Bangladesh witnessing ethnic cleansing: Shahriar Kabir
By Sujoy Dhar, Indo-Asian News Service, January 30, 2006
http://in.news.yahoo.com/060130/43/629kl.html
Under the vice-like grip of fundamentalists,
Muslim majority Bangladesh is pursuing a policy of ethnic cleansing to
rid the country of Hindus, says human rights activist and writer
Shahriar Kabir.
'What has been going on in Bangladesh since October 2001 is a kind of
ethnic cleansing though the government is constantly denying it and
accusing us of unleashing a disinformation campaign,' Kabir, who is
under surveillance in his country, told IANS in an interview at the
Kolkata Book Fair ground here.
'What happened in Gujarat in India was for a period. But in
Bangladesh, atrocities on the minority have been continuing since 2001
in the same intensity,' says the 55-year-old general secretary of the
South Asian People's Union Against Fundamentalism and Communalism.
'Actually when they (the present government) came to power in 2001,
the Talibanisation of Bangladesh had begun. Islami Oikya Jote (IOJ),
one of the alliance partners of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party
(BNP)-led government, gave the slogan 'Amra Sabai Taliban, Bangla hobe
Afghan' (We are all Talibans, Bangladesh would be Afghanistan) even
before they won elections,' says Kabir.
The partners in the Bangladesh government are BNP, IOJ,
Jamaat-e-Islami and Jatiya Party (JP).
'These fundamentalist organisations are supported by at least 10 NGOs
of the Middle East, including the Saudi Arabia-based Rabeta Al Islam,'
says Kabir, who is also a reputed freelance journalist and documentary
filmmaker.
Slapped with sedition charges and put behind bars twice in 2001 and
2002, Kabir has compiled a three-volume publication titled
'Bangladesh-e Sankhyalaghu Nirjataner Ponerosho Diner Swetpatra'
(White Paper on 1,500 Days of Torture on Minorities in Bangladesh) to
counter the government's denial of atrocities on minority.
'We want an end to these multi-dimensional atrocities and
minority-bashing which is unprecedented anywhere in the world. We have
not documented a single incident of political violence in this
compilation, which has over 300 pictorial descriptions and account of
about 2,750 cases of atrocities,' says Kabir, whose compilation was
released here recently.
'The government in Bangladesh is neither banning the book nor allowing
us to sell it there though in places like New York and London the
publication has been launched and organisations like Amnesty
International praised us for such a well-documented treatise on human
rights violations,' says Kabir.
'We have listed the presence of at least 84 fundamentalist militant
organisations in Bangladesh. The country has left even Pakistan way
behind in their number,' he says.
'The (corrective) actions taken so far by the government are only
under pressure of the West and to show its seriousness to the world
about curbing fundamentalism. The arrested fundamentalists are not
even interrogated fiercely or chargesheeted properly because even the
policemen are afraid of them.
'The government, which itself is run by the fundamentalists, would
have to admit first about the atrocities which they are constantly
denying,' says Kabir who was once blindfolded and interrogated by
police and is made to report to court twice a month.
'I met with an accident some time back and cannot walk without a
support. But I am made to climb three storeys of the court building to
appear before the judge,' says Kabir.
'I was offered asylum in the West along with my family by Amnesty
International. But can they offer asylum to the millions of Hindus in
Bangladesh?' he asks.
'In Bangladesh, the secular parties are not united and so far the
protest against fundamentalism and minority bashing has come only from
civil society and media.'
'The people of Bangladesh in general are not fundamentalists. It was
proved in 1971 when Pakistan was defeated but later systematically the
country was introduced to Islamic nationalism from a secular democracy
following the assassination of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman in 1975.'
Kabir does not think that the elections in Bangladesh early next year
would be free and fair.
'If the elections are free and fair the secular democratic forces
would return to power. But all arrangements have been made to rig the
polls. The opposition for once is united on this issue as they have
refused to fight elections under the present election commissioner who
favours the government.'
--
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