Press
Release
For
Immediate Release
New
York
March
17, 2014
BHBCUC, USA’s Meeting with the US
Ambassador to Bangladesh,
His Excellency Dan W. Mozena Held
Dear Minority Rights Advocates/Activists:
Bangladesh Hindu Buddhist & Christian Unity Council,
USA is held a meeting with the US Ambassador to Dhaka the Honorable Dan W.
Mozena on Sunday, March 16, 2014 at the Gulshan Terrace of Woodside,
Queens, New York City. Ambassador Mozena accompanied by two Department
of State officials, Dr. Erick Eide and Mr. Christopher Elms, arrived promptly
at 9: 45 AM and were greeted by 350 to 400 members of the Bangladeshi-Americans
belonging to various Hindu, Buddhist and Christian organizations, a dozen print
media and TV cameras (BHBCUC, USA apologizes to the scores of people who,
responding to our invitation, enthusiastically came there braving the Sunday
morning cold to express their solidarity with the victims of religious &
ethnic cleansing in Bangladesh and let the Hon. Ambassador know that America
must act to protect them).
Seated on the stage were the three co-presidents of the
organization Dr. Jiten Roy, Mr. Julius Gomez and Mr. Ranabir Barua, the
Honorable Ambassador Mozena and the two other State Department officials: Dr.
Erick Eide and Mr. Christopher Elms. And, the meeting was very efficiently
conducted by the organization’s Vice Chairman/Board of Director and an
articulate speaker Mr. Bidyut Das.
The meeting started with Anandita offering the ambassador
a bouquet of flowers and President Julius Gomez offering him a gift on behalf
of BHBCUC, USA.
Figure
1Ambassador Mozena with Presidents Dr. Jiten Roy & Mr. Julius Gomez
|
Ambassador Mozena was introduced by young Attorney Rakesh
Roy and Professor Dastidar by Mr. Akash Das, an intern of BHBCUC, USA. All the
presentations were supported by relevant Power Point slides containing pictures
portraying atrocities as well as data, which were prepared and/or projected on
the screen simultaneously with the speech by BHBCUC, USA Advisor Mr. Ranjit
Roy.
The speakers included Distinguished Professor of
SUNY Old Westbury Campus, Dr. Sachi Ghosh Dastidar, Dr. Dwijen Bhattacharjya, Lecturer
in Bengali/Columbia University, Mr. Amit Chowdhury, Director Policy,
Mr. Rup Kumar Bhowmick, Director Communications & Publications, and
Ms. Sathi Roy.
Following the welcome address by Mr. Amit Chowdhury,
Director Policy, Mr. Rup Kumar Bhowmuck, Director of Communications &
Publications, apprised the audience of the fact that BHBCUC, USA was a
politically non-aligned Human Rights advocacy group, focused only on helping
the religious & ethnic minorities of Bangladesh regain their equal rights
and the right to live in their ancestral homeland, Bangladesh, with human
dignity and safety of life and property. He pointed out that this organization
brutally honest when it comes to presenting facts about which political party
or its leaders & cadres have played what role in this on-going
state-sponsored campaign of religious & ethnic cleansing in Bangladesh.
In presenting the Position Paper on behalf of the
organization, Dr. Bhattacharjya ( henceforth “the paper”) started out by
arguing that the vicious campaign of blatant discrimination and religious &
ethnic cleansing that has raged in Bangladesh for decades, has been a state
sponsored, goal-oriented and targeted campaign. The paper substantiated the
claim by citing Kennedy Report of November 1971, Sydney Shanberg’s (NY Times
Dhaka correspondent in 1971 who is world famous for his role in “Killing
Field”) reports, both of which says that particularly the Hindus were targeted
in 1971 – their houses were marked “H,” reminiscent of what the Nazis did to
the Jewish population during World War-II.
Then by referring as well as showing in slides such
notices served by the Islamists’ as “Leave Bangladesh or face dire
consequences,” “Islam has been declared state religion, and therefore you must
convert to Islam or leave the country,” “Hindus must convert to Islam if they
want to vote., etc.,” including in January 2014, the paper argued that the
campaign has always been driven by the Islamic nationalist’s and extremists
goal of ridding the country of its minorities through violence.
By describing select heart rending cases of atrocities
that occurred between 1988 and 2014, e.g., that of the Logang Massacre of the
indigenous people on April 10, 1992 by Prime Minister Begum Zia’s armed forces
and Muslim settlers (referring to the letter that 17 US Congressmen wrote Prime
Minister Begum Zia expressing concern it was stated that 600 residents of that
village were systematically killed after raping their women and looting their
dwelling houses), the Banskhali Massacre, the slaughtering of the
internationally famous Buddhist monk Gnanajyoti Mahasthabir, Principal Muhuri,
the celebration of their election victory by the cadres of BNP and Jamaat-
e- Islami by raping 200 girls in one night (The Daily Star Editorial),
and the case of rape-murder where they urinated in the mouth of dying person
begin for a drop of water, the paper further argued that when the deadly
combination of BNP and Jamaat-E- Islami returns to power
Bangladesh becomes a “killing field” for its minorities as well as the secular
Muslims (the case of the cadres of BNP gang raping a secular Muslim girl after
their election victory in 2001 was cited).
