The Honorable Donald Lu
Assistant Secretary of State for South and Central Asian Affairs
U.S. Department of State 2201 C Street, NW Washington, D.C. 20520
January 21, 2023
Dear Assistant Secretary Lu,
The Coalition for Human Rights & Democracy in Bangladesh (CHRD Bangladesh) would like to appreciate your sincere and commendable works during your visit to Bangladesh on January 14-15, 2023. You may kindly refer to our letter dated January 8, 2023. (Letter To U.S. Assistant Secretary Of State Donald Lu | ChrdBangladesh). In that letter, we emphasized the importance of your visit in view of the ongoing volatile political situation generated by the anti-democratic practices by the administration of Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina in the face of the people’s countrywide movements against her rule. The people are seeking the end of her fascist regime, which they call “illegal” because it continued to capture power since 2009 through massive election fraud. Bangladeshis want free and fair elections under a neutral authority. We look forward to the materialization of your objectives at the soonest.
The CHRD Bangladesh may take this opportunity to highlight a few core foreign policy objectives of the U.S. administration: Human Rights, Freedom of the Opposition’s Political Activities and Election Integrity.
Human Rights
Human rights still remain a far cry in Bangladesh. The regime apparently maintained a slight pause in its repressing activities during your visit, but intensified them on the people and the opposition immediately afterwards, as if in retaliation of the pressure of your visit. The human rights violations by the notorious Rapid Action Battalion (RAB) and police might have shown slight improvements since the US sanctions in December 2021, but their routine abuses against the people continued unabated, much of which perhaps escaped the attention of the monitoring agencies. On January 21, 2023, a RAB member in Dhaka was caught trying to rob a car carrying passengers coming from overseas. (3 were arrested along with RAB members during robbery in Dhaka (tekdeeps.com). Few people can talk, much less criticize, the regime under the draconian Digital Security Act (DSA). They continue to be severely penalized for mild words against the Sheikh family and the ruling elites.
Freedom of Political Activity
In Bangladesh today, only the ruling Awami League has the freedom of activities which include extortion, social crimes and attacks on the political opposition. The opposition parties have little or restricted political activities (lately as prescribed by the ruling authority). The RAB, police and the party thugs continue to flex their muscles against the opposition and prevent or disrupt their peaceful gatherings and activities. Their attacks on the party gatherings of the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) on December 7 and 8, 2022 sent many to their graves, hospitals and jails. Even during your team’s presence in Dhaka on January 14-15, 2023, their terror acts continued on the peaceful gatherings of the opposition in Mymensingh, Chittagong and other cities, sending many to hospitals and jails with multiple charges against each. Reportedly, 24,000 members of the BNP have been taken to custody since early December of 2022. As of now, tens of thousands of them are in jails, booked under about 3.5 million fictitious charges.
Elections
Please allow us to go into some details on this important but serious issue. With the scrapping of the election-time Caretaker Government (CTG) by Sheikh Hasina immediately upon becoming the Prime Minister, the election system in Bangladesh totally collapsed. It became a symbol of heightened corruption and irregularities. No national or local level election had an iota of fairness or honesty. Everything was controlled and managed by the ruling coterie to make its chosen candidates the winners. As such, as you may note, Sir, the representatives in the parliament, as well as the elected positions in the local bodies, almost entirely belong to the ruling class. In other words, the opposition has no say in any of these forums or anywhere. Any future elections to be free and fair, the existence of these fraudulently elected partisan elements will be a serious blockade.
The Election Commission and the election officials are carefully selected by the government to serve its purpose. With absolute control on the administration down to the lowest levels, including the election apparatus, the opposition is either unable or not allowed to make any electioneering activities or have its presence at the polls. In many cases, suspected opposition voters were driven away by the Awami League thugs and their votes were proxied in favor of the ruling candidates. In addition, rounding up and sending the opposition leaders and activists to jails prior to elections had been routine tasks of the loyal RAB and police. The results of the past 14 years are before anyone to examine and judge. Consequently, the country has fallen into a one-party authoritarian dictatorship since 2009.
Under the chosen Election Commission, election officials and its fraudulently elected local bodies, the general public has no chance to exercise its free franchise during the polls. As such, a fair and credible election under the present administration is a simple impossibility. The U.S. may also ponder why the Hasina regime is vehemently opposed to elections under a CTG (citing constitutionality of her own vicious creation). According to most observers, the ruling government is so unpopular and detested by the people that it has no chance of winning even a comfortable number of seats, let alone winning in a fair election.
In view of the above situation, and with a view to ensuring credible elections in Bangladesh, the following steps are extremely essential:
- Elections must be held under a neutral Caretaker Government, members of which should not be allowed to seek any elected positions. Prior to that, the government should step down and the parliament be dissolved. They (immediate past government) should have no role in the CTG.
- The Election Commission and other election related officials should be reconstituted with neutral and non-partisan elements.
- All controversial and partisan officials in the administration, including law enforcement agencies and the military should be removed. Even known partisan officials in the judiciary should also be either removed or suspended. This is needed to ensure the neutrality of the election-time administration.
- All authoritarian tools, such as the RAB and DSA should be suspended during the elections.
Honorable Sir, it may be appreciated that if the people of Bangladesh can freely choose their representatives to run the government, most of the other problematic issues like democracy, human rights, freedom, corruption etc. will be resolved automatically. Under a corruption-free and accountable government, the country will be expected to move forward to greater progress and security, both locally and globally. It is the unelected or fraudulently elected or illegal regime that causes problems for the people and the world.
Finally, unless the future elections in Bangladesh are credible, fair and participatory, all the sincere efforts of the U.S. will end in futility. The CHRD Bangladesh certainly does not desire such an outcome from your visit, Honorable Sir.