Bangladesh: Human Rights

Baroness Brinton Excerpts

Tuesday 9th October 2012 Grand Committee

[Baroness Brinton]

My Lords, I, too, congratulate my noble friend Lord Hussain on securing this important debate on a subject that, frankly, needs to be discussed more openly for the safety of politics and democracy in Bangladesh but, more importantly, to save the lives of those who dare to oppose the Government.

For those of us who remember Bangladesh 40 years ago—the bitterly fought war, the emergence of the new nation, as well as the many natural disasters that Bangladesh has had to face—we recognise that this is a country struggling against many odds. Most of us have watched and willed Bangladesh to take its place as an open and emerging democracy in the 21st century. But the recent, continuing and increasing disappearances of people, especially politicians, is worrying. With elections due next year, it does not take much to see that the silencing of opposition individuals who may either be a threat to or a thorn in the side of the current Government is a useful but illegal tool. As has already been referred to by my noble friend, Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International have both catalogued very specific examples in shocking detail. Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina says that her Government have zero tolerance for extrajudicial killings, but she has singularly failed to investigate allegations properly or to bring the perpetrators to book. Actions speak louder than words.

One of the most publicised disappearances, already referred to, has been that of Ilias Ali and his driver. I will not go over the details of that case, but I will say that when the Prime Minister asked the police to investigate, she also accused him, quite extraordinarily, of going into hiding so that his own party could cast guilt on the ruling Awami League party. Protests at the time objecting to politicians’ disappearances were quelled by tear gas, batons and bullets from the local police.

More recently, and perhaps more worryingly, when Sheikh Hasina was being feted in the UK during the Olympics, she had ordered the arrest of Mir Quasem Ali, a leading member of the Islamist party Jamaat-e-Islami, who is well known both as a politician and through his ability to reach people through the Jamaat newspaper and media group. It appears that his real crime has been to criticise the war crimes tribunal set up by Hasina, which seems to take a very retributional approach rather than the justice and reconciliation examples set in South Africa and, more recently, Northern Ireland. I hope that Bangladesh might turn to look at that model. During the Olympics when Sheikh Hasina had a meeting with Ed Miliband, she gave a public undertaking that,

“all the future elections in Bangladesh will be held in a complete fair and neutral manner”.

Let us hope that that is the case.

There are other human rights issues too, on which others have touched. There has long been concern at UN and international level about the role of women in Bangladeshi society, with a real worry that female education still is restricted to suitable domestic training. With a woman head of state, that is ironic. Forced marriage for young girls also remains a real problem, to which the noble Baroness, Lady Uddin, referred earlier.

One man who has done much to develop the economic independence of poor women in Bangladesh has felt the wrath of the Bangladeshi Prime Minister. We know Mohammed Yunus as the Nobel Prize winner who, more than 30 years ago, almost single-handedly developed microcredit for women desperately trying to survive on not even subsistence-level incomes. Lauded across the world, and teaching other countries how to model his Grameen Bank, most would assume that he would be equally celebrated at home in Bangladesh for his work that has saved the lives of millions, and has given meaning and brought income to millions more women—but not a bit of it. It is said that the Prime Minister thought that she should have received the Nobel Prize herself.

Regardless of that, there has been a very public vendetta against him. I am told that there is a Bangladeshi word for this and I apologise if I pronounce it wrongly. It is “hinghsa”, which means vindictiveness or jealousy. This seems to be a state form of jealousy. As a result, Mr Yunus has been forced to retire from the Grameen Bank at short notice on a technicality and a public tribunal. The Government say that they have the right to do this because the Grameen Bank is a government bank, but the majority of it is held by very small stakeholders with the Government owning 3%.

My noble friend Lord Hussain referred to the specific issues of the Rapid Action Battalion in Bangladesh. I want to raise one matter that so far has not come up. In the past, the UK has provided training for the RAB, which is worrying. I understand that the staff from the NPIA have also taught the RAB appropriate intervention and interviewing techniques that meet international standards. But the flagrant breaches of these standards by the RAB must now cause us to question whether we can continue with this training. It is interesting that for exactly this reason the US has now stopped training in this method and financial support.

It also is worthy of note that the World Bank and the IMF have delayed payments and loans to Bangladesh because they are so concerned about the situation there. Despite that, we still provide £250 million a year to Bangladesh in aid through DfID. Surely, the time has come for us to review this in light of the human rights cases, especially those designed to undermine and prevent the democratic process from taking place, as a matter of urgency. Please can the Minister let us know what the Government are going to do to ensure either that payments are withheld or that there are proper strings attached to any aid we might provide. Worries about terrorism should not permit state-sponsored terrorism.