Although everything that was included in the Position
Paper was shown in the Power Point slides along with the presentation, the Hon.
Ambassador was also provided two books: one our own publication Bangladesh:
a portrait of covert Genocide (2004) and Professor Barakat’s book (about
the effects of Enemy Property Act on the minorities), in which such
documents as the letter that 17 US Congressmen wrote to Begum Zia in November
1992, expressing concern over the Logang Massacre, the Kennedy Report of 1971,
the Shanberg Report, American Taliabn John Walker Lindh’s interview with CNN On
Line etc., were conspicuously flagged.
Referring to Professor Barakat’s resercah the paper Dr.
Bhattacharjya told the audience that BNP and Awami League both seized the
highest quantiy of peroperty during the time they were in power, and, thus,
there is little difference among parties when it comes to minority
persecution/cleansing.
Upon firmly establishing that the minorities have been
persecuted regardless of which party has been in power, varying only in terms
of the degree of intensity, the paper argued that while the goal of the Islamic
extremists ( Jamaat, Shibieer and its allies) behind this campaign has been to
(i) rid the country of its “infidel” population, i.e., the Hindus, Buddhists
and Christian including the indigenous peoples, so the country could be turned
into a monolithic Islamic; the goal of the Islamic nationalist BNP has been
also been the same for a different reason: reduce Awami League’s vote bank by
14%, so it could never win the parliamentary election again. The Awami League’s
goal has been totally different -- by not preventing or stopping pogroms by
using the the police or armed forces, when the attacks are conducted against
the minorities, it has always wanted to show the world how evil BNP and
Jamaat-E- Islami are. Thus, to all the parties the minorities are simply an
expandable commodity, and not human beings like them.
The paper then pointed out how BNP reinstated the killers
and murderers of 1971 into politics and started the process of Islamizing
Bangladesh through the passage of the 5th amendment and how Lt.
General Ershad firmly established Islam as the state religion through the 8th
Amendment, thus rendering the minorities as 2nd rate citizens and
other religions as less important. It also pointed out that Awami League and
its so called secularist allies put a permanent seal on the issue by
reaffirming what Lt. General Ershad had done to the minorities by passing the 8th
Amendment or the State Religion bill. Dr. Bhatatcharjya argued that by taking
this unthinkable backward action Awami League reverted to its original
character that it had when it was born as the Awami Muslim League.
The paper further argued that Bangladesh experienced an
astronomical rise in Islamic militancy during the BNP-Jamaat rule between 2001
and 2006. It pointed out that Prime Minister Begum Zia - Nijami’s government
provided shelter to the shipload of Al-Qaeda soldiers who entered Bangladesh by
M. V. Mecca after the fall of Kandahar.
By citing the American Taliabn John Walker Lindh’s interview
with CNN On Line, the paper pointed out that they sent a full Brigade of
Bangalee jihadists to Afghanistan to fight alongside Bin Laden’s’ Ansar
Al Islam and the Urdu speaking Pakistani brigade. He clearly told the
Ambassador that the combination of BNP and Jamaat is lethal one, which brought
Bangladesh to the brink of being turned into a semi Taliban state. The paper
citing two famous reports established that Islamic Chatra Shibeer is the
third most danger non-governmental armed terrorist group in the world and hence
must be banned along with Jamaat-E- Islamic, which is its funding
source.
He said that in 1971 it is today’s leaders of the
Jamaat-E-Islami who collborated w ith the pakistani army in the killing of 3
million unarmed civilians raping of 200, 000 women and the exodus of nealry 10
million people to India, majority of whom were minorities. Pointing out that a
lot is being said about the trial of the War Criminals, but BHBCUC, USA holds
the postion that if anyone is found guilty of crime agsint humanity in during
the war or afterwards, that person must be brought to justice like the Nazis
are being tried and punished if found.
The paper also pointed out how the minorities were
shocked and stunned again and again by the centrist party of Awami League
and its secular democratic allies. This included reference to the Father of the
nation Bangobondhu’s refusal to return the Ramna Kali Temple to the Hindus
after liberation, deliberate failure to to repeal the Enemy Property Act
(thus allowing successive government seize 2.8 million acres of land from the
minorities), and create Hindu, Buddhist and Christian Foundations along with
the Islamic Foundations that he had created through legislation.
