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Saturday, March 12, 2011

[chottala.com] Re: Sarmila Bose’s “Research” Exposed by Mashuqur Rahman



People's Freedom Struggle vs the AL Confusion Continues
Abid Bahar

"Bangladesh's freedom struggle continues" is a line repeated by Mawlana Bhasani one of the great leaders of Bangladesh. True, the life of an emerging nation or an independent nation is as if like the continued survival of the fittest among other nations because to keep a nation sovereign, freedom struggle continues.

1971 war vs the cold war
------------------------------------
Often some people blinded by emotion think it is a one time issue, not in dynamic terms.From this perspective we call the 1971 struggle as the war against Pakistan.Now we truly have a cold war going on with India which is closing rivers one after another, using its puppets in Bangladesh it is building its infrastructure within Bangladesh by Bangladesh's 1 billion borrowed money, fencing the border with its Brahmin Wall and killing our people while we facilitate them transit.

Pakistani razakars vs Indian razakars
------------------------------------------------------
 During the 1971 war we had Pakistan as the agressor and there were the razakars. Now that we have war going on with India, the collaborators like Hasina, Razzak, Faroque, Moinul, Suranjit becomes the prominant Indian razakars. That the devoted AL leaders/ members tend to excuse India for killing and raping our women. The death tool from the new aggression by the BSF is now a thousand and continues to go up. These Indian razakars speak loudly only when it comes to the Pakistani atrocities. True, some AL freedom fighters lack this true spirit of the freedom fighter, Helal Uddin wrote that both Pakistani and now Indian aggressors are condemnable. It seems to me a result of a generation gap. He further wrote: "Your generation saw Pakistan as oppressor and you spoke loud about it as that was the right thing to do. Our generation is seeing India as the oppressor, and we are speaking about it. I do not have any hurt feeling towards the Indian people but the Indian authority who is humiliating us periodically."

Muji's own Confusion Continues in the AL
-----------------------------------------------------------
The confusion is also due to a difference between made in Awami League history of Bangladesh vs. made in scholars' history of Bangladesh. The further remifications are in those areas: (a) AL claim of death in 1971 has been 3 million and the others including historians local and foreign claim is that it is from three hundred thousand to maximun one million.This discripency is a result of the lack of any survey done on it. In some cases according to the Bihari claims that some Bihari dead bodies were shown as Bengali genocide dead bodies.

It is unfortunate that like many confusions Sheikh Mujibur Rahman created (a) for not declaring the independence  due to his signiture in the LFD (b) staying the entire liberation war time in Pakistan, and (c)after his return to put Bangladesh in the world map as the bottomless basket case (d) perhaps he was not good at mathematics or intellectually not so bright to say "three lac as three million", but AL found him as the father of the nation and the best Bengali in thousand years.

People's History vs. the AL history
-------------------------------------------------
In all these the source of contradictions is not  methodological, nor of memory but it has been due to the fascist tendency in the Awami League's hero-worshipping, based on propaganda devoted to make its own ownership history about Mujib and Bangladesh; In the end Bangladesh has the AL's Bangladesh history of how they owned it but the unfortunate Bangladesh does not have its own people's history about the freedom struggle of 1971.


On Sun, Mar 13, 2011 at 12:13 AM, Syed_Aslam3 <syed.aslam3@gmail.com> wrote:

Sarmila Bose's "Research" Exposed

[Hat tip to Robin Khundkar]

Recently I wrote about Sarmila Bose's apologia for the Pakistan army that was published last September in Economic and Political Weekly. In this week's issue of EPW, two critical comments were published that take to task Ms. Bose's "research". The first comment is from Mr. Akhtaruzzaman Mandal, a freedom fighter whose first-person account of finding Bengali rape victims being held by Pakistani soldiers was disputed by Ms. Bose. The second comment is from Dr. Nayanika Mookherjee, lecturer in the Department of Sociology at Lancaster University. Ms. Bose had cited one of Dr. Mookherjee's articles to try to cast doubt on the rapes committed by the Pakistan army in their campaign of genocide in 1971.

Mr. Mandal exposes Ms. Bose's "research" with the authority of one who has lived history. Below are some excerpts from Mr. Mandal's comment:

Since Bose knew nothing about this humble freedom fighter and the pride we all bear, she could casually describe me as a muktijoddha accompanying the Indian army. Such description also served her purpose, as she tried to portray me as someone who had no prior knowledge about the land and people of Bhurungamari/Nageshwari, about their suffering and destitution. As guerrilla fighters we were active in the region all through monitoring the day to day developments. We were like the fish in the water, as the saying goes. That is why in my book, not known to Bose, I have also written about few other specific cases of how women had to suffer. But that is another story, quite a long one, let me concentrate here on the accusation made by Bose.  

While doing her "research", Bose never tried to contact me. On the other hand her search for truth took her to Pakistan and she interviewed Lt Col Saleem Zia of 8 Punjab who was stationed in that area and cross-checked my information with this partisan source of hers. Quoting my account Bose writes, "According to Mandal, Bhurungamari seemed like a ghost town. He claims 60 East Pakistan Civil Armed Force (EPCAF) members and 30-40 Pakistani soldiers were captured â€" they had run out of ammunition. He also claims that 40-50 Pakistani soldiers were killed in this battle." Then quoting her Pakistani source she writes, "Brigadier Zia found 30 injured men, who were evacuated, and 36 able-bodied ones. The rest were dead or dispersed and four or five, by his estimate, were captured." The anomaly in the description provided by members from two contending side is not new in any battle account. It is the researcher's job to dig for the truth. But according to our researcher here Akhtaruzzaman Mandal "claims" whereas brigadier Zia "found" and that shows where she is standing as a dispassionate independent scholar. Even in her account about the number of deaths she has not said anything about the EPCAF, who were raw recruits from the villages of West Pakistan and were put into forward position to work as a shield to the Pakistan army.

Now let us take the case of captain Ataullah Khan, the human devil. Bose has been successful in collecting laudable quotes about Ataullah and in her attempt to whitewash the devil's deeds made a jugglery of the location of Bhurungamari and Nageswari depicting them as two sites completely separated from each other. She writes, "According to this fellow (Pakistani) officer, Captain Ataullah had not been in Bhurungamari before and he was based at Nageswari. He had barely got there when he faced the Indian attack." Her research or lack of research has led her to greatly differentiate between Nageswari and Bhurungamari and if only she was interested to know more she could have found out that the distance between the two place is only 15 km and at that time, even with a ferry crossing, it took only 30 minutes for a commanding officer to cover the distance by his jeep. The Pakistani captain being based at Nageswari was a frequent visitor to the forward position at Bhurungamari and he was no stranger there.

Bose never asked any woman, any common man of Nageswari and Bhurungamari, about Ataullah Khan but quoted her Pakistani source at length and writes, "This fellow officer of 25 Punjab described (not claimed: AM) Captain Ataullah as a six-foot plus Pathan officer known for being 'humane'. He further stated that he saw people in Nageswari weep upon hearing the Ataullah's death. According to him, when the Pakistanis were POW's in India after the war, a senior Indian officer had expressed his respect, soldier-to-soldier, to the officers of 25 Punjab and mentioned by name Ataullah, who had become a 'shaheed' (martyr)." In the footnote Bose mentions that, "this inclusion of evidence from the Indian side in the future would be of great value in assessing this and many other aspect of 1971 war". I am happy that she noted the importance of the Indian source which she never tried to use and would request her to look for members of 6 Mountain Division with whom we fought side by side. After 36 long years I cannot remember all of them or their full names, but how can I forget Major General Thappa, Brigadier Josie, Major Chatowal Singh, Captain Shambu, Captain Mitra, Captain Bannerje, Major Bala Reddy, as well as fellow fighters from the 78 Battalion of the BSF and others. Instead of interviewing only the perpetrators of genocide, rape and crimes against humanity she should also try to get evidences from the Indian side.  

