Democracies maintain checks and balances in various ways in the current interdependent global system. Sanctions or embargoes on the part of powerful countries play a role in keeping wayward countries on the right track. Freedom of speech, human rights, freedom of political actions, the right to elect representatives of the people, and the right to hold the ruler accountable for his mistakes are recognized rights of modern civilization. When the people of a country are deprived of these rights, their voices are stifled, their freedom of speech and human rights are denied, and the international community cannot remain silent. If the democratic world wants to free the control of a fascist ruler like in Bangladesh and cooperate in establishing the rights of the common people, the democratic countries must stand on the side of liberating the people.
The reader must be aware of the characteristics of a democratic government and the characteristics of a dictatorial fascist one. In a democratic system of government, the needs and opinions of the people are reflected, and in a dictatorial fascist system, the will and interests of individuals and groups are reflected. The Sheikh Hasina government is essentially a dictatorial and fascist government. Sheikh Hasina’s government, which has been in power without a vote, has not committed any wrongdoing. Against the will of the people, the fascist Hasina and her fascist government are sitting like a stone on the people of Bangladesh. International sanctions against Sheikh Hasina and her fascist regime are the need of the hour and this article will try to shed light on why the international community should impose this ban.
Let us first discuss the Pilkhana massacre. Soon after the Awami League government came to power on December 29, 2008, on February 25 and 26, 2009, army officers at the Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) headquarters were killed. In this murder, 57 patriotic officers were brutally killed. The massacre transformed this force, a symbol of the defense of an independent sovereignty into a supporter of fascism. That Sheikh Hasina and her son Sajib Wazed Joy were directly involved in this murder is clearly understood from one of Joy’s writings. Before the Pilkhana massacre, Joy said in a newspaper published in New York, USA that Islamic militants were being inducted into the Bangladesh Army and the Bangladesh paramilitary forces. He went on to state that revenge must be taken against it and action must be taken against it. On that day, the army was standing like a statue in front of the Pilkhana with all the equipment of war. Only because of Hasina’s lack of permission, the army could not take any action to protect these 57 patriots.
In the second phase, the fascist Awami League government carried out judicial killings of top-level leaders of Bangladesh Jamaat-e-Islami by labeling them as “razakar” (collaborator), “anti-freedom” and “anti-humanity”. Sheikh Hasina had taken the first step in silencing the opposition voices through this trial by fabricating charges of crimes against humanity.
In 2010, the so-called International Criminal Tribunal was set up to achieve this nefarious purpose of the government. Thousands of people were arrested. Hundreds of people were killed by police firing indiscriminately during the peaceful protest march of the people of the country after the verdict of the death sentence of Amir Delwar Hussain Sayedi, the head of the party.
The most brutal massacre of independent Bangladesh occurred on May 5, 2013, when the police, the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) jointly carried out a massacre of Hefazet-e-Islam in the Shapla Chattar area of the capital. This operation was named “Operation Secure Shapla”. Although 69 people were killed according to the government , the real number is closer to a thousand. This authoritarian government took a step further by brutally killing an essentially peaceful assembly.
Another major misdeed of Sheikh Hasina’s government is the disappearance, murder and torture of people of opposing views with its pet army. For her misdeeds, the United States imposed sanctions on the RAB, also known as Bangladesh’s elite force, and six of its officers in December of 2021 for its “involvement in serious human rights violations”. According to the United States, RAB and other law enforcement agencies have been responsible for nearly 600 extrajudicial killings, more than 600 disappearances, and torture since 2009. The Awami League government has been denying these allegations in its characteristic manner.
Sheikh Hasina’s government knows that if a democratic process is launched, if there is a fair election system, she and her party will be thrown into the abyss. It is due to this that she has completely killed the electoral system through night time vote robberies in 2014 and 2018. A logical question to ask here is: does a “democratic” state’s grip on power by killing the very foundations of democracy deserve sanctions?
We know that the media acts as a mirror of a state and that it is the fourth pillar of a democratic country, highlighting the faults of the government. But, Hasina has kept the media under control and even the media of neutral and opposing ideologies have been strangled. Sheikh Hasina illegally shut down popular media outlets like Channel One, Digant Television, Islamic TV, and Ammar Desh, outlets which exposed the misdeeds of the government. The Awami League government also jailed journalists.
Hasina has made her arbitrariness more evident by sending the country’s former Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia to jail on trumped-up charges of embezzlement. Although Begum Zia was imprisoned for a long time, Hasina allowed her to stay in her residence subject to the condition of “humanitarian grounds.”
Sheikh Hasina has been completely successful in suppressing people’s voices and freedom of speech. The common people of the country are now in such a state that there is a body but no soul. One of the many reasons for this is a variety of repressive laws. The Digital Security Act 2018 is one of them. The law was originally introduced to prevent criticism of the government’s misdeeds on social media. There are also the Communications Technology Act 2006 (amended 2013), the Anti-Terrorism Act 2009 and the Special Powers Ordinance ’74. Through these black laws, this authoritarian government has spread absolute fear among the people of the country.
During the massacre of the Awami League government in Bogra, North Bengal on February 1, 2013, the government carried out a gruesome massacre of innocent people, killing hundreds. Apart from this, there were the killings of the southern district of Satkhira. In December of 2013, the RAB, police and the BGB, the government’s nefarious instruments, carried out a massacre. There are also serious allegations that the army of neighboring India was involved in the killings.
Also, the authoritarian Hasina government extrajudicially killed 2,669 innocent people in a dramatic manner. Along with that, there are numerous incidents like rape, torture of women, money laundering abroad in the name of development, bank robbery, stock market scam, etc.
The people of the country continued to fight democratically with all their might to free the country from the grip of this fascist ruler. It is impossible to sustain a democratic movement for a long time at the point of a gun. It is now impossible to overthrow this fascist government in a democratic way because all the doors of democracy are closed today. By instinct, people will choose violent means of liberation unless the door of democracy is opened.
Thus, the people of Bangladesh’s appeal to the international community is to force this fascist regime to open the doors of democracy in order to continue the democratic process in a free world. Otherwise, the responsibility of a future violent Bangladesh will fall on the shoulders of the international community. It must decide: does it want another North Korea or Myanmar?
*The writer is a researcher and published author.
February 9, 2023
The viewpoints expressed by the authors do not necessarily reflect the opinions, viewpoints and editorial policies of Aequitas Review.
