Will our elected govt tell us what is happening?

- Mahfuz Anam

Editor, The Daily Star, Bangladesh

Led by nearly 20,000 troops, army, navy, BDR, police and ansar (an auxiliary force) are in a joint operation to rid the country of criminals. More than 3,000 persons have been arrested. Ten people have died in mysterious circumstances during or following army interrogation. Check-posts have been set up in many inter-district routes where army personnel stop, question and search vehicles, perform body search, occasionally mete out instant punishment for not complying quickly enough with their orders and, in some cases, humiliate passengers of motorcycles, buses and other vehicles. In cities, house-to-house searches have been conducted in some areas, occupants picked up for questioning (some returned within hours and others not even in days) and all types of vehicles, including cars of ministers and high officials, not to mention public representatives, have been randomly stopped and searched. All this has been happening for the last 12 days (army operation started on October 17) and yet except for a daily diet of logistical information nothing substantial has been told to the people. Unbelievable as it may sound, there has been no official communication and no public announcement as to the circumstances under which the government felt compelled to call out the army. Did the government completely lose confidence in the established machinery? Were all other options in containing crime exhausted? Doesn't the government owe the public any explanation for this drastic step? In democracy "People's Right to Know' is fundamental. How far is that right being honoured? To the best of our knowledge, no gazette notification has been issued or made available to the press or the public. Obviously, some official document exists but why is it not being shared with the public? Yes, there were a few post-operation public speeches by the prime minister and ministers in which some general comments were made to the effect that the army has come to the aid of the civil administration in catching criminals. However, nothing has been said under what legal framework the army action is to take pace. Here we would like to recall that during the luncheon for journalists (with some editors present) on the eve of Sheb-e-Barat (October 21) one editor specifically asked the PM about the legal cover of the army operation and why the public was not given any information about it. When the PM replied that there was an official order about it, in a chorus many of us said we never saw it. She ordered the document to be given to the press and one of her senior political staff promised to send it the next day. NOTHING HAS BEEN RECEIVED TILL DATE. There is virtually no communication between the government and the public at this point. There is no body in the government assigned to answer the queries of the press or the public. High-ups in the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) do not answer any question and speak only when they wish and on topics of their own choice. The home ministry has stopped its briefing and now confines itself to sending press releases. It also refuses to entertain questions from journalists. The army high command does not speak to the press or answer any question. The ISPR sends a daily account of how many arrested, how many arms recovered, what their types are, etc. They do not entertain questions either. So where do the public and the press go for answers? How can a democratic government be so silent? How can an elected government shut itself to the press in such a manner? One of the fundamental components of democracy - accountability of the government - appears totally absent at the moment. Let us start with the issue of deaths during and after interrogation. We reject the 'heart attack' explanation. The authorities are insulting our intelligence by uttering such absurdities. Except for that ridiculous one liner, nothing about those who died has been made public. Serious questions surrounding these deaths are plaguing the public mind. It is frightening them, a feeling they should never have in a democracy. Newspaper offices are flooded with readers' questions like what were the exact circumstances of death, how and where the victims were being interrogated and for how long, what specifically were they suspected of, what was the evidence in the army's hand that resulted in the interrogation in the first place, who were present during the interrogation, etc. We are told that the army is following a list on the basis of which they are picking up people. Well, how has that list been prepared? How authentic is it? Is there one list, or several? If so, who are the authors of the various lists? How much effort has been put to make that list authentic? Can we rule out settling of scores and the army being used for it? In villages and in rural towns falsely implicating a rival is an old custom. Most importantly, did we not establish democracy to do away with the whole culture of secret lists? Our job is not to sympathise with the criminals nor to plead for the guilty but to protect the innocent. What if one, two, three or more of those who have died were innocent or simply accessory to the crimes or, even worse, only circumstantially, not substantially, implicated. Did they deserve to die? The al-Qaida terrorist captured by the US soldiers are being denied many of their rights at the Guantanamo Bay prison for which the US is being rightly criticised. But at least they are not having 'heart attacks' after interrogation. The suspected Washington DC area sniper accused of 10 cold-blooded murders through single sniper shots will NOT die, we believe, during interrogation. Why? Because civilisation guarantees that. We are part of that civilisation. We have rightly expressed our outrage at the Time magazine's unfounded story and expressed worry about our image. What image will we have when the international media will report that in Bangladesh people die during interrogation, without being accused, without proof and without a chance to defend themselves - just on the basis of some list, whose preparation might have been terribly flawed? It may be said that interrogations are not public events and as such cannot be disclosed. Agreed. But once someone dies in the process then it has to be investigated and made public. That is how justice is guaranteed. And what is democracy if there is no justice? Then there is another set of urgent questions that needs to be answered. How are our FUNDAMENTAL RIGHTS being protected? On Sunday I was at a wedding where a Daily Star reader asked me, "What happens if I am picked up for questioning on my way home? What sort of legal protections do I have at the moment? What happens if the questioning person(s) do not believe me and consider me a suspect just because I look similar to somebody, or happened to have been in an area at a time when some incident took place or some influential person put my name in a list, which I have never seen or will never see, because of business, political or financial rivalry? He insisted, "Isn't my fate completely dependent on my interrogators who may or may not choose to believe me?" Will the government please answer these questions?