58 Jaideep Saikia, “Triangle of New Concern: North East India,” unclassified briefing, ULFA was established in 1979 and seeks the creation of an independent Assam state in India’s northeast; the group has an estimated strength of 2,000 cadres. The NDFB emerged in 1988 (then under the name of the Bodo Security Force/BSF) and is committed to carving out a separate “Bodoland” north of the Brahmaputra River for the region’s mostly Christian tribal groups who number around 13 percent of Assam’s total population; it is reportedly able to field some 1,500 fighters. For an interesting account of these groups and their links with militants in Bangladesh, Bhutan, and Burma, see Davis and Bedi (2004).
59 “Harakat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (HuJI),” Terrorist Outfits, Bangladesh, South Asia Terrorism Portal, http://wwwsatp.org/satporgtp/countries/bangladesh/terroristoutfits/Huj.htm (as of February 21, 2006); Alex Perry, “Deadly Cargo,” Time Asia, October 21, 2002.
60 The al-Haramain Foundation is widely believed to be one of the principal financial conduits for the dissemination of funds from the Middle East to terrorist groups.
61 Ajai Sahni, “Al Qaeda’s Strategic Reach in South Asia,” paper presented before “The Transnational Violence and Seams of Lawlessness in the Asia-Pacific: Linkages to Global Terrorism” Conference, Honolulu, Hawaii, February 19–21, 2002, p. 7.
62 Saikia, “Triangle of New Concern”; Datta (2003), p. 8; Perry, “Deadly Cargo.” Overall, it is estimated that the total number of madrassas in Bangladesh is in the vicinity of 64,000.
63 Recruits were taken mainly via Nepal to Pakistan before making the final trip to Afghanistan. On arrival, they were reportedly paid 30,000 Bangladeshi taka (approximately US $525) and then offered an additional “stipend” of 10,000 taka (approximately US $175) to fight alongside Taliban and al-Qaeda forces against the Northern Alliance. Lintner (2002).
64 Saikia, “Triangle of New Concern”; Datta (2003), p. 8; Lintner (2002); Abuza (2005a), p. 53. For the complete text of the Khost fatwa see Alexander and Swetnam (2001), Appendix 1B, pp. 1–3.
65 Sahni, “Al Qaeda’s Strategic Reach in South Asia,” p. 7. South Asian Clusters 101 66 Datta (2003), p. 9; Perry, “Deadly Cargo”; Lintner (2002); Lintner (2003), pp. 19–21; Abuza (2005a), pp. 53–54.
67 Cited in Perry, “Deadly Cargo.”
68 Perry, “Deadly Cargo”; Sahni, “Al Qaeda’s Strategic ” (2002), p. 7; Datta (2003), p. 8; Abuza (2005a), p. 53.
69 An internal HuJI B document lists no less than 19 training camps across Bangladesh,but it is uncertain how many of these actually offered dedicated militant instruction. Indian intelligence sources believe that, overall, the country hosts a total of 194 militant camps for various insurgent movements opposed to the Delhi government.
70 Saikia, “Triangle of New Concern”; Perry, “Deadly Cargo.” South Asian Clusters 103
71 Perry, “Deadly Cargo”; Saikia, “Triangle of New Concern”; Datta (2003), p. 9; Lintner (2002).
72 See, for instance, Perry “Deadly Cargo”; Lintner (2002); Lintner (2003), pp. 19–21; Abuza (2005a), pp. 53–54; “Dhaka Police Look for Al-Qaeda Link,” Far Eastern Economic Review, October 10, 2002. The International Crisis Group (ICG) reported several border incidents during 2004 that Indian sources claimed were connected to Bangladeshi ties with northeastern separatists (ICG, 2004, p. 5).
73 Lintner (2002).
74 Jim Bronskill, “CSIS Wary of Bangladesh,” CNEWS, December 12, 2003; Raman (2004); Hussain (2004).
75 ICG (2005a), p. 5; “WB Concerned Over Attacks on NGOs,” The Daily Star, February 18, 2005.

More Schools, Not Troops

New York Times on Bangladesh human development in comparison with Pakistan

NICHOLAS D. KRISTOF

DISPATCHING MORE troops to Afghanistan would be a monumental bet and probably a bad one, most likely a waste of lives and resources that might simply empower the Taliban. In particular, one of the most compelling arguments against more troops rests on this stunning trade-off: For the cost of a single additional soldier stationed in Afghanistan for one year, we could build roughly 20 schools there.

It’s hard to do the calculation precisely, but for the cost of 40,000 troops over a few years — well, we could just about turn every Afghan into a Ph.D.

The hawks respond: It’s naïve to think that you can sprinkle a bit of education on a war-torn society. It’s impossible to build schools now because the Taliban will blow them up.

In fact, it’s still quite possible to operate schools in Afghanistan — particularly when there’s a strong “buy-in” from the local community.

Greg Mortenson, author of “Three Cups of Tea,” has now built 39 schools in Afghanistan and 92 in Pakistan — and not one has been burned down or closed. The aid organization CARE has 295 schools educating 50,000 girls in Afghanistan, and not a single one has been closed or burned by the Taliban. The Afghan Institute of Learning, another aid group, has 32 schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan, with none closed by the Taliban (although local communities have temporarily suspended three for security reasons).

In short, there is still vast scope for greater investment in education, health and agriculture in Afghanistan. These are extraordinarily cheap and have a better record at stabilizing societies than military solutions, which, in fact, have a pretty dismal record.

In Afghanistan, for example, we have already increased our troop presence by 40,000 troops since the beginning of last year, yet the result has not been the promised stability but only more casualties and a strengthened insurgency. If the last surge of 40,000 troops didn’t help, why will the next one be so different?

Matthew P. Hoh, an American military veteran who was the top civilian officer in Zabul Province, resigned over Afghan policy, as The Washington Post reported this week. Mr. Hoh argues that our military presence is feeding the insurgency, not quelling it.

Already our troops have created a backlash with Kabul University students this week burning President Obama in effigy until police dispersed them with gunshots. The heavier our military footprint, the more resentment — and perhaps the more legitimacy for the Taliban.