As Bose has gathered most of her information from highly dubious one-sided Pakistani sources following atrocious and unbelievable lines, "The picture painted of captain Ataullah by his fellow officer, who knew him, completely contradicts the one given by Mandal, who appears to have only seen his dead body. Clearly, if captain Ataullah had been based in Nageswari and only gone up to Bhurungamari the day the Indian attack started, he could not have been responsible for whatever might have been going on in Bhurungamari. Mandal offers no corroborating evidence for his character assassination of an officer who had died defending his country, and therefore, cannot speak in his own defence."

As a freedom fighter operating in the area we came to know about many of the atrocious acts of Ataullah and this human-devil was not unknown to us. Our informers also brought many news and on that auspicious day we knew very well about the bunker he took shelter in and that is why the Indian army could pinpoint their artillery attack. I have seen his dead body at the bunker and could immediately know that this was the man who brought so much suffering to our people, to the poor civilians and villagers of the area. Ataullah Khan was no soldier defending his country, he was part of a killing machine, doing heinous acts against an unarmed civil population which no professional soldier can ever think of. Such acts can in no way be equated with defending one's country. In that case all the Nazi war criminals will get acquitted as they were "defending" their own country.  

[Read the entire article here]

Dr. Mookherjee, in her comment, discusses Ms. Bose's flawed methodology and bias. Below are some excerpts:

To any student of social science methodology and memory studies, the article reveals how the pursuit of "facts" alone disallows any analytical, sociological, historical and interpretative perspective. That it was published in EPW is a surprise indeed.

It is not clear from the article the extent of the research in Bangladesh, how many survivors the author met, particularly women, what was her position towards these women, i e, her reflexive position. It is clear that she talked to Pakistani military authorities and accepts everything they say to be true but considers all Bangladeshi accounts as predominantly fabricated.

The article accepts every account of Pakistani military authorities as truth while that of Bangladeshis as false and "shrill cries". Particularly if the accounts are of "illiterate" Bangladeshis they can only be false â€" so the space for any "subalterns" is clearly absent, while those within the military paraphernalia provide legitimate authoritative accounts according to the author. Particularly the role of Bangladeshi women either as witnesses or as raped: like the sweeper Rabeya Khatoon or the sculptor Firdousy Priyobhashini is always of suspect to Bose. Also while mentioning the Hamdoodur Rehman commission of the Pakistani government the author does not mention the instances of rapes and the role of General Niazi as cited in the document.

The article cites the case of Ferdousy Priyobhashini who as a single woman had to look after her widowed mother and young siblings and continued to work during the war and becomes the focus of sexual violence by various Pakistani officers as well as Bengali collaborators.

The article interrogates Priyobhashini's account questioning why she stayed back during the war and whether her rape was as a result of coercion or a voluntary sexual act by stating that she "willingly fraternised". By that argument is the article suggesting that Priyobhashini brought the rape upon her since she stayed back? This is extremely problematic and parallels the biases within various rape laws which seem to suggest that women must have brought the rape upon them in different instances.  

By this argument the sociologically nuanced analysis of how single women and their sexuality are always suspect, is never addressed and instead Priyobhashini's experience is highlighted by the derisive comment that she "makes much of her threats". The complexity of war time violence and the various threatening compulsive situations is well articulated in the work of Cynthia Enloe, Veena Das, Urvashi Butalia, Ritu Menon and Kamla Bhasin. Primo Levi's work on the holocaust also shows the complex negotiations made by survivors.

The article also states the account of Champa from one of my articles [Mookherjee 2003] and tries to infer that no rapes happened during the Bangladesh war. My article was exploring how the trauma of rape is understood in independent Bangladesh and in the process I explore how scholars of memory make sense of the process of forgetting. The nuanced arguments I make about Champa is hinged on long-term fieldwork, cross-checking of hospital files and documents and finding the social workers who found her and brought her to the hospital. These are the "evidences" of Champa's war-time violent encounter of rape. I have also worked with and written about other women who encountered rape during the Bangladesh war. This was done by means of over a year's fieldwork as well as cross-checking interviews, and examining archival, official documents, etc.

[Read the entire article here]

Related: Research on Bangladesh War by Akhtaruzzaman Mondol

http://www.epw.org.in/uploads/articles/11334.pdf

 

 

Link: http://www.docstrangelove.com/2007/12/20/sarmila-boses-research-exposed/

© 2007 Mashuqur Rahman | Category: Bangladesh, Bangladesh Liberation War | 16 comments | 3,908 views | Subscribe to the comments of this post
 
 



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[chottala.com] Sarmila Bose’s “Research” Exposed by Mashuqur Rahman



Sarmila Bose's "Research" Exposed

[Hat tip to Robin Khundkar]

Recently I wrote about Sarmila Bose's apologia for the Pakistan army that was published last September in Economic and Political Weekly. In this week's issue of EPW, two critical comments were published that take to task Ms. Bose's "research". The first comment is from Mr. Akhtaruzzaman Mandal, a freedom fighter whose first-person account of finding Bengali rape victims being held by Pakistani soldiers was disputed by Ms. Bose. The second comment is from Dr. Nayanika Mookherjee, lecturer in the Department of Sociology at Lancaster University. Ms. Bose had cited one of Dr. Mookherjee's articles to try to cast doubt on the rapes committed by the Pakistan army in their campaign of genocide in 1971.

Mr. Mandal exposes Ms. Bose's "research" with the authority of one who has lived history. Below are some excerpts from Mr. Mandal's comment:

Since Bose knew nothing about this humble freedom fighter and the pride we all bear, she could casually describe me as a muktijoddha accompanying the Indian army. Such description also served her purpose, as she tried to portray me as someone who had no prior knowledge about the land and people of Bhurungamari/Nageshwari, about their suffering and destitution. As guerrilla fighters we were active in the region all through monitoring the day to day developments. We were like the fish in the water, as the saying goes. That is why in my book, not known to Bose, I have also written about few other specific cases of how women had to suffer. But that is another story, quite a long one, let me concentrate here on the accusation made by Bose.  

While doing her "research", Bose never tried to contact me. On the other hand her search for truth took her to Pakistan and she interviewed Lt Col Saleem Zia of 8 Punjab who was stationed in that area and cross-checked my information with this partisan source of hers. Quoting my account Bose writes, "According to Mandal, Bhurungamari seemed like a ghost town. He claims 60 East Pakistan Civil Armed Force (EPCAF) members and 30-40 Pakistani soldiers were captured â€" they had run out of ammunition. He also claims that 40-50 Pakistani soldiers were killed in this battle." Then quoting her Pakistani source she writes, "Brigadier Zia found 30 injured men, who were evacuated, and 36 able-bodied ones. The rest were dead or dispersed and four or five, by his estimate, were captured." The anomaly in the description provided by members from two contending side is not new in any battle account. It is the researcher's job to dig for the truth. But according to our researcher here Akhtaruzzaman Mandal "claims" whereas brigadier Zia "found" and that shows where she is standing as a dispassionate independent scholar. Even in her account about the number of deaths she has not said anything about the EPCAF, who were raw recruits from the villages of West Pakistan and were put into forward position to work as a shield to the Pakistan army.

Now let us take the case of captain Ataullah Khan, the human devil. Bose has been successful in collecting laudable quotes about Ataullah and in her attempt to whitewash the devil's deeds made a jugglery of the location of Bhurungamari and Nageswari depicting them as two sites completely separated from each other. She writes, "According to this fellow (Pakistani) officer, Captain Ataullah had not been in Bhurungamari before and he was based at Nageswari. He had barely got there when he faced the Indian attack." Her research or lack of research has led her to greatly differentiate between Nageswari and Bhurungamari and if only she was interested to know more she could have found out that the distance between the two place is only 15 km and at that time, even with a ferry crossing, it took only 30 minutes for a commanding officer to cover the distance by his jeep. The Pakistani captain being based at Nageswari was a frequent visitor to the forward position at Bhurungamari and he was no stranger there.

