THE constitution of Bangladesh had been the core legal instrument to provide protection of the fundamental rights of the citizens, and that should have been the primary task, albeit creating institutions to run the state and to set rules for running those institutions. But our constitution at the very outset wrongly attempted to define the ethnic identity of its citizens. Bengali being the majority ethnic community managed to establish its predominance over other ethnic minority groups. The then member of the Constituent Assembly, Manobendra Narayan Larma, on October 31, 1972, walked out of the assembly protesting the adoption of Article 6 in the constitution, where the jumma people were identified as Bengali.
The 1972 constitution finalised excluding the identities of all other minority ethnic entities. What Larma failed to notice at that time was that the constitution had also refused to acknowledge other languages other than Bangla in Article 3. A nation that gained independence by fighting against the imposition of Urdu as a state language did not recognise the languages of other ethnic groups within its own country. The constitution has gone through 17 amendments, and a major shift came on June 9, 1988, when the then tyrant Hussain Mohammed Ershad inserted Article 2A to declare Islam as the state religion through the eighth constitutional amendment. The Hasina government in 2011 through the fifteenth amendment made amendments to the said Article 2A saying that the state shall ensure equal status and equal rights in the practice of the Hindu, Buddhist, Christian and other religions. For a political party that claimed secularity as one of its main political ideologies, it seems to appease the majority religious group, going backwards to its previous identity, ie, the Awami Muslim League. In fact, the Awami League capitalised on Islam for their political agenda in the last fifteen and a half years of illegal power holding.听
When Larma鈥檚 continued efforts to make the state recognise the rights of the Jumma peoples failed, Jana Samhati Samity began organising the Shanti Bahini, an armed force operating in the Hill Tracts area, which got involved in armed conflict with the state forces in 1977. The uprooted tyrant Sheikh Hasina was able to end the long-running conflict by pledging to recognise the rights of the Jumma people in the 1997 Peace Accord. Later, the AL government in 2011 made substantive amendments to the constitution, among others inserted Article 23A, wherein they tried to redefine the identity of the Jumma people as minor races
(唳曕唳粪唳︵唳� 唳ㄠ唳椸唳粪唳犩), tribes and ethnic sects under the garb of protection of the local culture of the said communities. 听Official orders had been issued occasionally, directing the public authorities not to rent out any auditorium for programmes to any groups if applied under the name of indigenous (唳嗋Ζ唳苦Μ唳距Ω唰�) community. Though Bangladesh earlier ratified the ILO Convention on Indigenous and Tribal Populations, 1957 (Convention No. 107). In 1989, the 1957 Convention was revised, and Convention 169 was adopted, but Bangladesh remained attached to the earlier one. This tendency of holding the previous integrationist approach of ILO 107 gives a hint of why the rights of the indigenous peoples had not been resolved and the illegal persecution continues.
It had been harsher for the religious minority groups. The Awami League, with its long history of having strong bondage with India, faced criticism on account of favouring the Hindu community in Bangladesh. It is said that the Hindu community remained a deciding factor in national elections for AL for a long period. It might have been one of the reasons AL in the last three successive periods targeted the Hindu community, among others, to eliminate them from being a deciding factor in the election, albeit they successfully abolished the electoral system casting votes on the previous night. From careful observation of all communal attacks in the last decade against the Hindu, Buddhist and Ahmadya communities, it appears the Awami League was behind all attacks and their activists and affiliated allies looted property, destroyed their homesteads, and forced them to cross the border in the neighbouring country. At one point, the number of the minority groups had become so trivial that even if AL restored the electoral system, they wouldn鈥檛 have to be concerned about their votes. AL executed a vitious political agenda in the past decade where religious minority groups suffered most compared to other marginalised communities.
The quota movement, which began in July, ended with the fall of former tyrant Sheikh Hasina on August 5, turning the table upside down. Bangladesh is currently going through a transitional period where an interim government took oath on August 8 and is trying to find their feet gradually. Many things are still obscure, but the expectations are high. Setting priorities is a big challenge. In the wake of this new test of freedom, people are ready to give the government time to resolve the long-standing problems created by the former autocratic government. However, the police, being the main authority responsible for mass killings, have not been able to come clean yet. Half of the police force resumed their service with an attitude of reluctance to perform their duties properly. The picture is so vivid that an ordinary prudent person would see that the police is not engaging to do the needful. In some places, police had been victims of violence too, and a large number of the police are still under mental trauma.
In this troubled water, a vested quarter is fishing and causing serious havoc in public life. The constitution has not been suspended, and the fundamental rights and statutory rights of the citizens are in force, but implementation has become a far cry. Reports are coming from different corners of the country of looting business places, land grabbing, kidnapping leading to demand of ransom, killing AL activists, terrorising the religious minorities, to name a few. The interim government must restore law and order within a short period of time, as it is not only causing instability in public life but also causing serious impact on the economy of the country. Many industries are being looted randomly, and many had to shut down their businesses for repeated threats, extorsion and vandalism. The garments sector is on the verge of falling as many contracts are said to have been cancelled.
Giving a blind eye to the ongoing situation is not a solution; rather, it is high time to act to protect the vulnerable people of the country. Identifying the total deaths of students and common people in the usurping and making the perpetrators accountable is also a high-priority task for the present government. Family members of the victims are lodging criminal cases in the respective police stations across the country, but it is alleged that a large number of innocent people are becoming victims of these cases. This will prolong the investigation and trial of the cases, and in some cases, it will be difficult to identify the actual perpetrators. Moreover, in the present context, a pertinent question is raised: who would investigate the cases filed against the senior officials of the previous government, including the former prime minister Sheikh Hasina? The police have lost their impartiality long ago; after August 5, it has become more difficult for them to regain the public trust. Forming an investigation commission might be a solution, but there has been no such attempt from the ministry concerned so far.
The law adviser said to the media that they are planning to try the July perpetrators in the ICT Tribunal for committing the crimes against humanity. In the meantime, they have appointed the chief prosecutor and three assistant prosecutors in the tribunals. The chief prosecutor was a lead defence lawyer of Jamaat-e-Islam in the same tribunal against the previous government. With a strong political affiliation, it will be hard to believe that a fair trial would be held in the ICT Tribunal. The law adviser should have been more cautious about the selection process. It is highly probable that the family members of the victims would not consent to transferring the cases to the ICT Tribunal for lack of confidence in the prosecution team. Justice cannot be replaced with revenge. So, the dilemma is there.
The human rights activists and the civil society organisations are under a new mental pressure on which incident they should raise their voice or keep mum like they had to do during the last autocratic regime. In the last fifteen and a half years, it was not easy for them to speak in a case of serious human rights violation for a victim having political identity of Jamaat, Shibir or BNP, as the AL goons would level them the members of the aforesaid political parties. Now AL activists are becoming victims of violent attacks and killings, and there is a tendency to tag HR activists and CSOs as AL sympathisers. Some high-level political leaders and journalists had been manhandled while they were produced before the court, and former justice Shamsuddin Chowdhury suffered serious injury.
We must not forget that the rights of the accused persons are guaranteed by the constitution. In reality, the police failed to provide adequate protection to the arrested accused persons and also failed to book the persons for committing the crime in front of them. There is no way to show leniency to those criminals who thought they were untouchable and can take up the matter at hand to implicit punishment. This is a clear threat to the judiciary and must be brought to justice. Mob justice cannot be a solution in any circumstances.
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Jyotirmoy Barua is an advocate, Supreme Court of Bangladesh.