What the alleged British jihadist recruiter said in court

See here for analysis of what Saimun Rahman said

----------

Saimun Rahman: alleged ISIL recruiter in Dhaka

On Monday (yesterday), the Detective Branch of the police held a press conference in which they claimed to have detained, the previous evening, a British citizen of Bangladeshi origin who had come to Bangladesh to recruit 'jihadists' to fight in Syria/Iraq for the Islamic State for Iraq and the Levant (ISIL).

This 'arrest' had been trailed with the detective branch telling journalists a few days earlier that they were on the hunt for such a person.

At around 3 to 4 pm, yesterday, Samiun Rahman, the alleged ISIL recruiter, was brought to court no 19 of the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate court.

As coincidence would have it, I had just finished interviewing a public prosecutor across the road for another story and I rushed over to the court.

Here is the full transcript of my short interview with him before the magistrate entered the court (short extracts were used in the Daily Telegraph article, above, and New Age)

World Bank gets its audit numbers wrong

Will heads roll? The Bangladesh office of World Bank has got a key figure completely wrong in its rejoinder to New Age's article which was published on 29 June, titled 'World Bank health programme: Audit finds $70m spending irregularities'.

In its rejoinder, which is printed in full below (an edited version was published in New Age along with the paper's response), the World Bank claimed that there were a number of errors in the article - the main one being that the 2012/13 audit of the health program did not find $70 million of irregularities but instead $25.6 million.

$25.6 million is of course a large number, but nowhere near as large as $70 million, and if the World Bank was correct, would indicate that the article had made a serious error.

However, the World Bank was not correct.

Below is a table setting out each of the observations (dealing with expenditure) which is set out in the audit along with the amount of Bangladeshi taka involved and then in US dollars. The taka/dollar exchange rate used was Tk77.75 = $1, which is the exchange rate used in the audit itself.

As you will see the total amount of these financial irregularities is Tk 533.02 crore which is equivalent to $69.44 million.

World Bank scrutiny of government audits - a tip of an iceberg?

Below is the second op-ed in New Age relating to the audit reports of the donor supported health program. You can read the first one here looking at the transparency of donors in providing access to these audit reports.

The relevant New Age articles upon which this op-ed is based are:
'Audit finds $70m irregularities' and
'$428m or irregularities in 8 years'.

WB scrutiny of govt audits: a tip of the iceberg?

July 8, 2014 12:03 am·

by David Bergman

Whilst the World Bank can certainly be applauded for making public the government audits on donor-supported health programmes (‘Donors and audit transparency,’ New Age, 5 July), a more pressing question is how well it, and, indeed, other donors, responded to the reports themselves.
The audit reports would not have made easy reading for donors, suggesting as they do, that millions of dollars were stolen or misused on these two  programmes.
So what did the World Bank, which is not only responsible for its own money but also that of other donors, do when it received these reports?

Over half of education sector procurement 'corrupt'

Following on from previous articles on financial irregularities in a donor support health programme in Bangladesh, here is an article, published today in New Age, on corruption in procurements involving a donor supported education program.

The article is based on an Annual Fiduciary Review of the program - the relevant parts of which can be downloaded here

55pc of edn sector procurement ‘shady’

