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BANGLADESH: Woman and her son beaten and further threatened by the Lalbag police in Dhaka

December 13, 2005

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ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION - URGENT APPEALS PROGRAMME

Urgent Appeal

13 December 2005
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UA-235-2005: BANGLADESH: Woman and her son beaten and further threatened by the Lalbag police in Dhaka

BANGLADESH: Arbitrary raid on house; assault; intimidation; arbitrary arrest
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Dear friends,

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has been informed that a woman was arrested, assaulted and intimidated by the Lalbag police after they illegally raider her house. The police arrested the woman after receiving money from a group of toll collectors, who had earlier beaten the woman’s son at the Sheikh Sahebbazar crossing.

The police, upon raiding the woman’s house, beat her with sticks and tore her clothes off. She sustained considerable injuries during this assault and the shame of being forced naked onto the street at the front of her house.

Meanwhile, the police have reportedly intimidated the victim and her son stating that they will be further harassed if the toll collectors face any further problems from them.

The victim has filed a case with the Chief Metropolitan Magistrates Court in Dhaka against the police and the toll collectors.

In light of this case, the AHRC is calling upon you to write letters to the relevant authorities in Bangladesh, in particular, the Inspector General of Police and the Ministry of Home Affairs, urging them to take immediate disciplinary and legal action against the errant policemen of the Lalbag police station. The necessary reparations for the victims must also be met.

Urgent Appeals Programme
Asian Human Rights Commission
.......................................
DETAILED INFORMATION:

Name of the victims:
1. Mrs. Rozina Begum (35), living at No. 206/1, Lalbag Road in the Sheikh Sahebbazar area under Lalbag police station in Dhaka
2. Imran, Rozina’s son
Name of alleged perpetrators: Sub Inspector Atiar Rahman and four to five policemen attached to the Lalbag police station
Date of incident: 13 November 2005

Case Details:

On 13 November 2005, a group of toll collectors named Jajju, Rajju, Salehin, Nipu and Yar Khan went to Imran’s shop. They demanded that he pay money as a toll for his shop. Imran, however, refused to pay an was subsequently beaten by the men at the Sheikh Sahebbazar crossing. As a result he sustained considerable injuries to his body. The men, however, assured Imran that they would hold an arbitration about the incident the following day where all would be resolved. What they did instead, however, was approach the Lalbag police and allegedly request them to take revenge on Imran for refusing to pay the toll.

On 15 November 2005, at around 3.00am, four to five policemen from the Lalbag police station, led by Sub Inspector Atiar Rahman, raided the house of Rozina Begum, who is Imran’s mother.  The police along with the toll collectors pulled Rozina out from her house onto the street. They beat her with sticks and tore her clothes off. The police also allegedly stole jewelry that the victim had been wearing.  At the same time, the police intimidated both Rozina and Imran warning that further trouble would come to them if they continued to refuse to pay the toll collectors money.

Rozina subsequently lodged a case with the Chief Metropolitan Magistrates (CMM) Court on 8 December 2005. In the prosecution she mentioned that the police of Lalbag police station refused to record her case as a First Information Report (FIR), due to her complaint being made against policemen. Within the lodged case before the CMM, Rozina also reported the alleged beating of her and her son, the molestation of her by the police, the theft of her jewelry and the corruption by the police in accepting money from the tax collectors to intimidate innocent victims.

Meanwhile, the Metropolitan Magistrate, Mr. AJM Baki Billah ordered the Deputy Commissioner of the Detective Branch of Police of the Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP) to take legal action after investigation this case.

SUGGESTED ACTION:

Please send a letter immediately to the Inspector General of Police and the other persons listed below expressing your concern about the arbitrary raid, torture and molestation of a woman, the torture of her son and the theft of their belongings. Please ask them to take prompt action in investigating the conduct of the police and to ensure that justice is attained for the woman and her son.

