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A meeting on the
UN conference on illicit use and trade of small arms was held
at the Bangladesh Development Partnership Centre (BDPC) office
in Dhaka on 16 March 2002. Jointly organized by the Bangladesh
Development Partnership Centre (BDPC), the Jatyo Nari O Manabadhikar
Forum (JANAMAF) and the Bangladesh Coalition for Child Rights
(BCCR), the meeting was participated by representatives of
18 NGO and civil society representatives. Participating organizations
included among others SOLIDARITY (Kurgigram), PARTNER (Rajshahi),
AID (Jhenidah), CIRUP (Bogra), ESDO (Thakurgaon), VPKA (Rajbari),
and Dhaka based BEES, Dhaka Community Hospital, Bangladesh
Nari Progati Sangha (BNPS), Suchayanika, Village Mission, GBSS,
BDPC, BCCR and JANAMAF.
JANAMAF Chairperson
Ms. Masuda Faruk Ratna chaired the meeting. A brief presentation
on the UN Conference on illicit use and trade of small arms,
the action program undertaken in the UN Conference, an analysis
of the current situation of illegal small arms and its impact
on human security and a 18 point proposed recommendation was
made by BDPC Adviser and BCCR Chairperson Mr. Sharif A. Kafi
(handouts relating to the presentations are enclosed).
In his presentation,
referring to a BDPC study report, Mr. Kafi informed the house
that:
- There are 240,000
illegal arms being used by terrorists in Bangladesh. In addition
another 30,000 licensed guns are in illegal use.
- 300,000 terrorists
use these guns. 60 per cent of them are attached to political
parties, 30 per cent of them are members of organized crime
syndicates, and 10 per sent are ordinary criminals.
- 3105 persons
were murdered in the country in 2001, more than 1500 were murdered
by gun. 10 percent of them were women above 18 years of age
and another 10 per cent were girls below 18 years of age. Most
of the women and girls murdered were murdered after rape.
- 923 persons were
abducted at gunpoint in the same year, 57 per cent were women
and girl child.
- 1673 women and
girls were raped in the same year, mostly at gun point, 36
per cent of them were below 18 years of age and 30 percent
of them were below 16 years of age.
- More than 6000
armed robbery were committed in the same period, women and
girls were raped in 60 percent cases of the robbery committed
in rural areas. More than 100 people were killed in robbery.
- More than 100,000
human beings were trafficked out of Bangladesh, 35 per cent
of them were women and children.
- 341 cases of
acid throwing took place, more than 1500 were injured, 445
very seriously acid burned, 403 of them were women and children.
- 334 people were
killed by gun in political violence, more than 900 armed political
riot took place in the same year.
- The police unearthed
11 cottage-based small arms manufacturing workshops in the
country in 2001. Foreign spares of revolver were seized from
one workshop.
Mr. Kafi observed
that the government initiative for curving use of illegal small
arms and cracking down on the armed terrorists has not been
effective. Rather the law and order situation is steeply deteriorating
and the political parties have failed to restrain its leaders
from patronizing armed terrorists.
As regards to implementation
of the UN Program of Action, Mr. Kafi observed that the government
of Bangladesh has not opened any dialogue on this yet - not
even within the government.
Mr. Kafi put special
stress on the need for organization like IANSA and a transparent
regional network in the South Asian Region to combat the problems
of illegal production, trade and use of small arms. He said
that the NGOs and the civil societies of Bangladesh needs to
establish a very strong linkage with the IANSA to take forward
the campaign in the light of the UN program of action.
Following the brief
presentation, an open discussion was held on the presentation
for supplementation, comments, suggestions and recommendations.
Among others Mr. Shamsur Rahman, Dr. Arif Alam Lenin, Shellina
Parven, Partha Pal Choudhury, Nazmul Hoque Shamim, Rubol Lodi,
Nasrin Begum and Masuda Faruk Ratna took part in the open discussion.
The proposed 18
point recommendations were unanimously adopted in the meeting
and the following decisions were reached upon for future action.
Decisions:
1. The dialogue
opened today on the issue of illegal use and trade in small
arms and its violent impact on human security will be taken
forward by the group present here today.
2. This group will
form the primary collective in order to form the foundation
towards a wider national alliance of NGOs and civil societies
in Bangladesh to combat the problems associated with illegal
use and trade in small arms. The collective will remain open,
inclusive and do everything to ensure maximum participation
of all interested parties including NGOs, civil societies,
government, media and so on. It will also ensure inclusion
of participants having access to the government and the UN
systems.
