15 March 2008: HR record worsens under emergency: US state department report


The US Department of State in its annual report "Human Rights Practices 2007" on Bangladesh reveals that human rights record worsened in the country as the state of emergency continued to be in effect with elections remaining postponed.

The report mentions the arrests of former premiers Awami League (AL) chief Sheikh Hasina and BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia after repeated efforts of the caretaker government in the first six months since assuming power to force the two into exile failed. The two former premiers were kept under unofficial house arrest during this period, it adds.

The report says both Hasina and Khaleda were denied fair public trial as "the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court frequently overturned politically charged decisions by the High Court Division of the Supreme Court if those rulings went against the government".

Citing different human rights organisations, the report says "preventative and arbitrary detentions" increased after the declaration of the state of emergency, particularly after the anti-graft drive was launched, with the arrests of approximate 200 former politicians, government officials and business leaders on suspicion of corruption, extortion and other power abuse.

The report adds that in many cases the suspects were arrested without having any formal charges or arrest warrants against them and kept in custody or taken to unknown places or at military cantonment either for having confessional statements on some issues under severe physical and psychological torture or to extract information about other suspects. It said the government in many cases filed politically motivated and false cases.

The issue that tops in the report is "arbitrary or unlawful deprivation of life" in which it is illustrated that security forces including Bangladesh Rifles, military and Rapid Action Battalion (Rab) committed numerous extrajudicial killings while the government did not take any action or initiate any public measures to investigate the cases. However, "there was a significant decrease in the number of killings by security personnel", the report adds.

The report reveals that the security forces frequently employed torture and cruel, inhuman or degrading punishment, such as threats, beatings and electric shocks, during arrests and interrogations.

The caretaker government used Emergency Power Rules (EPR) to curtail the freedom of speech and freedom of the press when individuals were not able to criticise the government publicly without fear of reprisal, indoor and outdoor political gatherings remained suspended, legal action was taken against critical editors and journalists, compelled to broadcast or publicise stories supporting the government.

The report says after banning radio and television talk shows in August, the government rescinded the ban after developing strict rules to govern the format.

The report has six sections each with subsections containing evaluation of human rights condition from different points of view including legal and fundamental. It also focuses on the issues of rights of women, children, those with disabilities, the minority communities and indigenous people.

It presents examples for almost every case. It also focuses on different important belated trial.

The report says, "On several occasions when the Appellate Division upheld the High Court ruling to release a high-profile detainee, such as in the case of senior AL adviser Kazi Zafarrullah, the person was re-arrested immediately upon release on a new set of charges.

"While the government said that these were legitimate charges, some cases, such as the filing of charges against former Law Minister Moudud Ahmed and former Communications Minister Anwar Hossain Manju, were seen to be politically motivated. The authorities charged Ahmed and Manju with alcohol possession, normally a minor offence for which bail is granted during trial."

The report gives examples of curtailing rights of freedom of speech and freedom of the press. "Newspaper ownership and content were often subject to direct restriction by the military's Inter-Services Public Relations office and DGFI. Journalists reported being cautioned frequently by DGFI against criticising the government or the military.

"Newspapers that were critical of the government, particularly of the military, came under strong pressure throughout the year," the report says.

"According to journalists, editors, and other media personnel, intimidation and pressure on the media intensified considerably after the declaration of a state of emergency. DGFI officials monitored the various media outlets and cautioned them about airing material deemed offensive to the government or military. Numerous editors and journalists in Dhaka reported being summoned to DGFI headquarters for questioning and encouragement to file positive stories about the government and military," the report adds.

In a point titled "Government Corruption and Transparency", the report says, "Most high-profile cases were handled under the Emergency Power Rules and therefore denied suspects both the right to bail and the right to appeal their cases during the course of the trial."

On indigenous people, it says, "Tribal organisations continued to allege that security forces abused the indigenous population of the Hill Tracts."

The report says about women, "Domestic violence was widespread, although violence against women was difficult to quantify. Research showed that up to 50 percent of all women experienced domestic violence at least once. Some of the reported violence against women continued to be related to disputes over dowries."

12 March 2008: Guardian Newspaper article on Moudud

There is a decent, brave man sitting in a dungeon in a country where the British empire began - a country of poets, singers, artists, free thinkers and petty tyrants. I have known him since a moonless night in 1971 when he led me clandestinely into what was then East Pakistan and is now Bangladesh, past villages the Pakistani army had raped and razed. His name is Moudud Ahmed and he was then a young lawyer who had defended the Bengali independence leader Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

"Why have you come when even crows are afraid to fly over our house," said Begum Mujib, the sheikh's wife. This was typical of Moudud, whose tumultuous life carries more than a hint of Tom Paine.