Sample Letter:

Dear Mr. _______________,

BANGLADESH: Woman and her son beaten and further threatened by the Lalbag police in Dhaka

Name of the victims:
1. Mrs. Rozina Begum (35), living at No. 206/1, Lalbag Road in the Sheikh Sahebbazar area under Lalbag police station in Dhaka
2. Imran, Rozina’s son
Name of alleged perpetrators: Sub Inspector Atiar Rahman and four to five policemen attached to the Lalbag police station
Date of incident: 13 November 2005

I am writing to bring to your attention a recent case I have learned about involving a woman who was arrested, assaulted and intimidated by the Lalbag police after they illegally raider her house. According to the information I have received, the police arrested the woman after receiving money from a group of toll collectors, who had earlier beaten the woman’s son at the Sheikh Sahebbazar crossing.

The police, upon raiding the woman’s house, beat her with sticks and tore her clothes off. She sustained considerable injuries during this assault and the shame of being forced naked onto the street at the front of her house. Additionally, the police reportedly intimidated the victim and her son warning them that they would be further harassed if the toll collectors faced any further problems from them.

In light of this, I request that you order a prompt and thorough investigation into the alleged conduct of the police.  If it is found that the alleged perpetrators committed crimes against the victims, then they must be made accountable for their actions and if found guilty of torture, indicted under the prevailing domestic laws of your country.  What is more, if the charges of corruption and patronisation of terrorism are found to be true then the Lalbag Police must be charged and forced to compensate the victims for the losses they have suffered.  During the investigation of the police, protection must be afforded to the family of the victim. 
 
Such action by the police is common practice in many of Bangladesh’s police stations and the offices of other law enforcing agents. It reflects the lack of training many police officers have in terms of investigation skills, and the excessive powers they wield and abuse.

I therefore urge you and other government officials in Bangladesh to consider reforming your current law enforcement system by introducing better training programmes for your police officers and to make them more accountable for the abuses they commit against ordinary citizens of Bangladesh.

I look forward to your urgent intervention in this matter.

Yours sincerely,

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PLEASE SEND LETTER TO:

1. Mr. Abdul Quayum
Inspector General of Police (IGP)
Police Headquarters’
Fulbaria, Dhaka-1000
BANGLADESH
Tel: +88-02-9562054, 7176451, 7176677, 8362552 or 8362553
Fax: +88-02-9563362, 9563363

2. Mr. SM Mizanur Rahman
Commissioner
Dhaka Metropolitan Police (DMP)
The DMP Headquarters
1, Shaheed Captain Monsur Ali Road
Ramna, Dhaka-1000
BANGLADESH
Tel: +88-02-8322746, 8316248, 8855922
Fax: +88-02-8322746

3. Mr. Md. Lutfozzaman Babor
State Minister
The Ministry of Home Affairs
Government of the Peoples’ Republic of Bangladesh
The Bangladesh Secretariat
Dhaka-1000
BANGLADESH
Tel: +88-02-7169069, 8359000
Fax: + 88-02-7160405, 7164788

4. Mr. Anwarul Karim
Joint Secretary (Police)
Ministry of Home Affairs
Government of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh
Bangladesh Secretariat
Dhaka-1000
BANGLADESH
Tel: +88-02-7164680, 8953012
Fax: +88-02-7171592

5. Mr. A. J. Mohammad Ali
The Attorney General of Bangladesh
The Office of the Attorney General
Supreme Court Building
Ramna, Dhaka-1000
BANGLADESH

6. Mr. Syed J. R. Mudassir Husain
The Chief Justice
The Supreme Court of Bangladesh
Supreme Court Building
Ramna, Dhaka-1000
BANGLADESH

7. Prof. Manfred Nowak
Special Rapporteur on the Question of Torture
Attn:Mr.Sarir Syed
C/o OHCHR-UNOG
1211 Geneva 10
SWITZERLAND
Tel: +41 22 917 9230
Fax: +41 22 9179016 (general)
E-mail: ssyed@ohchr.org

8. Ms.Leila Zerrougui
Chairperson
Working Group on Arbitrary Detention
C/o OHCHR-UNOG
1211 Geneva 10
SWITZERLAND
Fax:+41 22 917 9006 (ATTENTION:Working Group on Arbitrary Detention)
E-mail: mdelalama@ohchr.org

9. Ms. Yakin Erturk
Special Rapporteur on Elimination of violence against women
c/o Ms Lucinda Ohanlon
Room 3-042
OHCHR-UNOG
8-14 Avenue de la Paix
1211 Geneva 10
SWITZERLAND
Tel: +41 22 917 9615
Fax: +41 22 917 9006
Email: lohanlon@ohchr.org

Thank you.