Donor commissioned probe finds

July 5, 2014 1:33 am·

David Bergman

The extent of corrupt and collusive government-run procurements in Bangladesh has been laid bare in an independent scrutiny of tenders undertaken for a donor funded development programme, which was conducted in 15 different districts by an audit firm hired by a consortium of donors.
The procurements were investigated as part of an ‘annual fiduciary review’ of the $5.8 billion Third Primary Education Development Programme supported by the World Bank, the Asian Development Bank, the British government and the European Union along with other international donors.
The review, conducted by the chartered accountant firm A Qasem and Company, found that in 91 out of 163 procurement packages which it had investigated, there was ‘fraud and corruption, syndicated bidding, collusion, and malpractice.’  155 of the tenders had been conducted by the Local Government Engineering Department and 8 by the Department of Public Health Engineering
Assuming this level of corruption was reflected in all $1.6 billion worth of procurement, which the World Bank estimated would take place during the five years of the primary education programme, this would amount to about $880 million of corrupt tenders for goods and contracts.
Shyamal Kanti Ghosh, director general of the Directorate of Primary Education, told New Age that it was not true that there was corruption in the
procurement. ‘No procurement is going wrong. There is no corruption, as [donors] approved those before they could happen. So how can the [donors] now make such comments.’
On Sunday, New Age reported that corrupt or illegal procurement counted for nearly half of $70 million of the financial irregularities identified by the Comptroller and Auditor General in one year of a donor-supported health programme.
The chartered accountant’s ‘interim’ report, which has been obtained by New Age, was commissioned by a consortium of donors led by the Asian Development Bank. The report relates to the 2011-12 financial year, the first year of the primary education programme.
Dated May 2013, the 17-page report sets out nine ‘indications of syndicated bidding’ which it found within the 91 corrupt procurement packages.
These included the ‘same spelling mistake’ and ‘similar handwriting’ found in different documents submitted by different bidders; the ‘same format, wording and content found in different documents submitted by different bidders’; ‘identical unit cost rate in most cases, and unusually higher unit rate in a few cases quoted to avoid winning the contract’; ‘sequential tender securities’ submitted by different bidders; and ‘tender security’ withdrawn by ‘same person on behalf of different contractor.’
The report also listed 18 different kinds of irregularities and deficiencies in the bids which were not identified by those conducting the procurement. These included ‘fake documents’; ‘inauthentic’ accounts; missing details in documentation, including information on annual construction turnover, qualification certificates of employees, and equipment lists; and different tax identification numbers found in different documents of the same bidder.
According to the Asian Development Bank, the 163 contracts scrutinised by the chartered accountant’s firm were randomly chosen and were worth a total of $11.6 million.
In an appraisal document, written by the World Bank before it agreed to provide the government a loan of $300 million for this primary education programme, ‘fraud and corruption’ was considered to be one of three ‘key risks’.
The appraisal report stated that ‘certain systemic weaknesses in some aspects of the programme, such as delivery of stipends, contracts for books, hiring of teachers, and civil works expose the project to a risk of corruption and non-transparent or inefficient practices. Furthermore, enforcement of GOB‘s procurement regulatory system may not meet the needed level of governance and accountability.’
The report added that the Bangladesh government’s regulatory system would be ‘strengthened in line with internationally accepted procedures, and procurement capacity would be enhanced as needed, including through recruitment of procurement (and financial management) consultants.’
The programme is mainly funded by the government of Bangladesh, but the Asian Development Bank and the World Bank loaned the government $320 million and $300 million respectively, and the UK government gave $110 million, the European Union $55 million and the Canadian government $48 million, along with smaller amounts by other donors.
Rudi van Dael, senior social sector specialist, Bangladesh Resident Mission, Asian Development Bank, told New Age that it was currently discussing 15 of the contracts (valued at approximately $2.04 million) with the government. ‘As we are still in the midst of discussions, ADB is unable to provide any further details.’
He said, ‘ADB, World Bank and other development partners, in common with the ministry of primary and mass education, take a zero tolerance approach to fraud and corruption.’
The ADB does not explain why out of the report’s initial findings of 91 ‘corrupt’ procurement packages, it was only concerned with 15.
A spokesperson for the European Union Delegation told New Age, ‘We appreciate that several important initiatives have been taken by the government to strengthen and improve capacity in the area of procurement. We also appreciate that LGED analysed the findings from the reviews and took its own actions – firms involved in the collusive malpractice are blacklisted.’
The World Bank disputed that 91 contracts were ever in question, and told New Age that it had ‘zero tolerance’ to corruption. ‘The World Bank maintains due diligence to ensure that every dollar is spent for the purpose intended.
Donors point out that the education programme has ‘gone a long way to improving the quality and reach of primary education in Bangladesh, which will, in turn, support longer-term economic and social development.’

Here is a first of a number of opinion pieces published today in New Age, relating to the two previously published reports on financial irregularities in the World Bank and donor supported health sector programmes. The two articles are:  'Audit finds $70m irregularities' and '$428m or irregularities in 8 years'.

The article below contains links to relevant documents:

Donors and audit transparency

July 5, 2014 12:05 am·

by David Bergman

THE financial irregularities identified in the donor-supported ministry of health programmes, implemented between 2003 and 2012, involve mind-bogglingly large numbers.
In the recently completed eight-year programme, irregularities involving $470 million were identified (‘428m irregularities in 8 years’, New Age, June 30) and in 2012–3, the most recent audit of the current health programme identified $70 million, which is nearly a third of the total audited expenditure. (‘Audit finds $70m spending irregularities’, New Age, June 29).
This does not mean that all the money was gobbled up by greedy ministry officials — some of it was also wasted, or spent on contracts given through illegal procedures.
The audits themselves raise a number of important questions about the integrity of development programmes in Bangladesh and how donors should respond to information about financial irregularities. However, this first article considers the transparency of donors towards the audit reports which they receive from government.