As a schoolboy, Moudud wet his shirt with the blood of a young man killed demonstrating against the imposition of "Urdu and only Urdu" as the official language of Bangla-speaking East Pakistan. When the British attacked Egypt in 1956, he tried to haul down the union flag at the British consulate in Dhaka, and was bayoneted by police: a wound he still suffers.

When Bangladesh - free Bengal - was declared in 1971, Moudud brought a rally to its feet when he held up the front page of the Daily Mirror, which carried my report beneath the headline, BIRTH OF A NATION. "We are alive, but we are not yet free," he said, prophetically.

Once in power, Sheikh Mujib turned on his own democrats and held show trials at which Moudud was their indefatigable defender until he himself was arrested.

Assassination, coup and counter coup eventually led to a parliamentary period headed by Zia ur-Rahman, a liberation general with whom Moudud agreed to serve as deputy prime minister on condition Zia resigned from the army. Together they formed a grassroots party, but when Moudud insisted that it must be democratic, he was sacked.

Whenever he came to London he would phone those of us who had reported the liberation of Bangladesh and we would meet for a curry. His pinstriped suit and inns-of-court manner belied his own enduring struggle and that of his homeland: recurring floods and the conflict between feudalists and democrats and, later, fundamentalists.

"I am the prime minister now," he once said, as if we had not heard. Outspoken about his people's "right to social and economic justice", especially women, he was duly arrested again, then won his parliamentary seat from prison.

On April 12 last year, late at night, 25 soldiers smashed into Moudud's house in Dhaka. They had no warrant. They stripped his home and "rendered" him, blindfolded, to a place known only as "the black hole". There, he was interrogated and tortured and forced to sign a confession. He was finally charged with the possession of alcohol - a few bottles of wine and cans of beer had been found. The supreme court declared his prosecution and detention illegal. This was ignored by the government, which calls itself a "caretaker" administration, but is a front for a military dictatorship.

Moudud is suffering from a pituitary tumour and has been denied medication for six months. He is terribly ill, says his wife, the poet Hasna Jasimuddin Moudud. "Thousands of people have been detained for being activists, or just supporters," she says. "The country is a prison, and the world must know."

There are striking similarities between Moudud's case and that of the Malaysian opposition leader, Anwar Ibrahim, who this week all but overturned the old, autocratic regime. Both were framed in order to silence them. The difference is that Anwar Ibrahim's case became an international cause celebre, whereas there is only silence for Moudud Ahmed, locked in his cell, ill, without charge or trial.

In the next few days, Dr Fakhruddin Ahmed, the "chief adviser" to the caretaker government - in effect, the head of Bangladesh's government - will visit London. He is said to have a meeting arranged at 10 Downing Street. I and others have written to Dr Fakhruddin, asking him to comply with the supreme court's ruling and to release Moudud. He has not replied. If Gordon Brown's recent pronouncements on liberty have a shred of meaning, it is the question he must ask.

John Pilger The Guardian, Wednesday March 12 2008

29 December 2007: Detained former premier Khaleda Zia and two of her detained former cabinet colleagues including former law minister Moudud Ahmed were shown arrested yesterday in connection with Niko graft case.

Following separate petitions filed by the investigation officer (IO) of the case, ACC Assistant Director SM Sahidur Rahman, the order was issued by Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Golam Rabbani, which also showed detained former energy minister AKM Mosharraf Hossain as arrested.

The IO in the petitions filed yesterday -- one against Khaleda Zia and Mosharraf, and the other against Moudud -- mentioned that for the sake of fair investigation the accused needed to be shown as arrested.

(from The Daily Star edition 31 december)

28 December 2007: Moudud gets 12-hour parole to attend elder brother’s burial
Former law minister Moudud Ahmed is now busy writing books in jail.
‘I have already written 600 pages and continue to write though my physical condition is not good nowadays,’ he said on Thursday when he went to attend the burial of his elder brother Masud Ahmed who died on Wednesday night due to old-age complications.
Moudud was granted a 12-hour parole to attend the funeral, but failed to attend the burial that took place before he was escorted by police to Azimpur graveyard. He arrived there at 4:15pm and offered prayers at the grave of his elder brother.
He was also taken to the house of his deceased brother at Mohammadia Housing in Mohammadpur. There he met members of the bereaved family.
Security was tight in the house until he was taken back to the jail at night.
He said that the title of the book he is writing would be ‘Democracy in Bangladesh’.

