#Title

INTERNATIONAL DAY OF THE VICTIMS OF ENFORCED DISAPPEARANCES

Hoping against hope
Mothers, children long for return of loved ones
Rafiul Islam
Sumi Rani Das never forgets to wear her sakha (bangles) and sindoor (vermillion).
Whenever anyone sees her, they think her husband is still alive. At times, they also ask about him.
But Sumi, wife of a victim of enforced disappearance, fails to answer their queries every time as she does not know whether her husband Tapan Das is still alive or not.
Tapan, a tailor by profession, was picked up by plainclothes men who identified themselves as law enforcers, from city’s Sutrapur area in 2011.
He has remained missing since then.
“I always hope my husband is still alive and will return home…,” Sumi told The Daily Star.
Sumi said she knows that a Hindu woman stops using sakha and sindoor if her husband remains missing for 12 years. “It has been nine years… I don’t want to stop using sakha and sindoor…,” she said in a choked voice.
Sumi, along with her 10-year-old son Kartik Das, was participating in a human chain yesterday, attended by at least 40 other families of victims of enforced disappearance, with a demand to bring back their near ones.
Mayer Dak, an organisation of such families, arranged the programme in front of National Museum in the capital, seeking the prime minister’s intervention in this regard.
On numerous occasions, family members held programmes and appealed to the authorities to bring back the victims. The calls, however, have fallen on deaf ears, they said.
Many families allege law enforcers are behind the disappearance, which the government denies.
According to Ain o Salish Kendra, at least 600 people have fallen victim to enforced disappearance from January 2007 to August 25 2020.
Yesterday, children also joined the human chain, braving coronavirus and wearing mask -- inscribed with demand for the return of their fathers.
Lamia Akter Mim, 10-year-old daughter of victim Kawser Hossain, participated in the programme wearing a mask, which said: “I want my father back.”
“I haven’t seen my father since my early childhood… I want my father to take me to school, tell me stories… but it’s not possible… he is not here,” she said as tears rolled down her cheeks. “Whenever I see children walking on the street holding their father’s hand, it hurts… please bring my father back,” she said.
The voice of Saleha Begum (65) was cracking repeatedly as she sought the whereabouts of her son Moazzem Hossain Topu.
“I’m growing old. I’m getting sick… please help me, I want to see my son for one last time… before I die,” Saleha said.
“I want help from all quarters. If you help me, I will possibly be able to see him,” she added.
A former BCL leader, Topu was allegedly picked up by plainclothes men from the capital’s Bashundhara area in 2016. He was 28.
Yesterday, Jesmin Begum brought her three-month-old daughter Jerin to protest the culture of enforced disappearance, and with the demand of getting her father back.
“My father was picked up in front of my eyes by law enforcers in Bagerhat in 2011. I know the officers also… I filed a case but there is no progress in the investigation,” she said. “Our tears have dried up… We are losing faith in getting justice,” she said.
Addressing the programme, Abrar Ilias, son of missing BNP leader M Ilias Ai, alleged that BNP leaders have been targeted in this regard.
“I haven’t seen my father in last eight years… They could not return him,” he said, demanding a stop to politics and culture of enforced disappearance.
Of uncertainty and struggle
Economic hardship leaves families of enforced disappearance victims in utter despair
Shariful Islam
Parvez Hossain gave Tk 500 to his wife Farzeena Akhter before leaving home seven years ago. That was all she was left with.
She was carrying her second child when Parvez, the then city’s Bangshal thana unit Jatiyatabadi Chhatra Dal general secretary, was allegedly picked up by some plainclothes men on the night of December 2, 2013.
He never returned.
Farzeena could not withdraw a single penny from three bank accounts of Parvez, despite the hardship she has been enduring in the absence of her husband, the lone earner of the family.
“My children are growing up, so are their demands. They often ask for things, which I can hardly afford or fulfil. Being a mother, it pains me,” she told The Daily Star on Thursday.
Parvez had a cloth business jointly with a friend. After his disappearance, his business partner did not return the invested money or any profit, saying they incurred loss, Farzeena said.
“Now my financial condition is so bad that I don’t know how I will survive with my daughter and son…,” said the mother of two while trying to hold back tears.
Like Farzeena, wives of many victims who remained traceless for years after being taken away, allegedly by law enforcers, have been suffering exacerbated economic hardships as they could not withdraw money from the bank accounts of their husbands, most of whom were sole breadwinners of the families.
As per the existing rules, if a court orders handing over money to the inheritors of missing account holders, the bank will provide it.
But the wives of disappeared victims in most cases don’t want to go to court, not willing to add further hassle to their already ravaged lives. So, apart from the agony of not getting any trace of the whereabouts of their husbands, the economic hardship leaves them in utter despair.
“I am sick and need to see a specialist doctor. But I don’t have enough money to visit a doctor,” Farzeena said. Her daughter is now 10-year-old while the son is six-year-old.
She said she doesn’t want to observe any day in remembrance of her husband’s disappearance. “It hurts me. We were never ready to face such a tragedy,” she said, adding that her husband’s party does not enquire about them.
Tahsina Rushdir, wife of BNP leader M Ilias Ali, has a similar story to tell.
She could neither withdraw any money from the bank accounts of her husband, nor use his properties. “Everything remained closed,” she told this correspondent over the phone on August 27.
“For withdrawal of the money, banks want a succession certificate. If I want to get a succession letter I have to go to court and say that my husband is dead. How can I do that?” she said.
However, bank officials say it is the court jurisdiction to allow a bank to provide the money from a missing husband’s account to the wife.
Tahsina said the government knows very well where her husband is. So, it is the government’s responsibility to say whether he is dead or alive, she added.
She said since she resigned from the service before the last national election, she is now going through financial hardship. “I have to live with this reality as it is my fate,” she said in frustration.

‘It’s govt strategy to continue autocracy’

Says BNP leader Mirza Fakhrul
Unb, Dhaka
BNP yesterday alleged that the current government has made enforced disappearance as its main political strategy to continue its “despotic” rule by eliminating its opponents.
“The panic of disappearance has been prevailing everywhere in Bangladesh. Crimes against humanity and atrocities such as enforced disappearances and extrajudicial killings emerge from misrule,” BNP Secretary General Mirza Fakhrul Islam Alamgir said in a statement.
The party issued the statement on the eve of International Day of the Victims of Enforced Disappearances to be observed in the country as elsewhere across the globe today.
Mentioning that enforced disappearance is a symbol of one-party misrule, Fakhrul said it has now become a regular affair for the law enforcers of the “autocratic regime” to pick the proactive opposition leaders and activists up. “They make the opposition activists and dissidents disappear for a short or long time or forever.”
He alleged that enforced disappearance has been used as a key tool to remove the obstacle towards sustaining one-party “authoritarian” rule abolishing opposition parties.
The BNP leader mentioned names of many of the party leaders and activists, including Ilias Ali,who fell victims to enforced disappearance.
He alleged that people are suffering from an unknown fear due to the incidents of enforced disappearance. “The bereaved families of those who have been subjected to enforced disappearance are still waiting for their loved ones to return. The cruel ruling party has been using enforced disappearance as a strategy to create a sense of insecurity among the country’s people and stop its dissidents and criticisms.”
Fakhrul said a terrible anarchy has created in the country due to continued incidents of enforced disappearance as it is the means of survival of the current government “usurped” power without public support and voters’ “mandate”.
“If this trend continues, Bangladesh will plunge into the deep darkness of anarchy and the normal life of people will be completely disrupted. Let’s unite to bring back democracy,” he said.
SEE PAGE 4 col 5
SEE PAGE 4 col 4