Bose never asked any woman, any common man of Nageswari and Bhurungamari, about Ataullah Khan but quoted her Pakistani source at length and writes, "This fellow officer of 25 Punjab described (not claimed: AM) Captain Ataullah as a six-foot plus Pathan officer known for being 'humane'. He further stated that he saw people in Nageswari weep upon hearing the Ataullah's death. According to him, when the Pakistanis were POW's in India after the war, a senior Indian officer had expressed his respect, soldier-to-soldier, to the officers of 25 Punjab and mentioned by name Ataullah, who had become a 'shaheed' (martyr)." In the footnote Bose mentions that, "this inclusion of evidence from the Indian side in the future would be of great value in assessing this and many other aspect of 1971 war". I am happy that she noted the importance of the Indian source which she never tried to use and would request her to look for members of 6 Mountain Division with whom we fought side by side. After 36 long years I cannot remember all of them or their full names, but how can I forget Major General Thappa, Brigadier Josie, Major Chatowal Singh, Captain Shambu, Captain Mitra, Captain Bannerje, Major Bala Reddy, as well as fellow fighters from the 78 Battalion of the BSF and others. Instead of interviewing only the perpetrators of genocide, rape and crimes against humanity she should also try to get evidences from the Indian side.  

As Bose has gathered most of her information from highly dubious one-sided Pakistani sources following atrocious and unbelievable lines, "The picture painted of captain Ataullah by his fellow officer, who knew him, completely contradicts the one given by Mandal, who appears to have only seen his dead body. Clearly, if captain Ataullah had been based in Nageswari and only gone up to Bhurungamari the day the Indian attack started, he could not have been responsible for whatever might have been going on in Bhurungamari. Mandal offers no corroborating evidence for his character assassination of an officer who had died defending his country, and therefore, cannot speak in his own defence."

As a freedom fighter operating in the area we came to know about many of the atrocious acts of Ataullah and this human-devil was not unknown to us. Our informers also brought many news and on that auspicious day we knew very well about the bunker he took shelter in and that is why the Indian army could pinpoint their artillery attack. I have seen his dead body at the bunker and could immediately know that this was the man who brought so much suffering to our people, to the poor civilians and villagers of the area. Ataullah Khan was no soldier defending his country, he was part of a killing machine, doing heinous acts against an unarmed civil population which no professional soldier can ever think of. Such acts can in no way be equated with defending one's country. In that case all the Nazi war criminals will get acquitted as they were "defending" their own country.  

[Read the entire article here]

Dr. Mookherjee, in her comment, discusses Ms. Bose's flawed methodology and bias. Below are some excerpts:

To any student of social science methodology and memory studies, the article reveals how the pursuit of "facts" alone disallows any analytical, sociological, historical and interpretative perspective. That it was published in EPW is a surprise indeed.

It is not clear from the article the extent of the research in Bangladesh, how many survivors the author met, particularly women, what was her position towards these women, i e, her reflexive position. It is clear that she talked to Pakistani military authorities and accepts everything they say to be true but considers all Bangladeshi accounts as predominantly fabricated.

The article accepts every account of Pakistani military authorities as truth while that of Bangladeshis as false and "shrill cries". Particularly if the accounts are of "illiterate" Bangladeshis they can only be false â€" so the space for any "subalterns" is clearly absent, while those within the military paraphernalia provide legitimate authoritative accounts according to the author. Particularly the role of Bangladeshi women either as witnesses or as raped: like the sweeper Rabeya Khatoon or the sculptor Firdousy Priyobhashini is always of suspect to Bose. Also while mentioning the Hamdoodur Rehman commission of the Pakistani government the author does not mention the instances of rapes and the role of General Niazi as cited in the document.

The article cites the case of Ferdousy Priyobhashini who as a single woman had to look after her widowed mother and young siblings and continued to work during the war and becomes the focus of sexual violence by various Pakistani officers as well as Bengali collaborators.

The article interrogates Priyobhashini's account questioning why she stayed back during the war and whether her rape was as a result of coercion or a voluntary sexual act by stating that she "willingly fraternised". By that argument is the article suggesting that Priyobhashini brought the rape upon her since she stayed back? This is extremely problematic and parallels the biases within various rape laws which seem to suggest that women must have brought the rape upon them in different instances.  

By this argument the sociologically nuanced analysis of how single women and their sexuality are always suspect, is never addressed and instead Priyobhashini's experience is highlighted by the derisive comment that she "makes much of her threats". The complexity of war time violence and the various threatening compulsive situations is well articulated in the work of Cynthia Enloe, Veena Das, Urvashi Butalia, Ritu Menon and Kamla Bhasin. Primo Levi's work on the holocaust also shows the complex negotiations made by survivors.

The article also states the account of Champa from one of my articles [Mookherjee 2003] and tries to infer that no rapes happened during the Bangladesh war. My article was exploring how the trauma of rape is understood in independent Bangladesh and in the process I explore how scholars of memory make sense of the process of forgetting. The nuanced arguments I make about Champa is hinged on long-term fieldwork, cross-checking of hospital files and documents and finding the social workers who found her and brought her to the hospital. These are the "evidences" of Champa's war-time violent encounter of rape. I have also worked with and written about other women who encountered rape during the Bangladesh war. This was done by means of over a year's fieldwork as well as cross-checking interviews, and examining archival, official documents, etc.

[Read the entire article here]

Related: Research on Bangladesh War by Akhtaruzzaman Mondol

http://www.epw.org.in/uploads/articles/11334.pdf

 

 

Link: http://www.docstrangelove.com/2007/12/20/sarmila-boses-research-exposed/



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[chottala.com] Bangladesh Genocide Archive - Atrocities against Bengali women



An online archive of chronology of events, documentations, audio, video, images, media reports and eyewitness accounts of the 1971 Genocide in Bangladesh in the hands of Pakistan army.

Women in 1971

women-in-71.jpg

Gen. A. A. Khan Niazi did not deny rapes were being carried out and opined, in a Freudian tone, "You cannot expect a man to live, fight, and die in East Pakistan and go to Jhelum for sex, would you?"

Atrocities against Bengali women:

As was also the case in Armenia and Nanjing, Bengali women were targeted for gender-selective atrocities and abuses, notably gang sexual assault and rape/murder, from the earliest days of the Pakistani genocide. Indeed, despite (and in part because of) the overwhelming targeting of males for mass murder, it is for the systematic brutalization of women that the "Rape of Bangladesh" is best known to western observers.

In her ground-breaking book, Against Our Will: Men, Women and Rape, Susan Brownmiller likened the 1971 events in Bangladesh to the Japanese rapes in Nanjing and German rapes in Russia during World War II. "… 200,000, 300,000 or possibly 400,000 women (three sets of statistics have been variously quoted) were raped. Eighty percent of the raped women were Moslems, reflecting the population of Bangladesh, but Hindu and Christian women were not exempt. … Hit-and-run rape of large numbers of Bengali women was brutally simple in terms of logistics as the Pakistani regulars swept through and occupied the tiny, populous land …" (p. 81).

rape1.jpg

Typical was the description offered by reporter Aubrey Menen of one such assault, which targeted a recently-married woman:

Two [Pakistani soldiers] went into the room that had been built for the bridal couple. The others stayed behind with the family, one of them covering them with his gun. They heard a barked order, and the bridegroom's voice protesting. Then there was silence until the bride screamed. Then there was silence again, except for some muffled cries that soon subsided. In a few minutes one of the soldiers came out, his uniform in disarray. He grinned to his companions. Another soldier took his place in the extra room. And so on, until all the six had raped the belle of the village. Then all six left, hurriedly. The father found his daughter lying on the string cot unconscious and bleeding. Her husband was crouched on the floor, kneeling over his vomit. (Quoted in Brownmiller, Against Our Will, p. 82.)

