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EDITOR
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Editorial
‘Fortnightly’
পাক্ষিক |
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BHRC Human Rights Report March
2017
Total 131 persons
killed in March, 2017
Human Rights Report:
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, subdistrict and municipal branches. As per
survey it appears that 131 peoples were killed in
March, 2017 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 March,
2017 average 4.22 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 131 number of people's killed March, 2017
Political killing 2, Killing for dowry 1, killing by
family violence 15, Killed due to social discrepancy
41, Killed by Law enforcing authority 9, Killed due
to doctor negligence 4, Assassination 5, Mysterious
death 36, Killed due to BSF 1, Women & Chilled
killed due to rape 5, Kill due to abduction 10, kill
due to acid throwing 1, Kill due to Sexual
Harassment 1.
Killed by several accidents:
Killed by road accident 247, Suicide 15.
Besides victims of torture:
Rape 28, Torture for Dowry 9, Sexual Harassment 18.
Sheikh Hasina's
India visit next week likely to have mixed results
Human Rights Report
Next week,
when Bangladeshi Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina visits
Delhi, a host of issues will be on the table.
The discussion may be fruitful on issues such as
energy, trade and investment. Security will feature
prominently and Bangladesh will press for withdrawal
of anti-dumping duties on its jute products.
Restrictions were imposed on Bangladeshi imports
last year. Given the legal framework, outright
waiver would not be possible. However, efforts may
be intensified for review with stronger Bangladeshi
representation.
However, at least one issue, Teesta water-sharing,
that has been hanging fire for too long will likely
remain unresolved once again with Prime Minister
Narendra Modi underlining his determination to
maintain status quo till 2019, when both the
countries will be in election mode.
Teesta unresolved
Apparently, West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata
Banerjee has been the only hurdle in entering the
treaty since 2011.
She had shown some interest in the deal in exchange
of a development package for North Bengal in 2015.
India finally removed all hurdles for implementation
of the Land Boundary Agreement.
During a visit to Dhaka the same year, she again
hinted at her willingness to resolve the issue.
"Keep faith on me," she had told Hasina.
Annan Commission's recommendations to resolve Rohingya crisis
Human Rights Report:
The international advisory commission
on Myanmar's Rakhine state has put forward
recommendations aiming at a resolution to the
Rohingya crisis. These can be effective in resolving
not only the Rohingya crisis but also the various
problems which have cropped up between Bangladesh
and Myanmar. These include establishing a joint
commission between the two countries and adhering to
the relevant international laws. We welcome these
recommendations of the commission, also known as the
Annan Commission, headed by former UN secretary
general Kofi Annan.
This international commission was formed at the
behest of the Myanmar government in order to
pinpoint the problems afflicting the Rakhine state.
The main problem of the Rakhine state is ethnic
violence and the government's discriminatory
citizenship law. The Rohingya community are victims
of this discrimination and are often oppressed,
driven from their homes and forced to take refuge in
Bangladesh.
The Annan Commission has recommended a coordinated
and transparent process to ensure the nationality of
all ethnic groups including the Rohingyas. The
prevailing process is considered biased against the
Rohingya and Rakhine communities. The nationality
crisis there has an impact on Bangladesh. We laud
the commission's recommendation to form a commission
for the repatriation of Rohingyas who have taken
refuge in Bangladesh and for improving relations
between the two countries. Such a commission can
also play an effective role in halting human and
drug trafficking, illegal trade, immigration, and
border clashes.
We also agree with the Annan Commission that an
independent and neutral inquiry into the human
rights violations in the Rakhine state is required.
The international community, including the European
parliament, has also demanded an inquiry into the
violence that has taken place in the Rakhine state.
Most important is the actual implementation of the
Annan Commission's recommendations. The Bangladesh
government must step up its diplomatic efforts and
activities at an international level in this
connection. However, we hope the Myanmar government
comes forward itself to implement the
recommendations of the commission..
The war mother and
her child
Afsan
Chowdhury
Human Rights Report:
Jami and Jannat was a
young couple with a three year old child in 1971. He
had passed school from a boarding school in Pakistan
and had several close friends from there. A few of
them came from the army as well and although the
political situation was getting more tense the
friends had a great time doing the "dawat" rounds as
several Pakistani young people and couple joined the
group. On the 25th of March Pakistan army cracked
down. They spent a fearful night but received
friendly calls from their army friends the next
afternoon and soon.
UN warns Trump over two-state reversal
Human Rights Report:
a few came to visit. These visit actually were
reassuring and scary both but they felt safer that
they had friends on whom to call if in trouble.
One day in early May, the husband didn't return home
from office. Jannat made frantic calls but got no
answer. In desperation, she called a Pak army friend
who was a regular visitor. He came over in the
evening and told her that the husband had been
picked up for helping the Mukti Fouj. He was in the
cantonment and being questioned. She broke down and
asked for his help. He promised to return the next
day with more news.
The Offer
The officer came as promised and informed her that
the husband was in a bad shape but he was alive and
he had done his best to save his life. Then he told
her that she alone could save him and she could do
that by sleeping with him. As she collapsed on the
chair, he left the house saying that next day she
would have to call him if she agrees to take the
offer. In return he would protect him and her child.
How she spent the night is not known but in the
morning she called him up and agreed to the
proposal. Her husband's life in return for her body.
That night he came and shared the bed. It became a
regular affair and the sight of an army jeep parked
for most of the night meant that everyone guessed or
knew what was going on. This included her husband's
and her own family. It began in May and went on till
October.
Another officer, another offer
Around November, when a war with India seemed
inevitable, there were skirmishes all over
Bangladesh borders and the officer went missing for
a week. She was terrified about the situation
fearing her husband had been killed and so he had
stopped coming. As her immediate families had broken
off with her after her "affair" started and having
no one else to turn to, she began calling her
"lover's" friends. That day another officer came to
see her and gave her the news that her husband had
been killed by the "saviour" officer in May so that
he could have her. Apparently, it was not a secret
among his friends. But the man had been killed in an
ambush outside Dhaka recently and that is why he was
missing.
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Is the future herbal?
Ishrak Jahan
Human Rights
Report:
The use of herbal medicine is the oldest and most
popular form of healthcare practice followed by
people of all cultures in all ages. Herbal medicines
include herbs, herbal materials, herbal preparations
and finished herbal products that contain parts of
plants or other plant materials as active
ingredients.
Herbal medicines are now however the most popular
form of traditional medicine often termed as
complementary medicine. It is the sum total of
knowledge, skills and practices based on the
theories, beliefs and experiences indigenous to
different cultures that are used to maintain health
as well as to prevent, diagnose, improve or treat
physical or mental illness and disorder. Herbal
medicine has got age-old practice and reputation and
popularity known as "Pro-people" or "Mass-oriented"
system of medicine, due to its easy accessibility,
safety and popularity. At present about 70% of world
populations is getting their primary healthcare
through traditional and herbal system of medicines,
according to WHO estimation.
Medicinal Herbs or Plants
Herbs include whole plants and plant parts including
leaves, flowers, seeds, fruits, stems, woods, roots
barks and rhizomes in their solid, fragmented or
powdered form. A considerable number of definitions
have been put forward for medicinal plants.
According to WHO: "It is any plant which in one or
more of its organs contains substances that can be
used for therapeutic purposes, or which are
precursors for chemo-pharmaceutical semi-synthesis.
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