Figure 2: Map of the
People’s Republic of Bangladesh.
Highlighted in yellow is Chittagong, a district with high-levels of
violence against Hindus.
Area: 144,000 sq km
Population: 147,365,352 (July 2006 est.)
Languages: Bangla
(official, also known as Bengali), English
Location: Southern Asia, bordering the Bay of Bengal, between Burma and
India[xvii]
Bangladesh was created after the India-Pakistan War of 1971, a conflict—elaborated in this report—that was preceded by the massacre of an estimated two million East Pakistani citizens and the ethnic cleansing of 10 million (mainly Hindus), who fled to India from that country. In the summary of his report dated November 1, 1971, US Senator Edward Kennedy (D - Massachusetts) wrote:
Field reports to the U.S. Government, countless eye-witness journalistic
accounts, reports of International agencies such as World Bank and additional
information available to the subcommittee document the reign of terror which
grips East Bengal (East Pakistan).
Hardest hit have been members of the Hindu community who have been
robbed of their lands and shops, systematically slaughtered, and in some
places, painted with yellow patches marked ‘H’.
All of this has been officially sanctioned, ordered and implemented
under martial law from Islamabad.[xviii]
Quite remarkably, this genocide
has been largely erased from public memory and the perpetrators escaped
unpunished though identified in an official report. According to Saleem Samad, journalist and
human rights observer[xix],
with the normal rate of population growth, the Hindu population in Bangladesh
in 1991 should have been 32.5 million.
The actual population was 12.5 million.
By this calculation, the number
of Hindus missing from Bangladesh over two decades, ending in 1991, is already
20 million.
Initially, Bangladesh adopted a constitution with its basic structure ensuring “Nationalism, Secularism, Socialism, and Democracy.” But on April 23, 1977, the Constitution was amended; Bangladesh renounced official secularism and its Constitution was re-adopted in the name of Islam and a new clause was appended: “The state shall endeavor to consolidate, preserve and strengthen fraternal relations among Muslim countries based on Islamic solidarity.” On June 9, 1988, the Constitution was amended again, making Islam the state religion and prescribing that the principle of absolute trust and faith in Allah would be the basis of all action.
At the time of Partition in 1947,
the Hindu population, in what is now Bangladesh, was about 31%.[xx] By 1961, Hindus comprised 19% of the
population. By 1974, the Hindu
population had further reduced to 14%.
And in 2002, it was estimated that the Hindu population was only about
9% of the total.[xxi] By comparison, the Muslim population in India
has grown from 10% of the total in 1947, to 13.2% in 2001.[xxii]
Data indicate that the number of
incidents of human rights abuse against Hindus during the 2005 calendar year
continued at about the same rate as in 2004, and more seriously, the political
situation in Bangladesh worsened with Islamic fundamentalist and extremist
forces becoming more bold and entrenched in society. Observers fear that Bangladesh may be headed
the Taliban way as in Afghanistan. Charles Tannock, Vice-President of the Human
Rights subcommittee of the European Parliament, wrote in a July 21, 2005
editorial that, “The world cannot afford a second Afghanistan in
Bangladesh, where Huji (Harakat-ul Mujahideen Bangladesh or HuJI-B -- Movement
of Islamic Holy war/Bangladesh) members are believed to have given sanctuary to
many Taliban fighters after the fall of their regime… All of Asia’s powers,
including China and Japan, will have to play a part in stopping Bangladesh’s
drift into fanaticism and chaos. The rest of the world should support them
before it is too late’’[xxiii]. Tannock points out that a massive rise in the number of madrasas (Islamic seminaries) “financed by Saudi and Gulf money —
totaling roughly 64,000 and operating under the same fundamentalist Deobandi
Islam that inspired the Taliban — is part of a clear effort to change
Bangladesh’s culture of religious tolerance.”
In a scathing news analysis, Chris Blackburn writes that Bangladesh has
become Osama bin Laden’s new haven[xxiv].
