European Union Blasted for Ignoring Hindu Abuse in Bangladesh

http://www.hvk.org/articles/0703/50.html

Global Human Rights Defence addresses alarming human rights situation of Bangladesh minorities in Europe

The Hague, The Netherlands. The human rights situation in Bangladesh specifically needs to be seen in a  sequence of four perspectives, according to Global Human Rights Defence. Information needs to be given on the legal and constitutional system of Bangladesh, the Bangladeshi campaign of apartheid, crimes against humanity within Bangladesh and the effects of terrorism on human rights

The first point to be addressed is the way in which the legal and constitutional system of Bangladesh affects the human rights situation of minorities. In this issue it is very important to point out the Vested Property Act. This act in practice divests the right to the property of the minorities only. Though the act was incorporated by the then government of East-Pakistan in 1965, yet the successive governments, even after the liberation of Bangladesh, continued with the same law in the garb of ordinances.

Under the grand design of Islamization the preamble of the constitution of Bangladesh has been amended with the words "pledging that the high ideals of absolute trust and faith in the Almighty Allah..." and in the process the word "secularism" has been dropped. The constitution, in fact, makes its beginning with the words Bismillah-ar-rahman-ar-rahim.

The second point to be made is that the campaign of apartheid against the minorities continues unabated since 1947, irrespective of the change of the governments in Bangladesh. The ethnic cleansing coupled with forced conversion to Islam is being encouraged by the state of Bangladesh officially. The new Muslims are paid cash doles through budgetary allocations in the name of so-called rehabilitation (B.D. government religious ministry circular number 2/a-7/91-92 dated 28/11/91). There have been glaring instances of debarring members of the minority community from exercising their vote of franchise in the successive local and national elections. The minorities remain unrepresentative in the principal socio-economic scenario of the state, such as judiciary (0%),  military (1%) and police (4%). The implicit instance of constitutional isolation of the minority community is that no member of the minority community is allowed to become the Head of the State.

The third point deals with crimes against humanity. The minorities of Bangladesh have witnessed large-scale violence, cultural genocide and discrimination and bias at the hands of all the successive governments in perpetual order. Having lost 30 million people, 2,5 million acres of land, hundreds of homicides, vandalisation of more than 25000 units of minority property, scores of organised gang rapes, state sponsored violence against women and children of the minority community have been witnessed in the state of Bangladesh. The communication in 1992 send to the then Prime Minister of Bangladesh by the 17 congressmen of United States of America, brought to the notice of the world the admittance of killings and destruction of villages in Bangladesh by the military officials of the state. During and after the parliamentary elections in Bangladesh in October 2001, the political activists of major political parties, including the ruling party, were a party to large-scale violence, killings, gang rapes and destruction of places of worship and cultural importance. All of which are filed together with their local press reports and brought in the Supreme Court of Bangladesh. In spite of the orders of the Supreme Court of Bangladesh in January 2000 and November 2001, the state of Bangladesh did not make any conscious attempt to stop the atrocities against the minorities. The Public Enquiry Commission appointed by the human rights groups in Bangladesh admitted in their report, submitted to government of Bangladesh, that enormous human rights violations and crimes against humanity have been committed against the minorities. The report of Daily Janakantha details that "the most telling substantiation of the fact that the campaign of violence against religious and ethnic minorities is to be found in the statistical report showing that out of 228 rapes cases reported and recorded within the first 92 days of the present government, 225 or an overwhelming 99 percent were of the minority community."

Under the process of ethnic extermination of minorities from Bangladesh, global Islamic funds and forces have been encouraged to take their roots in Bangladesh over the last one decade. A galaxy of 64000 madrassas in Bangladesh are funded officially by the State of Bangladesh. A large chunk of jihadi fundamentalists from various orthodox Islamic states have been successful in establishing a terrorist regime in Bangladesh. It is due to this development that modern weaponry and sophisticated arms are used at various places during mass violence. Threatening, coercion and kidnappings are witnessed by the members of the minority community day in and day out. If this kind of a situation is not brought under control forthwith, there is a possibility of mass exodus.

The involvement of trained terrorists from Bangladeshi madrassas, run by fundamentalist organizations, in the attacks on American Centre in Calcutta and Kuta Beach Bali, speaks volumes about the growth of Islamic terrorism corresponding with the current pan-Islamic movement. In Taliban camps mainly three languages were spoken: Arabic, Urdu and Bangali, as pointed out in the CNN interview with John Walker, the American Taliban. In a festival mass which was attended by a large number of people, including the cabinet ministers of Bangladesh in Dhaka, the cleric declared jihad against America and wished destruction to both America and the President Bush.

The sorry state of affairs caused due to the design of Muslim precedence in the Statecraft, the Islamization plan, apartheid and Islamic terrorism have dwindled the population of the minorities in Bangladesh from 30 percent in 1947 to 10 percent in 2002. The figures in regard to the Muslim majority population of Bangladesh speak that the population of the members of the Muslim majority community has risen from 57 percent in 1947 to 89 percent in 2002. This fall and rise in different population groups represent negative demographic change against the minority community of Bangladesh. We appeal to the global opinion makers, human rights groups, people seated in positions of authority, the State of Netherlands, European Union and the United Nations to pay their kind attention to the concerns of the minorities of Bangladesh as soon as possible.

In the past the previously mentioned authorities have taken efforts to address the human rights situation of minorities in Bangladesh. Given the poor results of these efforts and the present undiminished suppression of minorities in Bangladesh, Global Human Rights Defence appeals to all concerned to use their good offices to impress upon the state of Bangladesh to make all necessary measures to include the minority population of Bangladesh in the overall socio-political structure of the nation/state of Bangladesh as per the provisions of International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and International Covenant on Social, Economic and Cultural Rights in consonance with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Due to the lack of good governance and pathetic condition of minorities in Bangladesh, the donor institutions and countries are requested to put conditions on developmental aid to the state of Bangladesh until the situation is not reversed to the satisfaction of the donor institutions and countries. Global Human Rights Defence is to recommend this possibility to the Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Netherlands during a meeting coming week.

Global Human Rights Defence is an international human rights organization with the aim of promoting human rights for those areas that have been severely affected by human rights violations, but whereto relatively insufficient attention has been given from the perspective of NGO's, governments and media. The organisation is to be coordinated from its headquarters in The Hague- International city of Peace. Furthermore this organization at this very moment is represented in Afghanistan, Belgium, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Germany, Guyana, India, Nepal, Sri Lanka, United Kingdom, the United States of America and Zimbabwe.
 
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