New Age 28.12.07

7 December 2007: ECONOMIST INTELLIGENCE  UNIT REPORT  says that timely elections doubtful, and growth scenario bleak
Khawaza Main Uddin
The prospect of holding the general elections in time is doubtful and the country’s economic growth scenario for 2008 remains bleak, forecasts a globally reputed London-based research organisation.
It says the consumer prices in Bangladesh are expected to rise at an average rate of 8.2 per cent in 2008 before easing to 6.5 per cent in 2009 as international oil prices fall from record highs.
‘Preparations are under way for civic and parliamentary elections in 2008, but doubts remain about whether the Election Commission can meet a series of deadlines before the polls are held,’ reads the Economist Intelligence Unit’s report for December 2007.
‘There is speculation over whether the military, or the administration that it backs, will stick to the election timetable,’ observes the report, adding that the administration’s legitimacy largely depends on its anti-corruption drive.
And the country’s gross domestic product growth for fiscal year 2007–08 has also been revised down to 5.8 per cent from 6.2 per cent in view of the latest trade data and the devastations caused by the November 15 cyclone Sidr. The interim government has taken a populist stance in its economic policy, the report says, as it continues to ignore multilateral lenders’ recommendations, excepting in closing down state-owned jute mills, and maintain subsidy on fuel. The central bank, too, left key interest rates unchanged in November in spite of persistent inflationary pressure.
The intelligence unit, a concern of the Economist group, predicts that the political scene in Bangladesh, without an elected government for 12 months, will remain unsettled for much of 2008-09. Despite a wide range of electoral reforms, the report adds, the next election battle will be fought mainly between the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and Awami League.
Although the Election Commission is confident of holding the polls as per the roadmap, the unit’s outlook for 2008–09 maintains that ‘What it [the commission] will not be able to do, however, is to move the country away from a two-party political system.’
Apart from BNP chairperson Khaleda Zia, AL president Sheikh Hasina, and former military ruler HM Ershad, there is no politician capable of mustering enough popular support to win a national election, says the report obtained by New Age in Dhaka.
It also questions the Election Commission’s decision to invite a faction of the BNP to the dialogue on electoral reforms, saying, ‘If the past is a guide, a loss of credibility on the part of the commission could be disastrous.’
Referring to the claim of the Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh secretary general, Ali Ahsan Muhammad Mujahid, that there is no war criminal in Bangladesh, the report mentions that it has triggered a national outcry, which has already been witnessed in the political, legal, and cultural arenas.
On the diplomatic front, the report foresees improved relations between Dhaka and New Delhi in the coming months, following a series of meetings between high-ranking Indian officials and members of the Bangladesh interim government.
The report has depicted a gloomy picture of Bangladesh economy, forecasting that the country will continue to post a budget deficit as revenue expansion fails to keep pace with expenditure growth.
Besides, the local currency, taka, is expected to depreciate further against US dollar in 2008–09 as inflation remains relatively high in Bangladesh and trade deficit swells to a record level against the backdrop of the persistently rising international oil prices.
Diminishing export receipts and rising import bill already pushed the country’s current account balance into deficit in the July–August period. However, the rate of inflation, according to the report, came down to 9.6 per cent in September from an eight-year high of 10.1 per cent in August.

29 October 2007: SUPREME COURT AGREES THAT MOUDUD DETENTION ILLEGAL.

The Supreme Court yesterday upheld the High Court verdict that had declared illegal the detention order of former law minister Moudud Ahmed.

The apex court, however, partly granted leave-to-appeal sought by the government for hearing the High Court order that had also declared illegal the extension of the detention order under the Special Powers Act.

On September 12, the High Court, upon a habeas corpus petition, declared illegal Moudud's detention along with its extension and directed government to release him, if police does not want him in any other case.

Earlier, on April 13, the army-led joint forces arrested Moudud from his Gulshan residence and reportedly seized 16 bottles of foreign liquors and 32 cans of beer along with 220 pieces of sarees of the government relief fund.

However, despite the Supreme Court order, Moudud will not be able to get release from incarceration, as he faces corruption charges, court sources said.

