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BHRC Human Rights Report
Total 256 persons killed

in May, 2015

The documentation section of Bangladesh Human Rights Commission (BHRC) furnished this human rights survey report on the basis of daily newspapers and information received from its district, sub-district and municipal branches. As per survey it appears that 256 peoples were killed in May, 2015 in all over the country. It proves that the law and order situation is not satisfactory. Bangladesh Human Rights Commissions extremely anxious about this situation. In the month of May, 2015 average 8 people were killed in each day.
The Law enforcing agencies and related Govt. departments should be more responsible so that percentage of killing may be brought down to zero level. To institutionalize the democracy and to build human rights based society the rule of law and order must be established everywhere. Through enforcing rule of law only such violation against human rights can be minimized.
It appears from documentation division of BHRC:
Total 256 persons killed in May 2015
Political killing 8, Killing for dowry 9, killing by family violence 49, Killed due to social discrepancy 45, Killed by Law enforcing authority 11, Killed due to doctor negligence 4, Assassination 7, H. Mysterious death 97, Killed due to BSF 6, Women & chilled killed due to rape 7, Killed by Acid throw 4, Killed after Abduction 9.
Killed by several accidents: Killed by road accident 247, Suicide 38
Besides victims of torture:
Rape 40, Torture for Dowry 7, Sexual Harassment 6, Journalist torture 2, Acid throwing 5.
 

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PM stresses North-South coop for progress
 

Human Rights Report:
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina on Sunday underscored the need for increased cooperation among the countries both in the South and the North in various areas of development as the South alone cannot make progress."The South cannot make progress alone while they have significant barriers like resource scarcity, low technical expertise, inadequate infrastructure, institutional incapacity, weak financial management system, non-functional legal and regulatory framework and internal strife. So, cooperation of the North can remove many of these barriers," she said.The Prime Minister was speaking at a two-day high-level meeting on 'South-South and Triangular Cooperation in the Post-2015 Development Agenda: Financing for Development in the South and Technology Transfer' at Sonargaon Hotel.The Prime Minister further said, "Cooperation among the Southern countries especially in trade, food security, higher education, skill development, healthcare, conservation of natural resources, renewable energy, foreign direct investment, capital market development, creating global public goods and scientific research and development is urgently needed."Laying emphasis on finding ways for financing development activities by the Southern countries, Sheikh Hasina also called on the developed countries not to replace the official development assistance which the North is committed to proving under internationally agreed decision.In this connection, she mentioned that centres of excellence established in different southern countries for research and development purposes which may play a vital role in qualitative expansion of the South-South cooperation. "Development solutions and knowledge being generated by the centers of excellence should be affordable and made available to share and replicate," Hasina said adding that development solutions can be customised to country-specific needs and situation. She said, the critical advanced knowledge and enhanced capacity which are much needed by the southern institutions or centers of excellence could be provided under Triangular cooperation.AK Abdul Momen, President of the General Assembly High-Level Committee on South-South Cooperation and Permanent Representative of Bangladesh to the United Nations, Jeremiah Nyamane Kingsley Mamabolo, Permanent Representative of the Republic of South Africa to the United Nations, George Wilfred Talbot, Permanent Representative of Guyana to the United Nations, Yiping Zhou, Envoy of the Secretary-General on South-South Cooperation, Director of the United Nations Office on South-South Cooperation and Rintaro Tamaki, Deputy Secretary-General, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) also spoke at the inaugural session..
 

Mamata to visit Dhaka June 5

West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Saturday said she would visit Bangladesh on June 5 and return home on June 6 after the signing of the Land Boundary Agreement.
The tour plan indicates that she would be visiting Bangladesh separately as Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi is scheduled to arrive here on June 6.
On May 28, the state's Education and Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Partha Chatterjee, first broke the news that Mamata would accompany Prime Minister Narendra Modi on his Dhaka trip, according to Indian media outlet DNA.
"I will be reaching Bangladesh on June 5 and will be back on June 6 after the signing of the Land Boundary Agreement," Banerjee told reporters at the state secretariat in Kolkata.
Parliament had recently passed the constitution amendment bill seeking to settle India's 41-year-old border issue with Bangladesh.
The legislation would operationalise the 1974 India-Bangladesh Land Boundary agreement that provides for exchange of 161 enclaves adversely held by the the two countries..