In a paper
published by the Ekatturer Ghatak Dalal Nirmul Committee (the committee for
annihilation of collaborators of 1971), it is reported that at least ten
thousand cases of human rights abuse against minorities have taken place in Bangladesh
since the Bangladesh National Party (BNP), with Khaleda Zia as president, came
to power in 2001. The 2,760 page paper
alleges that the attacks against religious minorities
and ethnic sects, which began during the 2001 general elections, “have not
stopped even after 1,500 days.”[xxv] The editor of the report, Shahriar Kabir,
said that people did not disclose many of the incidents fearing further attacks
and harassment. Shahriar Kabir was held
in detention and subjected to torture between late November 2001 and late
January 2002 after he visited India to interview Bangladeshi Hindu families who
had fled persecution in Bangladesh after the general elections of October 2001.
Echoing these fears, a recent report says that the ruling party in
Bangladesh, despite outlawing two of the fundamentalist groups, continues to
sponsor these Islamic outfits. The BNP,
the dominant party in the coalition government that was formed in 2001,
outlawed the Jama’at ul-Mujahedeen Bangladesh (JMB), or the Bangladesh Assembly
of Holy Warriors, and the HuJI-B in 2005, following bomb attacks in August,
November and December. However, “the JMB
and HuJI-B continue to enjoy broad latitude, largely because they retain the
backing of the Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh (JIB) and Islami Oikya Jote
(IOJ). Both parties, which are part of
the ruling administration and forceful advocates of a Sharia system, have
studiously worked to limit the scope of measures aimed at disrupting the
activities of fundamentalist Islamists”[xxvi].
Buttressing the fears of observers, these Islamic fundamentalist groups, which have been partners of the ruling Bangladesh nationalist Party have called for Islamic rule in Bangladesh[xxvii]. This has included a call for an Islamic judicial system, in the pursuit of which judges have been targeted and killed[xxviii]. In a series of bombings to intimidate minorities and to force the government into precipitate action, temples, churches and monasteries were bombed in August 2005, and bombings on a larger scale were threatened[xxix].
Numerous attempts by the global
community to engage the Bangladesh government and its representatives in
dialogue have failed. In an address to the House of Lords in June 2005, for
example, Lord Avebury accused the Bangladeshi High Commissioner in London, A.H.
Mofazzal Karim, of lying and heckling at an event held at the School of
Oriental and African Studies in London, to discuss the treatment of minorities
in Bangladesh[xxx].
Bangladesh continues to use discriminatory laws against its minority populations, especially the Hindus. No attempt was made last year to revamp the Vested Property Return Bill (VPRB/2001), which was a subterfuge that promised to jettison the Vested Property Act (VPA/1972) and Enemy Property Act (EPA/1965) that officially designated Hindus as “enemies” and was used to confiscate land and property belonging to Hindus.
Police and armed
forces have even targeted human rights activists[xxxi],
says Amnesty International. The Amnesty
International report provides information on the
abuses that human rights activists face.
The report notes that in 1998, the United Nations general assembly
recognized human rights defenders, and their rights and responsibilities. In this context, Amnesty International
presented the Bangladesh government, in March 2005, a report on the abuses and
harassment of human rights activists in Bangladesh. Three months after receiving the report, the
government had not responded.
The Amnesty International report says that human rights
activists “have been arbitrarily arrested and detained in apparent retaliation
for their non-violent criticism of the authorities. Such detainees have usually
been tortured or ill-treated while in custody.”
Such arrest and ill treatment violate international law, in particular,
Articles 9 and 19 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
(CCPR) as well as Article 12 of the Declaration on Human Rights Defenders. We note that torture and other forms of
cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment or punishment are prohibited under international
law, including the CCPR (Article 7) and the Convention against Torture. The right to be free from torture and ill
treatment is a fundamental principle of international law. It is also guaranteed in the Constitution of
Bangladesh, and as such, Bangladesh is obligated under international law and
its Constitution to prevent torture and ill-treatment.
