Editorial
On the wrong side of Human Rights, again
Govt. did not listen when we reported the same facts, will it listen now?
There is practically nothing in the State Department's report on human rights and related issues in Bangladesh that has not previously been reported by the national press. All of the incidents and facts mentioned have repeatedly appeared in the local media followed by editorials and commentaries as to the national and international repercussions of such a state of affairs. What is perhaps new in the State Department's report is a comprehensive presentation of those facts. And the other difference is that they are coming from the US government and not us. Given our habit of denying all charges of failure or of non-performance, we will not be surprised if such be our government's response to these latest charges of human rights abuse. However we would certainly hope that this time around the government will take the points raised in the report somewhat seriously and look into ways of mitigating them. We should not continue with our ostrich like habit of thinking that the world cannot see what is going on in our country just because we refuse to see them. Time has not yet come to expect that our government's standard of human rights performance will match those of the west. We accept that. But we definitely can expect that our own standard be matched if not improved upon. Do we really need to have 194 people die in custody of the law enforcers and then have absolutely no accountability for their action? These, mind you, are only the reported ones. Do we need to use police for political purposes as has become the habit now? Why are journalists having to indulge in widespread practice of self-censorship, not to mention some getting killed and many being threatened? Government will be ill advised to go on a denial mode and restrict its response to the situation to issuing a statement rejecting the report and terming it to be based on inadequate investigation and data, a likely scenario. It is our view that the report, more or less, reflects the situation on the ground. In fact it can be held guilty of couching some facts and cushioning some assessment with diplomatic language. The facts, in some cases, are harsher still. The government's treatment of the opposition in the last few days reveals more about our situation than the report does. We will be wise to take the report seriously and try to address the issues raised in it. Such a course of action will be the only intelligent and constructive way of moving forward.
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