Schools are not a quick fix or silver bullet any more than troops are. But we have abundant evidence that they can, over time, transform countries, and in the area near Afghanistan there’s a nice natural experiment in the comparative power of educational versus military tools.

Since 9/11, the United States has spent $15 billion in Pakistan, mostly on military support, and today Pakistan is more unstable than ever. In contrast, Bangladesh, which until 1971 was a part of Pakistan, has focused on education in a way that Pakistan never did. Bangladesh now has more girls in high school than boys. (In contrast, only 3 percent of Pakistani women in the tribal areas are literate.)

Those educated Bangladeshi women joined the labor force, laying the foundation for a garment industry and working in civil society groups like BRAC and Grameen Bank. That led to a virtuous spiral of development, jobs, lower birth rates, education and stability. That’s one reason Al Qaeda is holed up in Pakistan, not in Bangladesh, and it’s a reminder that education can transform societies.

When I travel in Pakistan, I see evidence that one group — Islamic extremists — believes in the transformative power of education. They pay for madrassas that provide free schooling and often free meals for students. They then offer scholarships for the best pupils to study abroad in Wahhabi madrassas before returning to become leaders of their communities. What I don’t see on my trips is similar numbers of American-backed schools. It breaks my heart that we don’t invest in schools as much as medieval, misogynist extremists.

For roughly the same cost as stationing 40,000 troops in Afghanistan for one year, we could educate the great majority of the 75 million children worldwide who, according to Unicef, are not getting even a primary education. We won’t turn them into graduate students, but we can help them achieve literacy. Such a vast global education campaign would reduce poverty, cut birth rates, improve America’s image in the world, promote stability and chip away at extremism.

Education isn’t a panacea, and no policy in Afghanistan is a sure bet. But all in all, the evidence suggests that education can help foster a virtuous cycle that promotes stability and moderation. So instead of sending 40,000 troops more to Afghanistan, how about opening 40,000 schools?

First published in the New York Times, October 28, 2009

Nicholas D. Kristof, an Op-Ed Columnist for The Times since 2001, is a two-time Pulitzer Prize winner who writes op-ed columns that appear twice a week

Proposal for a South Asian regional union

WILLIAM GOMES

THROUGHOUT THE triumphs and tragedies of the internal politics of Bangladesh, especially at a moment of crisis or a defining point for the nation, the neighbouring countries of India and Pakistan have always played a vital role in many ways.

The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) Charter was formally adopted on Dec. 8, 1985 by the governments of Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, to provide a platform for the peoples of South Asia to work together in a spirit of friendship, trust and understanding and to accelerate the process of economic and social development in its member states. But it’s really sad that SAARC itself has failed to accelerate the practical cooperation of the leaders of the member states for greater development; in reality, it has become a platform of shame and failure.

There is a long story of plotting and problems that can go on and on for many pages. But I want to share the dream of a united union of secular states, comprised of three countries of South Asia - Bangladesh, India, Pakistan - and one country of south central Asia - Afghanistan.

There is struggle for unity in this region, in name of religion, power and politics, where Bangladesh, India, Pakistan and Afghanistan can come out of their conflicts; one example is the Kashmir conflict, where both India and Pakistan refer to Kashmir as an "integral part" of their respective countries, leading their nations and the region into further conflict and crisis.

India and Pakistan have fought wars over Kashmir; Islamic militancy has grown in these countries, with the mood of hatred providing a welcome environment for the insurgency. We need to work with India and Pakistan to resolve this crisis, and that will be possible with a union of secular states. Unless India and Pakistan sit together to resolve the problem, it will never be solved. The root of religious oppression is interrelated with the growing crisis in this region. Also, any crises involving India, Pakistan and Afghanistan affect Bangladesh. In the same way, any problem that is related to religion or politics obviously powerfully affects the other countries in the region.

I dream of a union of secular states, not an atheist or Hindu or Islamic union of states. A union of secular states will lead with the concept of secularism, whereby the states in the union are officially neutral in matters of religion, neither supporting nor opposing any particular religious beliefs or practices. Where the state treats all its citizens equally regardless of religion and does not give preferential treatment to a citizen from a particular religion over those from other religions.

In the union, there would need to be a centrally planned economy with a macroeconomic stabilization policy. The economy would be directed based on economic democracy, by adopting a very firm focus on national planning with a series of five-year plans. The dreams and expectations of the small minority of corporate shareholders to the majority of public stakeholders should be positively reflected in the union's economic plan. Whereas the people will come under one umbrella, the union will be a platform for change; every citizen will be a change-maker. There would need to be a unique currency. The union should imitate the Asian Tiger economies within their first 10 years.

By encouraging economic interdependence within the union, the union will be able to deal effectively with problems from outside competitors.

The education system should be a progressive process of inculcating ideas, attitudes, and cognitive strategies, enriched with international, environmental, scientific and professional methodologies. The states should ensure the right to education by applying the same standard to all their citizens, while the politics of the union should be taught systematically to everyone, from the lower to the upper classes. The union, based on democratic centralism, would practice direct democracy. This will be a critical combination of two different democratic processes.

To bring forth the change in the region is not easy as simply writing down ideas. I want recall the words of John Fitzgerald Kennedy, the 35th U.S. president, “Those who make peaceful revolution impossible, make violent revolution inevitable." G. K. Chesterton also said, “You can never have a revolution in order to establish a democracy. You must have a democracy in order to have a revolution.”

Every revolution was first a thought in one man's mind, which then spread to others. This thought will spread to the nations of the region; it will not go backwards. One day, the nations of our region will not be named in connection with any violence, but will be called the land of prosperity and possibility. #

William Nicholas Gomes is a renowned human rights activist; filmmaker and freelance journalist of Bangladesh. He can be reached by email: cda.exe@gmail.com

Prosecute Bangladesh's war criminals

Photo: Skeletons of victims of genocide displayed at Bangladesh Liberation War Museum in Dhaka

British Bangladeshis are among those accused of war crimes in the 1971 war of liberation. The nation needs justice

DELWAR HUSSAIN

THE WAR of liberation in 1971 is still a highly charged and emotive subject within Bangladeshi society. The event, through which the country was born 38 years ago, continues to be a polarising issue, haunting the present. The fact that the alleged war criminals – those who committed atrocities against innocent civilians during the nine-month war – have not been brought to justice is a major cause of contention.

