On behalf of the bereaved, traumatized, marginalised and suffering people of Bangladesh, may we draw your kind attention to weeks of state-sponsored gross human rights abuses and violence that were unleashed upon the legitimate protests of the unarmed students, who objected to and protested against the quota system – reservations up to 56% – of jobs for ruling party-favoured candidates in public service recruitments in Bangladesh.
The Quota system which since then has been rescinded by the government virtually barred the entry of aspiring candidates to join the public service by merit.
Given the magnitude and resolve, many also believe and quite rightly, that these angry outbursts of the students and the young were not merely about the ‘Quota’ alone. Quotas triggered the protests seething and cumulative discontent against rising youth unemployment, favouritism and nepotism in public services and government contracts, corruption with impunity and rising cost of living were the main reasons behind the mass upsurge which happened spontaneously, without a leader.
In other words, the protests were an expression of accumulated mass resentments against the government’s years of abuses, arrogance, corruption, and its abject insensitivity to mass dissatisfaction. The government’s brutal response to protests is a demonstration on the one hand, of its intolerance to dissent and on the other, the arrogance of power.
Indeed, instead of engaging the students and resolving the issue/s amicably and objectively through dialogue, which should have been the norm in a democracy, the government opted to respond through violence, through the combined forces of the armed student wing of the ruling party, the Bangladesh Chatro League (BCL), the Police, and the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), the heinous armed force which in recent times has attracted the attention of the international community for its specialty in extra-judicial killings, disappearances and torture of political opponents. Most devastating was the deployment of army on war-footing on July 19 to crush the civilian protests. While the army largely stood guard, the police, RAB and the BCL conducted their brutalities on the peaceful protesters.
The joint BCL/Police/RAB violence against the protesting students has left more than 300 dead. Many suspect that the figure is likely to be much higher and this is because there are now allegations that the authority has removed the Death Registers that recorded the deaths in hospitals, thousands have been injured, many have been disappeared, thousands have been thrown to prison with many brutally tortured, and false court cases lodged against thousands.
During the carnage, the US Congressman Lloyd Doggett, said, “Bangladesh’s PM Hasina is using the tyrant’s handbook with armed troops, digital blackout, and “shoot-on-sight” orders to crush student protestors.”
You are aware that the UN has condemned the state-sponsored violence against the protesters and more particularly, the use of UN marked armoured vehicles in the anti-protest operations.
The law enforcement agencies have also used the UN-marked armoured cars and helicopters, which were given to the government for use in the UN peacekeeping missions. Random and indiscriminate strafing from the helicopters killed many, including a 6-year-old child who was playing at the balcony of his house.
In the context of the recent carnage and on-going repression of opposition in Bangladesh and government’s total denial of and ambivalence to brutalities of its law enforcement agencies which the government itself unleashed on the innocent protesters that killed countless numbers of people and injured thousands, we are writing to urge you to kindly demand accountability from the Bangladesh government. More specifically, we draw your attention to the following individuals who played the leading and the vilest roles in ordering the carnage and in defending the mass murder.
We also request to kindly urge your governments and organizations to impose in the interim, urgent BOYCOTT/SANCTIONS on the following rogue individuals:
- 1. Obaidul Qader, the Minister of Road Transport and Bridges and General Secretary of Bangladesh Awami League
At the start of the student protests, Mr. Qader publicly declared rather boastfully that he had asked the ruling party’s student wing, the BCL thugs to “tackle” the protesters. This implied that as the government minister and ruling party’s chief spokesperson, he authorized the ruling party thugs, the BCL, to take the law into their own hands, which they did. The BCL armed gangs were seen attacking the protesters with sticks, lethal weapons and in some ca
ses, with firearms.
2. Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal, Home Minister
The Home Minister, Mr. Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal who oversees the law enforcement agencies, ordered the police, the RAB and the BGB (Bangladesh Border Guard) to shoot and kill the protesters with impunity.
3. Muhibul Hasan Chowdhury, Education Minister
Mr. Muhibul Hasan Chowdhury, the education minister, authorised the police and the armed gang of the ruling party to enter universities and attack the protesting students.
4. Mr. Mohammed A Arafat, the State Minister for Information and Broadcasting
Mr. Arafat is a strong advocate and defender of state violence against the protesters. For example, the police killed point blank the protester Abu Sayed of Rangpur’s Begum Rokeya University at a time when he was standing alone, totally unarmed with arms stretched out, holding no weapons but a stick. Nor was he engaged in any violent activities. At the time Sayed was shot, he posed no threat to the police and was standing quite a distance from them.
This was a cold-blooded murder and yet Mr. Arafat, the state minister defended the murder, an extra-judicial killing saying, “The guy is a drug addict and must have been under the influence of drugs when demonstrating.”
How utterly revolting and reprehensible a comment that not only belittled Sayed’s bravery and his right to protest but also implied that it is legal to kill drug addicts.
5. Sheikh Hasina Wazed, Prime Minister of Bangladesh
Shiekh Hasina Wazed, the Prime Minister of Bangladesh is also the destroyer of democracy, promoter of violence in politics, and team leader of the recent and all past human rights abuses in Bangladesh. She called the protesting students, ‘Razakars,’ a pejorative term in the Bangladeshi political context meaning traitors and has endorsed extreme state violence against the protesters that have followed since.
In addition, we urge that your mission/government declares Bangladesh Chatro League (BCL), the student wing of the ruling party, a terrorist organisation.
Yours sincerely,
The Coalition for Human Rights and Democracy in Bangladesh
This letter has been addressed to the following:
*Ms. Helen Lefave, Charges D’affaires, The United States Embassy, Bangladesh
*Ms. Sarah Cooke, British High Commissioner, British High Commission, Bangladesh
*Ms. Lilly Nicholas, Canadian High Commissioner to Bangladesh, High Commission of Canada in Bangladesh
*Mr. Jeremy Bruer, Australian High Commisioner, Australian High Commision in Bangladesh
*Mr. Kiminori Iwama, Japanese Ambassador to Bangladesh, Embassy of Japan in Bangladesh
*Mr. Charles Whitely, European Union Ambassador to Bangladesh
*Mr. Jean-Pierre Lacroix, Under Secretary-General for Peace Operations, United Nations Peacekeeping, New York, NY, USA
*Ms. Gwynn Lewis, United Nations Resident Coordinator in Bangladesh
*Office of Foreign Assets Control, U.S. Department of the Treasury, Washington, DC, USA
*Members of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee Subommittee on South Asia, Washington, DC, USA
*Members of the U.S. House Foreign Relations Committee, Subcommittee on South Asia, Washington, DC, USA