Bangladesh’s government took no significant steps to investigate and prosecute torture in custody and extrajudicial killings during 2011. Although the number of killings by the paramilitary force, the Rapid Action Battalion (RAB), dropped following domestic and international criticism, enforced disappearances increased. Activists and journalists were harassed or tortured. The government took some steps to promote women’s rights but failed to take adequate measures to protect women and girls from violence. Trials against those accused of war crimes during the 1971 war of independence were riddled with concerns over due process rights. Trials against members of the Bangladesh Border Guards accused in the 2009 mutiny were similarly rife with complaints.

April 27, 2012 (New York) – The Bangladesh government should immediately order an independent and impartial investigation into the growing number of cases where opposition members and political activists have vanished without trace, Human Rights Watch said today. The most recent episode, on April 17, 2012, involved Elias Ali, secretary of the Sylhet Division of the opposition Bangladesh Nationalist Party (BNP). [...more]

Der Verein Südasien Forum (e.V.) hat es sich zur Aufgabe gemacht, ein Forum zu schaffen um wirtschaftliche Entwicklung und demokratische Verständigung zwischen den Völkern Südasiens, die innerhalb Deutschland leben, zu verbessern und das kulturelle Verständnis zwischen den Völkern Südasiens und den Deutschen sowie Europäern zu pflegen.