It is a source of the ongoing paralysis in the country's democracy and the culture of impunity that dogs all sections of society. It is also at the root of the role of religion in contemporary Bangladeshi identity. Consecutive governments have made pledges to prosecute perpetrators and hold them accountable. None have so far delivered.

Sheikh Hasina, the current prime minister and the leader of the Awami League, the political party that swept to power in the 2008 elections, has promised to hold long overdue war crime tribunals, seeking assistance from the UN. Throughout the country, there is growing optimism that the victims and survivors can finally receive restitution.

With the retreat of the British Raj and the partition of the Indian subcontinent in 1947, East Bengal became a part of Pakistan. Known as East Pakistan, it was separated from West Pakistan not only physically (with India in the middle), but also linguistically and culturally. It soon became clear that Islam, the raison d'être for the Pakistan project, could not unify these vastly different regions. Even the shared faith was practised in radically different ways: the east being far more liberal than the west. This division was heightened by Pakistani suspicion that Bengalis were only nominally Muslim. Their relatively recent conversion from Hinduism (albeit a century or so ago) made them, in the eyes of the West Pakistani ruling elite, unreliable coreligionists.

To pave over the cracks, in 1952 it was ordained that Urdu, with its echoes of the sacred language, Arabic, would be the official language of the two sides. There was widespread resistance to this in East Pakistan and when student protesters were shot dead, the first martyrs of what was to become the liberation movement were created.

The two wings hobbled along together until 1970 when, after 12 years of military rule, East and West Pakistan went to the ballot. The outright winner of the election was the Awami League. However, the West Pakistani administration refused to allow the party's then leader, Mujibur Rahman (father of the current prime minister), a Bengali from East Pakistan, to form the government. Their chosen man was Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. As negotiations between both sides broke down and Bengalis launched a campaign of civil disobedience, the Pakistani army launched Operation Searchlight in March 1971. Up to three million Bengalis were murdered in the crackdown and more than 200,000 women were raped or sexually assaulted. To escape the genocide, 10 million people crossed the border into India.

Atrocities were committed by the occupying Pakistani soldiers and their Bengali collaborators. The latter, known as razakars, were against the break-up as it was contrary to their vision of building an Islamic khilafat, or state. Thus the idealism of a secular identity, based upon Bengali nationalism as articulated by Mujibur Rahman was abhorrent to them. The razakars were in the main members of Islamist parties, including the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI), which is allied to Wahhabism and to the fundamentalist Deobandi sect.

Using local knowledge, they perpetrated the worst brutalities and massacres of the war. They rounded up and executed people who they thought were colluding with India to divide Pakistan. This included members of the Awami League party, intellectuals, guerrilla fighters who were involved in skirmishes against the army and Hindus. In reality, much of the killing was indiscriminate. The carnage of those few months has been collected in rooms full of black and white photographs in the Liberation Museum in Dhaka.

They depict chilling images of mass burial pits with decomposing bodies, the remnants of the slaughter of entire villages.

Mujibur Rahman did initiate trials against war criminals but he was assassinated in 1975. Last year, the War Crimes Fact Finding Committee, a civil society initiative in Bangladesh, released the most comprehensive list of alleged suspects to date.

It includes the late Yahya Khan, president of Pakistan at the time, but the majority are Bengali razakars as well as previous and current leaders of JI. Many of these fled in the aftermath of the war and some came to the UK.

A Channel Four documentary from 1995 made allegations of involvement by British Bangladeshis in the genocide. Chowdhury Mueen-Uddin, director of Muslim Spiritual Care Provision in the NHS, who was until recently vice-chairman of the East London Mosque and London Muslim Centre and was involved in setting up the Muslim Council of Britain, is one of the most prominent people to be accused of having carried out war crimes.

Mueen-Uddin is alleged to have been part of a group that abducted and "disappeared" people. Witnesses at the time describe seeing him kidnapping a university professor and a journalist in Dhaka during the war. Mueen-Uddin told the documentary makers "all the accusations being made against me are … utterly false and malicious, and either politically motivated or instigated otherwise".

Having left the newly created country of Bangladesh for London, Mueen-Uddin, along with other members of JI set up Islamic Forum Europe, an avowedly Islamist organisation connected to the East London Mosque.

Among the numerous ways in which consecutive Bangladeshi governments have lagged behind public opinion, the inaction with regard to trying the alleged war criminals is the least forgivable for many. Undeterred, Bengali civil society has continued to be vociferous in making sure this issue does not disappear.

Unless trials are seen to be free and fair, they will be perceived as political point-scoring by the Awami League. It is incumbent on the British Bangladeshi community, together with wider British society, to join the demands to bring the Bangladeshi war criminals to justice. It is also time to rethink a period of history which has continuing ramifications for today. #

First published in the Guardian, Wednesday 7 October 2009

Delwar Hussain is a writer on South Asian society, currently completing a doctorate at Kings College, Cambridge

Bangladesh's chain of corruption

RATER ZONAKI

BANGLADESH'S LAW-ENFORCEMENT agencies claim that they have a strong chain of command to maintain law and order in the country. Likewise policymakers and politicians, who are close to the center of power, claim that they are dedicated to the great cause of upholding the rule of law in the country.

However, the opposition – regardless who they are – always criticize the rulers for destroying the concept of the rule of law. And "chain of command" in the law-enforcement agencies exists only in the imaginations of its officers, along with the illusion of rule of law.

A girl we will call Chobi – not her real name – was raped by a man named Sohel in Chhetra village in Kishorganj district on June 13. The rape victim reportedly went to the Nikli police station to register a complaint against the rapist.