He criticized the Bangobondhu government for looking the
other way when the Islamic nationalists & extremists desecrated deities and
temples during the Durga Pooja in October 1972, thus signaling to the Islamists
that minority persecution was all right in secular democratic Bangladesh as it
had been in Islamic Pakistan.
The paper accused Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s
government for all the above plus her failure to prosecute the perpetrators of
crime against the minorities despite the existence Shahabuddin Commissions’
report which lists thousands of them.
He also pointed out how it took decades before the
minorities got access to the Ramna Kali Temple and finally repeal the Enemy or
Vested Property Act, under tremendous international pressure, which was still
an exercise in chicanery in that the losers of property , unlike the Jews of
Nazi Germany or the Armenians of Turkey, cannot reclaim their property. He also
criticized Prime Minister Hasina for her failure failure to take decades before
addressing the issues only under tremendous international pressure (e.g.
rebuilding the Buddhists Temples under international pressure but not the
hundreds of Hindu Temples that have been destroyed). The position Paper also
criticized Prime Minister Hasina for her failure to implement the Chittagong
Hill Tracts Peace Accord of 1997 that she herself had signed.
The paper pointed out that although whenever a minority
candidate was nominated they won the parliamentary election, e.g., 14 in the
2008 election, the centrist Awami League and its allies refuse to nominate
them, and that there is not single cabinet minister in the current cabinet,
whereas in India there have been several Muslim Presidents and even the current
External Affairs Minister is a Muslim.
The paper pointed out that due to the campaign of
discrimination and atrocities there has been an exodus of 16 million minorities
to India since 1971, who live there as stateless people for India doesn’t grant
asylum to Bangladesh’s minorities and thus they were not economic migrants,
which is what has been claimed by the agents of BNP and Jamaat, who have
consistently denied that minority persecution has ever occurred in Bangladesh.
Having thus very fairly criticizing all the political
parties and arguing that perpetrators of crime against the minorities are
primarily the cadres of BNP and Jamaat, Dr. Bhattacharjya profusely praised
Awami League for completely separating the state and Mosque/Church and for
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina’s stellar records in combating terrorism, women
empowerment, child mortality, economic development, generation of electricity,
etc and that her government does not bar the promotions due to the minorities
which is why they vote for the secularists and that he himself would also vote
for Awami League, if he were to go back to Bangladesh. He clearly let the
ambassador know that, as in every nation, the minorities always tend to vote
for the relatively more secular party and they will thus vote for Awami League
and its allies, as would he himself.
Dr. Bhattacharjya, gratefully acknowledged the assistance
the secular democratic people of Bangladesh have provide whenever the
minorities have have come under attack by the cadres of BNP and jamaat and
pointed out that in every country the minorities have been able to survive and
even regain their rights only with the help of the secular democratic forces of
the majority group and that the same is the case in Bangladesh, too.
Having said that, he urged the Ambassador to support the
secular democratic forces in Bangladesh and roll the country back into a secular
democratic state like his predecessor Ambassador Moriarty did in Nepal.
He pointed out that the religious minorities of
Bangladesh looked up to the United States to device a permanent solution
because it has done so all over the world, e.g., in East Timor, South Sudan,
Bosnia and the likes.
Dr. Bhattacharjya suggested that the US
take the following steps to accomplish that goal:
i. Advise
BNP and Jamat-E- Islami to end their vicious campaign of
religious & ethnic cleansing in Bangladesh.
ii. Advise Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to take
precautionary measures whenever attacks on the minorities are anticipated, and
not use them to show the world how evil the BNP and Jamaat are for the world
already knows that.
iii. Encourage Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to
constitutionally uphold secular democracy (as opposed to Islamic democracy that
her party has perpetuated by reaffirming Islam as the state religion through
the 15th Amendment to the constitution).
iv. Encourage
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to enact a Hate Crime Law and try the perpetrators
of crime against the country’s minorities under that law in a special tribunal,
starting the process using the Justice Shahabuddin Report or Probe Commission
report.
v. Encourage
Prime Minister Hasina to create separate foundations for the Hindus, Buddhists
and Christians like the existing Islamic foundation.
vi. Encourage
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to complete the trial and punishment of the
perpetrators of crimes against humanity (If this is done the Islamist will not
dare conduct pogroms against the minorities and secular Muslims of the country.
