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Declared in 1987, the International Day against Drug Abuse and Illicit Trafficking has received more attention by governments of many countries. Many multinational tobacco and drug companies take the opportunity to gain publicity by partnering with governments and contributing huge amounts of money to government departments for campaigns against drug abuse. The government authorities in turn take the opportunity to highlight the cause with rallies and seminars adorned with colorful pamphlets and souvenirs. The NGO communities also mark the day in a similar festive manner.
In contrast, the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture, declared by the U.N. first in 1997, lacks global attention especially in those countries where torture is a part of life. Besides, there is hardly any discourse or criticism by the media, government departments or even the United Nations.
Take the example of Bangladesh where the government says nothing about torture, which is a part of life, or the immense suffering of the victims of torture. The ministers, lawmakers and public officials take part in programs related to drug abuse and trafficking – though there has been no report or survey to indicate decreased levels of abuse and trafficking of drugs in the country. However, on the same day, officials working at all level in the government remain tightlipped on the issue of torture and the victims of torture, although it is a special day observed under the auspices of the United Nations.
Human rights activists around the world, who have some idea of the situation of human rights in Bangladesh, are aware that torture is endemic in the country; that it is an integral part of the law-enforcement system there. Whoever is caught by the police, the paramilitary force like the Rapid Action Battalion or the armed forces – deployed all over the nation during the state of emergency – risks torture. It is used to make the arrested persons understand that they are at the mercy of law-enforcement agencies.
According to a statement on June 9 by the inspector general of the Bangladesh police, Noor Mohammad, the average number of people arrested daily in the country by the police is 1,667. If this number is multiplied by 365 days in the year, it turns out that 608,455 persons are arrested annually and beaten up, which is a serious issue.
In reality, the persons who sustain injuries due to police torture become permanently or temporarily disabled. The number of deaths due to torture is also on the rise and there are very few reports of justice delivered to the families of the deceased persons or the survivors, over about four decades.
The hospitals in most cases do not provide adequate medical treatment considering the level of grief and the physical and psychological wounds sustained by victims of torture. The investigators, who belong to the police, in virtually all cases prove the allegation of torture false to protect their colleagues responsible for the crime, which deters many victims from filing complaints.
For lawyers, taking up the torture victim's case is a money-making machine, as filing a case against a police officer is nothing short of a miracle. In turn, magistrates and judges perform their responsibility and save their colleagues from any attempt to destroy their reputation by torture victims, who are deemed criminals.
If anyone questions government authorities about the situation, the allegations of torture are denied and the use of torture is validated by superior authorities of the alleged perpetrators by saying that the person who was beaten was a criminal. The policymakers accept this explanation without any argument; civil society feels safe by not commenting on this issue and the victims of torture and their families are compelled to believe that the law-enforcers have the "right to torture," leaving no option of getting redress from any of the institutions of the country.
June 26 – the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture – exists only as an occasion for a few NGOs to celebrate with a rally or by holding hands and forming a human chain or spending a few hours in a seminar held in an air-conditioned auditorium that makes headlines in newspapers and on television screens. Some NGO’s do publish special posters, leaflets, T-shirts and caps that have various slogans. This happens sometimes in an organized manner or in a scattered way because various NGO’s have certain budgets for such projects. The sad part is that nobody cares how many people have been tortured even as the celebrations go on.
As soon as the day is over, everyone forgets the victims of torture and nobody takes to task any police officer – like the most talkative inspector general of police – for not investigating torture cases. Nobody questions the action that authorities need to take against the alleged perpetrators. Nobody questions the failure of the authorities to prosecute the perpetrators. And questions such as why do investigation reports always go against the victims and open all doors for the perpetrators to walk free and why do the prosecutors, lawyers and judges not deliver justice to the victims of torture, are never asked.
Finally, the government remains beyond any accountability for granting impunity to the alleged perpetrators and setting all barriers for the victims to get redress. In Bangladesh, June 26 remains a day to celebrate than contribute to the real cause of the issue.
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(Rater Zonaki is the pseudonym of a human rights defender based in Hong Kong, working at the Asian Human Rights Commission. He is a Bangladeshi national with a degree in literature from a university in Dhaka. He began his career as a journalist in 1990 and was engaged in human rights activism at the grassroots level in his country for more than a decade. He also worked as an editor for publications on human rights and socio-cultural issues and contributed to other similar publications.)