3. The collective,
as a sub regional alliance, support the UN Program of Action
and will support UN initiatives as well as involvement in this
regard at the national, regional and global levels.
4. The collective
will make every effort to make links towards building strong
public opinion against production and trade in small arms in
small arms producing countries.
5. The collective
will undertake research, advocacy, awareness campaign and action
programs at the national and in-country sub regional policy
levels. For implementing activities at the in-country regional
levels, the collective will work through local members of the
collective.
6. Local members
of the collective will be encouraged to promote awareness campaign
against violence and illegal use of small arms and work as
a pressure group against violation of human rights and human
security.
7. The collective
will keep the IANSA, the government, the UN and other stakeholders
about its programs and activities.
8. The collective
will support and promote a participatory, democratic, and transparent
regional networking mechanism in the South Asian Region.
9. The next meeting
of the collective will be held within the next two months.
10. The meeting
expressed grave concern at the deteriorating law and order
situation and availability and wide scale use of illegal small
arms in the country. The following 18 point recommendations
were adopted in the meeting for submission to concerned authorities
and parties:
a. The Government
of Bangladesh should organize a follow up meeting involving
all concerned within the country on the UN Conference and the
UN Action Program on combating illegal small arms and illicit
arms trade.
b. In order for
combating and controlling increased availability and illegal
use of small arms in South Asia Region, the government of Bangladesh
should take initiative for opening dialogue with the neighboring
countries and seek for adoption of regional instruments for
comprehensive addressing of the small arms problem in the region.
c. The government
of Bangladesh should devote every possible means on priority
basis to improve the law and order situation.
d. The trafficking,
trading, smuggling, production and illegal use of small arms
must be stopped at any rate. It is also needed to stop illegal
use of licensed arms and issuance of firearms license to violent
political cadres.
e. Utmost
honesty in arresting and punishing offenders and stopping
faulty investigation
and faulty "charge-sheet" needs to be ensured. If
issuance of bail for the violent armed criminals is a real
problem then the procedures and rules of prosecution at lower
and higher courts needs to be immediately reviewed and amended.
f. All
the main political parties should form its own "fact finding commission" at
the national level to ensure honest and neutral investigation
in to allegation of crime and violence against respective party
cadres, and submit the investigations reports to party high
commands, so that, parties can take punitive actions against
those who have really committed crime and tarnished the image
of the party concerned.
If required, the
political parties can engage those agencies that are known
to be experienced and nonpartisan for such investigation by
paying fees and allowing them to remain nonpartisan and neutral
in accomplishing the investigation.
g. Immediate ouster
of known and listed, according to police and other agencies,
criminals from political parties needs to be ensured.
h. In order to
prevent violent terrorists to get away with serious crimes,
permanently stop the provision of quashing criminal cases from
the Home Ministry by administrative decisions on the 'ground'
of politically biased or harassing cases.
i. To prevent violent
criminals from getting firearms licenses, permanently stop
the loops of issuing firearms license on political considerations,
so that, no government in the future can do so.
j. All serious
criminal offenses like murder in general, murder of women,
particularly murder after rape, murder after abduction, acid
throwing, murder by acid throwing, rape,
trafficking in human being, armed violence and all other forms of violence
against women and children should be prosecuted in special tribunals
through summary trials.
k. In order for
preventing political workers from criminal activities and becoming
terrorists, stop using the police force for political purposes.
l. All political
parties should initiate drives to identify criminals and violent
terrorists within respective parties and immediately oust them
from the party.
m. All political
parties need to ensure that their leaders and workers have
individual professions for livelihood and the political party
is not the main means of their income generation.
n. (As party in
position or opposition) all political parties should facilitate
and support appropriate implementation of existing laws relating
to violence and illegal use of firearms. Especially the political
parties need to be sensitive and cooperative in ensuring punishment
to those who commit crime against women and children.
o. It is neither
possible nor appropriate to ban student politics in a country
that laid the foundation of its independence through student
movements. Rather, it seems that, the political parties need
not having student wings. Political parties should secede organizational
relationship with their respective student wings and they should
let the student organizations function independently under
the leadership of true students.
p. Immediate crackdown
should be made on the organized armed crime syndicates in the
country.
q. All possible
measures should be ensured to identify cottage based firearms
manufacturers in the country, destroy them immediately and
ensure punitive punishment to those that are involved in arms
manufacturing.
r. Ensure trial
in special tribunals and punitive punishment to those illegal
firearms dealers and traders that are caught by the police.
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