World Bank health program - $428m of irregularities in 8 years

In the second article in the series, New Age has published a report on financial irregularities in the 2003-2010 donor supported health program. Audit documents show that there were $428 million of irregularities. Below is a copy of the article.

(See first article: 'Audit finds $70m spending irregularities')

Also see end to access key original audit referred to in this article

WB-SUPPORTED HEALTH PROGRAMME

$428m of irregularities in 8 years

June 30, 2014 12:45 am·

David Bergman

Annual audits of a ministry of health development programme, funded jointly by international donors and the government of Bangladesh, identified financial irregularities amounting to $428 million between 2003 and 2010.
The $428 million (Tk3,287 crore) represents about one third of the $1.3 billion of expenditure audited by the Comptroller and Auditor General during the eight year period – a total which, according to the audit report comprised $526 million provided by international donors, and $728 million given by the government.
The major financial contributors included the World Bank which loaned $300 million, the European Union which gave $105 million, the British government $110 million and the Swedish government $68 million.
Although the World Bank and other international donors were aware of these irregularities, set out in a total of 435 audit observations, they went on to commit a further $2.13 billion for a new five-year ministry-implemented programme which has just completed its third year.
On Sunday, New Age revealed that the last year of audited accounts of this current donor-supported health programme had identified $70 million of expenditure irregularities, including illegal procurements, unauthorised use of money and unverifiable payments.
The extent of the financial malpractice in the now completed health programme is set out in an audit report relating to its final financial year 2010-11 which New Age obtained under the World Bank’s access to information policy.
The Foreign Aided Project Audit Directorate, a part of the Comptroller and Auditor General, completed the audit for the multilateral agency.
This audit set out that in 2003-4 the financial irregularities amounted to Tk 134 crore ($17.5 million); in 2004-5 it was Tk 8.9 crore ($11.6 million);  in 2005-6 it was Tk 702 crore ($91.5 million); in 2006-7 it was Tk 1,565 crore ($204 million); in 2007-8 it was Tk 562 crore ($73 million); in 2008-9 it was Tk 73 crore ($9.6 million); in 2009-10 it was Tk 53 crore ($7 million); and in 2010-11 the amount was Tk 106 crore ($14 million).
The audit report stated that out of the 392 audit observations identified between 2003-4 to 2009-10 (not including the 43 from the 2011-12 audit itself), only 88 had been ‘settled’, leaving Tk 3,222 crore ($420 million) as outstanding irregularities.
Not all of the $428 million irregularities relate to improper or illegal expenditure, as some of them concern the failure of ministry officials to collect tax from companies or to transfer
money from a programme to a government bank account.
An analysis of the details of the 43 audit observations identified in the year 2010-11, found that only 3.6 million out of the $14 million involved non-expenditure irregularities. Though, in the 2005-6 audit, nearly two thirds of the identified irregularities were not expenditure related.
The World Bank only provided New Age with three out of the eight audit reports covering the period between 2003 and 2010, so a full analysis of the nature of the irregularities has not been possible. The Bank told New Age that the five other reports could not be found.
The 2011-12 audit states that the $428 million of irregularities only involves the government of Bangladesh, not donor money.
Following its own examination, the World Bank concluded that only a small number of the identified irregularities over the eight year period were significant.
In its 2012 ‘Implementation, Completion and Results’ report assessing the success of the programme, the World Bank stated that ‘Between fiscal years 2006 and 2011, the World Bank identified 36 audit observations (worth $68.14 million) as material and substantive from the observations raised by the Foreign Aided Projects Audit Directorate (FAPAD) auditors.’
The World Bank has not been willing to provide New Age with any further information on why it did not consider the remaining 356 audit observations to have been ‘material and substantive’.
In terms of achieving its objectives, the eight-year progamme is considered to have been relatively successful with many of its health indicators having been achieved. ‘It is fair to assume that the HNPSP has contributed significantly to the very positive achievements in the sector,’ the World Bank states in its report.
The Bangladesh government’s IMED report, however, stated (as quoted in the World Bank report) that ‘It is not possible to apportion these improvements to health sector interventions or specifically to HNPSP alone. A number of socio-economic factors seem to have influenced the outcome.’
Iftekharuzzaman, the executive director of Transparency International, Bangladesh criticised the World Bank for acting ‘inconsistent[ly] with the anti-corruption policy it preaches.’
‘If the World Bank can downplay the importance of the reported types of audit observations, a question may be raised if in effect they are also colluding with such practices and benefitting from [them],’ he said.