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51 traffickers held in Thailand
 

Arrest warrants have been issued for four more suspects allegedly involved in trafficking of migrants from Myanmar and Bangladesh, Thailand police said on Saturday, reported Thai media.
Thai police said the four new arrest warrants brought the total to 81. Some 51 suspects have been arrested, while 30 were still at large.
He said police were hunting the remaining suspects in Songkhla, Satun and Ranong.
On Saturday brought 12 Rohingya migrants to identify sites believed to be camps where they were detained and asked to identify which suspects manned the camps where they were held.
The police also took pictures of various camps to show to some suspects who confessed to human trafficking charges, to identify which camp they worked at.
Songkhla provincial police deputy chief Pol Col Treewit Sripapa said 12 Rohingya migrants were brought to Glass Mountain in Songkhla's Sadao district.
He said the migrants remembered the route and led police to their camps. They told police details about each camp.
Meanwhile, a Thai national who allegedly owned a boat recently found by the Myanmar navy crammed with more than 200 migrants has been arrested, Myanmar's state media said yesterday.
The 53-year-old man was detained in the country's biggest city, Yangon, the Global New Light of Myanmar reported, adding that his capture was made after authorities exchanged 'information with Thai police'.
The paper said the man operated under a handful of Myanmar aliases, but his Thai name was Naingnut Patunsantun and he came from Ranong province in Thailand.
'He was said to have contacted human trafficking gangs in Bangladesh and trafficked people into Thailand and Malaysia,' the report said.
The report did not say when the arrest was made or what the man was charged with.
Last week Myanmar's navy discovered more than 200 bare-chested men in the hull of a wooden, Thai-registered fishing vessel. It was the first rescue the navy made since Myanmar came under increasing pressure to stem the exodus of persecuted Rohingya Muslims from its shores after a Thai crackdown on the lucrative regional smuggling trade left thousands of desperate migrants stranded on land and sea after gangs abandoned them.
Thousands of Rohingya from Myanmar as well as Bangladeshi economic migrants have been attempting perilous boat journeys organised by people-smugglers to Southeast Asia.
Malaysia is a favourite destination. Migrants often travelled to Thailand by boat, then overland to northern Malaysia.
On 29 May, a second vessel with more than 700 migrants was found by Myanmar's navy in the Irrawaddy delta region.
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A promise whose time has come
Barrister Harun ur Rashid