The police refused to record the case, as the alleged accused was the son of an influential person in the locality, and had already bribed the police before the victim approached them.

Chobi had to go to the Special Tribunal on Women and Children Repression Prevention of Kishorganj district in order to register her case. The tribunal judge ordered the same police station to record the complaint as a first information report. Then the complaint was recorded with the police.

Police Sub-Inspector Shashank Kumar Sarkar was assigned to investigate the case. A medical report from public hospital doctors who had examined her asserted that Chobi had been raped – a strong starting point for the prosecution.

Chobi’s family was hopeful that the legal process would lead to justice – but they were about to experience a different reality.

The investigating officer demanded 30,000 takas (US$436) as a bribe in order to submit a rape charge against the accused – despite the fact that all evidence, including witness statements and the medical examination report, supported the complaint of rape.

Chobi's poor family, which had already spent a sum beyond their capacity to bring the case this far, was unable to pay the demanded bribe. The family managed to pay 6,000 takas (US$87) and give fish worth 1,000 takas to Shashank. This means that the investigating officer received bribes in cash and in kind for investigating a rape case.

The police officer insisted that the family pay the remainder of the bribe. When they could not do so, Shashank took his revenge by accepting a bribe from the accused instead. He then submitted a report to the court stating that the claim of rape was false.

Chobi, a victim of rape, now has no hope of justice unless the court orders another agency or a judicial officer to reinvestigate the complaint. Yet no one can predict the outcome of another investigation.

Chobi told her story on Sept. 15 at a press conference, where she handed out a written statement to reporters. She also applied to the district superintendent of police, seeking his intervention. The assistant superintendent of police at another police station was asked to inquire into the matter.

However, it is hardly believable that the authorities will take action against the Nikli police or Sub-Inspector Shashank. This is because Bangladesh's whole law-enforcement system follows a chain of corruption rather than a chain of command.

For example, Police Inspector Hashem Ali Khan, who detained human rights defenders in a fabricated kidnapping case at the Paikgachha police station in Khulna, a southwestern district, told the detainees that he had to pay his superior officers when he brought in detainees for a five-day stay. He said he needed money for fuel and other things. He also warned them that they would be tortured if they didn’t pay the bribe he demanded.

A number of police departments and the Ministry of Home Affairs inquired into this matter, which took place in November, 2008. Yet it yielded nothing – inspector Hashem Ali Khan has been enjoying his policing elsewhere.

Due to intervention by the Asian Human Rights Commission, a Hong Kong-based rights watchdog, the Khulna district police authority inquired into a complaint against Sub-Inspector Ayub Ali of the Paikgachha police station.

On June 13 Ayub Ali visited the house of Shahidul Islam, who had been held on fabricated charges and tortured while in detention for four days without any official record or lawful grounds.

The police officer told Shahidul's mother, "Do you know what will happen to me and you now? I will have to pay to settle the matter and I might be transferred. But the police will be here forever, and I will arrange for your son and his advisers to languish in jail for years."

These threatening words carry the truth that any police officer who is accused of violating the law of the land can walk free by bribing his superior authorities. In reality, Ayub was transferred to Kustia district without facing criminal prosecution or departmental action after an inquiry was conducted.

It is an open secret in Bangladesh that police officers consider a particular jurisdiction a good place to work if more crimes take place there. More crimes bring more bribes. Officers must pay bribes in order to be posted to those "good places," the amount determined by the rank of the job-seeker and the possibilities of income from the targeted posting.

The recipients of bribes also include bureaucrats in the ministries, parliamentarians of the concerned constituencies and influential local politicians. Thus a chain of corruption is established from the top to the bottom of society.

The ordinary poor are compelled to pay bribes far beyond their capacity, up to all their assets, while those in power enjoy the taste of corruption and make the country a heaven of bribery.

The Bangladeshi policymakers should accept this article as an open challenge to prove these stories untrue. There are thousands of similar stories across the country. The authorities can win this challenge only if they acknowledge this deep national problem and reform this system and chain of corruption. (END)

First published by UPI, September 22, 2009

Rater Zonaki is the pseudonym of a human rights defender based in Hong Kong, working at the Asian Human Rights Commission. He is a Bangladeshi national who has worked as a journalist and human rights activist in his country for more than a decade, and as editor of publications on human rights and socio-cultural issues

Glimmers of Hope Amid an Elusive Peace

CATHERINE MAKINO interviews leading Bangladeshi human rights activist SULTANA KAMAL

SULTANA KAMAL dreams of a country "where every single citizen will live in democracy, in equality" and where everyone has "equal share to resources and opportunities." Fulfilling this dream has been her lifelong advocacy as a human rights advocate.

The former adviser to the caretaker government of Bangladesh has served as a United Nations legal consultant for Vietnamese boat people in Hong Kong. As a legal practitioner, she is committed to providing legal services to the poor and underprivileged.

Kamal joined the Bangladesh Liberation War in 1971, which pitted the West Pakistan (now Pakistan) against East Pakistan, resulting in the latter’s secession as an independent state, now called Bangladesh. Among others, she helped collect information for the guerilla forces, Mukti Bahini (Liberation Army), and gave shelter to people displaced by the conflict.

Kamal completed her law degree at Dhaka University in 1978, and later a master’s degree in Women and Development Studies in the Netherlands.

She has played a key role in bringing to international attention the long drawn-out conflict involving the indigenous people living in the Chittagong Hill Tracts in the south-eastern region of Bangladesh. Even after a peace accord was signed in 1997, violations of human rights in the region persisted and peace remains elusive.

Some critics warned that Bangladesh could become the next Sri Lanka, which only recently emerged from a decades-long civil war.

Kamal, who was in Japan in mid-September, shared with IPS her aspirations for her country and what she hoped a developed country like Japan could do.

IPS: What did you hope to achieve for your people by coming to Japan?

SULTANA KAMAL: (My) main objective was to share information regarding the implementation of the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) Accord, which was signed in 1997 between the government of Bangladesh and Shanti Bahini (the United People's Party of the CHT).

