Global IssuesBANGLADESH: No End in Sight for Extrajudicial Killings
Despite appeals by human rights organisation to the Bangladesh government to end extrajudicial killings in the country, no steps have been taken to bring the perpetrators to justice.
'The present government in its election manifesto promised to end extra-judicial killings, and the government should respect its pledge,' said eminent rights activist Sultana Kamal, executive director of Ain o Salish Kendra (ASK), a leading human rights organisation in Bangladesh.
Shortly after the ninth parliamentary elections in December 2008, when the present administration obtained a landslide victory, Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina Wajed pledged to deal a lethal blow to the scourge of unlawful killings in the country.
'Unfortunately, we don’t see any visible move to end extrajudicial killings,' she said. Instead, government ministers are even trying to justify the killings, she added. 'The government could easily stop such deaths if it had the will.'
Such killings are often described in police reports as involving suspects who resisted arrests or attacked the police. Many of the victims, human rights groups charge, were killed while in police custody.
But in their official statements, police said they were killed in the 'crossfire' during violent incidents in prison facilities. The police were compelled to open fire at those attacking them, they said.
But human rights advocates belie this claim, which they said is a cover-up for state-sponsored extrajudicial killings of suspects in detention alongside other victims. Other detainees were tortured to death during police interrogations, they claimed.
Another well-reputed human rights organisation in Bangladesh, Odhikar, along with ASK and some international groups, has repeatedly asked the government to stop the extrajudicial killings. Yet the killings have gone on unabated, said the organisation’s secretary, Adilur Rahman Khan.
According to Odhikar, as of November 2009, there have been a total of 1,462 cases of extrajudicial killings in Bangladesh since June 24, 2004, when the first such case was reported.
At least 141 extrajudicial killings were perpetrated from January to November 2009, of which 120 were so called in 'crossfires,' said Odhikar. Some 17 people were tortured to death in custody and four others were shot dead during violent clashes such as factory unrests.
The English-language national daily, ‘New Age’, reported in June last year that since 2004 at least 14 innocent civilians, who had no criminal records, had died in so-called crossfires. But no independent investigation was initiated to bring the perpetrators to book, the newspaper reported.
Extrajudicial killings in Bangladesh became rampant after the formation of the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), an elite police force, in 2004. Such killings have been mainly blamed on RAB.
The battalion was formed as a special anti-crime unit comprising members of the army, navy, air force and police to combat crimes.
Local human rights groups claim that none of the responsible cops, either from the regular police or the RAB, have been charged in the extra-judicial killings.
At a recent press conference at RAB headquarters in Dhaka, the battalion’s director general, Hasan Mahmud Khandaker, defended the killings, which he said were 'lawful' and that the battalion members were compelled to open fire in self-defence.
In 2008, a total of 83 people were killed in 'gunfights' with the battalion members, he said. Of the 60 incidents of killings recorded in 2009, 57 also died in 'gunfights' and similar incidents.
Since there is no accountability for such killings and the perpetrators enjoy impunity, the law enforcers even go to the extent of blackmailing certain individuals into paying bribes, said Khan. 'We’ve found in our investigation that people have been killed by law enforcers even for non-payment of kickbacks'.
An investigation by Odhikar has shown that some corrupt police officials intimidate people and demand kickbacks from them on pain of death in a 'crossfire'.
According to the Berlin-based global corruption watchdog Transparency International, the police department is one of the most corrupt government units in Bangladesh.
In September last year RAB announced to the public that a wanted criminal, Kamrul Islam Bappi, was killed in a 'crossfire' after a heavy gunfight in the dead of night in this capital.
The victim turned out to be Kaisar Mahmud Bappi (no relation to Kamrul), a college student and a little-known television personality. RAB neither admitted the mistake nor initiated an independent investigation into the incident, human rights activists said.
'RAB killed my brother (Kaiser Mahmud Bappi), (mistakenly) identifying him as Kamrul Islam Bappi, who was wanted by police (over criminal charges?),' said Shamsunnaher Alam, elder sister of the slain victim.
'How was it possible to kill a man without confirming his identity? Or is it justifiable at all to punish anybody without any proof by the court of law?' she asked.
Just two months after Kaiser Mahmud Bappi’s death, two brothers, Lutfor Khalasi and Khairul Khalasi, said to be regional leaders of the ultra-left Sharbahara Party and who were in police custody, were killed in another 'crossfire'. Their deaths were reported only 36 hours later, after the family expressed fears that the two might have been killed in custody.
In November the High Court ordered the government’s home ministry and RAB to explain the two men’s deaths after newspapers had reported the incident. No response has yet been made by the two agencies.
The National Human Rights Commission called on the government last December to conduct independent inquiries into the incidents of extra-judicial killings in the country, particularly those involving 'crossfires'.
'Independent inquiry should be conducted into each of the incidents of extra-judicial killing as there are conflicting statements from law enforcers and families of the victims on most of such incidents,' the commission chairman, Justice Amirul Kabir Chowdhury, told the media.
He made the statement as he submitted the commission’s first report on the state of human rights in the country to President Zillur Rahman.
In the report, the commission expressed its concern over the alarming spate of extra-judicial killings in Bangladesh and sought a probe into the killings.
But the independent body is perceived to be merely recommendatory, prompting the human rights groups to ask the government to expand the Commission’s power.
The international community has similarly expressed concern over the widely perceived state-sponsored unlawful killings in this South Asian country.
A five-member European Union (EU) delegation that visited Bangladesh in November opposed police claims of crossfire killings, and called for justice. Niraj Deva, head of the delegation, said there should be no 'impunity' for perpetrators of the killings and that nobody should be above the law.
Earlier, in June last year, another visiting EU delegation led by Czech Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Helena Bambasova, also asked the Bangladesh government to stop such killings.
The New York-based Human Rights Watch said the Bangladesh government should take urgent action to end impunity for the perpetrators of the human rights abuses in the country and to uphold the rule of law.
'As a party to the U.N. (United Nations) human rights conventions, Bangladesh is obliged to ensure that all violations are investigated, and that those responsible are brought to justice,' said Brad Adams, executive director of Human Rights Watch's Asia Division, in a statement.
In February last year, Bangladesh affirmed its human rights commitments at the U.N. Human Rights Council's Universal Periodic Review. Foreign Minister Dipu Moni said Bangladesh had a policy of zero tolerance for extra-judicial killings, torture and deaths in custody.
'(Extrajudicial killings) happen in a society where criminal justice system doesn’t work properly,' said Odhikar’s Khan.
At a recent discussion forum in Dhaka, Supreme Court Justice Nozrul Islam said the extra-judicial killings remained a deep concern for the judiciary and that it was 'suicidal' for society and the country as a whole to let the law enforcement agencies decide who should be killed on criminal charges.
'Extrajudicial killings must be stopped!' said Islam.
© Inter Press Service (2010) — All Rights ReservedOriginal source: Inter Press Service