08/08/2003

Bangladesh has recently taken some steps to protect religious minorities, but discrimination continues, particularly against Hindus. Communal violence and discrimination have displaced up to 20,000 Hindus in recent years, with the most serious violations occurring in 2001. Most Bangladeshi Hindus who seek refuge in India have received little support or protection. The governments of Bangladesh and India both must do a better job of dealing with these problems.    

Although Bangladesh is an overwhelming Muslim state, about 10% of its 130 million people are Hindus. The country’s constitution provides for freedom of religion. Religious minorities in Bangladesh, however, face restrictions in areas such as access to jobs in the government or military, especially at higher levels. There is also a perception that police are often slow to assist members of religious minorities who have been victims of crime.

Hindus were discriminated against economically under the Vested Property Act, or the VPA, which started in 1965 when Bangladesh was a part of Pakistan. For more than three decades, the act was used extensively to appropriate property. The Association for Land Reform and Development (ALRD), a Dhaka-based NGO, estimates that a total of 1,048,390 Hindu households were affected by the VPA, and that 1.05 million acres of land were seized. Although the act was repealed in 2001, land returns are not taking place as called for in the new law.

The Hindus in Bangladesh traditionally have supported a political party known as the Awami League, which they believe holds secular ideals. The Awami League was defeated by a coalition led by the Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP) in October 2001 elections. During and after the elections, members of the Hindu minority were attacked in many towns. There was no government policy to attack Hindus, but the police provided little, if any, protection.
 
Human Rights Watch wrote in its 2003 World Report that “attacks against Hindus in Bangladesh escalated dramatically following the October 2001 general election that brought the BNP to power in coalition with hard-line Islamic parities. Christians, Buddhists, and dissenting Muslims were targeted as well, many for their perceived support of the opposition Awami League. Hindu homes were looted, vandalized, and burned and Hindu temples and sacred sites were destroyed.  Scores of Hindu women and girls were raped. In some cases, they were gang raped in front of their male relatives. Hindus were also assaulted on the streets, in their homes, and at their workplaces. Systematic attacks resulted in a mass migration of Hindus to India, and in particular to the bordering state of Tripura.  The government did little to prosecute or investigate the violence.”  (Human Rights Watch World Report 2003)
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Hindu rights groups in Bangladesh recently told Refugees International (RI) that they believe sexual violence against minority women is continuing in the country.

The US Committee for Refugees estimated that by the end of 2001 between 5,000 and 20,000 Bangladeshi Hindus and other minorities had fled to India to escape Bangladesh’s post-election violence.

It is not clear how many Bangladeshi Hindus remain in India, where there seems to be little government sympathy towards Bangladeshis (either Hindu or Muslim) who have come to India. India considers the Bangladeshis to be economic migrants. Earlier this year, the Indian Deputy Prime Minister and Home Minister announced that there are 15 million illegal immigrants from Bangladesh in India, and that India would send them back.

As a result, those who have fled from Bangladesh to India, whether due to a claim of persecution or for economic reasons, have not wished to be identified. They keep a low profile due to the fear of deportation. It is difficult to determine how many of the refugees who had fled to India following the 2001 violence have since then returned to Bangladesh.

Following the October 2001 elections, the Government of Bangladesh took steps to protect Hindus, especially during periods of Hindu festivals that could have sparked rioting between Hindus and Muslims. In 2002, at the time of the Hindu-Muslim violence in the Indian state of Gujarat, the Government of Bangladesh was able to prevent any kind of backlash against the Hindu minority in the country. Efforts by the Government of Bangladesh have been acknowledged in various quarters, and in the 2003 Report of the US Commission on Religious Freedom, Bangladesh is not listed as a country of concern where religious persecution against minorities is taking place.

Although these efforts by the Government of Bangladesh are commendable, RI urges the Government of Bangladesh to take the following initiatives to ensure the protection of minorities’ rights:
●     Comply with its own laws protecting religious minorities.
●     Establish an independent body to investigate attacks against Hindus in 2001. Despite calls for a full, impartial, and independent investigation of the 2001 attacks, the Government of Bangladesh has taken no action to bring to justice those who targeted Hindus and other minorities. This lack of action could lead to a loss of faith of the minorities in the Bangladeshi justice system.
●     Secure prompt and emphatic response to reports of crimes against minorities since October 2001. The Government of Bangladesh needs to ensure that police are more effective in responding to complaints by minorities, that crimes reported by minorities are carefully investigated, and those found guilty are punished appropriately. Such action by the State will lead to a suppression of targeting of minorities.
●     Ensure that land confiscated from Hindus under the Vested Property Act is returned to them according to a well-defined timetable. The Bangladeshi Parliament took a crucial step in the right direction by passing the Vested Property Return Bill in April 2001. The law stipulates that land seized under the Vested Property Act, and remaining under the control of the Government, must be returned to the original owners or their heirs, as long as they are resident citizens and have not left the country. In the original April 2001 Vested Property Return Bill, there was a 180 day time limit for the Government to announce a list of returnable vested properties for each district. In November 2002, with a BNP Government in power, the Vested Property Return Bill was amended by the Parliament, allowing the Government unlimited time to return vested properties to their owners.  In the absence of a specific date for the return, there is no way to monitor that the property is in fact being returned.

Furthermore, RI recommends that the Government of India should:
●     Stop threatening mass expulsion of Bangladeshis who have come to India, whether as refugees or for economic reasons. The Indian Government needs to consider each case on an individual basis, and investigate any charges of persecution. The Government of India should provide protection to any person from Bangladesh who had fled to India to escape individual persecution.


This report was prepared with the help of generous support from the Foundation of Global Understanding in Tampa, FL.