Urgent Appeal Programme
Asian Human Rights Commission

Document Type :
Urgent Appeal Case
Document ID :
UA-235-2005
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Extended Introduction: Urgent Appeals, theory and practice

A need for dialogue

Many people across Asia are frustrated by the widespread lack of respect for human rights in their countries.  Some may be unhappy about the limitations on the freedom of expression or restrictions on privacy, while some are affected by police brutality and military killings.  Many others are frustrated with the absence of rights on labour issues, the environment, gender and the like. 

Yet the expression of this frustration tends to stay firmly in the private sphere.  People complain among friends and family and within their social circles, but often on a low profile basis. This kind of public discourse is not usually an effective measure of the situation in a country because it is so hard to monitor. 

Though the media may cover the issues in a broad manner they rarely broadcast the private fears and anxieties of the average person.  And along with censorship – a common blight in Asia – there is also often a conscious attempt in the media to reflect a positive or at least sober mood at home, where expressions of domestic malcontent are discouraged as unfashionably unpatriotic. Talking about issues like torture is rarely encouraged in the public realm.

There may also be unwritten, possibly unconscious social taboos that stop the public reflection of private grievances.  Where authoritarian control is tight, sophisticated strategies are put into play by equally sophisticated media practices to keep complaints out of the public space, sometimes very subtly.  In other places an inner consensus is influenced by the privileged section of a society, which can control social expression of those less fortunate.  Moral and ethical qualms can also be an obstacle.

In this way, causes for complaint go unaddressed, un-discussed and unresolved and oppression in its many forms, self perpetuates.  For any action to arise out of private frustration, people need ways to get these issues into the public sphere.

Changing society

In the past bridging this gap was a formidable task; it relied on channels of public expression that required money and were therefore controlled by investors.  Printing presses were expensive, which blocked the gate to expression to anyone without money.  Except in times of revolution the media in Asia has tended to serve the well-off and sideline or misrepresent the poor.

Still, thanks to the IT revolution it is now possible to communicate with large audiences at little cost.  In this situation there is a real avenue for taking issues from private to public, regardless of the class or caste of the individual.

Practical action

The AHRC Urgent Appeals system was created to give a voice to those affected by human rights violations, and by doing so, to create a network of support and open avenues for action.  If X’s freedom of expression is denied, if Y is tortured by someone in power or if Z finds his or her labour rights abused, the incident can be swiftly and effectively broadcast and dealt with. The resulting solidarity can lead to action, resolution and change. And as more people understand their rights and follow suit, as the human rights consciousness grows, change happens faster. The Internet has become one of the human rights community’s most powerful tools.   

At the core of the Urgent Appeals Program is the recording of human rights violations at a grass roots level with objectivity, sympathy and competence. Our information is firstly gathered on the ground, close to the victim of the violation, and is then broadcast by a team of advocates, who can apply decades of experience in the field and a working knowledge of the international human rights arena. The flow of information – due to domestic restrictions – often goes from the source and out to the international community via our program, which then builds a pressure for action that steadily makes its way back to the source through his or her own government.   However these cases in bulk create a narrative – and this is most important aspect of our program. As noted by Sri Lankan human rights lawyer and director of the Asian Human Rights Commission, Basil Fernando:

"The urgent appeal introduces narrative as the driving force for social change. This idea was well expressed in the film Amistad, regarding the issue of slavery. The old man in the film, former president and lawyer, states that to resolve this historical problem it is very essential to know the narrative of the people. It was on this basis that a court case is conducted later. The AHRC establishes the narrative of human rights violations through the urgent appeals. If the narrative is right, the organisation will be doing all right."

Patterns start to emerge as violations are documented across the continent, allowing us to take a more authoritative, systemic response, and to pinpoint the systems within each country that are breaking down. This way we are able to discover and explain why and how violations take place, and how they can most effectively be addressed. On this path, larger audiences have opened up to us and become involved: international NGOs and think tanks, national human rights commissions and United Nations bodies.  The program and its coordinators have become a well-used tool for the international media and for human rights education programs. All this helps pave the way for radical reforms to improve, protect and to promote human rights in the region.