12 October 2007: MOUDUD SERVES LEGAL NOTICE ON NBR FOR NOT ACCEPTING TAX
Detained former law minister Moudud Ahmed on Thursday served a legal
notice on four officials of the National Board of Revenue, including its
chairman Badiur Rahman, requesting them to accept the tax of his
undisclosed income as the High Court had asked them to do so before.
'I request you to accept the tax for my undisclosed income within
seven working days, otherwise you will be guilty of contempt of court,'
said the notice served by Moudud's lawyer Moinul Haider Chowdhury.
In his notice, Moudud Ahmed, a senior BNP leader, claimed that a
Division Bench of the High Court on August 15 had asked the NRB
officials to accept the tax for his undisclosed income of Tk 3,84,51,994
after hearing a writ petition filed by him with the High Court.
The court also ruled that the officials explain in four weeks why
their decision to reject the tax for Moudud's undisclosed income would
not be declared illegal.
Moudud filed the writ, challenging the legality of NBR's notice which
on July 19 had brought tax evasion charge against him after refusing to
accept tax for his undisclosed income. Moudud on July 23, armed with the
court order, submitted his income tax to the NBR but it did not accept it.
The joint forces arrested him from his Gulshan residence on April 23,
ostensibly for possession of illegal liquor. The case is now pending at
the court of a metropolitan sessions judge. He was also accused of
corruption for submitting a false wealth statement to the
Anti-Corruption Commission.

(FROM : NEW AGE PUBLICATION)

1 October 2007: HIGH COURT AGAIN ASKS CARETAKER GOVERNMENT TO EXPLAIN WHY THE CASE AGAINST MOUDUD IS NOT ILLEGAL. In another important ruling the High Court made three key rulings on 1 October. 1) It stayed graft proceedings against Moudud. 2) the High Court ordered the Anti-Corruption Commission and other authorities concerned to explain within six weeks why the cases pursuant to the notices asking the defendant to run in wealth statements should not be declared illegal, and lastly the Court asked the Government to explain why bringing the graft charges under the Emergency Power Rules should not be adjuged to have been made without lawful authority.

This is another important judgement by the Courts in favour of Moudud. What the courts are saying, simply, is that the Government is using the Emergency Power Rules to make cases against Moudud, when in fact perfectly legal civil and criminal law exists to try to make cases against Moudud. But in using the Emergency Power Rules (which were not promulgated by a legal government and parliament) the caretaker government can in practice deny Moudud due process and legal representation. This is the very meaning of a dictatorial regime. And that is what the High Court has now ruled three times against.

16 September 2007: ANTI-CORRUPTION COMMISSION LAYS NEW CHARGES AGAINST MOUDUD. The ACC charges, a blatant response to the 12 September High Court order that Moudud be released, state that Moudud understated his net assetts by about 25% (about USD 650,000) and that he possesses wealth beyond his means.  If one reads the charges carefully it is a fact that many of the figures in the charge sheet are actually identical to the numbers declared by Moudud and that the main argument seems to be over valuations. As Moudud has been a practising Barrister for about 40 years and has bought property all of his life, it is clear that valuing properties bought up to 40 years ago is at the discretion of the valuer. Who is then the prosecuting body! This is just another example of the present military regime trampling over the due process of law.

12 September 2007: HIGH COURT DECLARES MOUDUD DETENTION ILLEGAL AND ORDERS HIS IMMEDIATE RELEASE:

The High Court ruled today on the substantive issue and has declared Moudud's detention illegal and ordered his immediate release. Moudud's lawyers have separately lodged Bail for the underlying 'liquor' case to satisfy the conditions of the 20 August High Court ruling (see below) for Moudud's release. The Military regime has responded by saying that they may bring further charges against Moudud. In an arbitrary military regime the rule of law is being trampled on.

4 September 2007: TERM OF PRESIDENT IAJUDDIN AHMED EXTENDED BY MILITARY REGIME.

It was announced on 5 September 2007 that the term of President Iajuddin Ahmed had been indefinetly extended "until a new government could be formed". President Ahmed is the fig leaf which covers the Military regime's hold on power, as their legal position is that a caretaker government has been appointed by President Ahmed under his emergency powers and that it is this 'caretaker government' which has constitutional power (but see above as to what the law minister in the present government thinks of that ). The fact that President Ahmed has almost certainly no emergency powers once his constitutional term of office has come to an end seems to have escaped the notice of the present military regime.

27 AUGUST 2007: LAW ADVISER TO PRESENT REGIME CALLS IT 'ARMY-BACKED GOVERNMENT'

In a limited press conference held on 27 August 2007 Mainul Hosein, the 'Law adviser' (ie. Minister of Law) to the present Government stated that the present regime "is a national government, army-backed government".