The Accord was to end the armed conflict, which has been going on since 1976 in the region, and to settle questions regarding the rights of the indigenous people of the Chittagong Hill Tracts. These included land rights, natural and environmental practices, rights to their culture and, most importantly, the constitutional recognition of their rights and identity.

I wanted to see greater awareness of the problems of indigenous people in the Chittagong Hill Tracts, their struggles and demands, which should lead to more support for them by the Japanese.

IPS: Why Japan in particular?

SK: Some Japanese groups are concerned with the rights of the disempowered and disadvantaged, especially indigenous people, who have been engaged in working towards the realization of (those) rights.

IPS: Is your government sincere in its support for the CHT?

SK: The present government of Bangladesh is committed to implementing the Accord, but it is facing challenges from the anti-Accord forces. There is a need to strengthen the people and government's support of the CHT.

This trip to Japan will help us reach the international community and get stronger opinions favourable to the Accord.

IPS: What do you expect from the new government of Japan?

SK: This government is liberal, so we can expect the benefits of a liberal and progressive outlook on (its) international policies. More importantly, we hear that the government will put more emphasis on strengthening relationships with its Asian neighbours, which means more support to the people of Asia who need it most.

IPS: What do you envision Japan will do now that it is under new leadership?

SK: New leadership means new hopes…. not (only) for its own people, but for the (rest of the) world, because Japan is among the league of world leaders.

This time the hope is even greater for Asia as the (Japanese) government is likely to be more forward-looking and has already committed itself to closer ties with (its) Asian neighbours.

IPS: Please tell us about your organization, the Law and Mediation Center or Ain O Salish Kendra (ASK)?

SK: (ASK) started in 1986 as a legal aid centre to provide free legal aid to the disempowered. Since most of the disempowered happen to be women, it had a special focus on them, especially poor women.

It provides legal aid to victims of state or social violence, arbitrary arrest, preventive detention, and community and class violence.

It started in a garage of a well-wisher of the organisation and has since grown into a 17-unit composite programme known as a human rights and legal aid center, or Ain o Salish Kendra.

ASK cooperates with many national, international and regional networks on human rights issues. With the UNECOSOC (United Nations Economic and Social Council) (consultative) status, ASK works closely with the U.N. special rapporteurs and on some government committees as civil society members to give advice. In short, ASK is considered to be one of the most active human rights groups (in the world).

IPS: What is the situation of women in your country?

SK: I am very proud to say that the women have made a lot of progress. But because of the existing patriarchal systems… in both private and public life, women have to face a lot of challenges in realising their rights.

The Constitution of Bangladesh commits to equality in public life for women. It goes further to say that special measures will be taken to bring the disadvantaged groups, including women, at par with everyone, and everyone will be equal before the law.

IPS: Is that happening in reality?

SK: Since in private life, laws based on religions govern people, women are discriminated against in marriage, divorce, guardianship and custody of children and in inheritance.

The discrimination is not only between women and men of the same religion; it is between women of different religions, too. For example, the Muslim women have limited rights to divorce and inheritance, which the women of other religions don't have.

The situation of minority women is even worse, particularly in a conflict situation where their interests and rights are considered secondary to the larger interests of the community which, as we all know, are defined by (traditional) patriarchy.

IPS: What is being done about it?

SK: The women's movement is very vibrant in Bangladesh. The present government also has promised to declare policies for women's development. We can hope for the best, but we know very well that there is no respite from hard work for us to gain what we aspire for.

IPS: What urgently needs to be done in your country?

SK: The most important duty we have now is supporting the democratic processes and be firm on not allowing any anti-democratic, anti-human rights, fundamentalist or corrupt measures, to foil it. Seeing that democracy gets a ground in this country is a job of the people as well as the government. Establishment of justice, rule of law, human rights and security and peace are the priorities now.

IPS: You have given so much energy and time for causes. How has this affected you personally, and have you had to sacrifice a lot?

SK: If I have been able to give my energy and time to causes in my life, I will consider that to be my good fortune. What better use could I put my energy and time to?

The main impact it has had on me personally is that it has taught me to understand and love my country better and to feel a part of the whole of humanity. I don't feel that I have sacrificed a lot. I think I have done nothing more than my duty. (END)

First published in Inter Press Services (IPS), September 22, 2009

Problems galore in Bangladesh

Photo: The exasperated nation has gone back to the beginning and given more than two-thirds of parliament’s seats to the daughter of the founder of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina. —AFP/File Photo

KULDIP NAYAR

IT WAS a feeling of humiliation that gave impetus to the people of erstwhile East Pakistan to build a country of their own. That was some 38 years ago when Bangladesh was born.

Scant resources and a large population did not affect its determination to convert the country into ‘Sonar Bangla’. But gradually a mood of uncertainty set in.

The first blow came when Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the father of the nation, was assassinated. He had the support of the people who were willing to offer any sacrifice. The second blow was the military-inspired coup that destroyed an open and democratic society. Elements were unleashed which drove the liberals – and their ideals – to the wall.

Bangladesh needed unity to develop. But it witnessed periods of military rule and authoritarian regimes. Then there were the ever-battling begums, Sheikh Hasina of the Awami League confronting Khaleda Zia of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). The exasperated nation has gone back to the beginning and given more than two-thirds of parliament’s seats to the daughter of the founder of Bangladesh, Sheikh Hasina. Still, political unity has eluded the country because the BNP has boycotted parliament.

Some developments are ominous. Islamist extremism is rearing its head again. Jihadis are sprouting here and there. That the hanging of Bangla Bhai and his fundamentalist colleagues in 2007 did not evoke any protest is a healthy sign. But he was more of a killer than a religious figure.

The manner in which the fundamentalists have joined hands with the BNP indicates that there is an attempt to mix religion and politics. The Jamaat-i-Islami is their supporter, although it has reluctantly conceded that the liberation struggle contributed to independence. The Awami League may find these forces capturing the imagination of the common man despite the liberal temperament of Bangladeshis.

The other unfavourable development is that Bangladesh, preoccupied with the problem of finding hundreds of thousands of jobs, has neglected its borders. It has become a haven for all the banned organisations in India, Sri Lanka and even Myanmar.




