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BANGLADESH: Extra-judicial killings of 378 people allegedly at the hands of Bangladesh's law enforcement agencies

July 18, 2005

URGENT APPEALS GENERAL URGENT APPEALS GENERAL URGENT APPEALS GENERAL

ASIAN HUMAN RIGHTS COMMISSION - URGENT APPEALS PROGRAMME

19 July 2005
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UG-03-2005: BANGLADESH: Extra-judicial killings of 378 people allegedly at the hands of Bangladesh¡¯s law enforcement agencies

BANGLADESH: Extra-judicial killings; law and order; rule of law
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Dear friends

The Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC) has received information from a reliable source regarding the increasingly common practice of extra-judicial killings by law enforcement agencies in Bangladesh. Three hundred and seventy eight people have been killed by these agencies since June 2004, with 18 killed in a matter of only 13 days in recent weeks.

The police and special forces, established to reduce the crime rate, have stated that these deaths were the result of crossfire and that it was the victims who fired first. They have also allegedly fabricated charges against some of the innocent dead, in an attempt to make them appear as criminals.

Though the government called for an enquiry into these deaths, impartiality remains a huge issue with the police and other law enforcement agencies, who are often directly responsible for the killings themselves, being designated as the investigators.

We therefore call for your intervention in this matter. Please write to relevant authorities within Bangladesh and the UN regarding this case. Extra-judicial killings under the pretext of crossfire shootings must not be tolerated. The law enforcement agencies must be made aware of this and informed that they will be prosecuted for any future conduct of this nature. As for those killings that have already occurred, the government must ensure that an independent agency investigate this matter. Allowing local police or army branches to investigate these cases would prevent any form of impartiality in the investigations. For this to occur, the government needs to establish a special and independent agency/institute designed solely for the purpose of investigating these cases of extra-judicial killings. The government must also establish an effective mechanism whereby victims and their families can lodge complaints regarding these killings. Once investigations have been conducted and the alleged perpetrators of these crimes are established, they must be brought before a court of law without delay and made to answer questions as to their involvement in these cases. Full punishment must be laid against them if it is found that they are guilty of such deaths. Compensation should be provided to the victim¡¯s families and all security measures met whilst investigations are underway.

Finally, the government must bring a stop to its Operation Clean Heart and strictly discipline Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) if it wishes these forms of human rights abuses to cease. Only by taking such action will the government show its true resolve to improve the human rights situation in Bangladesh.

Urgent Appeals Desk
Asian Human Rights Commission (AHRC)
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INFORMATION:

In the past year, Bangladesh¡¯s law enforcement agencies have killed 378 people. Of these, 245 of the victims died as a result of police actions, 116 in Rapid Action Battalion, 12 were killed by Cobra and Cheetah (special crime-busting units of police) and five by joint forces.

Initially, when it was learnt that several of those killed were top criminals, some members of the public voiced their relief that such people were no longer a threat. However, when a number of people with no criminal record fell victim to the police shootings, panic started to pervade cross sections of the society.

Perhaps in an attempt to combat any criticism laid against them, the law enforcers attempted to portray the innocent victims as persons with criminal records. However, investigations have nullified these claims by the law enforcers who have clearly fabricated charges against innocent people they have killed.

Law enforcers have targeted some of their victims in work places and at their homes, and have then later gunned them down in public, describing the deaths as a result of ¡®crossfire¡¯.

Such violent tactics by Bangladesh¡¯s law enforcers comes in the wake of the government establishing special forces to contain a growing crime rate. Whilst justifying the existence and heavy handedness of these forces, the government has also come under criticism by human rights bodies who describe the forces as temporary solutions in a situation that requires a long term approach.

With crimes spiraling out of control, on October 17 2002, the government launched army-led Operation Clean Heart. Despite only limited signs of success, the government nevertheless boasted about the operation and the improvement in law and order in the country as a result of it.

To sustain the apparent success, the government launched Rapid Action Team (Rat), comprising of policemen with para-commando training from the army, on 25 January 2003. When Rat failed to bring tangible results, army personnel were included in the team and the force was renamed Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) on 14 April 2004.

The government also previously launched special drives with different agencies of the police. One such driver was Operation Spider Web, which was conducted in 2003 in the southwestern region to net criminals. The government also formed Cobra in June 2004, which worked in the capital, and Cheetah, which came into force in September 2004.

Soon after the formation of Rab, the so-called ¡®crossfire¡¯ killings started to take place. The police also soon picked up on this method and very quickly surpassed the Rab in ¡®dealing with criminals¡¯ in this manner.

The government earlier had given army personnel indemnity from prosecution for killing 54 people during Operation Clean Heart, but no such measures have yet been adopted for the law enforcers responsible for the deaths of the 378 people killed in the past year.