India fulfilled one promise with regard to the Land Boundary Agreement and hopefully the Teesta Water Agreement will follow. The implementation of the two Agreements are very important for Bangladesh people to measure up India's obligations toward Bangladesh since 2011.
Bangladesh is indeed very happy that the Modi government fulfilled one promise and after the passage of the constitution amendment bill through both Houses of parliament on 6th and 7th May, Prime Minister Modi telephoned his counterpart in Bangladesh Sheikh Hasina and reportedly both congratulated each other.
Bangladesh hopes other legal formalities for ratification of the constitutional amendment bill will be completed in India and both countries may take actions to put into operation the agreement on the ground.
The map we know and draw for Bangladesh after 43 years is territorially complete because there would no more Indian enclaves inside Bangladesh. The other impact will be that the misery and distress of the inhabitants in the enclaves will be over and that was why the inhabitants living in Indian enclaves in Bangladesh were overjoyed at the news and distributed sweets among themselves.
Indira-Mujib Agreement of 1974
It is noted that the Indo-Bangladesh land border runs about 4096.70 kilometres. Out of which 2216 km with West Bengal, with Tripura, 865 km, with Meghalaya 443 km, with Mizoram 318 km and with Assam 263 km. Some of the borders remain un-demarcated and disputed from Pakistan days, and even after Bangladesh became an independent and sovereign state.
After independence, Bangladesh sought to demarcate a fresh boundary with India in all sectors. Accordingly the Indira-Mujib Land Boundary Agreement was signed in 1974 which envisages the following:
" 6.5 kilometres need to be demarcated. in Assam, Tripura, West Bengal sectors
" Exchange of adverse possession
" Exchange of enclaves in each other's territory
India adversely possesses 2,267. 682 acres of Bangladesh land at eighteen places. On the other hand, Bangladesh adversely possesses 2,777. 038 acres of India's land at seven places.
There are 111 Indian enclaves with 17,158 acres and a population of 37, 369 inside Bangladesh and there are 51 enclaves with 7,110 acres and a population of 14,215 in India.
Although Bangladesh had ratified it in 1974, India could not ratify the agreement for variety of reasons including the fact that unless border is demarcated, the LBA cannot be implemented. It is reported that when the 1974 land agreement was concluded this issue was not raised and Bangladesh felt very disappointed for its non-implementation.
Vindication for AL
The LBA remained unresolved until the Hasina government in 2010 injected a new paradigm in bilateral relations with India and the Joint Communique issued after a summit speaks of the commitment of the two countries to solve all issues through cooperation and mutual understanding.
Given the state of mutually cooperative relations, the Protocol to the 1974 Land Boundary Agreement (LBA) was concluded between former PM Manmohan Singh with his Bangladesh counterpart Sheikh Hasina in 2011 during his visit to Bangladesh in September of that year.
The Manmohan Singh government could not implement it because of the opposition of BJP and Trinamool Congress of Mamata Banerjee in West Bengal. However the constitution amendment bill was kept alive by the Singh government in the Upper House of Indian parliament so that the successor Indian government would be able to take appropriate action.
BJP government
After the BJP government led by Narendra Modi came to power, he assured Bangladesh that both the sticky issues-namely Teesta Water Agreement and the LBA would be resolved. The Modi government is aware that the Hasina government had moved quickly to address Delhi's concerns on cross-border terrorism (including expelling top ULFA insurgents to India) and connectivity to the North-East.
During home secretary-level talks between India and Bangladesh in February India's home secretary reportedly told his Bangladeshi counterpart that with the parliamentary standing committee on home affairs having unanimously approved the Constitution (119th Amendment) Bill, 2013, the way had been paved for its consideration and passage by Parliament.
Though the BJP and Trinamool Congress were earlier opposed to the bill, they shed their reservations and supported it during deliberations of the standing committee of the parliament.
In recent days BJP Assam, the All Assam Students Union (AASU), and Assam Gono Parishad (AGP) have been opposing the LBA in Assam sector on the ground that Bangladesh will get lands from Assam. The claim has been rebutted by the Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi who reportedly said that according to records available with the Assam government, the land-pact would provide Assam with 1,240 acres of disputed border land while Bangladesh would get only 357.4 acres. Gogoi wrote a letter to the Prime Minister Modi explaining the advantages of Assam out of the LBA.
The Modi government had earlier proposed to bring the bill by keeping Assam out of its purview but faced stiff resistance from the main opposition Congress party which wanted territories in Assam to be included.
It is reported that Congress on 30th April conveyed to the government that it would oppose the bill unless Assam is included. "This is weird that even as the government of the state is in favour of the agreement, it is being kept out because the opposition party (BJP) in Assam does not want it," a senior Congress functionary said.
The Congress has more seats in the Upper House than those of BJP. The Congress Party has 68 seats, more than the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance's strength of 59. Currently, the Opposition has a combined strength of at least 132 in an effective House of 243 members.
It is reported that senior leaders like External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj and Home Minister Rajnath Singh explained the 'urgent necessity' to clear the bill in the interest of 'India's prestige' as the issue of exchanging enclaves has been hanging since the 1974 Indira-Mujib pact.
They also pointed out the need to maintain good relations with a friendly government in Bangladesh, which would stand severely embarrassed, if the bill was not passed in original form.
Once India goes through the ratification process of the Constitution amendment bill , the implementation of LBA will start by Bangladesh and India. It is learnt that the inhabitants in the enclaves will be given a choice either to be Indian or Bangladesh citizens. If the same does not happen, the life of these people shall continue to be as troubled as it was in the past.
Behind the scene, another factor that has contributed to the adoption of the bill in both houses of parliament is that Modi sought to prove that he has been a strong leader and he kept his promise to Bangladesh.
One immediate effect is that it will facilitate the proposed visit of Prime Minister Modi in June or July to Bangladesh despite the unresolved Teesta Water Sharing Agreement between the two countries. Modi can show that he has not come to Bangladesh with empty hands. And he delivered to Bangladesh what he promised. During his visit, many bilateral agreements including agreement on coastal shipping to allow river vessels to carry cargo between the two countries would be signed. Prime Minister Modi's visit and the conclusion of LBA will not only boost Bangladesh-India relations but also will demonstrate that the Hasina government was able to resolve the territorial swap. The Hasina government's friendly policy toward India is thus justified in the eyes of Bangladesh people.
Barrister Harun ur Rashid, Former Bangladesh Ambassador to the UN, Geneva.