 Table listing irregularities in Health Sector Development Program

Year	Nos Paras	Financial involvement (GoB only) – Taka currency	Financial involvement in $*
2003/4	38	1,342,003,000	17,492,218
2004/5	68	892,683,000	11,635,597
2005/6	63	7,022,996,000	91,540,615
2006/7	58	15,659,407,027	204,372,785
2007/8	88	5,629,877,000	73,382,130
2008/9	46	734,033,000	9,567,688
2009/10	31	530,121,000	6,909,815
2010/11	43	1,058,843,438	13,801,400
TOTAL	435	32,869,963,465	428,702,248

* Exchange rate $1 = 76.72. This is the exchange rate given in  the 2010/2011 audit report

To see the page from the 2010/2011 audit report which contains this information, click here (please note that the doc does not include 2010/11 observations To download the whole 2010/2011 audit report, click here (big document)

'World Bank Health Programme: Audit finds $70m spending irregularities'

For those unable to access the New Age article on the website relating to financial irregularities in donor supported health program me, it is set out below.

Also see: (a)  Details of the illegal procurement, unsupported spendings, misuse of funds etc

               (b) Access the Audit report and other documents


[To see second article in the series: World Bank health program - $428m of irregularities in 8 years]

---------------

WB-SUPPORTED HEALTH PROGRAMME

Audit finds $70m spending irregularities

June 29, 2014 12:52 am·

David Bergman

In just one year, health ministry officials have misused at least $70 million of funds provided for a major development programme primarily financed by the World Bank and the governments of Britain, Canada, Sweden and the United States, according to an official audit report.
The audit of the Health Population and Nutrition Sector Development Programme found that between July 2012 and June 2013, $69.8 million (Tk 542.9 crore ) was spent either on irregular procurements, unverifiable expenditure, or on medicine and equipment which was excess of requirement.
The audit, seen by New Age, refers to ‘collusive’ tendering, ‘fictitious’ documents, ‘fraudulent practices,’ ‘misappropriated’ money, ‘useless’ purchases, ‘misuse’ of money, ‘lack of financial propriety’ ‘violation of fundamental accounting practices’ and inability of officials ‘to justify the genuineness of payments’.
The identified financial irregularities represent over 20 per cent of the total $321 million (Tk 2,498 crore) which the programme spent that year but since $102 million (Tk 796 crore) of the expenditure was not scrutinised in the audit, it reflects as much as one third of the amount of expenditure that was audited.
‘The audit is a tip of an iceberg,’ one senior auditor told New Age.
Md Neazuddin Miah, the secretary to the ministry of health and family welfare, accepted that there were many audit observations, but claimed that many ‘are very minor in nature.’
He said that the audit for 2012-2013 was ‘not finalised as we have asked the officers concerned to answer why they have made such irregularities’. He added that the ministry was waiting for a response from the audit office about the explanations ‘before taking necessary action against the line directors’.
According to the audit report, in 2012-2013, the project was financed by $220 million (Tk1,710 crore) from international donors with the remaining $101 million provided by the government of Bangladesh.
The audit was undertaken for the World Bank by the Foreign Aided Project Audit Directorate, which is part of the government-run Office of the Comptroller and Auditor General. The World Bank not only loaned $359 million (Tk 2,791 crore) for the five-year programme but also was given fiduciary oversight of how most of the international donor money given to the programme was spent.
New Age obtained a copy of the audit relating to the programme following a request to the World Bank under its access to information policy. World Bank considers the Comptroller and Auditor General, as the ‘independent auditor for all Bank projects’.
The audit report for the year 2012-2013, which was sent by FAPAD to the World Bank in December 2013, sets out 99 different audit ‘observations’ of which 33 were categorised as particularly serious. It is not stated how much of the $70 million relates to donor as opposed to Bangladesh government money.
An analysis by New Age of the audit observations found that improper procurement of goods, amounting to $29 million (Tk 224 crore), was the biggest contributor to the total amount of financial irregularities.
The audit detailed 25 apparently unlawful procurements involving contracts worth as much as Tk 132 crore ($17 million).  In one contract involving the expenditure of Tk 99 lakh ($129,000), the audit found strong evidence of ‘collusive practice’ between the ministry officials and the supplier.
The audit also identified $18 million (Tk 139 crore) in spending where there were no documents to support the legitimacy of programme payments. One example involves $6 million (Tk 46 crore) which was supposedly spent on training but where there were no ‘basic records or documents’ to support the claim, and another $1.7 million (Tk 13 crore) which was supposed to have been spent on foreign training but which the auditors said was only justified by ‘fictitious’ vouchers.