When Mr. Hosein was, rightly, challenged on the constitutionality of the word 'national' government (the present fig leaf behind which this military regime hides is that it is a 'caretaker' government) he refused to reply.

On 28 August Army Chief Moeen U Ahmed refuted Mr. Hosein's comments, repeating once again that the present regime is a 'caretaker' government.

It would be ironic, were it not so sad for the state of democracy and the rule of law of Bangladesh, that it is the very person who replaced Moudud as Minister of Law, who blew the whistle on the nature of the present military regime: a regime of which Mr. Hosein is part. And I wonder if General Ahmed realizes that in the very act of contradicting the Law Adviser to the present so-called 'Caretaker Government' General Ahmed is proving that the present situation is what we all know it to be: a military regime which does not even respect the words of the Law Minister of the government that the military is supposed to be supporting.

A Law Minister always has a special place in any government and by not respecting this position, General Ahmed shows clearly once again his lack of understanding of or respect for the democratic rule of law.

20 August 2007: HIGH COURT RULES THAT MOUDUD SHOULD BE FREED

In a major ruling, the High Court of Bangladesh ruled that the charges brought against Moudud under the emergency power rules ('rules' because these emergency powers were not passed by parliament) should be dropped and that his case should be held under normal law, and that he should be granted bail. The military regime has up till now ignored this ruling by the High Court, showing how much it respects the courts of its own Country.

1 June 2007: GUARDIAN ARTICLE ABOUT MOUDUD'S ARREST AND DETENTION

"Former Bangladeshi Prime Minister Moudud Ahmed has been held for two months without a hearing.

A former Prime Minister of Bangladesh has been kept in jail for two months for possession of alcohol under the draconian emergency powers, the Guardian can reveal.

Moudud Ahmed, a London-trained barrister and the country's last law Minister, has been held without a hearing after he was picked up when soldiers raided his home in early April. Security forces said they found 14 bottles of wine and 32 cans of beer in his kitchen after a twelve-hour search. Mr. Ahmed's arrest was said to be part of an "anti-corruption" drive.

The 70 year old dissapeared from public view in the Muslim nation of 150 million people, surfacing only briefly to hear why he has been jailed.

Mr. Ahmed's wive, Hasna, a noted environmentalist, is in hiding in the UK. Speaking to the Guardian, she said her husband had been "tortured mentally and physically. He is not a well man. He has been taken to hospital three times. The jail conditions are harsh. There is no toilet, just a hole in the floor. My husband did have alcohold but it was for a party in honour of the German ambassador as he [Moudud] was to take up a position as a professor at Heidelberg University. But this is not to my knowledge an offence under any emergency law. We are not a Taliban state. This could not have happened if there was democracy in Bangladesh". Mrs. Ahmed says her husband has told friends that she should not return to Bangladesh. " I do not want to be a stateless person", she said.

More than 170 politicians, businessemn and former bureaucratsw have been detained since the interim government, backed by the army, took over in January under emergency rule. There are mounting concerns about the condition of many of the detainees in Bangladesh. In the first found months of the government's "anti-corruption and anti-crime" drives, 96 people died in custody and 193,329 were arrested and detained, according Bangladeshi human rights group Odhikar.

Earlier this year Human Rights Watch called for an end to extra-judicial killings and arbitrary arrests by the security forces in the country. The organization, whose researcher was later remanded by police, said "the killings by the Bangladesh's security forces put the country's reputation as a respectable contributor to UN peacekeeping forces at risk".

The takeover by the interim government, which drew little criticism from the US, Britain, or India, came after more than two months of political turmoil and street violence by supporters of the two main political parties. Many analysts believe the real power in Bangladesh is now the country's army chief, Lt Gen Moeen U Ahmed, who says his ambitions run to retiring to a life of "social work". he is seen by many as the chief opponent of a return to democracy and has sought to curb the feuding first ladies of Bangladeshi politics: former Prime Minister Sheik Hasina and the outgoing leader, Khaleda Zia

Political activity in the country is proscribwed, with officials of the interim administration saying there is no likelyhood of a return to democracy and elections before the end of next year. This was enough to force the country's Nobel peace prizewinning "banker to the poor" Muhammad Yunus, to abandon his attempt to enter politics, dealing a blow to the country's hopes for a democratic future.

There are signs that international pressure is growing on Bangladesh. Earlier this week, the US called on Dhaka to make sure those arrested in an anti-corruption drive have access to lawyers and receive due process"