"Rape in Bangladesh had hardly been restricted to beauty," Brownmiller writes. "Girls of eight and grandmothers of seventy-five had been sexually assaulted … Pakistani soldiers had not only violated Bengali women on the spot; they abducted tens of hundreds and held them by force in their military barracks for nightly use." Some women may have been raped as many as eighty times in a night (Brownmiller, p. 83). How many died from this atrocious treatment, and how many more women were murdered as part of the generalized campaign of destruction and slaughter, can only be guessed at.

Despite government efforts at amelioration, the torment and persecution of the survivors continued long after Bangladesh had won its independence:

Rape, abduction and forcible prostitution during the nine-month war proved to be only the first round of humiliation for the Bengali women. Prime Minister Mujibur Rahman's declaration that victims of rape were national heroines was the opening shot of an ill-starred campaign to reintegrate them into society — by smoothing the way for a return to their husbands or by finding bridegrooms for the unmarried [or widowed] ones from among his Mukti Bahini freedom fighters. Imaginative in concept for a country in which female chastity and purdah isolation are cardinal principles, the "marry them off" campaign never got off the ground. Few prospective bridegrooms stepped forward, and those who did made it plain that they expected the government, as father figure, to present them with handsome dowries. (Brownmiller, Against Our Will, p. 84.)

Source: Gendercide Watch

Books:

* Genocide in Bangladesh (1972) by Kalayan Chaudhury, Orient Longman, pp 157-158

Rape of Dhaka University students in 1971

" …..Some army officer raided the Rokeya Hall, the girls' hostel of Dacca University, on October 7, 1971. Accompanied by five soldiers, Major Aslam had first visited the hostel on October 3, and asked the lady superintendent to supply some girls who could sing and dance at a function to be held in Tejgaon Cantonment. The superintendent told him that most of the girls had left the hostel after the disturbances and only 40 students were residing but as a superintendent of a girls' hostel she should not allow them to go to the cantonment for this purpose. Dissatisfied, Major Aslam went away. Soon after the superintendent informed a higher army officer in the cantonment, over the telephone, of the Major' s mission.

However, on October 7, at about 8 p.m. Major Aslam and his men raided the hostel. The soldiers broke open the doors, dragged the girls out and stripped them before raping and torturing them in front of the helpless superintendent. The entire thing was done so, openly, without any provocation, that even the Karachi-based newspaper, Dawn, had to publish the story, violating censorship by the military authorities. In seven days after liberation about 300 girls were recovered from different places around Dacca where they had been taken away and kept confined by the Pakistani army men. On December 26, altogether 55 emaciated and half-dead girls on the verge of mental derangement were recovered by the Red Cross with the help of the Mukti Bahini and the allied forces from various hideouts of the Pakistani army in Narayanganj, Dacca Cantonment and other small towns on the periphery of Dacca city.

women-fighters.jpg

"Although thousands of young Hindu women were killed, the most attractive among them were captured to become sex slaves in the military cantonments. When the girls tried to hang themselves with their clothing, their garments were taken away from them. Then, when they tried to strangle themselves with their long black hair, they were shaved bald. When they became five or six months pregnant, they were released with the taunt: 'When my son is born, you must bring him back to me'." (Daktar: Diplomat in Bangladesh by Dr. Viggo Olsen).

Articles:

* Abortion team to travel to Bangladesh -The Bryan Times, February 10, 1972

* The Rape of 71: The Dark Phase of History -Dr. M A Hassan

…..We have collected numerous evidences on the rape, molestation and torture of Bangalee women by the Pakistani army. Rauful Hossain Suja, the son of martyr Akbar Hossain of Pahartali, Chittagong, went to the FOY'S LAKE KILLING ZONE to look for his father's dead body. They found dead bodies of approximately 10,000 Bangalees, most of them were brutally slaughtered. In their desperate search for their father's dead boy, they found dead bodies of 84 pregnant women whose abdomens were slashed open. This type of brutality took place almost every where in Bangladesh. Raped women were also locked up naked in various military camps so as to deny them termination of their anguish through suicide.

As per our statistics on the abortion centers and hospitals around the country, less than 10% of the total raped women visited those centers. In most cases the abortions were done locally and efforts were taken to keep those incidents secret due to social situation. The doctors and specialists, like Dr Anwarul Azim, involved in the hospitals and abortion centers agreed to this statistical information. In reality the raped women who became pregnant after September and less than three months pregnant in early 1972, they did not go the abortion centers and hospitals at all. In our account, the number of women of this category was at least 88,200. Moreover, in those three months, raped 162,000 women and 131,000 Hindu refugee women simply disappeared, assimilated into the vast population, without any report at all.

* The Beswas Village – By Afsan Chowdhury:

"I came out and saw the army. They wanted to go inside. I put my hands up like this and said there was no one inside. They flung me away into the yard and dragged my husband and son outside. They shot them both right there, there.

They killed every male in the village, every male. When the army was gone, there was not a single man left to bury the dead. We had to drag the bodies ourselves and bury them."

* Against Our Will : Men, Women and Rape – By: Susan Brownmiller

A stream of victims and eyewitnesses tell how truckloads of Pakistani soldiers and their hireling razakars swooped down on villages in the night, rounding up women by force. Some were raped on the spot. Others were carried off to military compounds. Some women were still their when Indian troops battled their way into Pakistani strongholds. Weeping survivors of villages razed because they were suspected of siding with the Mukti Bahini freedom fighters told how wives were raped before their eyes of their bound husbands, who were then put to death. Just how much of it was the work of Pakistani "regulars" is not clear. Pakistani officers maintain that their men were too disciplined "for that sort of thing".

* – John Hastings, A Methodist missionary worked in Bangladesh for 20 years:

"I am certain that troops have raped girls repeatedly, then killed them by pushing their bayonets up between their legs."

– (from Newsweek)

* War babies: The question of national honor – By Bina D' Costa

* Ethical Issues Concerning Representation of Narratives of Sexual Violence of 1971 – By Nayanika Mookherjee

* War of Symbols: How today's generation remembers 1971 - By: Dr. Meghna Guhathakurta

* The Lessons We Never Learn – By: Hameeda Hossain

"It has now become a ritual, come December and March, to bemoan why no justice was exacted from the Pakistan military and its collaborators, for the crimes of genocide and mass rape, committed in 1971. This is not for lack of evidence."

* Distances by Rahnuma Ahmed -on a picture of an women recovered from an Army camp in 12th december 1971 taken by Naibuddin Ahmed:

Girls had been discovered in the bunkers, which were next to the university guesthouse. He went on, I went and found her, she was lying like that. People were milling around her, they were in front of her, they were behind her. I asked them to move, I made some space, and then I took photographs. Girls had been discovered in the bunkers, which were next to the university guesthouse. He went on, I went and found her, she was lying like that. People were milling around her, they were in front of her, they were behind her. I asked them to move, I made some space, and then I took photographs.

War rape intimidates the enemy, says Sally J Scholz. It demoralises the enemy. It makes women pregnant, and thereby furthers the cause of genocide. It tampers with the identity of the next generation. It breaks up families. It disperses entire populations. It drives a wedge between family members. It extends the oppressor's dominance into future generations.