‘Unauthorised’ expenditure amounted to $12.1 million (Tk 94 crore) , and excess or ‘useless’ spending added up to a further $6.8 million (Tk 52 crore) – with the auditors giving examples of  the purchase of $1.5 million (Tk 13 crore) worth of vitamins, and $924,000 (Tk 72 crore) of hospital equipment which were not required.
In addition, $4.3 million (Tk 3.5 crore) had been spent on goods that were not received or, if they were, did not function properly.
The audit for 2012-2013 was no aberration. The previous year’s audit for 2011-2012, the first year of the programme, identified that $21 million (Tk169 crore) of the spending – just short of 10 per cent of that year’s total expenditure – was irregular.
In that audit, irregularities included $2.4 million (Tk 20 crore) given to suppliers although no goods were received, $1.3 million (Tk11 crore) supposedly spent on training sessions though there was no supporting authorisation or documentation, and $215,000 (Tk2 crore) spent on buying materials without any open tender.
The secretary to the ministry told New Age that in relation to the 2011-2012 audit, three or four ministry officers had given back about Tk 2 crore to government accounts, and that departmental action was being taken against them.
Internal donor documents show that before agreeing in 2011 to commit money to the five- year health programme, the donors recognised that there were significant financial risks involved.
An appraisal document written that year by the World Bank stated that the financial risks were ‘substantial’.
And the UK government also stated that the project’s fiduciary risk was ‘high.’
However, both reports went on to state that they considered sufficient safeguards were in place to minimise the risks.
In a statement to New Age, the World Bank stated, ‘The program is subject to annual audits and any allegations, or suspicions, of fraud and corruption have been shared with the program’s other donors and the Bank’s Integrity Vice Presidency.’
‘With respect to the fiscal year 2013 audit report, the World Bank fiduciary team is currently engaged in the due diligence process with the Ministry regarding observations made in that report.’
In an earlier meeting with New Age, the World Bank played down the significance of the 2012-2013 audit claiming that only 22 out of the 99 audit observations, amounting ‘to about $10 million’, was ‘serious from the World Bank’s perspective’.
The Bank declined to provide any details of which particular audit ‘observations’ the Bank considered were ‘serious’, and the details of why it did not consider the audit’s other 71 observations to be significant.
The $3.1 billion five-year Health Population and Nutrition Sector Development Programme, which started in 2011, is implemented by the ministry of health through 32 separate line directors.
The World Bank and international donors have committed to providing the ministry $2.16 billion over the period, two thirds of the total cost, with the Bangladesh government responsible for the remaining $1.17 billion.
Other than the World Bank, the programme’s main contributors are the United States government which is committed to giving $450 million, the UK government which will provide $191 million, the Canadian government which will give $102 million, the Swiss government is committed to providing $80 million and the German government $31 million.
Most of this donor money is pooled together and the World Bank has been given responsibility for the fiduciary oversight of its use in the programme.
In addition to the pooled money, there are a number of other donors, including the Japanese government, UNICEF, the European Union and other UN bodies, who give money directly to the ministry of health for use in the programme. This direct project aid, which in 2012-2013 amounted to $60 million was not audited by FAPAD, and the World Bank has no fiduciary responsibilities relating to its use.
The World Bank requires that FAPAD completes its annual audit of the programme’s activities within six months of the end of each financial year.
The $70 million of financial irregularities in the 2012-2013 audit do not include a further $3.7 million of irregularities which are ‘non-expenditure’ related – that is to say, involve ministry officials’ failure to collect tax from contractors, or their failure to transfer money from one account to another, as government rules require.
The audit report stated that it had only audited 70 per cent of the total $321 million expenditure, leaving about $100 million unaudited.

Illegal procurement, unsupported expenditure .... and more

The first of a series of articles dealing with corruption and financial irregularities in World Bank and international donor supported Bangladesh government programs is published in Today's New Age. (if you cannot access the article on New Age website, it is republished here)

In relation to today's article, there was no space for a number of other articles providing more details of the irregularities in the program - on procurements, unsupported expenditure, no goods received and unnecessary purchases. So here they are.