Journalists have been harassed and abused, and a number of them have been killed in the line of duty. Gautam Das, a Staff Reporter of Dainik Samakal, was murdered in his office on November 17, 2005[xxxii]. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has identified Bangladesh as the most dangerous country in the region for journalists to work[xxxiii]. The JMB specifically threatened 22 journalists, according to a recent CPJ report[xxxiv]. In a March 2005 letter to Prime Minister Khaleda Zia, the CPJ said that violence against Bangladeshi journalists has gone unchecked[xxxv]. A long list of attacks on and threats against the media in 2005 has been published by the CPJ[xxxvi].
The rape of Hindu and tribal women, which included gang rapes that lead to murder, was another violent feature of the abuse of minorities in Bangladesh in 2005. At least thirty-nine incidents of rape can be tracked in the data list included in the annexure to this report, and in many instances the report simply states “many women were raped,” thus giving us little information about the magnitude of the crime. Numerous Hindu girls and women were kidnapped, and there is strong suspicion that those kidnappings could have ended in rape, murder, or forcibly induced conversion to Islam.
The murder of men and women, the beatings, harassment, kidnapping, acid thrown on individuals, attacks on temples as well as worship centers, looting of gold and jewelry, and the occupation of land constitute the daily litany of human rights abuses against the Bangladesh Hindu minority, as well as (but to a lower extent) the tribal groups, Christians and Buddhists. In all, 480 incidents of human rights abuses against Hindus were recorded by BHBCOP, with one strange lull in October 2005 when they recorded only eight incidents during the month as opposed to the monthly average of 40 to 50 incidents.
A Hindu priest,
Gopal Chandra Barman, 60, was murdered in the Narsingdi District of Bangladesh
on October 18, 2005. The priest of the Kali Mandir at Shibpur was found murdered, and the dead
body traced in a river three days after he was kidnapped on October 18, The Daily Ittefaq reported on October
24. It was also reported that the deity
in the temple, worth about ten million taka (approximately US$150,000), was
missing.[xxxvii] The attack on temples, the destruction of
deities in Hindu homes, the targeting of Hindu festivals and sacred ceremonies
seem to correlate to the massive increase in the number of madrasas (Islamic seminaries) in Bangladesh financed by Saudi
Arabia and other Gulf states. According
to Tannock, there are nearly sixty-four thousand madrasas in Bangladesh “operating under the same fundamentalist
Deobandi Islam that inspired the Taliban”.[xxxviii]
Accelerating the trend towards Islamization are the newly returned Bangladeshi
migrant workers from the Gulf States who have brought with them the radical
Wahhabi and Salafi teachings, says Tannock.
He says that a radical group led by a man calling himself Bangla Bhai,
in 2004, attempted an Islamist revolution in several provinces bordering India,
supported by local police and ten thousand followers. Tannock’s observation
that “Hindus, Ahmadiyyas, and tribal people in the Chittagong hills, fearful
for their safety, have been leaving the country in droves” is supported by
evidence we provided in last year’s report as well as those we have included in
this report. Bangla Bhai, it is
reported, was a member of the Jamaat Islami (JI) party, a coalition partner of
the ruling party and formerly an employee of the Saudi Embassy in Dhaka. He is the President of Jagroto Muslim Janata
Bangladesh (JMJB) party. When the World Bank arranged a meeting of donors
in Washington, D.C. on March 24, 2005, the Bangladesh government hurriedly
banned two terrorist groups, the JMJB and the JMB (Jamatul Mujahideen
Bangladesh), and it ordered the arrest of Bangla Bhai, the leader of JMJB, and
A. Galib, leader of the JMB and a professor of Islamic Studies at the Rajshahi
University. However, Bangla Bhai
remained absconding and the government claimed that he could not be
traced. When newspapers published
reports and photographs of Bangla Bhai’s meetings with senior officials,
including Cabinet Ministers, the government remained silent. According to the New York Times, “The Bangladeshi government’s arrest warrant
doesn’t seem to have made much difference... The government is far away in
Dhaka, and is in any case divided on precisely this question of how much Islam
and politics should mix”.[xxxix]
Documented
Attacks on Hindus in Bangladesh between December 1, 2004 and November 30, 2005 (See Appendix B for complete details)[xl]
As in the past year we have
relied on Bangladesh-based human rights organizations for data on human rights
abuses. The chief provider of
information was the Bangladesh Hindu Bouddha Christian Oikiya Parishad -
Bangladesh Hindu, Buddhist and Christian Unity Council (BHBCOP)[xli].