Trial of those criminals is as non-negotiable as that of the Nazis, RSS and).
vii. Encourage
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to empower the country’s minorities politically
and economically.
viii. Advise
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to rehabilitate and compensate the victims of
violence by rebuilding their places of worship, dwelling houses that have ever
been destroyed by the religious nationalists and extremists, and making
arrangements for dealing with their psychological trauma.
ix. Encourage
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina ban religious extremists parties like Jamaat-e-Islami,
Islami Chatra Shibir and Islami Oikya Jote who have links
to terrorist activities as per proposal of European Parliament.
x. Advise
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to fully implement the Chittagong Hill Tracts
Peace Accord of 1997, so the indigenous peoples of Chittagong Hill tracts may
live in peace.
xi. Encourage
Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina to empower the country’s minorities politically
and economically (Please note that, in her current cabinet there is not a
single full minister from among the minority groups.)
xii. Consistently
promote and support the secular democratic forces.
xiii. Provide
a permanent solution to the problems facing the minorities of Bangladesh like
you did in East Timor, South Sudan, Bosnia and the likes.
Dr. Bhattacharjya ended the presentation of the position
paper by reiterating three requests to the Hon. Ambassador:
i. Consistently
promote and support the secular democratic forces in Bangladesh.
ii. Roll
Bangladesh back into a secular democracy that it was at birth.
iii. Device
a permanent solution to the problem facing Bangladesh’s religious and ethnic
minorities.
Professor Sachi Dastidar’s valuable paper focused on the
minority exodus of over 50 million people under duress, which was supported by
a detailed statistical analysis, very much like the papers he previously
presented at two Congressional Hearings in Washington D.C., in 2008 and 2011.
Ms. Sathi Roy’s insightful paper focused on the use of
rape and conversion as tools of choice in the campaign of religious and ethnic
cleansing. It argued that when these tools are used in combination the victims
have no alternative but to leave the country because no parents want to witness
their daughters violated again and again in front of their eyes.
Responding to the presentations, Ambassador Mozena held
the hands of the introducer from the young generation, Attorney Rakesh Roy and
Akash Das, and said, they were the future of Bangladesh.
He said having traveled throughout Bangladesh he noticed
that at the deeper level the majority group was willing to live side by side
with the minorities as they have for centuries; however that he has also
witnessed this harmony disrupted through violence against the minorities again
and again, in 2014, 2013, 2012, 2011, etc. He argued that in order to maintain
that history of peaceful coexistence Bangladesh’s majority group must respect
the rights and dignity of the minorities. He said a few times that he
personally believed and also it was the U. S. policy to protect the minorities
everywhere. The ambassador said that Bangladesh could not make progress
complete neglecting the minorities, and hence minority persecution must stop.
The Hon. Ambassador said he believed in Lord Krishna’s
statement that he is present inside every human being, and thus he believes
that people must love each other. He ended his speech by thanking BHBC, USA for
hosting this event.
In the question/Answer session, Dr. Jiten Roy asked: “We
hear that another election might be held soon. But experience shows that,
another election is unlikely to help the democratic process because the
opposition parties never go to the parliament. What another election would
certainly do is cause another wave of atrocities against the country’s
minorities followed by yet another wave of minority exodus. So, what would be
the point of another election soon?
The ambassador skillfully avoided this question.
The meeting ended with the thank You note from Mr.
Ranabir Barua, President who had previously introuduced Councilman
Weprin to the audience.
Finally, on a different note we would like our fellow
human rights advocates/ activistsworldwide to know that, the man who has
created counter-Oikya Parishad committees in various places defying the central
committee yet claiming that he was the international coordinator of this
organization, and who had his surrogate writers write articles in New York's
weeklies likening Major General C.R. Datta to the traitors Jogendra Mandal and
Rasaraj Mandal and then e-mailed to most of you in order to defame him ( He also
did the same thing with the General Secretary of the Central Committee Advocate
RananDas-Gupta the prosecutor of Delwar Hossain Syedee and Salhauddin Qader
Chowdhury), simply because they refused to make Oikya Parishad a tool for
promoting the his political masters, called many people of New York City trying
to dissuade them from coming to our event. Recipients of that villain’s call
contacted us one after another to find out what was going on, but did show up,
thus overcrowding the hall, and raising the number of attendees to well above
350 ( Journalists told us they never saw so many people show up at a meeting so
early in the morning and then attend it for three hours on their feet.)
Thank you.
Sincerely,
Mr. Rup Kumar Bhowmick, Director Communications
& Publications
On Behalf of
Presidents: Dr. Jiten Roy Ph. D.,
Mr. Julius Gomez & Mr. Ranabir Barua
General Secretary: Dwijen
Bhattacharjya, Ph. D. & Treasurer: Mr.
Dilip Chakraborty
Chairman/Board of Directors: Mr.
Shyamal Sharma
Vice Chairman/Board of Directors: Mr.
Bidyut Das
Members Secretary: Mr. Ranjit Bhaduri
Director Policy
: Mr.
Amit Chowdhury & Director Organizaiton: Mr.
Bappi Sen Chowdhury
