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This News Service is posted by the
International Secretariat of Amnesty International,
1 Easton Street, London WC1X 8DJ
(Tel +44-71-413-5500, Fax +44-71-956-1157)
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News Service 27/96
AI INDEX: ASA 13/01/96
14 FEBRUARY 1996


BANGLADESH: SEIZURE OF ILLEGAL ARMS NO EXCUSE FOR HUMAN
RIGHTS VIOLATIONS

On the eve of the elections in Bangladesh, Amnesty
International is calling on the government to stop the wave
of human rights violations committed by security forces
against suspected opposition members.

      ~More than 10,000 people have been arrested without
arrest warrants since last December, with many beaten or
given electric shocks in police or army custody,~ Amnesty
International said today. ~At least three men have reportedly
died under torture.~

      Troops have been deployed across the country since
December 1995 to help police uncover unauthorised weapons
ahead of the opposition-boycotted 15 February general
elections. The opposition has charged that troops were
harassing their supporters and should be sent back to the
barracks.

      Families of those suspected of keeping illegal arms are
now being terrorised and abused. Those arrested are not told
why they are being detained, and many are detained simply
because they are related to someone wanted by the armed
forces.

      ~The need to seize illegal arms is no excuse for
wholesale violations of people~s rights,~ Amnesty
International said.  ~Actions of this kind will only add to
the cycle of violence in Bangladesh.~

      Amnesty International is urging the Government of
Bangladesh to institute impartial and independent inquiries
into all reports of human rights violations by security
personnel.

      One of the victims, Shahabuddin Saju, 28, died
reportedly as a result of torture in a hospital on 27
January. He was arrested the day before when army and police
personnel surrounded his home at about 11:30 pm. Soldiers
reportedly dragged Saju out of the house, and began to beat
him with sticks and rifle butts, while he was tied and
blindfolded. The soldiers told him he would be killed unless
he handed in his weapons. According to Bangladeshi press, he
continued to be tortured in an army camp until the evening of
27 January, when he went into a coma from which he did not
recover before his death at 11:30 pm.

      Another young man arrested in mid-January by the
security forces was reportedly beaten with rods by security
personnel in a military camp; they asked him to show them
where he kept his firearms. The army personnel reportedly
covered his head with a cloth, splashed him with water and
gave him electric shocks until he became unconscious. When he
recovered he was tortured again. His ordeal lasted 32 hours.
He was subsequently released in a critical state and taken to
hospital by the family.

      On 5 February 1996, army troops reportedly went on a
rampage in Syedpur village  south of Dhaka, beating residents
and ransacking 22 homes after a suspected criminal apparently
from that village escaped custody. Troops reportedly arrived
in about a dozen trucks and detained about 400 young men from
across the village who were later released. The home of
village chief Daulat Hossain was ransacked by the troops. The
army, however, has denied that troops rampaged a village
saying that security personnel had expressed their regret to
the villagers for the inconvenience they had caused .
BACKGROUND

The main opposition parties comprising the Awami League led
by Sheikh Hasina Wajed, the Jatiya Party of the former
President Ershad and the Jamaat-i-Islami party are boycotting
the elections. They have declared a program of protests and
strikes during the election period and there are fears of
further mass arrests without basic legal safeguards, torture
or death in custody of those detained.

      The Election Commission on 12 February announced
further sweeping measures by law enforcement agencies. These
included immediate arrest and punishment of up to seven years
in prison and fines for those trying to disrupt the electoral
process. The meeting explained that the punishment would be
for ~subversive activity and indisciplined conduct~. It is
not clear what legal provisions would be invoked to arrest
and try those charged with such activity. Political rallies
and demonstrations have been banned for 48 hours beginning on
midnight 13 February.

      Violent clashes between rival political groups, as well
as opposition activists and the security forces have occurred
in at least 25 of Bangladesh~s 64 administrative districts.
At least 14 people have been killed and scores injured during
the past two weeks. They have included opposition activists,
government supporters and police officers.

      The opposition walked out of parliament in March 1994
and in December that year 147 deputies formally resigned from
the 300-seat parliament. The opposition parties have demanded
that Prime Minister Begum Khaleda Zia of the ruling
Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) should step down and a
neutral caretaker government be appointed to ensure an
impartial election

ENDS\


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