One of the 400,000 birangonas (brave women), who were raped during the war
Photograph: Naib Uddin Ahmed/Autograph ABP & Guardian UK

Historical Documents:

Dr Davis's Report on Repression of Bangalee Women in 1971

Rapes of Bangladesh – By: Audrey Mennen
A New York Times article from 1972

Story of Victims Part 1 and 2 – By Kalyan Choudhury

Tales of Endurance and Courage – Aasha Mehreen Amin, Lavina Ambreen Ahmed and Shamim Ahsan

Other Related Articles

  • Interview of a survivor
  • Yasmin Saikia's research
  • Tormenting 71
  • Bangladesh Liberation War Rape Victims Demand Justice from Pakistan
  • Women fighting for Bangladesh honoured three decades later
  • Bangladesh's Women Warriors Call For Justice
  • Ground breaking daughters of East Bengal
  • Listen to the true story of an anonymous soldier
  • Taramon Bibi-from cook to a brave fighter
  • More about Taramon Bibi in bangla
  • captain sitara-a great doctor ,a greater warrior
  • More about captain sitara in bangla
  • More about women's contribution
  • The warriors of hills
  • how much a mother can tolerate?
  • Tales of the Biranganas

    Rape Denials:

    * Indian scholar sifts 1971 fact from fiction – Khalid Hasan

    * The continuing rape of Bangladesh – Mashuqur Rahman

    * The continuing rape of our History – Mashuqur Rahman published in the Daily Star

    * Sarmila Bose's "Research" Exposed – Mashuqur Rahman

    * Skewing the history of rape in 1971 A prescription for reconciliation? – Nayanika Mookherjee

    Courtesy: Drishtipat, The heroines of 1971, Muktadhara

  • 1 Response

    1. » বীরাঙ্গনা নারী এবং যুদ্ধ শিশুরাঃ পাপমোচণের সময় এখনই»মুক্তমনা বাংলা ব্লগ:

      [...] এম এ হাসানের তার প্রবন্ধ 'The Rape of 1971: The Dark Phase of History' তে বলেন যে, সারা দেশের গর্ভপাত [...]

      Posted on January 25th, 2009 at 11:51 pm

    link:

    http://www.genocidebangladesh.org/?page_id=20

     



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    Re: [chottala.com] How many killed in the Liberation war

    Liberation war in 1971 was done to libarate Bangladesh for establishing justice of humanity justice of socio-economy under lawful good administration in the system of lawful democracy.
    Now the question is ?
    Why did not still in Bangladesh establish justice of humanity justice of socio-economy under lawful honest administration in the system of lawful democracy?
    Why did not still correctly enlist the names of 30 millions people who were killed by Pakistan 9 months liberation war in 1971 on what basis it was declared?
    Why did not still help those aliving family members whose family lost their family members killing by Pakistan Army during 9 month war in 1971?
    Is it not the moral duty of Bangladesh Administration for honest searching to find out the names and enlist the names and their addresses of 30 millions people who were killed in 1971 war?
    Why is neglecing the present administration to do this great duty for finding the name and address of 30 millions people who were killed by Pakistan Army in 1971 during 9 month war?
    Otherwise future generation may think it was false news actually there was not held any war between Pakistan and Bangladesh but actual was held between India & Pakistan After wining India capuring East Pakistan did not take this regions under directly Indian administration but named this region as Bangladesh to be rulled by the people who obey the India administration instruction and make people third class condition.

    --- On Sat, 12/3/11, Em Pannah <epannah@yahoo.com> wrote:

    > From: Em Pannah <epannah@yahoo.com>
    > Subject: Re: [chottala.com] How many killed in the Liberation war
    > To: chottala@yahoogroups.com, "md. saiful KHAN" <saifakhan01@gmail.com>
    > Cc: "Em Pannah" <empannah@hotmail.com>
    > Received: Saturday, 12 March, 2011, 11:16 PM
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >  
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    > Dear Readers,
    >  
    > This is a serious issue
    > indeed. Everybody knows it as 3 million; does anybody
    > have any acceptable proof that it is really 3 lacs (and not
    > 3 million).
    >  
    > With best
    > regards,
    > Dr. Emarat Hossain
    > Pannah
    > (A living
    > freedom-fighter from 11 sector - now living in USA since
    > 1990)
    >  
    >  
    >  
    >  
    >  
    > --- On Fri, 3/11/11, Sirajul Haider
    > <sirajulhaider@yahoo.com> wrote:
    >
    >
    > From: Sirajul Haider <sirajulhaider@yahoo.com>
    > Subject: [chottala.com] How many killed in Liberation war:
    > How 3 lacs became 30 lacs after 10 March 1972
    > To: chottala@yahoogroups.com, "md. saiful KHAN"
    > <saifakhan01@gmail.com>
    > Date: Friday, March 11, 2011, 9:59 AM
    >
    >
    >  
    >
    >
    >
    > Dear Mr Helal,
    >  
    > I really appreciate your courageous declaration of the
    > fact that the death of 30 lacs was very much exaggerated.
    > You said that it was slip of tongue of Shaikh Mujib but the
    > truth is it was not a slip of tongue by Sk Mujib since to
    > his said it 3 million thinking 1 million= 1 lac, he did
    > not know that 1 million is actually 10 lacs. When Sk Mujib
    > said 3 million of death to foreign journalists to indicate
    > actually 3 lacs 1 lac then 1 minister wanted
    > correct him but other minister said since bongobondhu
    > already uttered 3 million so no need to correct him since
    > same will high light his poor knowledge numerology
    > terms.   So from that 3 lacs became 3 millions= 30
    > lacks. Many people know this but  no one dares to speak
    > out, if you say this then you will be termed a
    > rajakar.
    >  
    > Siraj
    >  
    >  
    >
    >
    >
    >
    > saiful KHAN
    > <saifakhan01@gmail.com>
    > Cc: Khabor
    > Dot Com <info@khabor.com>; Abba
    > <hussain7192@rogers.com>; khabor@yahoogroups.com;
    > chottala@yahoogroups.com; Nuran Nabi
    > <nurannabi@gmail.com>; Mohammad Haque
    > <ashraful_00@yahoo.com>; mr mahmud
    > <mrmahmud71@yahoo.com>; Mohammed Sharfuddin
    > <sharfuddinbd@hotmail.com>
    > Sent: Friday,
    > 11 March 2011 00:32:33
    > Subject:
    > [chottala.com] Re: [Alapon] Protest against Sarmila
    > Bose's book event on March 15th
    >
    >  
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    > Dear Dr. Saiful
    > khan:
    >  
    > Assalamualikum.
    > Thank you for your response regarding my posting. You
    > didn’t hurt my feelings
    > as what you have said is nothing wrong from your point of
    > view. And that's what civic people do to communicate
    > with one another. I'm humbled to even communicate to a
    > person like you or Dr. Nuran Nabi and many others in these
    > forums who are way educated and accomplished than me. I take
    > your criticism as a learning tool for being shaped as a
    > mature human being.
    >  
    >
    > As I mentioned
    > earlier, I have outmost respect for the Freedom fighter on
    > 1971. But I’m not sure,
    > I can say the same thing about the honorable living Freedom
    > fighters in 2011. I also expressed the similar feelings to
    > my Father-in-law after seeing
    > Felani’s hanging dead
    > body on the wired fence.
    >  
    > You and I are
    > extremely fortunate that we do not leave along the
    > Bangladesh-India border fence. Imagine you daughter or
    > sister killed like that hanged for hours. God forbid,
    > that’s
    > shouldn’t happen to any
    > of us or even to our ill seekers.
    >  
    >
    > I do not think I
    > made the false accusation regarding the living Freedom
    > fighters being mum with all the injustice Bangladesh is receiving over
    > the last 39 years. Some of their inaction is louder than my
    > word. However, you have all the rights to disagree with my
    > assertion and I ask all the living Freedom
    > fighter’s forgiveness
    > for being ungrateful.
    >  
    > Your generation
    > saw Pakistan as oppressor and
    > you spoke loud about it as that was the right thing to do.
    > Our generation is seeing India as the oppressor,
    > and we are speaking about it. I do not have any hurt feeling
    > towards the Indian people but the Indian authority who is
    > humiliating us periodically. Well, I do not solely blame
    > Indian authority either, but us, as we are the one who is
    > letting them to dictate our lives by being divided and
    > weak.
    >  
    >
    > Dear Ms Farah and
    > Mr.Anis:
    >  
    > Assalamualikum.
    > Thanks for your response as well. I hope we realize that by
    > being hateful to each others, we are completely destroying
    > the future of Bangladesh. The sooner we
    > realize it the better it is for us. We are a country of
    > numerous prospects and our neighbors like India and China leading the way
    > to be prosperous nations. All we have to do is just learn
    > from them, how to be united when it come to national issues.
    >
    >  
    > The other thing is
    > haunting me is very sensitive to talk about.
    > Ok,
    > let’s talk about it, as
    > most of us in these forums are well-informed and may have
    > the courage to discuss something enormously
    > sensitive.
    >  
    > War Criminals:
    >
    > We all want
    > justice for the Pakistani Collaborators who slaughters
    > innocent Bangalee’s
    > ruthlessly. Then how about the justice for innocent
    > Bihari’s who were also
    > slaughtered by
    > Bangalee’s! Why, no one
    > is seeking justice for all the murders!
    >  
    > If
    > I’m a JUST person,
    > then, I should be JUST to all. Not, only to my family,
    > friends, and well wishers. Right!!
    > Yes, there is no
    > doubt in my mind that
    > Bangalee’s were
    > slaughtered thousands time more than
    > Bihari’s by brutal
    > Pakistani army and their Bangalee collaborators.
    >  
    > FYI,
    > I’m not a Bihari origin
    > but a Bangladeshi from both parental sides.
    >  
    > Thanks everyone
    > for reading this long mail. And pls accept my sincerely
    > apology if this mail hurt you in any way. As I said above,
    > you have all the rights to disagree with whatever I said and
    > allow me to understand if I got it all wrong.
    >  
    > Helal
    >
    > --- On Thu, 3/10/11, md. saiful KHAN
    > <saifakhan01@gmail.com> wrote:
    >
    >
    > From: md. saiful KHAN <saifakhan01@gmail.com>
    > Subject: Re: [Alapon] Protest against Sarmila Bose's
    > book event on March 15th
    > To: alapon@yahoogroups.com
    > Cc: "Helal Ahmed" <huahmed@yahoo.com>,
    > "Khabor Dot Com" <info@khabor.com>,
    > "Abba" <hussain7192@rogers.com>,
    > khabor@yahoogroups.com, chottala@yahoogroups.com,
    > "Nuran Nabi" <nurannabi@gmail.com>
    > Date: Thursday, March 10, 2011, 2:36 AM
    >
    >
    > Dear Bhai Helal CC Dean Dr. Nurun
    > Nabi
    >
    > I have read your email letter to Dr. Nurun Nabi.
    > We are proud of your father in law and father as we are
    > proud of Dean Dr. Nurun Nabi.
    >
    > Your assertion " What i don't
    > understand is that in this forum, i do not see you or any
    > other Freedom fighters are crying for Felani or thousands of
    > innocent Bangladeshis are killed by Indian border
    > force" makes it clear that you have no real respect
    > for the most invaluable contribution of our freedom
    > fighters  of Bangladesh including your
    > father or father in law.
    >
    > How can you raise such an allegation like this ?
    >
    > In one life time fighting or taking part in one freedom
    > struggle or war of liberation is the most commemdable part
    > of valour or patriotism.
    >
    > Have you or I or most of our countrymen fought or got the
    > chance to take part in a glorious war of
    > emancipation?
    >
    > Let us all be measured and balanced in our evaluation.
    >
    > Please do not feel hurt by this comment of mine.
    >
    >
    > Dr. Md. Saiful Amin Khan
    >
    > Retired Ambassador and Permanent Secretary of Bangladesh
    >
    > London
    >
    >
    >
    >
    > On 9 March 2011
    > 21:23, Helal Ahmed <huahmed@yahoo.com>
    > wrote:
    >
    >
    >  
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    > Assalamualikum
    > Dear Dr. Nuran Nabi.
    >  
    > My
    > name is Helal Ahmed and i born in 1970.
    > I’m very proud of you
    > as a living Freedom fighter as
    > I’m proud of my
    > Father-in-law and late father. You and my Father-in-law
    > faced the bullet in the forefront and my late father
    > fought the war in a different way. I wish I was born at that
    > time to do the same. I understand your sentiment towards
    > 1971.
    >  
    > What i don't
    > understand is that in this forum, i do not see you or any
    > other Freedom fighters are crying for Felani or thousands of
    > innocent Bangladeshis are killed by Indian border
    > force.
    >  
    > I
    > guess you and some of the Freedom fighters fought the war
    > against Pakistan not for
    > Bangladesh. If you fought
    > for Bangladesh, than i should
    > have seen your anger against the Felani killer just the way
    > you showed your anger towards Pakistani
    > murderers.
    >  
    > Also, in our 1971
    > war, 3 million people
    > didn’t die. The
    > mentioned number was a slip of tongue by Bongobondhu. And
    > people are Bangladesh
    > can’t even talk about
    > it as they might be labeled as Razakar. For the sake of new
    > generation, it is your duty to tell the
    > truth.
    >  
    > Pls
    > accept my sincere apology if I hurt you with this mail. As a
    > generation after 1970,
    > I’m just tired of
    > seeing Bangladeshis keep talking about old enemy and being
    > mum of new enemy.
    >  
    > FYI, as you are, I
    > also want the trial of 1971 war criminals. But I
    > don’t think our
    > neighboring country want this issue to be resolved as this
    > the only way to keep Bangladesh divided and let
    > us in fighting. See, people like you and me, living in
    > different countries, from completely different generations,
    > still wasting our time to argue over something which should
    > have been solved 40 years ago.
    >  
    > I’m
    > very much in doubt that current AL government will
    > complete the trial. After the five long years, they will say
    > they have to come back to power again to finish the
    > trial.
    >  
    > Thanks in advance
    > for your understanding.
    >  
    > Helal
    >
    > --- On Wed, 3/9/11, Nuran Nabi <nurannabi@gmail.com>
    > wrote:
    >
    >
    > From: Nuran Nabi <nurannabi@gmail.com>
    > Subject: [Alapon] Protest against Sarmila Bose's book
    > event on March 15th
    > To: alapon@yahoogroups.com,
    > "Khabor Dot Com" <info@khabor.com>
    > Date: Wednesday, March 9, 2011, 1:42 PM
    >
    >
    >  
    >
    > I would appreciate if you post this in your group
    >
    >
    > ---------- Forwarded message ----------
    > From: Nuran Nabi <nurannabi@gmail.com>
    > Date: Wed, Mar 9, 2011 at 1:21 PM
    > Subject: Protest against Sarmila Bose's book event on
    > March 15th
    > To: mike.vandusen@wilsoncenter.org
    >
    >
    >
    > Mr. Mike Van Dusen
    > Executive Vice President of the Woodrow Wilson
    > Center for
    > Internatio​nal
    > Scholars
    >
    >  
    > Dear Mr. Van Dusen,
    >  
    >
    > It is with great dismay I tell you that you
    > have organized an event with a controversial writer Sarmila
    > Bose in the month of March which is the
    > 40th  anniversary of the beginning of Bangladesh
    > genocide 1971 where 3 million people were killed, 200
    > thousand women were raped, 10 million people were forced to
    > become refugees to lead a sub-human life during 9 months of
    > the war..
    >  
    > These crimes against humanity are well documented
    > including a book by USA Consul General in Dhaka Late Mr.
    > Archer Blood and a report by Late Senator Edward
    > Kennedy.
    >  
    > Sarmila Bose's book event on March 15  is
    > an insult to the victims of Bangladesh genocide.
    >  
    > I am a Freedom Fighter of Bangladesh liberation war
    > and a witness to the crimes against humanity perpetrated by
    > the Pakistani military and their Bengali
    > collaborators.  I have written several books on
    > Bangladesh liberation war. My latest book Bullets of
    > '71- A Freedom Fighter's Story describes Bangladesh
    > genocide committed by the Bangladesh war criminals. (See my
    > website www.nurannabi.com to
    > know more about Bangladesh genocide )
    >  
    > After 40 years, trial of the Bangladesh war
    > criminals just has started. Since then Bangladesh war
    > criminals and their supporters have started orchestrated
    > campaign to misinform and mislead the world opinion
    > regarding the extent of Bangladesh genocide. Sarmila Bose is
    > a part of that grand scheme.
    >  
    > Sarmila Bose and others are promoting
    > their hidden agenda in a very subtle way to
    > protect the Bangladesh war criminals. Its irony that she is
    > using organization like Woodrow Wilson Center in the USA
    > capital to misguide the opinion maker.
    >  
    > You must stop this event which is a heinous design
    > of the Bangladesh war criminals. You should allow to let
    > people know the truth about Bangladesh war crimes which Ms
    > Bose is trying to hide and protect the war
    > criminals.
    >  
    > I am walling to present evidence for the crimes
    > against humanity in Bangladesh in 1971 perpetrated by
    > Pakistani military and their Bengali collaborators based on
    > my new book.
    >  
    > I would appreciate if you invite me to the event to
    > counter Ms. Bose's misleading conclusion and allow
    > me tell the truth to the audience. 
    >   
    > Looking forward to hearing from you.
    >  
    > Regards,
    > Nuran Nabi, PhD
    > Councilman of Plainsboro Township, NJ
    > and a Freedom Fighter of Bangladesh Liberation
    > war
    > Tel: 609 529 5065
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >
    >



