21 June 2011


Mr. Andris Piebalgs
Commissioner for Development,
European Commission,
Rue de la Loi 200
B-1049, Brussels
BELGIUM

Fax: +32 (0)2 298 8624


Dear Mr. Piebalgs,

RE: Bangladeshi State-agents target Human Rights Defenders for abduction and torture without any room for redress

I take this opportunity to introduce myself as a human rights defender and a journalist of Bangladesh. I work as executive director of a Dhaka-based human rights organization named Christian Development Alternative (CDA) and I also work as Bangladesh Correspondent of Sri Lanka Guardian, an online newspaper of the South Asian region. My work mostly focused on custodial torture, extrajudicial killings and arbitrary arrest and detention by the law-enforcement agencies and security forces of the country.
I have been subjected to abduction and torture and extreme forms of cruel and inhuman treatment while in an eight-hour detention by the Directorate General of Forces Intelligence (DGFI) at its headquarters in Dhaka on 21 May 2011 for which I have no scope of redress or reparation in the current legal systems of Bangladesh. I have been forced to hide in a secret shelter in order to save my life due to death threats since I was released from their custody. For further details regarding my abduction and detention are available at:  http://www.humanrights.asia/news/ahrc-news/AHRC-STM-078-2011

I came to know that a nine-member joint delegation led by you and Mr. Birk Niebel, Economic Cooperation and Development Minister of Germany, called on the Prime Minister of Bangladesh on Tuesday, 21 June, at her office.

As a citizen of Bangladesh I appreciate the assistance European Commission, as development partners, provides to my country, as these assistance helps the people of Bangladesh very much. I am aware that the EU, as one of major development partners, mostly emphasizes on the issues of good-governance, human rights and rule of law while providing grants to Bangladesh where gross human rights abuses perpetrated unabatedly by the State-agents is a way of life and law-enforcement.

As a human rights defender and journalist I am aware that victims of torture and extreme forms ill-treatment do not have minimum access to justice in the existing legal system in Bangladesh, which has not yet criminalized torture despite the fact that the country is a party to the Convention Against Torture (CAT) and a Bill on criminalization of torture and extrajudicial killing has been pending for two years in the parliament of Bangladesh.

As a victim of torture I have no room left for myself to seek justice in the current circumstances. I believe that interventions from your good office, during your meetings with your Bangladeshi counterparts, may create space for enabling the victims like myself to access to justice in Bangladesh, as the country receives grants from your governments for upholding the rule of law and protecting human rights of the people.

Sincerely yours’

William Gomes
www.williamgomes.org