Editorial
National tragedy calls for unity
of political leadership
AS THE nation reels from shock at the tragic loss of lives during the rebellion by a section of murderous jawans at the Bangladesh Rifles headquarters on February 25 and 26, we feel it was significant and appropriate that Jatiya Sangsad, on Sunday, adopted an obituary reference for the fallen as a symbol of our collective grief. It was appropriate too that the subject of the BDR rebellion was discussed on the floor of the august house throughout Sunday’s session, with members of both the treasury and opposition benches granted opportunities to discuss the issue, raise their concerns, and share in the mourning.
For the general public, it was necessary to hear the prime minister and other treasury bench members discuss the scenarios they were faced with during the 33-hour siege, and hear discussions and rationale on the choices the government made in ending the siege. Side by side, members of both the treasury and opposition benches raised some questions about the events surrounding the rebellion which are weighing heavy on the public mind. As we have already stated, we believe that in addition to the enquiry committee already assigned by the government to look into the rebellion, a parliamentary committee should be set up to do a broad investigation of the tragic events that took place at the BDR headquarters last week, to find out why and how they were carried out, who were behind them and what their motives might have been.
It was unfortunate to note, however, that some of the narrow partisan mindsets that characterise the power politics of the two major parties found their way into the discussions on the floor of the house, despite the gravity of the subject at hand. The political leadership on either side of the divide must realise that their words, especially when spoken on the floor of the house, take on a national significance. The floor of the house plays a critical role in making a government confront questions that ensures transparency, checks and balances, and ultimately good governance. Hence, lawmakers on both sides of the divide should have desisted from lobbing accusations about their political rivals, or anyone else for that matter, while an investigation of such grave importance is still ongoing. Also, though it is the responsibility of the opposition to point out mistakes made by the government and to suggest alternative courses of action, we believe the opposition would have done well to commend the government for its decision to find a political solution to the crisis, even though it raised valid questions about certain aspects of the government’s handling of the crisis.
The entire nation is united in grief and mourning for those brutally murdered, assaulted, and held hostage by the mutineers. As we have stated before, our country is facing a national crisis that requires a response that transcends partisan differences. Hence, we would urge our political leadership to put their differences to one side, for now, and to tackle this crisis in a united way.
Monsoon impact of climate change
could devastate agriculture
A RECENT study finding that the South Asian monsoon may be delayed by five to 15 days in the next hundred years due to climate change has predicted new impacts on South Asia, including Bangladesh. As reported in New Age on Monday this change in the pattern of the monsoon would have effects on not just livelihoods and public health but also agriculture, which remains crucial and serves as a lifeline for the domestic economy.
Accounting for the employment of almost half the labour force, contributing about a fifth of the national GDP and producing 90 per cent of the country’s yearly demand for cereals, subsistence agriculture, particularly small and marginal farmers, quite undoubtedly provide the base for Bangladesh’s rural economy and sustain the millions. But as the study finds, climate change impacts could lead to changes in weather patterns, delaying monsoon and higher rainfall, obviously leading to floods, it would spell disaster for the aman season.
The aman season in particular is important because it requires little input in terms of irrigation, coinciding with the monsoons. But this crop is also vulnerable to flooding and as has been noted in the previous years in Bangladesh, farmers have complained that it is increasingly becoming routine for them to lose aman paddy to floods than being able to get some harvest out of it. The proceeds from sales of aman crops are generally used as part of the capital farmers need for the input-dependent boro season that follows and produces almost 60 per cent of the country’s yearly production of cereals.
There is little doubt that with more change in weather patterns, farmers in the countryside would require climate proofing and resources to adapt to this new scenario. Although the government has prepared a climate change adaptation strategy, that was highly criticised by different organisations and groups of citizens. The climate change trust fund which the military-controlled interim government of Fakhruddin Ahmed agreed to hand over to the World Bank for management and disbursement also came under severe criticism since it was the position of the least developed countries and small economies vulnerable to climate change that the management of the funds should be done by a committee comprising all stakeholders including the government, minorities, women, non-governmental organisations and if needed multilateral and foreign lending agencies.
Not only in the case of Bangladesh, the global response to provide poor countries with funds to cope with the adverse impacts of climate change has been rather poor and the money pledged thus far is but a fraction of even the most conservative estimates. Besides the overall strategy for climate change adaptation, the government direly needs to figure out how it intends to handle climate change and ensure the country’s food security when agriculture in general and certain crops in particular are threatened.