Please note if you want to download the original audit document, you can do so from here

1. Illegal procurements comprise 40 percent of financial irregularities

According to the audit undertaken by the government’s Comptroller Auditor General into the joint government/donor aided health programme for the year 2012/13, there were 25 illegal procurements amounting to a total of $29 million (Tk 223 crore) - 40 percent of the total financial irregularities. Here are just a few examples.

Moulvibazaar hospital – Tk 132 crore: The audit committee found that a tender for the supply of medical equipment for the 250 bed hospital in Moulvibazaar, won by M/S Techno Trade at a price of 132 crore ($17 mil), was ‘irregular’. The tender was inappropriately split into 13 different parts, all of which the company won, and payment was partly made to the company without having received the authorization of the Cabinet Committee on Government Purchase.

Dinajpur Medical College – Tk 25 Crore: Without obtaining authorisation from the ministry, the college purchased equipment, books and journals at a total cost of Tk25 crore ($3.2 mil) from Techno Trade, though the college principal only had the authority to sign a cheque upto Tk 4 crore. The college principal did this by signing 15 separate cheques, all of them below the TK 4 crore maximum – with seven of these cheques signed on a single day.

Financial irregularities at World Bank, donor funded health program

The first of a series of articles dealing with corruption and financial irregularities in World Bank and international donor supported Bangladesh government programs is published in Today's New Age.

(If you cannot access the article on New Age website, it is republished here)

This page provides access to the key documents, including the audit documents, which formed the basis of the article.

You can also read more detailed case studies of the illegal procurements, expenditure without supportive documentation, excess payments etc etc on this page of this blog

Summary
The first article deals with audits of the first two years of the $3.1 billion five-year Health Population and Nutrition Sector Development Programme in Bangladesh, which started in 2011 and which is implemented by the ministry of health.

Two thirds of the money in the programme is provided by a loan from the World Bank and by international donors.

The article reports that in in just one year, 2012/13, the financial audit identified $70 million of irregular expenditure - this is one fifth of the total $321 million spent on the programme that year. However, since $100 million of the expenditure was not audited, the amount of financial irregularities in fact amounts to one third of the audited expenditure.

The article reports on an analysis of the Audit undertaken by New Age which fount that:
- improper procurement of goods, amounted to $29 million (Tk 224 crore),
- no document to support legitimacy of programe payouts amounted to $18 million (Tk 139 crore) 
- Unauthorised expenditure amounted to $12.1 million (Tk 94 crore) ,
- Excess or ‘useless’ spending added up to a further $6.8 million (Tk 52 crore)

The government and the arrest of RAB officers

In a number of recent articles - here and here - I have written about the different way in which Bangladesh's High Court dealt with cases involving extra judicial killings in 2006 and 2009 on the one hand and 2014 on the other - and also the state's different response.

Whilst in the 2006 and 2009, for one reason or the other, the cases basically went nowhere, the situation was different in 2014 - with one court ordering the establishment of an inquiry committee into the Narayanganj killings and another court directing the arrest of three RAB officers who were allegedly involved in the deaths.

One article on the different judicial approaches is set out below - along with links to the four orders. It should be noted of course, that  the risk of the application of Bangladesh's Contempt of Court laws does circumscribe what would otherwise be instructive and useful analysis.

The Government and the RAB arrests
However, another interesting aspect of the 2014 recent High Court orders - and in particular the one relating to the arrest of the RAB officers - was how the prime minister and law minister responded.

RAB, party hypocrisy and impunity

An op-ed article I recently wrote for New Age about Rapid Action Battalion's extra judicial killings (also reproduced below) drew heavily on four reports written by Human Rights Watch - and I would highly recommend anyone interested in Rapid Action Batallion to read them. Local human rights organizations - Ain-o-Salish Kendra and Odhikar - have also done fine work on RAB, and conducted many investigations; but in these four reports HRW has summarised the case against RAB, and summarised their     investigations into an easily accessible form. 

The four reports are:
2006 - Judge, Jury, and Executioner: Torture and Extrajudicial Killings by Bangladesh’s 
           Elite Security
2011 - 'Crossfire': Continued Human Rights Abuses by Bangladesh’s Rapid Action Battalion

2013 - Blood on the Streets: The Use of Excessive Force During Bangladesh Protests 

2014 - Democracy in the Crossfire: Opposition Violence and Government Abuses in the 2014 
           Pre- and Post- Election Period in Bangladesh

Sajeeb's attack on Prothom Alo

In case you missed it, last week Sajeeb Wajed, the Bangladesh prime minister’s son, laid into the country’s most popular newspaper, Prothom Alo. He stated:

"I am shocked that Prothom Alo, our largest Bengali newspaper, referred to our War of Liberation as an India-Pakistan war. By doing so they have insulted the memories of 3 million martyrs who were brutally murdered during the war. I consider this a heinous offence and those responsible must be sacked immediately.