December 2004:
There were 39 documented incidents of human rights abuse against Hindus during December 2004.[xlii]
Rape 3
Murder 3
Attacks on Hindu temples 5
Land confiscation/Forcible eviction 17
Assault/theft/looting/intimidation 11
TOTAL
39
January 2005:
There were 36 documented incidents of human rights abuse against Hindus during January 2005:
Rape 3
Murder 3
Attacks on Hindu temples 11
Land confiscation/Forcible eviction 7
Assault/theft/looting/intimidation 12
TOTAL 36
February 2005:
There were 34 documented incidents
of human rights abuse against Hindus during February 2005:
Rape 3
Murder 2
Kidnap 1
Attacks on Hindu temples 9
Land confiscation/Forcible eviction 10
Assault/theft/looting/intimidation 9
TOTAL 34
March 2005:
There were 43 documented incidents
of human rights abuse against Hindus during March 2005:
Rape 4
Murder 7
Kidnap 1
Attacks on Hindu temples 6
Journalist threatened 1
Land confiscation/Forcible eviction 11
Assault/theft/looting/intimidation 13
TOTAL 43
April 2005:
There were 44 documented incidents of human rights abuse against Hindus during April 2005:
Rape
2
Murder 10
Kidnap 5
Attacks on Hindu temples 10
Land confiscation/Forcible eviction 12
Attack/theft/looting/intimidation 5
TOTAL
44
May 2005:
There were 41 documented incidents of human rights abuse against Hindus during May 2005:
Rape
3
Murder 6
Kidnap 1
Attacks on Hindu temples 6
Land confiscation/Forcible eviction 8
Attack/theft/looting/intimidation 17
TOTAL 41
June 2005:
There were 47 documented incidents of human rights abuse against Hindus during June 2005:
Rape
7
Murder 2
Kidnap 2
Attacks on Hindu temples 6
Land confiscation/Forcible eviction 14
Attack/theft/looting/intimidation 16
TOTAL 47
July 2005:
There were 47 documented incidents of human rights abuse against Hindus during July 2005:
Rape
3
Murder 8
Kidnap 6
Attacks on Hindu temples 2
Land confiscation/Forcible eviction 9
Attack/theft/looting/intimidation 19
TOTAL 47
August 2005:
There were 49 documented incidents of human rights abuse against Hindus during August 2005:
Rape 4
Murder 6
Kidnap 3
Attacks on Hindu temples 5
Land confiscation/Forcible eviction 9
Attack/theft/looting/intimidation 22
TOTAL 49
September 2005:
There were 50 documented incidents of human rights abuse against Hindus during September 2005:
Rape
3
Murder 1
Kidnap 3
Attacks on Hindu temples 10
Land confiscation/Forcible eviction 16
Attack/theft/looting/intimidation 17
TOTAL 50
October 2005:
There were eight documented incidents of human rights abuse against Hindus during October 2005:
Rape
1
Murder 1
Kidnap 1
Attacks on Hindu temples 1
Land confiscation/Forcible eviction 1
Attack/theft/looting/intimidation 3
TOTAL 8
November 2005:
There were 42 documented incidents
of human rights abuse against Hindus during November 2005:
Rape 3
Murder 3
Kidnap 6
Attacks on Hindu temples 7
Land confiscation/Forcible eviction 6
Attack/theft/looting/intimidation 17
TOTAL 42
There were a total of 480 documented incidents of human rights abuse against Hindus in Bangladesh between December 2004 and November 2005. Unfortunately, many of incidents of human rights abuse against minorities are either not reported to the authorities or not properly documented by the authorities. Thus, an exact number of violations is difficult to obtain.