The need for catharsis
The scars that have been inflicted on the nation by the tragic events at the BDR headquarters last week will take a very long time to wash away. Be that as it may, we must do everything it takes and within the shortest possible time to get to the bottom
of this tragedy, and to ensure justice,
writes Shameran Abed
OUR country has experienced more than its fair share of tragedy, and yet, the massacre at the Bangladesh Rifles headquarters by a group of murderous jawans has left everyone absolutely stunned and in disbelief. We have seen murder and mayhem many times before; we have seen natural disasters take thousands of lives in a matter of minutes; we have watched people get killed during violent political confrontations live on television. But this was different. This was absolutely sinister. That so many officers could be murdered inside their force’s headquarters by their own soldiers, and then get buried in mass graves or dumped into the sewerage line, speaks of a kind of barbarous brutality that is not only indescribable but is unfathomable. What possessed the jawans to carry out such heinous acts of violence and cruelty, regardless of what their reasons were or who instigated the massacre, we may never know or fully understand. However, we must be able to draw a line under this tragedy to be able to move on from it. We, as a people, must be allowed to undergo a collective catharsis.
For that to happen, certain things must take place. First, we must find out the full extent of the crimes committed at the Pilkhana headquarters of the BDR during those two fateful days. As of this writing, there are still many officers whose whereabouts are still unknown over 96 hours after the end of the siege. It is presumed that they, along with the scores of others whose bodies have since been found, perished during the mutiny. If the worst is true, their bodies must be found and they too must be buried with full state honours in order to bring a kind of closure, not only for the family members and friends of those slain but also for the nation as a whole. In addition, the other crimes that were allegedly committed by the rebels must be fully probed so that we can know exactly what took place within the BDR headquarters compound during the 33-hour siege of the murderous mutineers.
Second, justice must be done, within the shortest possible time, for every act of crime that was carried out by the jawans during their siege of the Pilkhana. This would require that the government carries out thorough investigations into all the crimes, with the help of relevant experts from within and outside the country, through which those responsible can be identified. Once they are identified, the government must properly prosecute them in competent courts of law and implement, as quickly as practicable, any punishment handed down by the courts. However, while the government must not deny justice through its delay, it must ensure that the process of investigations, prosecutions and trials are proper, i.e. that due process is strictly adhered to at all times so that no question can ever be raised or doubts expressed about the integrity of those processes. If the government can ensure proper justice for the crimes committed, it will not only help the family members and friends of the victims to come to terms with their loss but also help the entire nation to surmount this tragedy.
Third, there must be a broad investigation into the events of February 25 and 26 to not only ascertain the crimes committed inside the BDR headquarters and identify their perpetrators but also to find out the reasons behind the mutiny, how it was planned and implemented, and who were its instigators, accomplices, accessories, aiders and abettors. During discussion on the floor of Jatiya Sangsad on Sunday, lawmakers from both the treasury and opposition benches suggested that there was a well-planned and deep-rooted plot or conspiracy behind the massacre at Pilkhana. Other analysts and experts have also suggested the same. Hence, all such possibilities of external hands, from within or outside the country, playing a hand in the mutiny and the massacre must be explored and any plot or conspiracy, regardless of who is found to have been complicit in it, must be laid bare in front of the whole nation. We must get to the bottom of what happened, why it happened, how it happened and who were behind it to be able to put this tragedy into some kind of perspective.
As for the handling of the mutiny, there is a lot of discussion right now — in parliament, television talk-shows and private forums — about whether the government did as well as it could have done. With the benefit of hindsight, perhaps there is room to criticise aspects of the government’s handling of the crisis. At the same time, it is now impossible to know what may have occurred had the government done things differently. The path that the government chose, though it could not prevent the tragedy that did take place, did in all likelihood avert a much bigger tragedy. For that the government, and in particular the prime minister, deserves to be commended.
At the same time, some serious questions need to be asked. How did so many of the jawans who were apparently present inside the BDR headquarters during the mutiny manage to escape, that too with arms and ammunition in their possession? Why was there not a cordon of law enforcers around the perimeter of Pilkhana? Even if the primary objective of the government at the time was to engineer a surrender, it ought to have been ensured that the mutineers could not get away, particularly given that by the second day of the siege it was already clear that a massacre had taken place inside. These are questions that also need to be answered, and those who got away that day must be hunted down and brought before the law as quickly as possible.
Though the three days of national mourning have now elapsed, private mourning for the loss of so many lives will continue for a long time yet. It will be a while before things get back to normal, not only in the army and the BDR but in the nation as a whole. There are questions that will take perhaps weeks and months to fully answer, and some that may remain unanswered forever. The scars that have been inflicted on the nation by the tragic events at the BDR headquarters last week will take a very long time to wash away. Be that as it may, we must do everything it takes and within the shortest possible time to get to the bottom of this tragedy, and to ensure justice.
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