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BD-Malaysia to back move for ending crisis 

Bangladesh and Malaysia have agreed on continued cooperation with other countries in the region, seeking a resolution to a deepening crisis in which boatloads of migrants are stranded off Southeast Asia's shores, with no country willing to take them in.The agreement came at the fourth meeting of the Malaysia-Bangladesh Joint Commission held in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah, Malaysia on Sunday, ahead of meetings scheduled meetings with Indonesian and Thai foreign ministers in the coming days.Foreign Minister A H Mahmood Ali and his Malaysian counterpart Dato' Sri Anifah Aman led their respective sides in the meeting which was preceded by a senior officials' meeting held yesterday.Both the Foreign Ministers agreed to further explore the potentials of bilateral trade and investment, according to a message received here from Malaysia.During the meeting, Dhaka requested Kuala Lumpur to take further steps to recruit more workers from Bangladesh and consider opening other potential sectors for Bangladesh workers.Malaysia also launched a series of high-level talks with its neighbors Sunday, seeking a solution to a deepening crisis in which boatloads of refugees are stranded off Southeast Asia's shores.The Malaysian foreign minister will meet with his Indonesian counterpart today (Monday) and Thailand counterpart on Wednesday to discuss on the immigrant boatmen issue, according to New Straits Time Online report. Boatloads of more than 2,000 members of Myanmar's ethnic Rohingya Muslim community fleeing persecution and migrants from Bangladesh trying to escape poverty have landed in Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand in recent weeks.But, thousands more are stranded at sea after a crackdown on human traffickers prompted captains and smugglers to abandon their human cargo.Expressing satisfaction over the current state of bilateral relations, the both sides hoped that regular exchange of visits and interaction between leaders and officials would continue to be the driving force behind the development of productive and mutually beneficial relations between the two countries.During the meeting, whole gamut of bilateral issues were discussed when both sides agreed to explore the option to use existing platforms such as Malaysia South-South Association (MASSA) and Bangladesh-Malaysia Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BMCCI) to organize the Bangladesh-Malaysia Investment Forum.Both sides agreed to establish institutional cooperation mechanism between the Malaysian Meteorological Department (MMD) and the Bangladesh Meteorological Department (BMD) to promote the exchange of seismic measurement data in real time and sharing of knowledge, experience and good practices on tropical meteorology.The two sides resolved to conduct the Joint Commission meeting on bi-annual basis in strengthening bilateral relations and agreed to establish Foreign Office Consultations (FOC) between the two foreign ministries to further strengthen and consolidate the existing relations. Malaysia is the current chair of the 10-nation Association of Southeast Asian Nations, which has been criticized for long ignoring the plight of the ethnic Rohingya.ASEAN adheres to a strict policy of non-interference, which in the past has blocked public criticism of Myanmar and critics say enables member states to commit abuses without consequences.After the 4th Joint Commission meeting between Malaysia and Bangladesh Anifah said Malaysia as ASEAN chairman is still seeking out a date to sit with Myanmar foreign minister before deciding on other steps like bringing the matter to the international level or holding an emergency meeting. "We are now finding a solution to the problem and currently is giving humanitarian assistance, among others... but I have already stated that we cannot afford to accept more (of the arrival) of them as a huge number already existed here and so far no countries wants to settle them," he said. Anifah said so this burden should not be carried by Malaysia alone and we are asking Myanmar to participate in finding a solution. "We try to help them (refugees) as best as we can but at the same time there are people complaining why there was an influx of illegal immigrants in our shores," said the Malaysian foreign minister. "We have to look at our own interests too, our social problems and security problems, we have to take that into consideration," he reasoned. On the meeting with his Bangladeshi counterpart, Anifah said he was briefed that based on history, Bangladesh has never considered Rohingya community from the Rakhine state as their citizens. He said the massive number of illegal immigrants that landed in Langkawi recently has yet to be ascertained on their nationality, but Abul Hassan has assured Bangladesh is willing to cooperate with Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand on this issue..