They operate from Bangladeshi soil and find it safe to do so. These organisations include the United Liberation Front of Asom, the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam and other lawless groups.


A concerted fight against them is what Bangladesh Foreign Minister Dipu Moni promised Indian Foreign Minister S.M. Krishna when they met in Delhi a few days ago. She has signed an agreement to combat international terrorism and crime.

India has, in turn, allowed border markets and given Bangladesh 1,000MW of power, apart from developing the power grid connectivity. After straightening things with the West, India was the first country to which Sheikh Hasina sent her foreign minister to assess how far New Delhi was willing to accommodate Dhaka. It is apparent that Sheikh Hasina cannot be satisfied with an agreement on power. She expects wider and closer economic cooperation.

In fact, after the creation of Bangladesh there was a joint planning board of New Delhi and Dhaka. An outline was prepared on how the economies of the two countries would be dovetailed to benefit each other. Everything has remained on paper since the assassination of Mujibur Rahman. True, New Delhi has its own limitations. But it has a larger economy. It can do much more than it has promised. Perhaps New Delhi can encourage private investors to pump money into Bangladesh or set up joint ventures to produce what India requires.

India has exacted a price in the shape of Dhaka’s undertaking to go after the extremists operating from its soil. But as Sheikh Hasina found during her earlier stint in power, it is not easy to fight them when they have supporters in both countries. Drug trafficking by the militants gives them an income of millions. It is difficult to demolish their network or that of criminals, smugglers and religious bigots because those who use them wield political power as well.

The steps that Dhaka takes against them may stoke anti-India fire, which is already burning fiercely. The anti-Pakistan feeling has been replaced by an anti-India feeling. Still, Dhaka has to face the situation. It cannot be seen running with the hare and hunting with the hounds.

Bangladesh knows that the failure to tackle the terrorists operating from its soil may cost the country dearly.

New Delhi expects much more than Dhaka can deliver. India also wants it to give its transit rights to reach its north-eastern states and facilities at the Chittagong port for exports. Talks on such matters soured relations in the past. New Delhi will have to sell them to the people of Bangladesh with reason and convince them that these measures are to their advantage.

There is apprehension in Bangladesh over the Tipaimukh Dam project located near the confluence of the Barak and Tuivai rivers in Manipur. Why not suggest a joint board of engineers from India and Bangladesh to supervise the project to remove any doubts?

India needs to reflect on why all the neighbouring countries have distanced themselves from it. No doubt its size deters them. But more than that, their feeling is that New Delhi is becoming increasingly conscious of itself as an emerging world power. It tends to throw its weight about in such a manner that the neighbours are having doubts about its bona fides.

New Delhi must do some introspection because it is not that all next-door neighbours have turned hostile. They are suspicious, something which India must remedy by its deeds. #

First published in The DAWN, Pakistan, Friday, 18 Sep, 2009

Kuldip Nayar is a leading journalist based in Delhi, India and popular columnist in South Asia, specially Bangladesh and Pakistan

Bangladesh urged to ratify the Rome Statute

THE COALITION for the International Criminal Court and its members are calling on Bangladesh to take all necessary steps to accede to the Rome Statute of the ICC as soon as possible. Bangladesh actively took part in the 1998 United Nations Diplomatic Conference of Plenipotentiaries on the Establishment of an International Criminal Court held in Rome. In 1999, the Government of Bangladesh signed the Statute of the ICC, the first country in South Asia to have signed the treaty.

Asia remains as an underrepresented region at the ICC, with only Afghanistan, Mongolia, Cambodia, Timor Leste, Tajikistan, Republic of Korea, and Japan as States Parties to the Treaty. Having Bangladesh join this new system of international justice will grant the region a stronger voice and a more meaningful role in making this historic institution- the first permanent, independent court capable of investigating and bringing to justice individuals who commit war crimes, crimes against humanity, and genocide- a truly effective mechanism for the protection of human rights and the rule of law.

The month of August target country for Coalition for the International Criminal Court ongoing Universal Ratification Campaign is Bangladesh. The Universal Ratification Campaign is a worldwide effort to promote universal acceptance of the International Criminal Court. Actions are needed to promote awareness of the International Criminal Court; increase media coverage; urge governments to ratify or accede to the Rome Statute; and adopt effective implementing legislation and ratify the ICC Agreement on Privileges and Immunities.

Greater support for the International Criminal Court in the Asian region is needed in order to increase the region’s commitment to the fight against impunity. We ask you to visit our ratification campaign page where you can send a letter to the President of Bangladesh, H.E. Mr. Md. Zillur Rahman.

Other Related Actions to Support the Campaign
There are a number of other ways to support the ratification campaign in Bangladesh:
1. Modify a copy of the letter available on the CICC ratification campaign pages noted above and send it to the Embassy of Bangladesh in your country.
2. Join the ICC-Asia listserv, which sends periodic updates about the International Criminal Court as it relates to the Asia/Pacific region, by e-mailing the Coalition Secretariat’s Asia/Pacific and Latin America/Caribbean Outreach Liaison Michelle Reyes at reyes@iccnow.org, or send a message to icc-info-asia@yahoogroups.com
3. Contact Anaga Dalal at dalal@iccnow.org at the CICC for a model press release that you can use to raise awareness about the Universal Ratification Campaign in your country.
4. Contact Michelle Reyes at the Coalition’s Secretariat office in New York (reyes@iccnow.org) as well as Evelyn Serrano, Asia Coordinator (serrano@iccnow.org) to inform us of any actions you take, or to discuss initiatives. You can also raise awareness of this campaign by sending this email to other organizations in your country.

This CICC ratification campaign page on Bangladesh is accessible at:
http://www.iccnow.org/?mod=

Please do not hesitate to contact the CICC if you have further questions or need more information.

Sincerely,

Brigitte Suhr/Director of Regional Programs

suhr@iccnow.org
http://www.iccnow.org/

Take Action Now!
Write a letter to the President to encourage him to ratify the Rome Statute as soon as possible!

