When the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet, who concluded a four-day visit to Bangladesh on Wednesday, called for forming an independent body to investigate the allegations over the extrajudicial killings or enforced disappearances in the country, we could not agree more with her and state that investigation by such an independent body is long overdue.
But if past experiences are anything to go by, such an independent body can’t be possible when the present government is in power, because that will expose some ugly and unbelievable truth. Whoever is behind the politics of secrecy was never in our politics. This was suggested that to remain in power without election people must fear secret deaths and disappearances. This idea came from the organised Indian leftists as part of a conspiracy to kill people’s freedom and democracy. This was followed by one party revolutionary rule of BAKSAL. For tragic military intervention, democracy went to the back burner in the country. After the trauma and terror of Pakistan army’s military operation before surrender to Indian army without a war, in 1972 it was tragic that the peaceful people were subjected to fear of uncertainty in life. Things became complicated after creation of Bangladesh when our leaders lost leadership and the conspiracy began for making our independence not ours. Had that not been true, Bangladesh would have been a heaven for democracy and peace now.
However, the Home Minister Asaduzzaman Khan Kamal just dismissed the allegation of enforced disappearances by calling it a ‘smear campaign’ against the country. The home minister is known to us as a good man and he should not lie in defence of what is known to our people. He as well as other ministers in fact doubled down on their stance on the issue of enforced disappearances. The home minister rather bewilderingly said that people on their own volition, either because of family feuds or extramarital affairs, go into hiding. While the minister said this he did not have any regard for the sufferings of the victim’s family members.
According to the Bangladeshi human rights organization, Odhikar, which has been forced to stop its activities by the government said, between 2009 and September 2021, at least 605 people vanished by enforced disappearance in the country. Among those who disappeared, 81 were found dead and 154 people remain missing, the organisation said. In a letter issued by the NGO Affairs Bureau of Bangladesh on 5 June 2022, the renewal of Odhikar’s registration was cancelled and Amnesty International called this move a ‘shameless act’.
We have human rights NGOs as beneficiaries of the government and they just work as government agents. After the recent imposition of sanction by the US government on the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and seven of its officials, cases of extrajudicial killings and enforced disappearances are believed to have decreased, but there is hardly any possibility that victims will see justice regarding these crimes. Clearly, in an effort to highlight this improvement, the government of Bangladesh invited the UN Working Group on Enforced Disappearances, and responding to this invitation, Michelle Bachelet visited Bangladesh.
We welcome the strong position taken by the UN Commissioner of Human Rights.