 

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Where we bury our humanity
 

The crisis of the so-called "boat people" has given the lie to our humanity in the most disconcerting fashion. Its intersections of harsh truths and savage betrayals jaw with the comfortable space to which we had confined our collective conscience, it gnaws at the sensibilities bestowed on us by a so-called "civilisation". If it doesn't, it should.
Consider it for a moment: people being turned back to sea. To dead. People. To the great blue sea, in overcrowded, rickety boats. "Sorry," we're saying. "Can't take you in. No, not even to save your lives. We know you have nowhere to go to. No, it's not that there's no room. But things get complicated with you lot later on. You carry a lot of baggage (ironic chuckle). Better you die today. Find yourself a watery grave. Make yourself useful." That essentially, was the position taken by a number of countries from Europe to Australia, including our own, before things came to a head at the start of May, with the grisly discovery of mass graves in the Thai jungle, and even after that for a period. Malaysia and Indonesia turned back at least two boats in the days following the discovery, before international condemnation forced them to reverse that policy. We know back in 2012, the Bangladesh government did the same to boatloads of the Rohingyas fleeing persecution in Myanmar, where the government's entire project of opening up to the world after decades of insolence has been sorely blighted by the inhuman treatment to which they subject their Muslim population, comprised almost entirely of the Rohingyas.
For things to come to such a pass is undoubtedly a ringing indictment of the misplaced sense of purpose that imbues the authorities in each of these nations. And yet, when it comes to xenophobia, it would seem they are not alone. Lest we forget, in the days leading up to the crackdown on human trafficking in Thailand, it was Europe that was grappling with the same crisis, just featuring a different set of characters. Whereas in Asia the hapless victims happen to be the Rohingyas fleeing the persecution in Myanmar along with some Bangladeshis chasing a better life in Muslim-majority Malaysia, those found drifting in the Mediterranean Sea that stretches between Europe and Asia and Africa, were almost all driven to their fate by the war and conflict that now rages across the Arab world, particularly Libya and Syria. After an estimated 10,000 would-be migrants drowned trying to reach the Old Continent, the European Commission belatedly managed a response to salvage their morality, if only for future reference. But only just. As The Economist has reported, the EC's scheme to resettle some 20,000 refugees from 'third countries' (our penchant for erecting walls is stupendous, really), when millions are languishing in Turkish and Lebanese camps, is doomed to fail as an alternative to "boats in the Mediterranean".
If not on numbers, the European plan, unveiled on May 13 as a collective "agenda on migration", does well on some other counts though. For example, it promises technical assistance to "front-line" countries like Italy, Malta and Greece, whose territory the "boat people" first drift into. The plan also aims to improve the EU's "dismal" return rate for failed asylum-seekers. It also calls for the relocation of most asylum-seekers who reach the EU, the purpose here being to spread out the burden of processing them. A country-by-country allocation will be determined by what is being termed a "distribution key" (by now, you'd be excused for forgetting we're actually talking about human beings here), based on the potential host country's population, economic strength, and number of refugees already present in them.
On the day Dhaka Courier hits the stands this week, it will be the turn of the countries of Asia to stitch together what their response is going to be to the tragedy unfolding in their waters. Naturally, the lack of a similar level of political and administrative integration, as there is in Europe, may be expected to produce a scheme that pales in comparison to the one produced in Brussels. There will be all sorts of teething problems. But at least they are coming together, for a regional meeting on "Irregular Migration in the Indian Ocean", convened by the Thai government. The May 29 meeting is to be attended by representatives of some 15 different entities, including Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, Australia, the United States-which has called for cooperation to address the migrants' plight-the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, and the International Organization for Migration (IOM), in addition to Thailand, Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar and Bangladesh.
It comes at a time when some 8,000 people are said to be adrift off the coasts of Thailand, Indonesia and Malaysia, by the IOM. The UN meanwhile, reckons at least 300 people died in the first three months of the year off these boats. "The increasing complexity of the problem demands a multi-faceted approach," a Thai foreign ministry statement was reported as saying. "Countries of origin, transit, and destination must work together to address the problem comprehensively." It remains to be seen what the great and the good gathered in the Thai capital this week manage to conjure up. Already though, the scope of the crisis in Asia is made harder by a number of factors. On top of the list by a distance is a form of denialism afflicting two of the governments that ordinarily should be most concerned by the present state of affairs: Myanmar and Bangladesh. The Bangladesh government continues to follow an economic policy that marginalises those at the very bottom of the pyramid (they might as well be bricks). The Bangladesh prime minister is having none of it of course, lashing out at the poor souls for seeking a better life abroad, out of places where 6 percent growth in GDP doesn't quite trickle down as yet. There is also the racket of human traffickers, who are said to keep people in the administration all the way up to the top in their good graces. The response here needs to be along the lines of law-and-order, and targeted from an economic point of view.

