Extrajudicial killing of Mr. Kamrul Islam Mojnu

The International Secretariat of the World Organisation Against Torture (OMCT) requests your URGENT intervention in the following situation in Bangladesh.

Brief description of the situation

The International Secretariat of OMCT has been informed by ODHIKAR, a member the SOS-Torture network, about the alleged extrajudicial killing of Mr. Kamrul Islam Mojnu (also identified as Mojnu), 26 years old, by the Rapid Action battalion (RAB) in Rajshahi.

According to the information received, on Friday, 18 May 2007, Mr. Kamrul Islam Mojnu, son of late Mamotaj Uddin, a resident of Ward no 19 of Choto Bongram under Boalia Police Station in Rajshahi area, was allegedly beaten to death by five members of RAB-5 (Fifth battalion of RAB) when he was guarding his litchi orchard. According to the same information, this event follows an alleged confinement in which Mojnu would have been involved in a few hours before[1].

According to ODHIKAR’s fact-finding mission report, on 18 May 2007, as per regular schedule, Mojnu and his servant Towfik reportedly went to his litchi orchard to guard the litchis from thieves. That same evening, at 11:30pm, Mr. Piarul Islam, Kamrul Islam Mojnu’s brother, was awoken by the sound of his door being banged upon and someone shouting “brother, come out! RAB is beating Mojnu!”. Piarul reportedly ran to the orchard and reports having noticed by the head light of a motorcycle a tall, bearded man with a stick accompanied by other men wearing handcuffs on a holder on their belt with pieces of metal pipes beating Mojnu, who was reportedly lying in the mud and screaming. When Piarul introduced himself as Mojnu’s brother, he was allegedly hit on his left arm with pipes by members of RAB. It is reported that five members of RAB were involved in the beating while two others were in a bypass road. Piarul reports being threatened by the men beating his brother, who would have told him that if he came closer to them, they would kill him by crossfire (as this term is commonly used referring to when security forces, especially RAB, deliberately kill someone but publicly claim that the death was an accident, Piarul deducted they were members of RAB.). Piarul has then reportedly brought his sick mother to ask the men to stop beating Mojnu, but the beating did not stop and she got beaten too.

Piarul stated that due to the severe beatings by RAB, Mojnu’s nose and mouth were bleeding and one of the RAB stood on Mojnu’s chest and pressed his throat with his boot. Piarul claimed that his brother died at that moment.

According to Mojnu’s mother, Ms. Taslima Begum, when she heard from Piarul that Mojnu was beaten, she reportedly rushed to the place and found men wearing t-shirts kicking her son, beating him with sticks, punching him and walking on his chest and when she asked them not to beat her son anymore, a bearded man wearing a Punjabi (tunic) reportedly started to hit her on her legs and arms. Similar facts were stated by two neighbours Kohinoor and Nowshad. They declared that men were beating Mojnu, but there was not enough light to clearly see their faces and later heard that those men had broken the lights deliberately. They say that Mojnu was beaten in the light of a motorbike and a few torches. They also reported that at one point Mojnu wanted to drink water and RAB officers pushed him into the rain-saturated grass and some of them forced Mojnu towards the water puddles and allegedly said “drink water for the last time of your life”. The neighbours also say that RAB moved Mojnu from one place to another on the wet ground so that the blood could wash away easily.

Two other witnesses reportedly say they saw Mojnu’s dead body. The body was allegedly swollen, had no skin in certain areas, especially on the nose, ears and face. Blood had clotted on the legs and on the left side of the body, where there was a large injury. His gums were also swollen.

According to the information, witnesses saw a RAB pickup vehicle which then took the body to an unknown place around 1:00 am. It is reported that it was only after a lot of research that the family found that Mojnu’s body was in the morgue at Rajshasi Medical College Hospital

According to ODIKHAR’s fact-finding mission report, Piarul went to the Boalia Police Station on 19 May 2007 and one of the members of RAB, Major Rashid, tried to put pressure on him and told him not to file any case. Major Rashid also reportedly said that RAB killed his brother by mistake, but Piarul filed a suit, refusing to negotiate with RAB. He filed a case against Bashirul Islam, Zohurul Islam, Ali Hossain and six or seven other members (unknown identities at the time of the writing) of RAB-5. Mojnu’s body was reportedly brought home by his family in a rented microbus on 20 May 2007.