It, however, does not surprise me. If you will recall, during the military regime from 2007-2008 Prothom Alo quite openly backed the dictatorship. They have proven time and again that they do not believe in democracy.

Now they have proven that they do not even believe in Bangladesh. Let us boycott Prothom Alo and send them a message. We will oppose anyone who does not support Bangladesh.”

On the most flimsy grounds, Sajeeb seeks to portray as ‘anti-national’ the country’s most popular, professionally run and independently minded newspaper.

Abduction of husband of leading environmental activist

Very shocking indeed that Abu Bakar Siddique, the husband of the country's leading environmental campaigner, Rizwana Hasan has been abducted earlier today in broad daylight.

Whilst one should not jump to conclusions, it is difficult not to suspect that the motive behind the abduction is linked to Rizwana's brave work against corporate and business interests - most recently around land-grabbing. Her work at the Bangladesh Environmental Lawyers Association has no doubt made her many enemies - and this abduction could well be about sending her a clear message to desist. Unfortunately, in Bangladesh corporate interests are very able, if they wish, to buy off state bodies - so the involvement of law enforcement agencies cannot be discounted.

Let us hope that however that the law enforcement agencies are not involved in this incident, and they can work sincerely and speedily to find Abu Baker.

Here is the human right's organization Odhikar's statement on the abduction

Odhikar Statement on:
Abduction of Abu Bakar Siddique,

Husband of BELA Executive Director, Rizwana Hasan

Syeda Rizwana Hasan is the Executive Director of the Bangladesh Environmental Lawyer’s Association and the recipient of the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 2012 for her "uncompromising courage and impassioned leadership in a campaign of judicial activism in Bangladesh that affirms the people’s right to a good environment as nothing less than their right to dignity and life". She has battled against illegal encroachment, land grabbing, industrial pollution and other illegal acts affecting the environment. Needless to say, she and her family have experienced threats from various quarters affected by her activities.

On 16 April 2014, unidentified men abducted Abu Bakar Siddique, the husband of Syeda Rizwana Hasan and a businessman, from Fatulla in Narayanganj, while he was travelling to Dhaka from Narayanganj by car. The vehicle the men were in, hit his car near Bhuiyan Filling Station in Fatulla at around 2:45pm. When Siddique and the driver of his car, Ripon, alighted to assess the damage, the men sprayed something into Ripon’s eyes, blinding him, and took Siddique away.

In recent times, human rights defenders in Bangladesh; and their family members have come under monitoring, faced threats and intimidation by agents of the state and/or other influential entities. Where human rights and fundamental freedoms are already in a deplorable condition, Odhikar considers the abduction of Abu Bakar Siddique a crime that needs immediate and urgent intervention by the local and international human rights community. Odhikar urges the government to take all measures to ensure the safe recovery of Siddique and return him to his family.

The Odhikar Team

16 April 2014

Move to get an International Criminal Court investigation into state violence

On 1 December 2013, the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, Navi Pillay pointed out in a press statement that Bangladesh was a State Party to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and added

“In other situations, we have seen cases of political or election related violence where the perpetrators of such acts - including political leadership - have faced prosecution.”

Although it was generally interpreted at the time as a warning to both the government and the opposition, the press statement had in fact only referred to opposition violence, stating earlier on that:

“In the past week, we have seen acts as extreme as protestors throwing molotov cocktails onto public buses without allowing the occupants to escape, leaving women and children with horrific burns.”

Whatever Pillay's intention may have been, today marked the first formal attempt by lawyers to get the ICC to engage with Bangladesh.

Media coverage of parliament's first day

The front pages of Bangladesh's English language newspapers published on Thursday morning, the day after the first day of parliament, provide an interesting indication of how the media is likely to respond to the country's new government and in particular its parliament.

The editors of New Age, Daily Star and Dhaka Tribune have all been highly critical of the 'elections' calling them a 'farce' or using similar such descriptive language. (I have not followed the editorial lines of the Independent or the Sun, the other two relevant English language papers.)