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Glorifying Mahathirism

Mahfuzur Rahman
 

At least 52 countries in the world are regarded as flawed democracies. The great Malaysia of Mahathir bin Mohammad is one of them though he is credited for transforming his country from a small rubber exporter to one of Asia's 'tiger economies'. As expected, the Economist Intelligence Unit's (EIU) Democracy Index, which measures the state of democracy around the world, in its 2014 report, branded Malaysia as a 'flawed democracy', ranking it 65 out of 167 countries.
The EIU defines flawed democracies as countries that have significant weaknesses in infringements on media freedom, problems in governance, an underdeveloped political culture and low levels of political participation despite having free and fair elections and respects for basic freedoms. It is a question of the system, as well as part of political ethics.
Though Malaysia holds elections regularly, critics feel the polls are not fair and allege that manipulation of electoral rolls and election boundaries are what has kept the ruling coalition, Barisan Nasional, in power since Malaya's independence in 1957.
While transforming his country during his 22 years in office as the Malaysian Prime Minister, Mahathir, a single-minded leader, had resorted to authoritarian stance against those who tried to oppose him or threaten his power. Even then he had to go.
During his rule, Mahathir had always used his speeches to shock and stir audiences-whether it was lambasting the Western world, carping at market forces or rousing the party faithful out of apathy. He announced his resignation on June 22, 2002 in a speech before his United Malays National Organization (UMNO) in a rhetorical flourish - weeping. Naturally! Who does actually want to say goodbye.
To screams of "why, why" from the delegates, a sobbing Mahathir was quickly surrounded by senior UMNO officials. He could be heard saying, "No, I've decided. I've decided," as he was shunted out of the hall. Mahathir critics found it as nothing but a melodrama as he sensed that his time was over. But, Mahathir's autocratic rule as UMNO leader and prime minister means that a simple announcement about a change of leadership is not possible.
Mahathir who had been at the helm of his country's politics for over two decades, finally retired in October, 2003 claiming to have left behind a 'great' legacy. Thirteen years after his retirement, his excesses have come back to wallop the world with a backlash stronger than his modernisation's pace. A democratic nation deserves to know the asset accounts of its leaders. Mahathir was learned to have never declared his assets. Malaysians still do not know how he bought a nice home in the Mine.
In 1998-1999, Mahathir sacked his deputy Anwar Ibrahim following sharp disputes over the direction of economic policy during the Asian financial crisis. He expelled Anwar and his supporters from UMNO. When Anwar began organising opposition rallies, he was arrested on charges of sodomy and corruption. His chosen successor now languishes in jail.

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