The fact-finding report further states that on 19 May 2007 at 7:00pm a dead body, which description reportedly corresponded to Mojnu, was brought to the Rajshahi College Hospital, but since there was no government document with the dead body, no steps were taken by the doctors for performing a post-mortem. According to the doctor, the police then came with the request report but there were great dissimilarities between the inquest report and the physical condition of the dead body, which suggests that the inquest report might have been fabricated. A post-mortem examination was finally conducted but no information was provided as to the results.

The International Secretariat of OMCT expresses its deep concern about this reported extrajudicial killing of Mr. Kamrul Islam Mojnu, especially in view of the prevailing impunity in which police and security forces operate. OMCT recalls to Bangladesh that according to article 6 1) of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) to which it is a State party, “Every human being has the inherent right to life.…. No one shall be arbitrarily deprived of his life.” Moreover, OMCT is highly concerned that, although Bangladesh has ratified the UN Convention Against Torture, it fails to comply with its obligations. OMCT also wishes to recalls that Bangladesh was elected to the Human Rights Council in June 2006 for three years and that according to its voluntary pledges it affirmed its “deep commitment to the promotion and protection of human rights of all its citizens”.

Action requested

Please write to the authorities in Bangladesh urging them to:

1. Order a thorough and impartial investigation into these events and into the circumstances of the death of Mr. Kamrul Islam Mojnu, in order to identify all those responsible, bring them to trial and apply the civil penal and/or administrative sanctions as provided by law;
2. Guarantee that adequate compensation is awarded to the victims’ family;
3. Ensure the respect of human rights and fundamental freedoms throughout the country in accordance with national laws and international human rights standards.

Addresses

• Dr. Fakhruddin Ahmed, Chief Adviser, Head of the Interim Government, Fax: +880 2 8113244 or 3243 or 1015 or 1490 Email: Info@pmo.gov.bd
• Mr. Mohammad Ruhul Amin, Chief Justice, Supreme Court of Bangladesh, Supreme Court Building Ramna, Dhaka-1000 BANGLADESH, Fax: +880 2 9565058
• Barrister Fida M Kamal, Attorney General of Bangladesh, Office of the Attorney General, Supreme Court Building, Ramna, Dhaka-1000, BANGLADESH, Fax: +880 2 9561568
• Mr. Nur Mohammad, Inspector General of Police (IGP), Bangladesh Police, Police Headquarters' Fulbaria, Dhaka-1000
• BANGLADESH, Fax: +880 2 9563362 or 9563363
• Hassan Mahmud Khandokar, Director General, Headquarters Rapid Action Battalion Forces, Cargo Admin Building, Zia International Airport, Kurmitola, Dhaka-1229, Fax No:+88 02 8962884, Email: rabhqbd@yahoo.com
• CO RAB-5, BCSIR, P.O-Motihar, Rajshahi-6202, Fax No: +88 0721 75077 Email: rab5bd@yahoo.com
• Permanent Mission of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh to the United Nations in Geneva, 65 rue de Lausanne, 1202 Geneva, Switzerland, Fax: +41 22 738 46 16, E-mail: mission.bangladesh@ties.itu.int
• Embassy of the People’s Republic of Bangladesh in Brussels, 29-31 rue J. Jordaens, 1000 Brussels, Belgium, Fax: +32 2 646 59 98; Email: bdootbrussels@freegates.be

Please also write to the diplomatic representations of Bangladesh in your respective country.

***

Geneva, 02 July 2007

Kindly inform us of any action undertaken quoting the code of this appeal in your reply.

[1] According to the information, an individual named Zohurul Islam has reported that four men including Mojnu, who were sent by the owner of the hotel he and his family were staying in, confined his brother Bashirul and threatened to kill him if Zohurul would not find the amount of money that the owner requested. As Zohurul could not collect the money, he reportedly informed RAB of his situation. While RAB reportedly arrested one of the individuals and freed his brother, the others, including Mojnu, allegedly managed to flee. Zohurul reportedly stated that he did not know what happened after. According to the information, RAB-5 Rajshahi released on 19 May 2007 a report to the media in which it was stated that Mojnu was injured due to a fight between the kidnappers, RAB and inhabitants of that area. However, according to the source, much dissimilarity was found.