[Bangladesh2024 Campaign] 21. Politics of fear

Bangladesh's Monsoon Revolution began as a protest by university students against the quota system, and turned into a civil disobedience movement that toppled Hasina's authoritarian dictatorship.

https://teameye.tistory.com/717

[방글라데시2024캠페인] 8. "몬순 혁명과 저항의 언어" by 무스타인 빌라 자히르

 

According to Mr. Mustain Zahir, the Monsoon Revolution succeeded because Bangladeshi citizens overcame their fears. Speaking at the Global Forum of the KDF, he said.

 

“From the middle of July, day in and day out the whole country woke up to incidents of one senseless killing after the other. The more she was killing, the bigger the number of protesters grew. It was a pivotal moment in the country’s history, as for the first time in her 15 years of authoritarian rule, no amount of terror was working and suddenly fear evaporated from the minds of the people.”

 

 

The terrorism of the Hasina regime that Mr. Zahir refers to is "enforced disappearances" and "extrajudicial killings." Enforced disappearance is when a civilian is arrested and detained by the state without a court warrant. Extrajudicial killing is when a civilian is killed by the state without a judicial process.

https://teameye.tistory.com/719

[방글라데시2024캠페인] 9. "강제 실종과 사법외 살인" by 모스피쿠르 라흐만 조한

 

According to an August 28, 2024 article in Dhaka's English-language <Daily Star>, at least 708 people were enforced disappeared during Hasina's rule from 2009 to June 2024. That's an average of 50 people a year.

https://www.thedailystar.net/news/bangladesh/news/enforced-disappearance-govt-sets-inquiry-commission-3688236

Enforced disappearance: Govt sets up inquiry commission

 

The same article reported that the U.S. government was also aware that more than 600 civilians had been enforced disappeared by Bangladesh's military and intelligence agencies since 2009, and that about 600 had been killed extrajudicially since 2018.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUILCXGGoHY&list=PLzGHKb8i9vTzpnW8O6IltNSAzQcy4WotT&index=3 (8/11/2024)

 

Over the course of several meetings, the Bangladesh delegation reported more than 1,500 cases of enforced disappearances and 4,400 extrajudicial killings under the Hasina regime, an average of about 300 people a year killed by state agents.

 

 

Shortly after Hasina's resignation on August 5, 2024, enforced disappeared persons held in more than 30 secret detention centers scattered across Bangladesh, began to be partially released. <Al Jazeera> interviewed three of them on September 22, 2024: a lawyer, an army officer, and a journalist.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lyrOJSPMzxY&list=PLzGHKb8i9vTypuKYbe3lNJQRElyr03QKV (2024/9/22)

 

They were enforced disappeared for as little as 87 days and as long as eight years before being released with Hasina's resignation, apparently only because they were prominent figures and were detained rather than killed.

 

There were also 25,000 injuries during Hasina's regime, the most brutal of which were kneecappings. This is when police shoot protesters in the knees, crippling them.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ci42RSNt5E0&t=1s

 

<Human Rights Watch> reported that on September 29, 2016, journalist Afzal Hossain, who was covering a protest, was shot in the knee by police firing and was rushed to hospital, but three of the eight shrapnel fragments could not be removed, leaving him a cripple. Human Rights Watch added that knee injuries caused by police firing are intentional and the number of victims is increasing rapidly.

 

 

The people of Bangladesh were well aware that opposing the Hasina regime would result in death, imprisonment, or disability. They had to look the other way when elections were rigged and corruption was perpetrated because of that fear.

 

But as the Monsoon Revolution of July 2024 progressed, Bangladeshis overcame their fear of the Hasina regime and joined the protests in full force. More than 1,500 more people were killed and nearly 30,000 more were injured, but they finally ended the Hasina regime.

 

 

Hasina's reign of terror was reminiscent of that of Park Chung-hee and Chun Doo-hwan. The victims of the Dongbaeklim, Inhyukdang, and Mincheonghakryeon cases were forcibly disappeared and tortured to death. Park Jong-chul and Woo Jong-won were extrajudicially murdered during their enforced disappearances, and Lee Han-yeol was killed during a protest.

 

 

While their cases were later documented by the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the number of victims who died without any record remains unknown.

 

 

Bangladesh's official name is the "People's Republic of Bangladesh," and enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings of citizens have no place in a democracy, yet the Hasina regime used them as a means to maintain power.

 

 

The success of the Monsoon Revolution has ensured that the country will not follow in South Korea's footsteps. The transitional government has established a commission to investigate enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings, and is working to establish a full accounting of citizens killed, missing, and injured under the Hasina regime.

 

The more accurate the investigation, and the more certain it is that those responsible will be punished, the less likely it is that the politics of fear will be repeated. (jc, 11/21/2024)