The Constitution of Bangladesh is designed to protect human
rights to all persons living in the country, regardless of race, religion, or
sex. Article 11 of the Constitution
explicitly states, “The Republic shall be a democracy in which
fundamental human rights and freedoms and respect for the dignity and worth of
the human person shall be guaranteed.” Article 28 provides that “The State shall not discriminate
against any citizen on grounds only of religion, race caste, sex or place of
birth,” while Article 31 states that the protection
of the law is “the inalienable right of every citizen, wherever he may
be.” The
violence against Bangladeshi journalists, the rape of Hindu and tribal women,
and the attacks against minorities and human rights activists have all gone
unchecked despite the constitutional assurance of equal protection under the
law. Moreover, the constitution provides
freedom of religion to all of its citizens in Article 41, which states, “Every
citizen has the right to profess, practice or propagate any religion [and]
every religious community or denomination has the right to establish, maintain
and manage its religious institutions.”
Clearly, the attacks on Hindu temples, the destruction of Hindu deities,
and the disruption of Hindu festivals, are in direct violation of this basic
constitutional guarantee of religious freedom.
In addition to Bangladesh’s constitutional human right guarantees,
its accession to the United Nation’s International Covenant on Civil and
Political Rights (CCPR) took place on January 1, 1999. According to Article 2 of the CCPR, “Each
State Party to the present Covenant undertakes to respect and to ensure to all
individuals within its territory and subject to its jurisdiction the rights
recognized in the present Covenant, without distinction of any kind, such as
race, color, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national or
social origin, property, birth or other status.” Similar to Article 41 of Bangladesh’s
Constitution, CCPR Article 18 states, “Everyone shall have the right to freedom
of thought, conscience and religion. This right shall include freedom to have
or to adopt a religion or belief of his choice, and freedom, either
individually or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest
his religion or belief in worship, observance, practice and teaching.” And most importantly, Article 27 maintains,
“In those States in which ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities exist,
persons belonging to such minorities shall not be denied the right, in
community with the other members of their group, to enjoy their own culture, to
profess and practice their own religion, or to use their own language.” As demonstrated throughout this report, far
from being protected, the ethnic and religious minorities within Bangladesh are
being harassed, pillaged, raped, and driven from their homes with no corrective
action by the government. Although
Bangladesh agreed to this international covenant over seven years ago, its
government has yet to enforce the rights to which the CCPR aims to provide.
Bangladesh has also agreed to the UN’s International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms for Racial Discrimination, which defines “racial discrimination” as “any distinction, exclusion, restriction or preference based on race, color, descent, or national or ethnic origin which has the purpose or effect of nullifying or impairing the recognition, enjoyment or exercise, on an equal footing, of human rights and fundamental freedoms in the political, economic, social, cultural or any other field of public life.” Article 2 of the Convention states, “Each State Party undertakes to engage in no act or practice of racial discrimination against persons, groups of persons or institutions and to ensure that all public authorities and public institutions, national and local, shall act in conformity with this obligation.” The VPRB/2001 is in clear violation of Article 2 of the Convention as it is a form of racial discrimination, which directly targets minority groups within Bangladesh, particularly Hindus. Again, no attempts have been made by the Bangladesh government to rectify this discrimination.
