The Honourable President

EU Parliament

Strasbourg, France.  

 Dear Madam,                                    

We oppose EU resolution on Bangladesh  2023/2833(RSP)

We, on behalf of the Bangladeshi citizen and global Bangladeshi diaspora, express our deepest concern and regret on the recently adopted resolution under reference. We are appalled by the contents and verbiage of the resolution which seem to be myopic and largely insulated from facts, reasons, history and the political DNA of our present government and Bangladesh. Notably the comments on the NGO ‘Odhikar’ and prosecution of the two office bearers of this deregistered NGO in the existing legal system of Bangladesh misrepresent the facts and the demand to quash the verdict is an egregious attempt to disqualify the legal system of a sovereign country.

Bangladesh achieved independence at a heavy cost - millions of lives perished, millions more displaced from homes, hundreds of thousands of women raped and the country liberated through a full-blown war of nine months in 1971. Immediately after the victory the first Government of independent Bangladesh under the leadership of ‘Bangabandhu’ Sheikh Mujibur Rahman adopted a constitution where secularism, democracy, social equity and nationalism were enshrined along with banning religion in politics. Additionally, Jamaat-e-Islami was banned for committing war crimes and the war crime tribunal started trials of war criminals.   

On August 15, 1975 a bloody military Coup d’état toppled the democratic government and installed military Junta General Ziaur Rahman (Zia) as the de facto head of the state. Zia was steering the regime, appointed few politicians in the government as deceptive façade. Overnight democratic process stalled. In the constitution, secularism and ban of religion in politics were replaced by Islam as the only guiding policy of the state. Jamaat-e-Islami globally known for its philosophy of Islamic extremism, erstwhile banned in Bangladesh from politics for alleged war crimes, reinstated as a political party. Tribunal for war criminals were dissolved dropping all the war crime charges against individuals. Soon the General, turned politician formed a political party, called BNP (Bangladesh Nationalist Party) where he rehabilitated indicted war criminals and collaborators of the invading Pakistan army. Thus, Zia made politics difficult by permanently dividing the country into two starkly opposing polarized camps on the political and ideological line of our liberation war. This scenario is rare on the global political landscape, even unsustainable in the vibrant European democracy like Germany. On this difficult train, in 1991, the experiment of democracy started again rotating power between pro-liberation secular alliance led by Awami League and anti-liberation and religious alliance of BNP & Jamaat. 

There were few serious attempts on the life of Shekh Hasina, our present Prime Minister, during the tenure of the dictators and Generals-turned-politicians. The worst assassination attempt that she narrowly escaped took place on August 21, 2004, while she was addressing a huge public peace rally. The well-orchestrated ‘Grenade Attack’ left 24 dead, many of them top leaders of her party Awami League, 500 injured including sheikh Hasina herself and many have been living since with permanent scar, trauma, debilitating pain and disability. BNP-Jamaat alliance had been in power (2001 - 2006) at that time. Police and court refused to take the case. Later a farcical court case was set up by the state with a self-confessed defendant who later recanted his confession stating that he was allegedly coerced and bribed to give the confession. During the whole tenure of this alliance government Adilur Rahman served as the appointed Deputy Attorney General of Bangladesh Judiciary. This exposes the fact that Adilur is politically connected with the Islamic politics and opposing forces of our liberation war,  

During the second tenure of Awami League alliance in the power, on May 05, 2013, hundreds of thousands of followers of an Islamic seminary based fundamentalist platform ‘Hefazot e Islami’ laid siege to the central business district of Dhaka demanding implementation of the highly controversial Islamic ‘Blasphemy Law’. The seminary students engaged in pitch battle with law enforcers, set fires on shops and vandalized many businesses and offices. On the second night of the occupation, Government agencies swung into action and after hours of well choreographed operation, the fundamentalist’s siege ended with only two casualties from the mob, but many injuries among policemen. ISIL, the international terrorist organization in their website declared solidarity with the occupation mob, condemned police action and circulated many fabricated and fake pictures in their webpage. At this point Adilur Rahman, as the head of the NGO ‘Adhikar’ weighed in, started circulating false and exaggerated number of casualties overseas to the human rights groups and to the governments with an intention to raise concerns and sympathy for the violent extremists and thus tarnishing image of the government as the perpetrator of extra judicial killings. The government initially asked for clarification from ‘Adhikar’, not getting any response lodged complaint in the court with the above facts. Branding this a ‘trumped up case’ is travesty of truth. The court, after hearing at length the arguments of the state and of the defence, has found Adilur and his colleague guilty and handed down a jail sentence according to the penal code of the country. International legal team/ expert are always welcome to observe and participate in any trial with prior permission from the government. This court verdict proves Adilur’s active connection with the Islamic terrorists and hostility toward secular political stream. 

 It is a well substantiated fact that religious extremists, from incipient cells to suicide squads armed to the teeth, have their eyes fixed in the cross hairs for physical elimination of the secular Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina. Also, the current government, the ruling party and the citizens, particularly, the non-Muslim and Muslim minorities, secular intellectuals and politicians have been the violent victims of the religious terrorism. The Government’s pre-emptive or reactive actions to neutralize imminent armed terrorist threats often ensue armed encounters causing casualties of lives on both sides. Certain human rights agents and NGOs in Bangladesh allegedly loyal to BNP-Jamaat alliance who often feed international bodies with biased and partial narrative and exaggerated head counts of these collaterals as ‘extra judicial killing’. Fugitives and missing persons are often used as propaganda tool against the Government for enforced disappearances.  

The genetics of the ruling political party Awami League is secular. Denial of this fact is to deny our total secular history of political evolution to the birth of secular Bangladesh.

 In Bangladesh the ratio of workers’ participation in trade unions is higher than many Western democracies, where many giant corporations and employers deny the rights of forming trade union.   

We have noted with dismay that your resolution is unconscionably hostile and blatant interference into the internal affairs of Bangladesh. We, therefore, reject the resolution as it manifests anachronistic colonial mindset. 

Thank you.        

Sincerely,

Bangladeshi citizens and Global Diaspora