Bangladesh security forces accused of torture and killing of suspects
Updated
The Bangladesh government is being urged to disband two of the country's security forces over allegations of extrajudicial killings and torture.
The international NGO Human Rights Watch wants he Directorate General of Forces Intelligence, a spy agency; and the elite crime fighting force, the Rapid Actional Battalion, dissolved, or at least that an independent commission be set up to look into allegations of human rights abuses committed by their members.
Meenaksi Ganguly, a Mumbai-based spokesperson for Human Rights Watch, says what began as taking legakl short cuts to fight crime has become much more sinister, with opponents of the government increasingly being targeted by security forces.
Presenter: Bruce Hill
Speaker: Meenaksi Ganguly, Mumbai-based spokesperson for Human Rights Watch..
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GANGULY: It is actually a very, very serious problem and it's a problem that has been there for decades now, under various governments. And unfortunately, what has happened is that every time there has been a surge of crime or a surge of political violence, the response has been to take out or the phrase they use, is "eliminate," people, potential troublemakers. And the logic is that we know these people are bad people and therefore, it's fine and therefore why go through the usual processes of detention, of arresting and prosecuting them in a proper court.
HILL: Is this a case of security forces simply being overenthusiastic and taking a few short cuts in the interest of security or is there a more sinister motive? Is this used to, for example, target political opponents of the government?
GANGULY: Initially, it was just a law and order thing, but it's not just security forces. The thing is that the just had the blessing of the government of the day, because no security force can be responsible for over a thousand killings without some protection that was provided to them from their existing government. So it was a state policy which looked away at extremely thin descriptions of cross fire killings. The way that the security forces described them would be that, "Oh, you know, we found the criminal, we gave him chase and then there was a shootout and we killed him." It was usually that description.
HILL: Shot while trying to escape, that sort of thing?
GANGULY: Yes, shot while trying to escape or he was in custody, and he was taking us to find a stash of illegal weapons and while there, he either attempted to escape, and we shot him or his cronies, or his sort of gang members or who ever, started shooting at us and in the process this person died. So you know, there are these thin stories that are fabricated to justify these deaths. And in each case, well, not in each case, but in the number of cases, where we looked at it, there are torture marks, that kind of suggestion that these people were actually in custody where they were questioned and tortured and possibly then just killed.
HILL: Well, the new government of Prime Minister Sheik Hasina says that they have a zero tolerance policy for this kind of thing, for extrajudicial executions. Is there any sign that that new attitude is seeping through to the security forces?
GANGULY: Well, this is the thing. I mean to continue also I will continue with one of the things that you asked about in a previous question about whether there was a sinister political motive. Well both Sheikh Hasina and Begum Zia were dismissed. Their governments were dismissed last year when the military caretaker government in place. And alot of their party members who were suspected of corruption or other political misdeeds were picked up and tortured. So therefore, while they were in opposition, and fighting for democracy to be restored, both these parties claimed that they would end this culture and Sheik Hasina in particular had promised this.
However, what has happened, is after she came to power, there was a mutiny in the border force, called the BDR, the Bangladesh Rifles and the Bangladesh Rifles essentially went after their own officers and killed over 50 of them. In response, we have been saying there has to be a clear trial, that happens and that the people that are responsible should be punished and a transparent trial process. However, there has again been these sort of strange deaths - suicides, sudden heart attacks - so there is unfortunately a system that is continuing, and we are extremely concerned that the Sheikh Hasina's government has not able to stem it with the kind of purpose that she had promised when she was in opposition.