    ------------------------------------

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    [chottala.com] Fwd: Israeli Army veteran Mohammed Hussein changed his name to Yossi Peretz







    -----Original Message-----
    From: iChowdhury
    To: History Islam <history_islam@yahoogroups.com>
    Sent: Wed, Mar 9, 2011 9:06 pm
    Subject: Israeli Army veteran Mohammed Hussein changed his name to Yossi Peretz

     

    Palestinian with Jewish wife and IDF veteran son denied permanent visa

    Adel Hussein lived most of his life in the West Bank city of Tul Karm, and now wants to live near his son in Israel.

    By Yanir Yagna
    A Palestinian man who is married to a Jewish woman and whose son served in the Israel Defense Forces was recently informed that he is ineligible for a permanent visa to live in Israel.
    "I can't buy a home here like a human being, I can't open a business for fear that they'll soon kick me out," said Adel Hussein, who has lived most of his life in the West Bank city of Tul Karm, but now wants to live near his son in Israel.
     
    hussein - Eliyahu Hershkovitz - February 26 2011
    Adel Hussein at the wedding ceremony of his son.
    Photo by: Eliyahu Hershkovitz
     
     
     
    "There is no explanation as to why they're not letting me be a permanent citizen. My son served in a combat unit - is that not total loyalty to the state?"
    The Interior Ministry's Population, Immigration and Border Authority said it did not have the power to grant Hussein's request for permanent residency.
    "Mr. Adel Hussein is a resident of the Palestinian Authority," the authority said in a statement. "In 2005, in light of the fact that he is the father of an Israeli citizen and that he argued that his life was in danger [in the West Bank], it was decided as part of a legal proceeding and a ruling by the head of the Population Administration at the time to approve Mr. Hussein's 5a temporary residence visa.
     
    "Mr. Hussein is asking to change his status to that of permanent resident, but in light of a 2003 temporary order, it's impossible to approve that request, nor is it in our discretion to do so."
     
    Hussein, whose wife and son moved from Tul Karm to Dimona in 1996 because he feared for their lives in the West Bank, said he soon plans to submit a request to renew his temporary visa.
     
    A temporary visa granted to him in 2004, after he petitioned the High Court of Justice, has since expired.
     
    "The visa was extended every year [for five years], and the intention was that after five years he would become a permanent resident by virtue of being the father of a soldier serving in the IDF," said Hussein's lawyer, Didi Rothschild. "So far, our requests to the Interior Ministry to have his status changed to permanent resident or Israeli citizen have been rejected."
     
    Hussein's son, who changed his name from Mohammed Hussein to Yossi Peretz, says his father deserves to be able to live near him.
    "I'm his only son," said Peretz. "He doesn't have anyone aside from me and he belongs near me."



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    Re: [chottala.com] Dr Muhammad Yunus – Washington's blue-eyed Boy : Commentry by by KBM Mahmoud



    KBM, please share whatever you were drinking or smoking while trying so hard to stitch together this preposterous write-up. As a self proclaimed journalist, you should know better that no one nowadays addresses another fellow man as a "boy".....regardless if one agrees or not with the other person. Just like no journalists will address any country's PMs as prostitutes, regardless if their key qualifications are being a daughter or a wife of a former politician!

    Well, this is the quality of Bangladeshi journalism, Amen! Good thing though, BD journalists were not rated as highly corrupt organization in Bangladesh by the Transparency International. It just so happened, BD judiciary and the politicians like the housewives Hasina / Khaleda parties were found to be the most and 3rd most corrupt organizations respectively. Now, these two organizations have ganged up against the only Noble Price Winner from BD.

    Housewife Hasina won a battle - the real danger now is that the war will be lost by the BD poor women, BD image outside (it took decades to rebuild the image from 'bottom less basket'), microcredit as one of the few financial instrument towards poverty elevation, etc. And these are the key issues why there is so much international (West is one part of it) support for Grameen experiment!

    Rana
    not a journalist




    And the most and the 3rd most corrupt entities according to Transparency Internationsl it has



    From: AbdurRahim Azad <Arahim.azad@gmail.com>
    To: khabor <khabor@yahoogroups.com>; notun_bangladesh@yahoogroups.com; chottala@yahoogroups.com; alapon@yahoogroups.com
    Sent: Sat, March 12, 2011 4:26:54 AM
    Subject: [chottala.com] Dr Muhammad Yunus – Washington's blue-eyed Boy : Commentry by by KBM Mahmoud

     

    Monday, 7 March 2011

    Commentary : Dr Muhammad Yunus â€" Washington's blue-eyed Boy

    http://www.gcu.ac.uk/yunuscentre/newsevents/managed/news/bydate/2010/1/Simpsons1-177x177.jpg

    by KBM Mahmoud

    AN extraordinary situation has developed over the government decision to remove Muhammad Yunus from the position of chief executive officer and managing director of Grameen Bank which the western nations, notably the United States, have endorsed as a 'model' for microcredit lending and alleviation of poverty in the developing world, an assessment disputed by many other socioeconomic theoreticians.

    It started with a national English-language daily carrying a front-page story on February 28 headlined 'US asks the government not to harass Yunus'. The story quoting 'a senior western diplomat with direct knowledge of these (US-led) conversations' started with an intro which read as follows: 'US officials have told Sheikh Hasina that there would be no further high level diplomatic interaction between the United States and Bangladesh until the harassment of Muhammad Yunus, founder of the Grameen Bank, ends.'