You might like to use the following letter as a guide. Please be sure to “cc” all contacts below when sending your letters.

Send your letter to:

Mr. Md. Zillur Rahman
Honorable President
The People’s Republic of Bangladesh
Banga Bhaban
Dhaka, Bangladesh

Ms. Sheikh Hasina
Honorable Prime Minister
Prime Minister’s Office
Old Sangsad Bhaban
Tejgaon, Dhaka-1215, Bangladesh
Tel:+880 2 8151157 +880 2 8151157 (PS-I to PM), 8155700, 8111599 (Parliament)
Email: info@pmo.gov.bd

Mr. Justice M. M. Ruhul Amin
Honorable Chief Justice of Bangladesh
Supreme Court Premises
Dhaka-1000, Bangladesh
Fax: +880 2 9565058

Barrister Shafiq Ahmed
Honorable Minister
Ministry of Law, Justice and Parliamentary Affairs
Bangladesh Secretariat
Building: 4 (7th Floor)
Dhaka-1000, Bangladesh
Tel: +880 2 7160577 +880 2 7160577, 9550016, 7164693
Fax: +880 2 7168557
Email: info@minlaw.gov.bd

Dr. Dipu Moni
Honorable Minister
Ministry of Foreign Affairs
Segun Bagicha
Dhaka-1000, Bangladesh
Tel: +880 2 9562852 +880 2 9562852, 9562954
Fax: +880 2 9562188
Email: dirfe@mofa.gov.bd

Mr. Mahbubey Alam
Honorable Attorney General for Bangladesh
Office of the Attorney General
Supreme Court Premises
Dhaka-1000, Bangladesh
Tel: +880 2 9562868 +880 2 9562868
Fax: +880 2 95616568
Email: adv_mahbubeby@yahoo.com

"Oil, Gas and Mineral Resources of Our Country Is the Blood Flown in Our Vein"

Interview with Professor Anu Muhammad

AUDITY FALGUNI

AFTER THE stern clashes between police and the demonstrators of the `National Committee to Protect Oil, Gas, Mineral Resources, Power and Ports (NCPOGMPP) ' on September 2nd, around 50 student and youth activists of different left leaning groups and others were injured. Police launched lethal attack on the protestors who were marching forward to surround (gherao) the Petro-Bangla office protesting the recent cabinet committee approval on 24th August to lease three offshore gas fields to foreign companies. The protestors negated the government decision to award Ireland-based company Tallow Bangladesh shallow water block SS-O8-05 and US oil company Conoco Philipp’s South Asia New Ventures Ltd deep sea blocks DS-08-10 and 11 in the Bay of Bengal. They also raised the demand for the cancellation of around 12 'Production Sharing Contracts (PSCs)' of the Bangladesh government with different International Oil Companies (IOCs) and other relevant claims. Anu Muhammad, Professor of the Economics Department of Jahangir Nagar University and Member Secretary of NCPOGMPP got intensely hurt during the demonstration and was admitted to hospital. Here the excerpt of a brief interview with him is highlighted bellow:

Question: You are the member secretary of NCPOGMPP right at this moment. So, would you please tell us the particular cause behind the recent most demonstration staged by you on 2nd September?

Anu Muhammad: Demarcation of sea territory is one of the most glaring crises of Bangladesh. We have near about one Lakh sq km land boundaries with our neighbouring states. In terms of sea boundaries, the amount is just eight times higher. And, those sea regions are extremely potential in terms of mineral and other aquatic resources. Unfortunately, there are records of usurpation of these sea boundaries by neighbouring countries like India and Myanmar. There are three gas blocks in the Bay of Bengal namely block numbers 5, 10 & 11. Two PSCs were signed at first phase of 2008 during the Caretaker government regime. Under the auspices of these two PSCs, one Ireland based IOCs namely CONOCO-PHILLIPS and another U.S. based IOC named TALLOW were given lease for oil and gas exploration in the Bay of Bengal. When the caretaker government signed the agreement, we protested vehemently and the government could not implement it. This year the newly elected government has approved the PSCs. The cabinet committee of 'Economic Affairs' has okayed those on 24th August and so we called on for the demonstration on 2nd September. Meantime, our successive governments have signed 12 PSCs with different IOCs in recent years. These PSCs have conferred upon them ownership of around 80 percent of total gas explored and the rest 20 percent lies with our nationalized institutions like BAPEX and Petro-Bangla. These multi-national oil giants deal with or regulate our 12 major gas fields in the Sylhet region. If you look at the atlas of Bangladesh and dissect it into east and west, you would notice that most of the oil fields are located at the eastern side or particularly in Sylhet. Now, the multi-national oil giants earn around 3,000 crore taka from these 12 gas fields. If we could spend just one-tenth of this 3,000 crore take to reshape and strengthen our nationalized oil and gas exploration institutions like BAPEX or Petro-Bangla, we did not need to depend any longer on foreigner consultants and imported machineries! Just imagine that because of irresponsibility and malfunctioning by two multi-national oil & gas companies namely Occidental in Magurchara, Sylhet during 1997 and NAIKO in Tengratila, Sylhet during 2006...around 500 billion cubic feet gas were simply burnt out or wasted! Around 87.50 acres of land in Magurchara were damaged with 176.97 crore taka losses in total. NAIKO drilled in the gas wells earlier declared by Petro-Bangla as unworthy for exploration purpose and caused the disaster. We owe to these two oil giants around 20,000 crore taka. Recently James F Moriarty, the U.S. Ambassador to Bangladesh, mentioned in a speech that U.S. oil giant company Chevron wants to develop Bangladesh through investing in oil and gas exploration, but the government can do nothing for certain quarters. Probably he mentioned us, the leftists! We say in return that honourable Ambassador, first pay us 20,000 crore taka compensation for the Magurchara and Tengratila blow-outs! This year the total budget allotted in the power and energy sector has been 4,400 crore taka. Compensation properly paid for the two blow-outs can fulfill our budget in energy sector for next five fiscal years.

