bdnews24.com :
A Bangladesh diplomat has pointed out several ‘inconsistencies’ following a panel discussion by the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission of the US Congress over Bangladesh’s human-rights situation.
Tuesday’s ‘Briefing Series on the Shrinking Space for Civil Society’ at Washington DC’s Rayburn House Office Building was titled ‘Human Rights in Bangladesh’.
Bangladesh’s Deputy Chief of Mission Mahbub Hassan Saleh was not among the panellists, but he attended the session, which was open for all.
He pointed out the ‘ground realities’ after the panel discussion. Slain writer-blogger Avijit Roy’s wife Rafida Ahmed Bonya was one of the panellists. Referring to those who describe war criminals Salauddin Quader Chowhdury and Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid as ‘opposition politicians’, she said the two were ‘enemies of humanity’.
There was no alternative other than trying them for the killings they orchestrated during the 1971 Liberation War, Bonya told the discussion.
On claims made by the discussants that the World Bank had withdrawn from the Padma Bridge project, Saleh informed the audience that it was Bangladesh, which had let the lending agency know that it would construct the bridge with its own funds.
The Bangladesh diplomat also pointed out that none of the discussants had mentioned the violence unleashed in the first three months of 2015 during the BNP-led alliance’s agitation. He told the discussion that over a hundred people died then and properties were damaged, which was also a violation of human rights.
Saleh made it known that the issue of a death-row convict in the Bangabandhu assassination case taking refuge in the US should have come up in the panel discussions.
Human rights cannot be upheld without establishing the rule of law, said the Bangladesh diplomat.
One of the participants raised the issue of the Pakistani forces’ role in 1971, but none of the panellists addressed it.
A Bangladesh diplomat has pointed out several ‘inconsistencies’ following a panel discussion by the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission of the US Congress over Bangladesh’s human-rights situation.
Tuesday’s ‘Briefing Series on the Shrinking Space for Civil Society’ at Washington DC’s Rayburn House Office Building was titled ‘Human Rights in Bangladesh’.
Bangladesh’s Deputy Chief of Mission Mahbub Hassan Saleh was not among the panellists, but he attended the session, which was open for all.
He pointed out the ‘ground realities’ after the panel discussion. Slain writer-blogger Avijit Roy’s wife Rafida Ahmed Bonya was one of the panellists. Referring to those who describe war criminals Salauddin Quader Chowhdury and Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mujahid as ‘opposition politicians’, she said the two were ‘enemies of humanity’.
There was no alternative other than trying them for the killings they orchestrated during the 1971 Liberation War, Bonya told the discussion.
On claims made by the discussants that the World Bank had withdrawn from the Padma Bridge project, Saleh informed the audience that it was Bangladesh, which had let the lending agency know that it would construct the bridge with its own funds.
The Bangladesh diplomat also pointed out that none of the discussants had mentioned the violence unleashed in the first three months of 2015 during the BNP-led alliance’s agitation. He told the discussion that over a hundred people died then and properties were damaged, which was also a violation of human rights.
Saleh made it known that the issue of a death-row convict in the Bangabandhu assassination case taking refuge in the US should have come up in the panel discussions.
Human rights cannot be upheld without establishing the rule of law, said the Bangladesh diplomat.
One of the participants raised the issue of the Pakistani forces’ role in 1971, but none of the panellists addressed it.
