Under the Bangladesh constitution the caretaker government must organize elections within 90 days – but the apparent developments after the President’s resignation took the country into uncertain and uncharted territory. However, on May 12, 2008, the Chief Adviser announced that national parliamentary elections would be held in the third week of December, 2008.
After the announcement of elections, the security situation in Bangladesh is fluid, and even demonstrations intended to be peaceful can turn confrontational and escalate into violence quickly and unexpectedly.
Like for example, a terrorist bombing campaign in the second half of 2005, political violence throughout the country at the end of 2006, and threats to U.S. and Western interests led to increased security. On August 17, 2005, a banned Islamist terrorist group, Jamaatul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB), claimed responsibility for nearly 500 coordinated small bomb blasts in virtually every part of Bangladesh that killed two persons and injured several dozen. The most recent JMB bombing occurred on December 8, 2005, and the Bangladeshi government subsequently apprehended the known senior leadership of JMB. Six JMB leaders convicted of complicity in JMB attacks were executed on March 29, 2007. JMB and other extremist groups are small in number but remain active and may resume violent activities any time. Demonstrations, political activity, and nationwide strikes were initially banned during the state of emergency, but the rules restricting political activity have been slightly relaxed as part of the process leading up to the planned elections. Prior to the state of emergency, rallies, marches, demonstrations and strikes took place frequently. In August 2007, violent protests involving thousands of demonstrators occurred in several cities in Bangladesh, including Dhaka. Authorities had to impose a curfew to restore calm.
Muslims make up the majority of the population of the nation, with more than 90 percent professing to follow Islam. Bangladesh currently claims the world's fourth-largest Muslim population. Islam became the national religion in 1988.
So far, the state of emergency limits nearly all individual freedoms. Groups larger than three are not allowed to walk the streets together, a curfew has been imposed across the country, and all private news agencies have been instructed to broadcast only the bulletins provided by the state. Nearly all forms of communication are monitored, as well as the arrival and departure of any individual. Thus with this emergency, Bangladesh has been plunged into a period in which human rights have been severely undermined and serious violations have increased significantly. These include widespread and massive arbitrary arrests and detentions, estimated at numbering over 500,000, as well as rampant ill-treatment and torture, and a significant increase in extra-judicial killings. Furthermore, the military-controlled government has been promulgating arbitrary laws that have lead directly to further abuses of human rights and further obstruction of all avenues available to victims seeking remedies. The authorities have been institutionalizing extra-constitutional practices that undermine the institutions of the rule of law, causing damage to the fabric of the State that will remain for years. Despite the scale of this crisis, the international community seems to remain silent thus far.
The content of the Emergency Powers Ordinance incorporates that the military, paramilitary forces, the police, intelligence agencies and other irregular forces, lie under one umbrella-- the "law and order maintaining forces". According to section 16 of the Emergency Powers Rules-2007, all personnel of the law and order maintaining forces are empowered to arrest any person on suspicion without a warrant. On one hand, this law restricts political programs including protests, demonstrations, strikes, processions, publishing news concerning such activities, and media criticism the government's actions. On the other hand, according to section 10 of the Emergency Powers Rules-2007, all crimes mentioned in this law are 'non-bail able', 'non-compoundable' and cognizable, and have sentences attached ranging from at least two years to five years rigorous imprisonment.
Following to which, the Inspector General of Police (IGP) admitted that an average of 1,667 persons have been being arrested in the country each day since the beginning of the emergency. The detention of so many individuals, even for relatively short periods, is leading to severe overcrowding in the country's prisons. Reports indicate that most persons arrested are subjected to some form of ill-treatment and torture.
Reliable reports indicate that over 300 persons have been extra-judicially killed since the State of Emergency was imposed. The authorities justify these as encounter, crossfire, shoot-out, gun-fight, or "in the line of fire" killings. However, many such deaths documented result from torture in custody.
Human rights defenders and professionals, including from the media, are regularly being monitored, threatened and intimidated by the personnel of the armed forces and various intelligence agencies. Numerous human rights organizations that have been critical of the government and are seeking redress for victims have been visited by the intelligence agencies' officers, who check their project proposals, activities and funding sources. Dozens of human rights defenders are facing fabricated criminal charges, which have been lodged either by the law-enforcement agencies or by their allies. Many of them have been detained and tortured. While there are a large number of NGOs operating in Bangladesh, providing services that the State is failing to provide itself, the great majority of them are reduced to working on non-threatening issues, as working on serious rights violations such as torture, extra-judicial killings and the like results in severe repercussions.
The Asian Legal Resource Centre (ALRC) urges the Security Council to call on the government of Bangladesh to withdraw the State of Emergency from the country without further delay. The Council must also urge the government to reinstate the fundamental rights of its citizens, as enshrined in the Constitution of Bangladesh, as well as the international human rights instruments to which the country is party. Arbitrarily arrested citizens should be immediately released. Adequate compensation must also be provided to victims, in compliance with the international human rights laws and standards. At the same time, the laws that run contrary to the enjoyment of rights, such as the Special Powers Act-1974, the Emergency Powers Ordinance-2007 and the Emergency Powers Rules-2007, must be repealed without delay. Any human rights abuses must be investigated, prosecuted and result in the erosion of impunity and the upholding of justice, through adequate reparation, for the victims. The ALRC also urges the Office of the Secretary General of the United Nations, through the Council, to send a Special Envoy to Bangladesh to monitor the situation, in order to report back on the situation there.
It is seriously ironic that Bangladesh is a member of the Human Rights Council, but is flouting every acceptable norm and standard while occupying this position. The Council must address this problem, unless it wishes to swiftly join the Commission on Human Rights into the graveyard of the discredited.
For Bangladesh - with 40% of the population living below the poverty line - democracy and development are critically interlinked. If the country does not improve its governance through better democratic practices, it can never have good development, and without that, it is not going to sustain its democracy. Thus Bangladesh’s political future remains as turbulent as its history.
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