Upon the killings of these people, the police and Rab authorities have informed the media that the victims died after engaging in crossfire.

When human rights bodies pressed the government to stop extra-judicial killings, the government announced that it would conduct executive enquiries into all deaths during police and Rab operations. Despite this welcomed news, the heads of the police and Rab have stated that the executive enquiries have so far found no fault on the part of any of their members for any of the deaths in crossfire. However, human rights groups, legal experts, civil society and opposition parties are most skeptical of this claim. They previously demanded that an independent enquiry involving the judiciary and professional bodies be conducted into the extra-judicial killings. Such enquiries must not involve the police or any Rab authorities in the investigative process itself.


Suggested action:

Please send a letter to the relevant authorities listed below regarding your concern over the growing number of extra-judicial killings in Bangladesh.

Please send a letter to.

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Sample letter:

Dear ____________,

BANGLADESH: Extra-judicial killings of 378 people allegedly at the hands of Bangladesh¡¯s law enforcement agencies

I write to voice my extreme concern for the increasingly common practice of extra-judicial killings by law enforcement agencies in Bangladesh. According to the information I have received, 378 people have been killed by these agencies since June 2004, with 18 killed in a matter of only 13 days in recent weeks.

The police and special forces, established to reduce the crime rate, have stated that these deaths were the result of crossfire and that it was the victims who fired first. They have also allegedly fabricated charges against some of the innocent dead, in an attempt to make them appear as criminals.

Though I am aware that the government called for an enquiry into these deaths, impartiality remains a huge issue with the police and other law enforcement agencies, who are often directly responsible for the killings themselves, being designated as the investigators.

It is for this apparent collapse in the rule of law in Bangladesh that I write to you requesting your intervention. Extra-judicial killings under the pretext of ¡®crossfire¡¯ shootings must not be tolerated. The law enforcement agencies must be made aware of this and informed that they will be prosecuted for any future conduct of this nature. As for those killings that have already occurred, the government must ensure that an independent agency investigate this matter. Allowing local police or army branches to investigate these cases would prevent any form of impartiality in the investigations. For this to occur, the government needs to establish a special and independent agency/institute designed solely for the purpose of investigating these cases of extra-judicial killings. The government must also establish an effective mechanism whereby victims and their families can lodge complaints regarding these killings. Once investigations have been conducted and persons are found to have played a part in such killings, they must be brought before a court of law without delay and made to answer questions as to their involvement in these cases. Full punishment must be laid against them if it is found that they are guilty of such deaths. Compensation should be provided to the victim¡¯s families and all security measures met whilst investigations are underway.

Finally, the government must bring a stop to its Operation Clean Heart and strictly discipline Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) if it wishes these forms of human rights abuses to cease. Only by taking such action will the government show its true resolve to improve the human rights situation in Bangladesh.

I look to your intervention in this matter.

Yours sincerely,

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SEND A LETTER TO:

1. Mrs. Khaleda Zia
Prime Minister of Bangladesh
Prime Minister's Office
Old Parliament House,
Tejgaon, Dhaka
BANGLADESH
Tel: +880 2 8828160-79, 9888677
Fax: +880 2 8113244, 811015, 8113243
E-mail: pm@pmobd.org or psecretary@pmobd.org (to the Secretary)

2. Prof. Dr. Iajuddin Ahmed
President of the People's Republic of Bangladesh
Bangabhaban,
Dhaka
BANGLADESH
Fax: +880 2 9566242

3. Mr. Barrister Moudud Ahmed
Ministry of Law, Justice & Parliamentary Affairs
Government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh
Bangladesh Secretariat, Dhaka
BANGLADESH
Fax: +880 2 8618557
E-mail: minoflaw@bdonline.com 

4. Mr. Md. Lutfozzaman Babar
State Minister
Ministry of Home Affairs
Government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh
Bangladesh Secretariat
BANGLADESH
Fax: +880 2 8619667 / 9552323

5. Mr. Altaf Hossain Choudhury
Minister
Ministry of Home Affairs
Government of the People's Republic of Bangladesh
Bangladesh Secretariat (Building No. 8), Dhaka
BANGLADESH
Tel: +880 2 7164611 /8614611 or 8614633
Fax: +880 2 8619667 / 8614788 or 955 2323

6. Mr. Philip Alston
Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial, Summary, or Arbitrary Executions
Atten: Lydie Ventre
Room 3-016
c/o OHCHR-UNOG
1211 Geneva 10
SWITZERLAND
Tel: +41 22 917 9155
Fax: +41 22 917 9006 (general)


Thank you.

Urgent Appeals Program
Asian Human Rights Commission

Document Type :
Urgent Appeal General
Document ID :
UG-03-2005
Countries :
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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.