Four Arrested for Bangladesh Factory Collapse

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Alex Hamasaki, Student InternLast Modified: 01:50 DST, 29 April 2013

Mohammed Sohel Rana, Photo by El Mundo Economia y Negocios

DHAKA, BANGLADESH - Two factory bosses and two engineers were arrested in Bangladesh on Saturday, three days after the collapse of a factory that created low-cost garments for Western brands.

The death toll has risen to 350 with many more being found alive. As many as 900 people could be missing, said police.

The owner of the eight-story building that collapsed on 3,000 people is still on the run and has yet to be found.

The police have alerted airport and border patrols and arrested his wife in an attempt to draw out the owner from hiding.

Officials said that Rana Plaza, on the outskirts of the capital, Dhaka, was built by the engineers without the correct permits.

The police and industry leaders blame the owner for false assurances that the building was sound despite the warning by inspectors to the engineers that the building was not to be opened, reports NBC. The day previous to the collapse, a jolt had been felt that resulted in cracking some pillars.

Rana Plaza reportedly listed many European and North American retailers as its customers, which occupied upper floors on the building that officials said had been added illegally, says NBC.

This incident led to an increase in pressure on Western companies to take steps to ensure the safety of Bangladeshi factories in light of the November deadly fire outside of Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Bangladesh is the second-largest exporter of clothing after China, and has a notoriously poor fire safety record, according to the New York Times. More than 500 factory workers have died since 2006, claims an anti-sweatshop advocacy group called Clean Clothes Campaign.

Analysts of the tragedy said that based on past experience, Western customers are also to blame due to the pressure to fulfill orders on a tight deadline. Ara O’Rourke, an expert on workplace monitoring at the University of California, Berkely, said that “Even in a situation of a grave threat, when they saw cracks in the walls, factory managers thought it was too risky not to work because of the pressure on them from U.S. and European retailers to deliver their goods on time,” reports the New York Times.

O’Rourke added that the prices the Western companies want to pay “are so low that they are at the root of why these factories are cutting corners on fire safety and building safety.”

Many companies are acknowledging their use of the factories and offering their condolences. A few Western companies, including Benetton, deny having garments made at the factory, reports the New York Times.

The collapse of Rana Plaza did not come at a surprise for anyone. News spread within the area about the risk that the building posed. Due to garment exports being a critical driver of the Bangladeshi economy, there is pressure to keep wages low and workers in line. Pressure on Western and European countries have mounted due to several incidents including the November fire, which has resulted in several companies endorsing to finance fire safety efforts and structural upgrades in Bangladeshi factories.

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Sayeedi Death Sentence Sparks Bloody Bangladesh Riots

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Sam Hargadine, ContributorLast Modified: 11:50 a.m. DST, 15 March 2013

Awami Police Kicking Protester in Bangladesh, Photo by Protibadi Musafir

DHAKA, Bangladesh - Reconciliation can be decades long affair; thus 42 years later, Bangladesh is still exercising the ghosts of its War of Liberation.

The ‘International Crimes Tribunal’ is currently trying men accused of atrocities during the 1971 war with Pakistan. Then known as East Pakistan, Bangladesh played host to one of the bloodiest wars of the 20th century.

The tribunal in actuality is a domestic court and due to the weak nature of judicial institutions in Bangladesh, its rulings lack a sense of legitimacy. Due to this legitimacy gap, the sentencing of death to Delwar Hossain Sayeedi sparked the worst violent demonstrations in the country since the war.

Mr. Sayeedi is a leader of Bangladesh’s largest Islamic party, Jamaat-e-Islami. During the war, this group fought on the side of Pakistan and committed brutal murders against pro-independence Bengali citizens, particularly those of minority religious groups.

Over 100 people have died since the tribunal started handing down verdicts in February. Human rights groups allege that on the day of Mr. Sayeedi’s sentencing state military forces shot dead at least 23 protestors. Violence has begat violence all over the capital region. Northwest of Dhaka, the capital, over 10,000 Jamaat supports attacked police stations with sticks and homemade bombs.

Bangladesh is a largely secular Muslim majority nation. Jamaat-e-Islami, once a viable Islamist opposition political party, is degenerating into an insurgent movement. Young Jamaat sympathizers are attacking minority Hindu temples and homes in the chaos of recent days.

While the goal of the court is reconciliation for decades old crimes, this aim is defeated by the tribunal’s sham image. Transcripts of Skype conversations between judges suggest collusion. After the court was reconstituted due to a resignation, none of the three judges heard the full range of evidence presented by both sides.

What was once an attempt to bring closure has devolved into a clamp down on Jamaat-e-Islami as a party. Indeed, it makes for an easy scapegoat given its leaders’ wartime history and Islamism; however the conflict is dividing the country down the middle.

Most foreign diplomats in Bangladesh are staying out of the crisis. The United States is hampered due to its association with Pakistan during the war. Saudi Arabia stays mum along with China. And any overt meddling on the part of India or Pakistan would largely antagonize the other. This is indeed an internal Bengali matter; however, terrible crimes are being adjudicated without proper due process. Nobody is winning.

GRAPHIC PHOTOS taken by Protibadi Musafir in March 2013 documenting the brutal crackdown by police on the protesters are pictured below. CAUTION - most of the photos are graphic and some depict deceased victims.

Mother Kills Daughter with Acid

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ISLAMABAD, Pakistan – Acid attacks, are a heinous crime in which the perpetrator seeks to deliberately maim or kill their victim with acid so that they suffer horrendously in the short-term, and if they survive, must suffer the further indignity of being horribly disfigured.