Yet, apart from New Age*, you would barely know that there was any questions about the legitimacy of the new parliament.

A look at political violence in Bangladesh

With the 5 January 2014 'elections' unable to provide the government the requisite political or moral legitimacy to govern the country, Awami league politicians have focused on shoring up their right to govern by pointing to the need to deal with 'terrorism' committed by the opposition parties as shown by the pre-election vehicle burning and post-election communal attacks.

This strategy has also had the added benefit of helping the government to help justify the joint force operations to remove 'terrorism' from the country, which has since the elections resulted in a spate of deaths of opposition leaders and activists.

The Awami League has of course every right to criticise the opposition parties for their apparent role in a political pre-election strategy which resulted in the burning to death of at least 25 members of the public. And whilst, it is unlikely that the communal attacks on Hindu villages were part of any opposition political strategy, it seems clear that the opposition party members/supporters were involved in many of the attacks - and at the very least both the Bangladesh Nationalist Party and the Jamaat-e-Islami can be held responsible for their failure to reign in their supporters from what were pretty foreseeable acts of violence.

That being said it is also important to recognise the nature of state violence.

Did the European Parliament get it right?

The European Parliament passed a resolution on Thursday 16 January 2014, which was wide-ranging. The full text is set out below. Underneath the text, I have set out a number of comments. 

The European Parliament,
– having regard to its resolutions on Bangladesh, in particular those of 21 November 2013 on Bangladesh: human rights and forthcoming elections(1) , of 23 May 2013 on labour conditions and health and safety standards following the recent factory fires and building collapse in Bangladesh(2) , of 14 March 2013 on the situation in Bangladesh(3) , and of 17 January 2013 on recent casualties in textile factory fires, notably in Bangladesh(4) ,
– having regard to the Declaration by High Representative Catherine Ashton on behalf of the European Union on the Legislative Elections in Bangladesh of 9 January 2014 and the Statement by High Representative Catherine Ashton on the preparation for general elections in Bangladesh of 30 November 2013,

European Union, the GSP and a 'serious and systematic violation' of human rights principles?

This post follows through from my article today in the New Age newspaper
---------------------------------

Article 25 of the International Covenant of Civil and Political Rights states:

Every citizen shall have the right ....
(b) To vote and to be elected at genuine periodic elections which shall be by universal and equal suffrage and shall be held by secret ballot, guaranteeing the free expression of the will of the electors;

The UN Human Right Committee is the body established to monitor state's compliance with the covenant, and it produces General Statements which are rulings on legal interpretation of articles in the covenant. In 1996 it published such a statement on the meaning of Article 25. This states, inter alia, that the right to vote

‘lies at the core of a democratic government based on the consent of the people’ and that states must take steps to ensure that ‘citizens have an effective opportunity to enjoy’ it.

Sajeeb Wazed, transcript of interview with foreign journalists

On 6 January, immediately after Sheikh Hasina, the prime minister gave a formal interview with foreign journalists, at Gono Bhavan, Sajeeb Wajed (her son, possibly leader in waiting, and key organiser of the Awami League election campaign) entered the room, and started talking to a small group of journalists, which I joined after a few minutes. A short news report on this is set out here.

Here is an audio recording and transcript of the impromptu press conference that took place is below. To see a 'fact-check' and my comments about what was said, see here

Please note that small sections of the audio are not good, but those parts last for only a few seconds.

Sajeeb Wazed's interview: fact check and commentary

This is a 'fact check' and commentary on the impromptu press conference which Sajeeb Wazed, the prime minister's son and a key member of the Awami League campaign team, conducted with a number of of foreign journalists on 6 January, the day after the election, and immediately after the press conference given by the prime minister.

You can read and hear the whole interview here, and a news report here.

The numbers at the beginning of the paragraphs blow refers back to the interview transcript

A1: Dialogue and terrorism: Is it right for Sajeeb to blame lack of proper dialogue on BNP? In my view neither party was that interested in dialogue. But Khaleda Zia’s failure to take up Hasina’s offer to come to her house, referred to by Sajeeb, was a significant failure (as I said at the time) – and the AL can rightfully point to this as an indicator of a reluctance on the part of the BNP to find a solution to the impasse other than one which involved total victory on its part.

He goes onto say, ‘If the other party is not willing to engage and purely focus on terrorism, then there is nothing you can do.’ This suggests that AL had been willing to dialogue when there were no hartals and sieges (which was most of 2013 until the end of October – which was when the hartals started again) but this was not the case.