Question: When the movement by NCPOGMPP first commenced and what are your major achievements since the formation of the committee?

Anu Muhammad: NCPOGMPP was established in 1998 and thus it has already completed 11 years' of its journey. I would mention our major achievements one by one. In 1998, when the Awami League (AL) government was in power, the government was initiating to sign and conclude two agreements with the IOCs. The first agreement related to leasing of the Chittagong port to a U.S. Company for 199 years. We then organized a long march from Dhaka to Chittagong port and it largely owes to our movement that government could not avoid to probe in details into the company and then some major loopholes came out. The so-called U.S. Company first told our government that they have the paid-up capital of some thousand crores of taka but later it was found that they have the paid-up capital of only one crore taka. Again, it was not even a U.S.A.-based company and it was actually based in Barbados. What is most important that even if it was a U.S.A.-based company, no patriot should agree to lease out of any of his country's sea port for 199 years! The then Sheikh Hasina government yielded to our movement and the lease agreement, which was on the verge of being finalized, got cancelled. Second, two IOCs...the U.K.-based oil & gas exploration company Shell and the U.S.-based company UNOCOL drafted the design of installation of pipe-line from one of our pertinent gas field Bibyana, Sylhet to Delhi and the designing and lay-out were disbursed on web-site. But, the government was yet to finalize the proposal for gas export. A section of 'hired' consultants, bureaucrats, businessmen, media, U.S. Embassy, Indian High Commission, World Bank and ADB began stipulating Bangladesh is "floating on gas" and it was "best time to export gas." And, if Bangladesh misses the chance, later she might not get handsome price in ever-changing international market. They, in addition, opined that Bangladesh can construct her basic infrastructure including necessary components like education or health sector with the money obtained from gas export. NCPOGMPP then had to wage war at two levels. First, we had to theoretically challenge this propaganda by making people aware about the exact situation of real gas reserve scenario of Bangladesh, dynamics of internal use and demand etc. The IOCs exaggerated that Bangladesh had 100 trillion cubic feet of gas while we had only 12-13 trillion cubic feet of gas reserve in reality...in last several years the amount has reduced to seven to eight trillion cubic feet of gas reserve for internal use. Also, domestic need for gas has been multiplied four or five times in recent years. So, gas export could really doom us! Today the facility of CNG transport could not be availed off if we agreed to export gas. We proved, in addition, with facts and figure that even if we could earn around 1,000 crore taka in total by exporting our gas, we had to buy equivalent amount of oil or petroleum from foreign countries to fill-up the gap. In that case, we had to spend around 15-20,000 crore taka per year. So, NCPOGMPP mobilized people for another long march towards Dhaka-Bibyana, Sylhet. Thus, AL government could not sign the agreements with Shell and UNOCOL. BNP succeeded the AL government in 2001 and they also began playing on the same tune reciting there is no worth of keeping gas under earth. What we should do is to export it and earn money. But, we were firm on our movement and people stood on behalf of us. So, BNP government also failed like its predecessor.

Question: NCPOGMPP has also waged a war on the issue of Fulbari coal mine. Would you elaborate on it?

Anu Muhammad: Sure, that is another landmark of success. The then BNP government came to an agreement with the Asia Energy (AE) company validating the open pit mining in around 135 sq km area of Fulbari, close to the Bara Pukuria coal plant of Dinajpur district. If this agreement was implemented, around 10,000 hectares land of the adjacent areas including Nawabganj, Birampur and Parbatipur Upazila were to be damaged at initial stage. Near about 656.33 sq km area was to be directly damaged. Installation of the physical infra-structure of the proposed coal mine by AE was supposed to commit eviction, damage and destruction of approximately 10,000 human habitats, factories, schools, colleges, religious institutions, railways, highways, vegetation, water reservoirs like ponds, canals and rivers. AE itself revealed that if the agreement was to be implemented, Bangladesh government was supposed to get from AE around 45,000 crore taka in 30 years while they were supposed to obtain 1,50,000 crore taka from us in the same time-frame. Fulbari is a densely populated area with several Bengali and Shantal indigenous villages, their arable lands, trees and water reservoirs. If we go for counting the environmental damage in terms of eco-system and symbioses within nature, you cannot simply evaluate the extent of damage in money. So, on 26th August of 2006 the activists of NCPOGMPP and local people went to surround the AE office in Fulbari and police fired on unarmed people. Three were died, one became permanently disabled and around 300 people were injured. The government signed a three-point demand treaty with us in Parbatipur, Dinajpur on 30th August. The government, however, only implemented some portion of the treaty but our number one demand to evict AE from Fulbaria on an emergency is yet to be fulfilled.

Question: NCPOGMPP has called upon to surround the PM's office on 10th September? What would be your major agendas for this immediate programme?

Anu Muhammad: Our four most urgent demands are cancellation of the PSC model 2008 for the gas fields in the Bay of Bengal which leased out two gas blocks to two multi-national oil giants, cancellation of existing 12 PSCs and re-modeling of them with hundred percent ownership of our national institutions like BAPEX and Petro-Bangla over the explored gas, proper demarcation of sea boundaries and to evict Asia Energy (AE) from Fulbari, Dinajpur and cancel open-pit mining.

Question: Would you involve the major opposition BNP along with you? Leader of the Opposition Begum Khaleda Zia has visited you in the hospital and mentioned she would be with this movement. So, what is your consideration now?

Anu Muhammad: No. The AL, BNP and the 'neutral' care-taker government manifested their willingness to export gas on a regular basis. In Latin American countries like Venezuela, Bolivia or Chile the IOCs did not pay any profit to the respective governments on the pretext of failing to 'recover the production or exploration costs.' The IOCs have drilled for more than 20 years in Chile and drilled a lot of their mineral resources but yet to pay any dividend saying that they could not yet recover their exploration costs. Thus the whole lot might turn into a deception for the poorer states. Hugo Chavez and other Latin American leaders are now fighting this issue. Amar desh er tel gas amar deher rakta! Oil, Gas and Mineral Resources of our country is the blood flown in our vein and we would simply die out if we cannot protect those. #