    The Bangladesh Bank, which is the regulatory authority for all banking institutions, including Grameen Bank, has since made a formal announcement of relinquishment of Muhammad Yunus from his position in Grameen Bank as the CEO based on the applicable rule of retirement for the position which, expectedly, became part of the lead news on Wednesday in the media at home and abroad. In the meantime, national news media has quoted a spokesperson in Grameen Bank that Muhammad Yunus was 'in charge' and that the government decision was to be 'reviewed' under the light of the law, clearly forewarning a legal battle on the issue ahead.

    It is not the intention of this writer to venture, at this point, at determining the meritâ€"or the lack of itâ€"of the grounds underlying the government decision of removal of Dr Yunus from the position at point. What is astounding, in the first place, is the manner and extent of pressure purportedly being exerted by the Washington in favour of its blue-eyed boy, Dr Yunus. However, a look back at some historical facts would be relevant for a moral evaluation of Dr Yunus.

    Few people are aware that Dr Muhammad Yunus, decades before he became important or well-known enough to befriend people like Bill Clinton in Washington, was the blue-eyed boy of the late president Ziaur Rahman. Ziaur Rahman viewed Yunus, then a teacher in Chittagong University, as a key player for the 'reforms' he was to attempt to take Bangladesh away from the road chosen by Sheikh Mujibur Rahman and his predecessor comrades like Tajuddin Ahmed, who dared name Bangladesh a 'people's republic' and adopt 'socialism' as one of the constitutional goals.

    It is part of the socio-politico plan envisioned and launched after the removal of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman from power in Bangladesh in 1975 that the concept of Grameen Bank was evolved during the reign of Ziaur Rahman and after Grameen Bank was set up by a special ordinance in early 1980s, the 'era' of Dr Yunus began. Backed by unprecedented 'officially approved' tax exemptions by the National Board of Revenue and other administrative support, Grameen Bank (officially categorised as a non-profit institution) saw a phenomenal growth both in its operation and profits over the years. The tax-protection continued unhindered during the entire tenures of General Ershad and through the first term of Khaleda Zia. During the first tenure of Sheikh Hasina's Awami League-led government, the tax concession was extended after a momentary hindrance.

    By the mid-1990s Yunus was able to catch the attention of the western world, notably the US, as a messiah who was successfully implanting the concept of 'capitalism' at the grass-root level of a nation which, only years ago (in the early 70s in the wake of the liberation war), looked like the breeding ground of a socialist movement which, to the chagrin of Henry Kissinger and company in the USA, had all the potential of engulfing the entire sub-continent, if left unchecked.

    Apart from the domestic, administrative and political support, Dr Yunus's advent also received a boost from a combination of world events. The emergence of Yunus and Grameen Bank coincided with the bolstering of free market economy, boldly proclaimed as 'market capitalism' by erstwhile US Federal Reserve Bank chief Alan Greenspan, from the late 1970s and was reinforced in the following years by US president Ronald Reagan, which was to dominate the world economic order for the next two decades. Successive finance ministers and fiscal policymakers in our country have been pawns of this 'free economy' policy sired by the corporate-controlled America to this date.

    At home, stories had occasionally surfaced about mismanagement in Grameen Bank, the exorbitantly high interest rate payable by borrowers, ruthless recovery methods applied by the Grameen and the consequent mass pauperisation of the microcredit loan recipients. But these received only limited or no attention in the home media on which should have rested the primary responsibly to 'tell the spook from the tree.' The fundamental reason being our media too had come of age as a client of free market economy, and was totally different in character and culture from its predecessor in the 1960s or even early 1970s (when this writer happened to be an active journalist). After all, there is nothing wrong in destitution or pauperisation if capitalist order is acceptable, which our media and the nation, by and large, seem to have taken lying down from day one after the political change in 1975.

    Big guns like Bill Clinton's support notwithstanding, there still had been blogs and comments in foreign media and international watchdog forums for non-government organisations alleging lack of transparency and accountability in Grameen but little attention was paid by the home media to such allegations. Nor did our media undertake the minimum required research into the real benefits of Grameen loans or cover the social consequences of Grameen phenomenon in the correct socio-economic perspective applicable to Bangladesh situation.

    The first major ripple about Grameen and Dr Yunus was caused when a Norwegian journalist released a documentary last December alleging that Yunus had quietly transferred from the Grameen Bank $48 million in Norwegian aid money to a sister company in violation of the ground rules of the Norwegian Fund. Initially, there were conflicting responses to the exposé both by the Norwegian authorities and from Dr Yunus's camp. However, the alleged discrepancy was 'validated' with cooperation from the Norwegian fund subsequently in a manner which was found not very convincing by most observers. Interestingly, the leading two newspapers in Bangladesh in English and Bangla (owned by the same group) did not even carry the news until after a rejoinder was issued by Grameen Bank to the Norwegian documentary.

    Meanwhile, Dr Muhammad Yunus has grown, from the humble position of a university teacher in the 1970s, to the position of CEO or entrepreneur of some 40-plus odd corporations and enterprises under Grameen family of companies with such administrative patronage as to have majority of the entities placed under non-profit organisations for obvious tax exemptions. Curiously, his establishments have in their staff a sizeable number of former high officials of government establishments, including from the National Board of Revenue, which is the regulatory authority for tax issues in the country. Critics say many of the incumbents in the Yunus establishments were in his payroll even before their tenure with the government had ended.

    Internationally, Yunus had in the course of time secured the patronage to officially set up a Grameen-type base in the US. Among other status, corporate America has found Yunus worthy of being a member of at least six high powered committees with various domestic and international agenda in which he has the privilege to rub shoulders with such celebrities as Bill Gates. Elsewhere, the West has rewarded Yunus with several profitable joint-venture projects (e.g. Grameen Telecom with a significant stake in the largest mobile phone operator Grameen Phone) and similar patronage from other western corporations for promoting the socio-politico-economic philosophy of the G-20 continues. Incidentally, about the time the Yunus lobby from Washington to Norway succeeded crowning him with the Nobel Peace Prize, Time Magazine preferred to downgrade him to one among ten most successful businessmen by global standards instead.

    No wonder Dr Yunus, who is an economist by basic discipline, has not ever had a word of criticism for the global exploitation of the multinational corporations or destructive policies of globalisation which have aroused stormy protests from the developing world, including the self-immolation of a Korean farmer before a G-20 Meet a few years ago.

    Bangladesh has its own sovereign right to evaluate and decide the status and fate of its own subjects under the laws of the land. No foreign government, be it Washington or the European Union, has the right of intrusion to such process. True, the garment manufacturers in Bangladesh need a market for their product in the US. So do China or India or, for that matter, other countries who have bilateral relations with the USA, and have interdependence on the economic and, perhaps, on the political front. But every nation has to define the frontiers of its own self-interest that cannot be compromised. Look at China for the best example. Washington must remember that Bangladesh did not liberate itself in 1971 with the permission of US president Nixon or Henry Kissinger, rather the opposite was the case. If only for this big reason, it would be wrong for Washington to expect Sheikh Hasina, or whoever takes her place, to act as Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan.

    Turning to the case of Dr Yunus, the administration has the duty to perform much more than the eyes meet so far in terms of investigations said to be in progress. A scrutiny of year-to-year official wealth statement of Dr Yunus from the days he was a teacher in Chittagong University should be the starting point for finding out the secrets of his success as 'one of top ten successful businessmen' by global standards, as Time Magazine called him. Did he secure the permissions from the central bank, mandatory under the law for all Bangladeshis investing abroad? What is his declared net worth, including in foreign investments? Does it cover the assets and investments reported in the media, promoted or owned by Yunus? These are only partial listings of the terms of reference for any investigation relevant for the case at point; experts on the subject should be able to add more.


    KBM Mahmoud is a former journalist.

    Link



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