ABIM CONDEMNS THE DEATH SENTENCE VERDICT HELD AGAINST ASSISTANT SECRETARY GENERAL OF BANGLADESH JAMAAT ISLAM MUHAMMAD KAMARUZZAMAN

MEDIA STATEMENT

14 MAY 2013 / 4 REJAB 1434 H

ABIM CONDEMNS THE DEATH SENTENCE VERDICT HELD AGAINST ASSISTANT SECRETARY GENERAL OF BANGLADESH JAMAAT ISLAM
MUHAMMAD KAMARUZZAMAN

ABIM has been observing the continuously deteriorating political and human rights situation in Bangladesh. The government of Sheikh Hasina has been perpetrating mass murders one after another, committing massive and systematic violations of human rights and abusing the judiciary to annihilate opposition forces in the country. We see a spectacular rise in the number of opposition people being put behind bars as the state relies increasingly on the police and paramilitary forces to remain in power and to stifle and suppress opposition parties. It has falsely charged all current and former topmost leaders of Bangladesh Jamaat Islam only to discredit Islamic personalities and institutions and to weaken the opposition. It has been unleashing unspeakable brutalities and savagery on the Islamic people in the country, while lawlessness and hooliganism pervades all ranks of the ruling party affiliates.


Without following domestic or international legal norms and standards, the regime has been passing verdicts of the death sentence against Jamaat leaders one after another. It has been fabricating and making up imaginary stories and presenting those as testimonies of prosecution witnesses. In cases where it cannot persuade the witnesses to recount fabricated false statements in the court, it reads out made-up stories in the absence of the witnesses. The latest death sentence the so-called International Crimes Tribunal gave is against Jamaat Senior Assistant Secretary General Muhammad Kamaruzzaman. The judges gave him the death sentence for crimes against humanity which they say he committed in the country’s 1971 war of independence when Kamaruzzaman was only an 18-year old college going student. It is the first time in human history that a college going teenager has been convicted of crimes against humanity.

While the state prosecution fabricated charges of murders and crimes against humanity against Jamaat leaders, it did not allow the defence team enough time or equal number of defence witnesses to refute the charges. Any independent review of the verdicts will suggest that these come from the executive and are preordained.

Apart from committing serious travesty of justice against Jamaat leaders, the government orchestrated four genocides in Bangladesh so far. The latest mass murder it perpetrated was on 5-6 May 2013. On 5 May 2013 there was a grand rally of the country’s ulama and madrasa students against the insulting remarks of ruling party affiliates against the holy Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) and against his honorable wives. They started the rally in the afternoon of 5 May 2013 and decided to sit in until their demands of getting the known blasphemers punished were met. After midnight most of them were sleeping in the venue of the rally which is an important intersection in Dhaka (Shapla Chattor). Around 2am (6 May morning) the government forces and ruling party hooligans cut off electricity, suspended all mobile phone services and closed down independent television channels to render the protesters totally helpless and to hide the impending massacre from the country and from the wider world. Around 2.30am, thousands of fully-armed police men, paramilitary forces and ruling party hooligans attacked and started firing upon the entire unarmed crowd of about five hundred thousand people. Thus the government forces and ruling party hooligans killed few thousand madrasa students and their teachers in 10-15 minutes and removed most of the dead bodies to unknown locations. While the government is in shameless denial, the country is completely traumatized.

There is virtually no independent news media in Bangladesh now. Most of the media that is functioning smoothly are sycophantic and fawning adulation of power. The government has closed down all independent/opposition television channels. Few independent/opposition print media outlets are functioning under the continuous threats of closure and are always being intimidated. So from Bangladeshi domestic media we do not expect the true story of what happened in Dhaka in the early hours of 6 May 2013. The government is wearing a mask of 'secularism' and 'liberalism' only to kill unarmed people in their hundreds and thousands.

We want the international community and stakeholders including new mandate of Malaysian Government to do whatever they can to stop the government of Bangladesh from committing injustices and mass murders and to force it to abolish the kangaroo court of International Crimes Tribunal. We also want a UN inquiry of the genocides committed by the government of Bangladesh.

We finally urge Malaysian people to show their solidarity by sending personal protest letter to Bangladesh Government via High Commission of Bangladesh in Kuala Lumpur.


JUFITRI JOHA
Vice President (International Affairs)
ABIM