The Bangladesh Government, under sustained international pressure, has made cosmetic changes in government regulations and partial and ineffectual efforts to arrest Islamist killers, including some from its own ruling coalition groups. Two radical Islamist groups, the JMJB and the JMB, have also been banned. But piecemeal legislation and symbolic arrests of a few individuals will not be enough to reverse the dangerous drift of the country toward radical Islamization, certainly an ominous sign for the already oppressed and diminishing Hindu minority community. The Bangladesh Government has made no moves to abrogate the Vested Property Return Bill (VPRB). The Bangladesh Government must implement the following to credibly improve the human rights situation in that country:
· The Vested Property Act (VPA), as an encroachment on the law of inheritance, must be explicitly abolished;
· A list containing details (name, address, amount of land and other assets dispossessed by type and year of dispossession, and current status) of those affected by Enemy Property Act (EPA/VPA) must be published by the Government;
· All activities related to the identification and enlistment of any property as vested must be banned;
· All vested property under government custody must be returned to the original owners or their legal heirs who are permanent residents of Bangladesh;
· Property must not be seized from any non-Muslim in Bangladesh under the vested property administration if the owners of the property, or their legal inheritors, are in possession of that property;
· All ninety-nine-year leases of vested properties must be declared null and void, and the ownership rights of the original owners or their inheritors restored;
· All vested temple property and places of cremation must be un-vested and brought under public trust;
· The law of inheritance must be enforced with adequate provision for inheritance by female heirs.
Rabindra Ghosh, a Bangladesh human rights activist, has discussed the imperatives above.[xliii]
HAF supports the call by the British group, The International Bangladesh Foundation, led by Lord Dholakia and Lord Avebury. The foundation has urged the following:[xliv]
· That the Government of Bangladesh should establish an Inspectorate of Madrasas, and close down those which are being used to incite the commission of criminal offences and communal hatred;
· That preparations be made, and appropriate reforms instituted, to ensure a free and fair election under a neutral administration, conducted by an independent election commission along with the interim government, to be chosen in consultation with the Opposition;
· That the Government of Bangladesh ensures the independence of the Judiciary, and prevents and reverses party politicization of the police, administration, the judiciary and other important institutions;
· That the Government of Bangladesh repeals the 5th and 8th amendment of the Constitution and the anti-minority and racist laws such as the vested property legislation;
· That the Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) Peace Accord of 1997 be implemented and the demographic transformation of the CHT under military occupation be ended;
· That the Government of Bangladesh in accordance with the constitutional rights of the people, provides equal rights to all minorities;
· That the Government of Bangladesh establishes a permanent and independent commission for the promotion of ethnic, gender and religious equality;
· That donors, including the World Bank, USAID, the European Union and others, ask the Bangladesh government to concentrate on good governance, and in particular, on the maintenance of stable democracy in Bangladesh, based on respect for human rights, the rule of law and the independence of the judiciary; and
That an international civil society network be established to monitor the progress of Bangladesh towards compliance with international human rights standards, to make representations to governments and to the UN Human Rights Commission and to hold further meetings.
As HAF noted in
its first report,[xlv]
attacks against Hindus in Bangladesh constitute the most serious threat to the
Hindu community anywhere in the world.
This reality is confirmed in the current report as well. Bangladesh was created after the India-Pakistan
War of 1971, that was preceded by the massacre of an estimated two million East
Pakistani citizens and the ethnic cleansing of nearly 10 million (mostly
Hindus) who fled to India. The Hindu
population in Bangladesh has been reduced from about 31% in 1947 to about 9%
now. The assumption of power in 2001 by
a coalition government led by the BNP and headed by Begum Khaleda Zia, has led
to an increased assault on religious and ethnic minorities in Bangladesh, and
fears that Bangladesh is becoming the new center for Islamic radicalism and
terrorism have been expressed by human rights observers and media
worldwide. The human rights situation in
Bangladesh is grave overall, and Hindus are the most oppressed minority.