These attacks are most common in Cambodia, Afghanistan, India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and other nearby countries. Globally, at least 1500 people in 20 countries are attacked in this way yearly, 80% of whom are female and somewhere between 40% and 70% under 18 years of age. (Source: Wikipedia)

The recent assassination attempt of the Pakistani heroine, Malalai Yousafzi, galvanized Pakistanis who took to the streets in an unprecedented demonstration of support for Malalai. The nation and the world was swift and vociferous in the condemnation of the perpetrators, and this watershed moment seemed to mark a desire by the citizens of the country to stand up for the rights of Pakistani women and girls.

It was therefore disconcerting to learn of the murder of a young Pakistani girl who was targeted simply because she was speaking to a boy. Unlike Malalai, who was targeted by the Taliban for advocating for access to education for Pakistani girls, the young 16-year old girl who lost her life today, was victimized for no other reason than she happened to speak to a boy in front of her home.

She was the victim of an 'honor killing,' which is the murder of a girl or woman by relatives, because they perceive her actions as having brought dishonor to the family.

According to Reuters, the girl’s parents poured acid on her face and body. In this case, as in others, the mother was the main perpetrator, though usually it is a male relative who initiates and carries out honor killings.

Unlike the acid attack victim pictured above, the young 16-year old did not survive the ‘third-degree burns on her scalp, face, eyes, nostrils, arms, chest foot and lower part of legs.  According to the doctors who tried to save her life, even her scalp bone was exposed.’ (Source: Reuters)

The parents in this case have been arrested, which is unlike many cases in Asia in which the perpetrators often escape justice. In many cases the murder is viewed as a private family matter and in some conservative communities the practice is tacitly condoned.

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Facebook Post Sparks Attack on Buddhists

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Ayanna Nahmias, Editor-in-ChiefLast Modified: 03:53 AM EDT, 1 October 2012

Buddhist Monk Standing Before Buddha, Photo by Ruro Photography

Buddhist Monk Standing Before Buddha, Photo by Ruro Photography

COX'S BAZAR, Bangladesh - In March 2001 the Taliban destroyed two ancient statues of the Buddha called Bamiyan in an attempt to cleanse the country of Afghanistan of what they perceived as Hindu heresy.

Today, nearly 12 years later, Buddhist temples and homes are once again under attack ostensibly to revenge an insult of Islam. At least 10 Buddhist temples and 40 homes of Buddhists were destroyed by an angry mob of approximately a hundred Muslims.

The Cox's Bazar area is in the southeast of Bangladesh, and has historically been a model of successful, peaceful coexistence between Muslims and Buddhists. This coexistence has been assiduously maintained despite efforts to foment dissension by agitators.

Similar to the recent violence that swept across the Middle East, Africa, and Asia in response to a video which depicted the Prophet Mohammed in blasphemous terms; the riots in Cox’s Bazar were instigated by Muslim protesters because they were outraged by a photo of a burned Qur’an which was posted on Facebook.

The photo was posted on the Facebook page of a young Buddhist boy who claimed that he wasn’t responsible for the inflammatory picture. The ability of others to post photos on user pages is fairly simple. Adept users can easily circumvent privacy settings by tagging a photo with a person's name which then automatically posts the image to the unsuspecting user's page.

The boy and his mother are currently under police protection, and in response to the violence the police have increased security presence in the area to prevent further protests from erupting.

"We brought the situation under control before dawn and imposed restrictions on public gatherings," said Salim Mohammad Jahangir, district police superintendent for Cox's Bazar.

Home Minister Mohiuddin Khan Alamgir described the attacks on temples as a "premeditated and deliberate attempt" to disrupt harmony. (Source: AP)

Bangladesh’s is a Muslim dominated city of 150 million people of which Buddhists comprise less than 1 percent. According to witnesses, this small population refused to be intimidated by recent events, and over 100 Buddhists staged a silent protest of the attacks in the capital Dhaka on Sunday afternoon.

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Monsoon Flooding Kills 79 in India

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Ayanna Nahmias, Editor-in-ChiefLast Modified: 22:15 PM EDT, 2 July 2012

Indian Flood Victims Fleeing, Photo by Joshua WieseGUWAHATI, India – The Brahmaputra River overflowed its banks killing at least 79 people. The river became engorged following torrential monsoon rains which have inundated the states of Assam, Arunachal Pradesh, Manipur and Meghalaya.

Farmers depend upon the monsoon season which last from June to September to irrigate their plants. Unfortunately, this normally life-giving force has reaped untold destruction and death in its stead.

The extent of the devastation was compounded by the swathes of slums inhabited by most of the 2.2 million displaced victims. Many of these people lived in makeshift shanty towns in abodes constructed at best with corrugated steel and at worst with cardboard boxes. Most of the casualties were inhabitants who drowned while trying to escape flood water while others perished in mudslides.

According to news sources nearly 500,000 people have fled to relief camps with their meager belongings. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said “The central and state governments are doing everything possible to provide relief to the people. We have opened makeshift relief camps for the displaced, while many more were forced to take shelter on raised platforms and in tarpaulin tents.” (Source: Agence France-Presse)

In neighboring Bangladesh over 900,000 inhabitants have been displaced as a result of flooding and mudslides, and at last count the death toll has increased from 108 to 123. The government has also instituted emergency housing and relief efforts; however, unlike Assam state, the flood waters are reportedly receding.

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